SNL's "Ozempic for Ramadan" sketch turns the GLP-1 boom into a fake commercial
A fake SNL ad for a pork-free semaglutide shot aimed at Ramadan fasters shows how quickly GLP-1 drugs moved from pharmacy shelves into mainstream comedy.
"Ozempic for Ramadan" aired March 30, 2024, on "Saturday Night Live," in an episode hosted by actor and comedian Ramy Youssef, with Travis Scott as the musical guest [1]. The sketch is a fake television commercial for a pork-free semaglutide injection marketed to Muslims fasting during Ramadan [1][2].
In it, Youssef plays a father getting his children ready for school. "You know, fasting for Ramadan used to be easy, but the last few years of work and a growing family, it's felt almost impossible," he says. "But not anymore, thanks to Ozempic for Ramadan" [1].
A narrator sets up the joke with a straight description of the drugs: "Ozempic is a medication prescribed to suppress hunger and slow digestion, and Ramadan is a month when Muslims abstain from food and water from sunrise to sunset" [1].
What the sketch shows
According to FiercePharma, which covers pharmaceutical marketing, the packaging shown in the sketch describes the product as a pork-free semaglutide injection and "100% halal food," and the parody used "real Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk's branding" [2]. The fake ad ends with the slogan, "Yeah, it's just Ozempic" [2].
There is no such product. Ozempic is the brand name for semaglutide, made by Novo Nordisk [1][2]. Whether Novo Nordisk knew about or responded to the sketch has not been reported.
Youssef's character says he no longer rushes to eat a full meal before dawn: "I just grab my prayer beads and my Ozempic needle. As long as I shoot up before the sun rises, it's halal" [1].
Cast members play other satisfied users. Ego Nwodim says the injections let her work through her colleagues' lunch break: "While my coworkers are at lunch, I'm on Google Sheets going ham, no haram" [1]. Kenan Thompson, playing a halal cart vendor, says that with the shot, "now I don't even get hangry if white women ask if I have salmon" [1]. Andrew Dismukes plays a convert to Islam who says the drug helped him get through daily fasts, plus "a 27-inch waist" [1][2].
A cheerful narrator lists side effects as "nausea, headaches, and going straight to Hell" [1][2]. Youssef's character counters that if he fasts the whole month straight, he'll "probably get extra awards from God" [1]. The sketch also anticipates criticism: "And for those of you claiming this is the exact same product rebranding for a burgeoning Muslim demographic," the narrator says, "that's Islamophobic" [1].
It was not SNL's first GLP-1 joke. FiercePharma noted an earlier sketch parodying red-carpet awards coverage, in which cast member Heidi Gardner delivered the line, "Ozempic: I guess everyone in Hollywood has diabetes!" [2]. That sketch touched on off-label use, which was the subject of an actual Eli Lilly ad that ran during awards season. In it, Lilly criticized use of its GLP-1 drugs "for the smaller dress or tux, for a big night, for vanity," stressing that the drugs should be available to their approved populations, including people with obesity or Type 2 diabetes [2].
Why it matters for patients
The sketch is comedy, not medical guidance, and the product it advertises does not exist [1][2]. But the joke rests on a real property of these drugs, which the sketch's own narration states plainly: they are prescribed to suppress hunger and slow digestion [1].
That is why a fictional version aimed at Ramadan lands as a punchline. Fasting from sunrise to sunset removes meals and water; a drug that reduces appetite changes what that fast feels like, for better or worse. The sketch does not address whether fasting while taking a GLP-1 is safe, and no guidance on that question appears in the coverage of it. It has not been reported here whether Novo Nordisk or any medical or religious authority has commented on the sketch or on combining GLP-1 use with Ramadan fasting.
The broader point is visibility. A drug class that was a niche diabetes treatment years ago is now a recurring SNL target and the subject of real competitor advertising [2]. For patients, that means more casual conversation about these medications among family, friends and coworkers, and more chances for jokes and assumptions to stand in for actual prescribing information.
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Sources
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