First, the level of meta here is incredible. It’s a loser dude sitting on his mom’s couch watching a J.G. Wentworth commercial. No, literally. He is sitting on his couch watching this commercial in a commercial in which he’s appearing. Because they clearly thought this fake opera commercial really hit it out of the park. And, honestly, it is a little bit of an earworm. Even if it has absolutely nothing to do with J.G. Wentworth’s core business: purchasing structured settlements, annuities and lottery payments. A business that, at its core, sounds super-shady to me. Like reverse mortgages, but for both young and old.
So, how fucking old is this dude? This whiny man-boy? Is this how you appeal to potential customers? Use this obviously 30-something year-old baby to be like, “Hey, is this idiot you?” Like not a young person who is down on his luck, but this free-loading, no-job-having baby-man? Seems a little insulting, right?
I mean, the dude is a slob who can’t clean up after himself, has his mom do his laundry and basically just sits on the couch watching bad TV. How do I know it’s bad TV? Because, ironically, J.G. Wentworth commercials (which, again, he is watching) only play during the saddest of sad daytime programming. After all, they’re literally trying to appeal to slip-and-fall victims, people living off of their scratch-off earnings and dudes like this who we can only imagine faked a neck ache after getting rear-ended by some lady in a Volvo. Because — and this could just be the dude’s absolutely horrible acting — he seems like an utter and complete shady asshole. A faker. A dude who has no interest in making his own way in the world. A loser.
In his dream, he thinks about taking this found Wentworth lump-sum money to buy a new car, get his own apartment or go back to school. The only one of these three that should be on his mind, or is realistic, is getting his own place. To get out of his clearly exasperated mom’s hair. This dude doesn’t need a car. He’s not going anywhere. And going back to school? The guy is like 40. He ain’t doing shit but taking his Wentworth money and buying a decorative ninja sword and a PS5 and staying at his mom’s place. This is that dude, and they know it. She does his laundry, buys him pizza and picks up after him. Why should he leave?
And this actor, Jude Flannelly, has some serious coke-y douche vibes. I would say that’s how they told him to play it, but his actor reel tells me this is sort of his thing. And, yes, I understand this commercial is supposed to be light and “funny,” but why make light of what, in reality, is a pretty sad situation? If a dude was disabled and unable to work because of a car accident, living at home with his mother at 40, making do off of a structured settlement that gives him just enough for weekly pizza and weed? That’s sad, not funny. Or is this guy not actually unable to work due to his injuries, but instead is a lazy sack of shit sponging off the state and his own mother? Either way, the tone is weird. And if I’m an actual person sitting at home with a debilitating injury, I’m gonna be like “Fuck you J.G. Wentworth and your absolutely horrible logo and your incredibly condescending commercial that minimizes my pain.”
This is a 2:00 version of the original :30 I saw broadcast, but you’ll be equally horrified by the results.