Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Andrew Sanford | News | December 8, 2025
I’ve worked in customer service jobs for most of my life. I began as a grocery store cashier (shout out to Big Y World Class Market), moved on to be a salesperson at Sears & Roebuck, and eventually found myself as a bartender for different Broadway theaters. At its best, it can be an easier way than most to make a buck while you set your sights on bigger things (or just try to get by). At its worst, it can be a thoroughly dehumanizing experience that can maybe help you keep the lights on, depending on who/what you work for.
At its core, it’s about interacting with human beings. It adds a variable to work that you may not experience elsewhere. You may find yourself with an extra pep in your step because of a customer who was kind and treated you like a person. Or, you might wind up on the other end of someone who thinks of you as little more than a vending machine, assumes you’re doing the jobs because you’re too stupid or lazy to get another one, and they will treat you as such.
But some customers try to be friendly, but end up being just as disruptive as someone who is throwing a fit or being rude. They aren’t as bad, but they can still slow things down or make what should be an easy shift feel incredibly uncomfortable. There are variations on this type of customer. Some are clearly just looking for human interaction, and I’ll go out of my way to respond in kind, even if things get awkward. Others don’t understand social boundaries. Some, like Melissa McCarthy in an SNL sketch called Free Sample, are all of the above.
The whole episode was pretty fantastic (even if it did lose a little steam toward the end). Melissa McCarthy is the best kind of SNL host. Not only is she game to get big, physical, or silly as can be, she’s actually good at it. Having a gung-ho attitude is one thing, and it’s certainly helpful, but McCarthy is a Groundlings graduate. Sketch comedy is in her bones, and you can see that in every moment of every sketch. It was honestly an embarrassment of riches, and Free Sample got chosen because I’ve met people … pretty similar to her character in the past.
Free Sample finds featured player Jeremy Culhane giving out samples at a grocery store. Everything is going normally until he offers one to McCarthy’s character, a conservatively dressed woman with a bob and a shy demeanor. She can’t believe that Culhane’s character would be so nice to her (he says, “it’s my job,” and laughs in a way I have done hundreds of times), and ends up fawning over him for the rest of the sketch, taking things too far almost immediately and continuing to do so to hilarious ends.
Part of the appeal is that I’ve absolutely had customers who have come close to what McCarthy is doing here. No one has put their head on my hand, but they’ve come close. I learned to like being nice at these jobs (it’s very easy not to be) because it makes it a more enjoyable experience overall. But, to some folks, that can be misread. You try not to fault them for it, but when you’re just trying to get through a line and be nice, and someone treats you like they’re your new friend, it can really throw a wrench in things.
McCarthy makes the whole thing work by being so sincere. It takes true skill to be the comedic end of a two-hander but still keep things straight. She’s not playing up the flirtations or the sadness her character experiences. Every moment is taken deadly seriously and given the same dramatic weight you’d see in a drama. She’s not being a caricature of a lonely person who can’t read social cues; she’s genuinely embodying that person, and the result is really funny.
Culhane, who has been on an absolute tear this season, fills the role of straight man with just as much confidence. You feel his awkwardness, coupled with an incredible “I’m at work and can’t be mean to this person” energy. He’s doing the best he can with a customer who keeps becoming increasingly difficult because, like McCarthy, he’s reacting genuinely. Hell, he’s even believable when he pulls a fun little flip at the end. The whole thing is also assisted by the always wonderful Mikey Day, who has resting Manager face.
Along with the genuine way in which McCarthy’s character is portrayed, she’s also not played as a joke or a loser, or worse. A lesser version of this sketch would have punched down. Instead, she’s just kind of a sad sack, and you feel a nice punch in the gut every time she reveals another tragic detail about her life. It’s part of what makes it endearing that she’s taken such a liking to Culhane instead of it being creepy or weird.
This whole thing was just fantastic. McCarthy’s strengths were on full display and supported by a giving partner and simple writing. It’s also the kind of sketch that’s broad in a good way. You don’t even need my customer service background to enjoy it. You just need to know people who don’t understand when someone is being nice because they have to, and there are plenty of those people in the world.
