Juxtaposition

gmjambear and I were watching the AFI's 100 Years, 100 Movie Quotes on CBS tonight. Gary mentioned having seen Marathon Man and the torture scene, which they included for its famous quote, "Is it safe?" We speculated that a lot of dentists lost business over that scene as they went to station break.

So what commercial did they run immediately afterward? Colgate Total toothpaste, with recommendations from dentists and all.

Ouch. Side-splittingly funny, but ouch nonetheless.

And another commercial....

Commercial opens with a series of exterior shots of various office buildings and at least one state capitol. At each, a distinct high-pitched mechanical whine is heard.

After about a dozen or so of these shots, we see the source of the mechanical whine: a paper shredder. Then another, and another.

Finally, we cut to a black screen on which is superimposed the "60 Minutes" logo. In succession, the following titles appear:

THE PROGRAM THAT SPAWNED AN APPLIANCE

SUNDAY 7/6 CENTRAL

I think the folks at our local CBS affiliate were either so shocked, or so incapacitated by laughter, they forgot to run the local station break that followed, resulting in maybe 20 seconds of dead air.