This Vintage Dr. Pepper Commercial is Weirdly Homoerotic and I Can’t Get Enough

Picture this: it’s 1991, and you and your best buds live in the world’s weirdest frat house. Everyone loves to wear tight jeans, drink soda in the shower, and you even own a vacuum that sometimes gets used to actually clean the common area.

If you’re saying to yourself, “this is a porn fantasy,” you’re not far off. In 1991, some random ad agency felt that the Dr. Pepper brand needed to start appealing to its true fan base: queer people. And not just any queer people: young “college age” dudes wearing Bruce Springsteen “Born in the USA”-era butt-hugging jeans. 

This amazing artifact surfaced on YouTube today, and I feel absolutely no shame in admitting that I’ve watched it maybe 10 times. And I still have some questions. For instance, is it normal to just dance in your boxers with your fellow frat boys? Is that a thing that happens?

Is it also totally normal and fine to drink a can of Dr. Pepper in the shower? Or throw a can into your fish tank which happens to house a gigantic catfish? Did Terry Gilliam direct this work of art?

I have only questions, and zero answers. All I know is that I love the wholesome, ridiculous world displayed in this ad. 

I’m not the only one: if anyone is old enough to recall the classic Adam Sandler Chris Farley SNL “Schmitt’s Gay” sketch, you’ll recognize more than a few parallels to this masterpiece.

Even though this era of SNL definitely found it hilarious that anyone would be gay (hot dudes in a pool–comedy gold!) it’s a weirdly wholesome sketch that gets to the heart of why these types of ads are so cute and endearing. When you combine hot dudes, big bulges, and beer, anything is possible.