and The West Wing. Parodies of Popeil's infomercials were done on the comedy show Saturday Night Live by Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy and the "Veg-O-Matic" may have provided comedian Gallagher inspiration for the "Sledge-O-Matic" routine since the 1980s. The animated series VeggieTales once featured a parody of the "Veg-O-Matic" dubbed as the "Forgive-O-Matic". "Additionally, the professional wrestling tag team The Midnight Express dubbed their finishing move the Veg-O-Matic. Popeil was voted by Self magazine readers as one of the 25 people who have changed the way we eat, drink and think about food. Popeil has been referenced in the music of Alice Cooper, the Beastie Boys, and "Weird Al" Yankovic. Yankovic's song "Mr. Popeil" was a tribute (and featured his sister Lisa Popeil on backing vocals). Ron Popeil later used this song in some of his infomercials. In Malcolm Gladwell's book What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, Popeil is interviewed and many of his products, most notably the Veg-O-Matic and Showtime Rotisserie, are discussed. Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker piece "The Pitchman" about Popeil won Gladwell the 2001 National Magazine award. The article was first published in The New Yorker in 2000. Notes References Further reading External links Synopsis of the Biography of Ron Popeil on A & E 1935 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American inventors American businesspeople in retailing American salespeople Businesspeople from New York City University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Infomercials American people of Jewish descent