The Saturday Night Live opening commercial is usually a spoof of a real commercial found on television at that time, and is commonly shown after the host's opening monologue. The gag generally replaces the product for sale with something fantastical, or alters the characters involved to provide comedy.

List of popular commercials:

• Bass-O-Matic
• Bathroom Monkey
• Bennifer Airways - parody of the long-defunct airline Braniff International
• Budweiser Light
• Canis: Cologne for Dogs
• Clucky Chicken (Phil Hartman)
• Colon Blow - parody of high fiber cereals (notably Total), in which a man is told he'd need 30,000 bowls of his usual cereal to get the fiber in a single bowl of Colon Blow.
• Compulsion (a "Calvin Kleen" disinfectant, mocking "Obsession")
• Cookie Dough Sport - parody of Gatorade
• Corn Chip Nail Tips (Tracy Morgan and Maya Rudolph)
• Crystal Gravy - parody of the clear cola craze
• Dr. Porkenheimer's Boner Juice - parody of erectile dysfunction treatments
• Grayson Moorhead Securities
• Happy Fun Ball
• Home Security Decoy
• Huggies Thong - useless diapers, parodying parents who are concerned with the fashions their tottlers wear.
• KFC Shredders - Lampoons fast food industry targeting their menus at kids, this time with cole slaw.
• Lemon Glow
• The Love Toilet (Victoria Jackson & Kevin Nealon)
• McIntosh Post-It Notes (sic) - parody of the Apple Newton MessagePad
• Mercury Mistress
• Michael Jordan Feminine Hygiene Products, Michael Jordan X-Rated Video Library
• Mohawk Master
• Nerf Crotchbats - parody of Nerf seemingly running out of ideas for new products
• Old Glory Insurance - parody of immoral insurance companies preying on old people.
• Oops I Crapped My Pants - a brand of adult diaper, a parody of Depends, and a play on the use of statements as product names (e.g. "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter")
• Penzoil (as endorsed by Maya Angelou)
• Pussy Whip - the first dessert topping for cats
• Quarry (a breakfast cereal made from rocks)
• Rubik's Grenade (1982) -- rubik's cube parody; "Maybe the last puzzle you'll never solve."
• Schmitt's Gay (Chris Farley & Adam Sandler) - Spoofs Beer Companies targeting specific demographics. Two gay guys are housesitting and are discouraged at the dirty condition of the house's pool. Suddenly, its magically transformed into a clean pool full of attractive, and apparently gay, men. Schmitt's Gay Video
• Shimmer - It's a floor wax! It's a dessert topping! No, it's both!
• Swill (a disgusting impure bottled water)
• Triple Track razor - the closing line, delivered long before any such product actually existed, was "because you'll believe anything"
• Uncle Jemima's Pure Mash Liquor (Tracy Morgan & Tim Meadows)
• Yard-a-Pult, catapulting unwanted trash over your fence