I’ll take Stories That Make You Feel Good for $800, Alex. (Okay, wrong game show but correct era of game show.)
What is Supermarket Sweep?
Have you ever given much of your attention to Supermarket Sweep? The ‘90s daytime weekday staple involves duos competing in honest-to-god grocery trivia contests before frantically carting down the aisles of a fake grocery store, hauling hams and wheels of cheese for “The Big Sweep.”
The host, David Ruprect, has an absolutely unmatched knit sweater game and the announcer is none other than Jeopardy’s Johnny Gilbert, who in my opinion, does his finest work while describing the action in the Big Sweeps.
It’s a good time, and Pluto TV has a 24-hour channel centered around it. (This is not a plug, but it also is.) Also, justice for the very fun Leslie Jones-hosted 2020 revival.
Supermarket Sweep couple goes viral
However, the true delight of revisiting old Supermarket Sweeps is the era-specific elements, such as discontinued products, extremely ‘90s hair and clothing styles, and the guessing which duos are actually gay couples who aren’t allowed to say they’re gay couples.
Ruprect, of course, asks each team how they know each other at the outset of each episode, leading to such answers as “friends from work,” “gym buddies,” and “business partners.”
X user Tom Zohar recently pointed this out:
“The host asked them what’s the weirdest set they’ve been asked to design and their whole lives flashed before their eyes trying to come up with a heterosexual answer,” Zohar followed up in a tweet.
Obviously, it’s a pity that these relationships had to be left implied, but Zohar followed the post up with an extremely wholesome and unexpected update about the “business partners” in question.
Just the best. Supermarket Sweep heads can only hope other teams in that situation had similar happy endings.
Either way, social media’s collective cold, cold hearts have been warmed by Tim and Mark’s story:
Great stuff. Supermarket Sweep is a gift, folks. A gift to be cherished.
UPDATE: The @SupermarketSweep X account caught wind and shared a video of Mark and Tim’s introduction as contestants.
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