Last night’s Super Bowl LVI came with plenty of advertisements, but one featured the man, myth, and legend we know and love, Willie Nelson. A marijuana advocate and enthusiast if there ever was one, Nelson was featured as an “Activist & Comfort Expert” in a new Skechers commercial about legalization. 

Well, sort of. The commercial didn’t actually touch on cannabis, nor was the plant mentioned at all, but the tongue-in-cheek humor took a few jabs at the government’s choosing to keep marijuana illegal at a federal level. 

The commercial opens like your usual celebrity-endorsed advertisement, with Nelson introducing himself while sitting in a recording studio. He then says, “I’ve fought for the legalization of the one thing that can bring comfort to millions: Skechers.”

The dialogue in the commercial is comedy gold, only if you get a kick out of dry, sarcastic humor that pokes at government policies. While wearing a t-shirt with the word “LEGALIZE” in bold lettering, Nelson goes on to explain, “You see, Skechers should be legal because they help so many people…” he says just before the director cuts him off.

The confused director speaks to Nelson and informs him that Skechers aren’t illegal anywhere, which prompts the artist’s response, “But to feel so good, I just assumed ‘The Man’ made them illegal,” referencing marijuana prohibition made illegal by ‘The Man,’ aka, the government. 

Nelson, also confused, asks, “Not even a little illegal? Like, you can wear them to a concert but not a kids soccer game?” When realizing the shoes are “federally legal,” he shimmers with a smile and says, “Well, pass the Skechers.”

The commercial concluded with an ending text that reads, “Skechers, legalized comfort,” and we truly couldn’t have asked for a better activist to sneak his way into a commercial about Skechers and slyly make it about federal cannabis legalization. 

In a recent press release published on February 11, Nelson said he couldn’t “resist making an appearance during the Super Bowl.” He explained that the sole reason he wanted to feature in Skechers’ new advertisement was to share “a message we can all agree on—everyone deserves the right to feel comfortable.”

While us cannabis enthusiasts understand Nelson was hinting at the daily comfort we can get from marijuana legalization, he concluded that “staying healthy and feeling good is how I can keep doing what I love.”