Seven Commercials That Led to the Taste Test Comedy Revolution

Some Second City alumni try to prove that cheese isn't a substitute for non-food items, and trying to force the issue will break a woman.

In doing so, Kraft's Cracker Barrel Cheese (not to be confused with the chain restaurant) makes a tortured and funny take on the old taste-test commercials:

This comes on the heels of Melissa McCarthy's disturbing turn as a Hidden Valley Ranch taste tester on a recent episode of Saturday Night Live:

So now taste tests are comedy. But what about all those taste-test commercials from days of yore that set the stage for the taste test comedy revolution?

Folger's started the prank by switching what had to be a fine coffee at Tavern on the Green with its crunchy, dehydrated swill. And the customers love it!

After Welcome Back Kotter was canceled, Gabe Kaplan didn't have anything better to do than wander the country and question strangers about their cola preference. Pepsi rode its Pepsi Challenge man-on-the-street campaign hard enough to make us want to go up their nose with a rubber hose.

Sprite enticed some cute actors on a scaffold to deliver the results of a taste test that probably happened in a conference room with a two-way mirror.

Canada got on the taste-test ad wagon too, by taking Ruffles and Hostess potato chips to the most obvious place -- the farmers' market.