Amazon’s Super Bowl Commercial With Scarlett Johansson And Colin Jost Is Like A Mini Episode Of ‘Black Mirror’

Alexa has made life easier, but it’s also made it creepier. The smart voice assistant is always listening (and always ready to put Frosted Flakes in your shopping cart because you mentioned the words “sugar” and “cereal” once four months ago). For the seventh consecutive year, Amazon will attempt to humanize the robot eavesdropper with a knowing Super Bowl commercial.

Last year, it was Michael B. Jordan. This year, it’s Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost. It’s like Alexa can “read your mind,” the real-life married couple say at the same time in the spot above. What follows is a mini-Black Mirror episode, with Alexa suggesting they order fresh mint mouthwash when Jost smells Johansson’s breath in the morning, and setting a reminder for the Staten Island ferry owner to fake his own death on the day that her play opens. Ultimately, they agree that it’s better for Alexa to not read minds.

Jost also helped write the ad:

One unique aspect of this particular ad is that Jost, an SNL writer, contributed to the script, although Bodily noted writing ads and comedy sketches are slightly different skill sets.

“Colin would come up with something and the team on our side would be like, ‘OK, that’s really funny, but how do we get that into a 90-second ad’” [Louise Bodily, business director of Lucky Generals] says. “So it was really, really interesting but something that we haven’t done before on the set of a Super Bowl ad.”

The “Mind Reader” ad will air during the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game, at which point Alexa will automatically order you a copy of We Bought a Zoo on DVD.