About

Orson Welles Wine Commercial Outtakes refers to a viral video of actor Orson Welles attempting to shoot an advertisement for Paul Masson wine. Welles, possibly inebriated, stumbles through the dialogue several times, leading to multiple retakes. The video has been widely referenced and parodied since surfacing online.

Origin

In 1978, wine company Paul Masson hired famed actor and director Orson Welles to be their spokesperson for their brand. Advertisements featuring Welles ran from 1978-1981.

The advertisements became subject to parody in the late 20th century. Notably, animated TV show The Critic made several parodies of the Welles commercials (shown below).

On January 2nd, 2009, YouTuber grimscribe126 posted a compilation of outtakes from one of Welles' wine commercials, showing Welles, apparently inebriated, struggling to get through the dialogue. The video gained over 2.4 million views in eleven years (shown below, left). Originally, the outtakes had circulated on old VHS tapes before being uploaded to YouTube, hence its grainy condition. ^[1]User Sean Mc posted the actual commercial to YouTube several years later (shown below, right).

Spread

The outtakes video became widely referenced and parodied in subsequent years. On April 15th, 2017, YouTuber placeboing posted a remix in which he played music along with the video gaining over 347,000 views (shown below, left). On April 4th, 2015, YouTuber Publio Delgado posted a video in which he played guitar harmonizations under Welles' dialogue, gaining over 48,000 views (shown below, right).

The video was referenced in a series of Game Grumps in the late 2010s (compilation shown below, left). YouTuber Charles Cornell also made a musical parody of the outtakes, posted July 19th, 2019 (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References