Sky Sports pulled off a hilarious ad that poked fun at their own non-stop football coverage, taking inspiration from a famous comedy sketch by David Mitchell and Robert Webb.
The ad, hyping up a big Easter weekend of English Football League (EFL) games, was a playful nod to the “Football” skit from That Mitchell and Webb Look series in 2008.
With a caption shouting, “Watch the football! It’s gonna move! ,” Sky Sports leaned into the joke about their over-the-top excitement for every match, from Derby vs. Luton to Oxford vs. Leeds.
Featuring presenter David Prutton, the ad showed Sky Sports could laugh at themselves while still getting fans pumped for the EFL action.
To get why Sky Sports’ ad was so clever, let’s look at the original sketch. In 2008, David Mitchell played a wild-eyed Sky Sports presenter walking across a football field. The feature was filmed at Queens Park Rangers’ Loftus Road Stadium.
He rants about the endless stream of football on TV, hyping up random games like Portsmouth vs. Southampton or Shrewsbury vs. Macclesfield as if they’re the biggest events ever. With fast camera switches and a crazy tone, he yells, “Thousands and thousands of hours of football, each more exciting than the last! Constant, dizzying, 24-hour, year-long, endless football!”
The best line? “Every kick of it massively mattering to someone, presumably!” First done on their radio show That Mitchell and Webb Sound, the sketch mocks how Sky Sports makes every game sound like a must-watch.
Sky Sports’ ad also tapped into something deeper: fans both love and roll their eyes at football’s hype. Since the 1990s, Sky Sports has changed how we watch football, with new stuff like Sky Sports+ and 215 Premier League games planned for 2025.
But as Mitchell and Webb pointed out, this can get ridiculous, making every match sound like a blockbuster. By joining in on the joke, Sky Sports admitted this while keeping their spot as the top place for football fans. It’s a clever move when fans on X quickly spot anything fake.
Focusing on the EFL, not the Premier League, made the ad even better. Games like Derby vs. Luton or Wrexham vs. Bristol Rovers aren’t global giants like Manchester United vs. Liverpool, but they matter to local fans. By hyping them with Mitchell’s crazy energy, Sky Sports both laughed at and celebrated the idea that every game is special to someone, just like the sketch said.
