Steve Jobs scrapped some of Justin Long’s ‘Get a Mac’ commercials because they were too funny

Tyler Aquilina
Updated

Watch the full episode of Couch Surfing streaming now on PeopleTV.com, or download the PeopleTV app on your favorite device.

Everyone remembers those “Get a Mac” commercials — the ones where John Hodgman’s buttoned-up PC and Justin Long‘s relaxed Mac trade passive-aggressive barbs in hilarious fashion. (If you don’t remember them, do yourself a favor and watch a YouTube compilation right now.) But apparently, some of those ads were too hilarious and never made it on TV.

In the latest episode of PeopleTV’s Couch Surfing, Long reveals that, of the nearly 300 commercials shot (66 of them ultimately aired), he “noticed that some of the funniest ones would never air.”

“One in particular, I remember, Zach Galifianakis played, like, a drunken Santa Claus,” Long recalls. “And [Apple] said, basically, that Steve Jobs preferred when they weren’t super funny….because he thought it would detract from the point of the commercial. He thought if people were too focused on the humor in it, they would lose sight of the product.”

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The commercials, as host Lola Ogunnaike puts it, made Long “a household face,” but failed to earn him free Macs for life. Still, he doesn’t seem particularly strapped for cash: “How much money did you make off of those?” Ogunnaike asks.

“Enough that I don’t have to be here, Lola,” Long quips.

Watch the video above for more.

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