“Saturday Night Live” poked fun at reverse mortgages and their advertisements last weekend, bringing up a common fear about the products for laughs.
The mention came during a “Weekend Update” segment about Fox News host Laura Ingraham, whose show has been shedding sponsors after she mocked Parkland shooting survivor and gun-control advocate David Hogg on Twitter.
Ingraham, played by Kate McKinnon, proudly lists off her new sponsors, which include such dubious companies as Carl’s Sr. — “leftover Carl’s Jr. food ground to mush for old people” — and Shrkeli’s Jelly, a condiment featuring the face of controversial hedge fund manager and convicted fraudster Martin Shrkeli.
Among the parody sponsors was also “Reverse Mortgage,” with the slogan: “We’ll take that house now.”
Marketers of Home Equity Conversion Mortgages have long grappled with the perception that borrowers will somehow lose their homes, or that the lender automatically takes possession of the property at closing. In reality, borrowers maintain ownership of their homes as long as they remain in compliance with the terms of the loan, though they can face default and foreclosure if they fall behind on property taxes or insurance payments.
Ubiquitous reverse mortgage ads have frequently served as fodder for late-night jokes, with Jimmy Kimmel producing a spoof spot for a “reverse reverse mortgage” in 2016 and Harrison Ford cracking a joke about how much money he could make selling the products on Kimmel’s show that same year.
President Obama even got into the act in 2015, making a quip about his greying appearance and former American Advisors Group pitchman Fred Thompson, who also served as a U.S. senator from Tennessee.
“Being president does age you — I mean, look at me,” Obama said at the Gridiron Club Dinner that year. “I was hoping Fred Thompson would be the Republican speaker so I could buy a reverse mortgage.”
Written by Alex Spanko
