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ohheybill:

I found this bizarre Sandra Lee interview on the other side of a YouTube wormhole a few months ago, and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since.

Everything about it is noteworthy:

• The somewhat unflattering, Inland Empire-esque camera angle.
• The girl interviewing her is from a Queens-based culinary website (kind of odd, I know).  The first few questions are Queens-specific, and based on Sandra’s answers, I have no choice but to declare (as the lone YouTube commenter has already pointed out) that Sandra Lee has never been to Queens.  In a particularly odd moment, when asked if she has any favorite Queens neighborhoods, Sandra plays it off as if given her celebrity status, it would be unwise for her to play favorites.  I’m sure if Sandra Lee had told this d-list food blogger that she likes Astoria, there would be cars on fire in Kew Gardens.
• The interviewer might be there to talk about the Queens culinary scene, but Sandra is there to talk tuna.  In a Palinesque moment, Sandra deflects the go-for-the-jugular, “gotcha” question of “do you have any favorite restaurants in Queens?” by talking about how much she loves delis, especially delis with great salads in them.  Those salads that she loves, however, can be rather expensive.  So obviously, the next logical topic of conversations is this great new line of tuna pouches that Sunkist has come out with!  Upon rewatching, you can tell that her internal monologue is “make it about the tuna, make it about the tuna, make it about the tuna.”
• Sandra mistakenly claims that government regulations state that one must eat fish at least two times a day.
• Upon being told that this crowded restaurant interview is Sandra’s first stop on the “Have You Been Starkist?” campaign, the interviewer declares “I’m so honored!”
• Sandra then brings out the tuna pouches.  Perhaps this is just my own neuroses that need to know this, but did she bring the tuna pouches in her purse, or did she show up to the interview with a separate bag of tuna puches?
• When Sandra demonstrates in QVC style the benefits of having the tuna in pouches vs those goddamn cans (I can’t help but imagine an infomercial depicting in drained color a frumpy woman opening a cabinet and having cans of tuna fall out on her), the interviewer chimes in to describe her own tuna experience.  Sandra smiles at her, the way one smiles when passing a bum that they are not giving money to, and completely ignores her comment.  This is a recurring event in the interview.
• After describing the ingredients of her (obviously tuna-based) meal on Saturday, Sandra cocks her eyebrow, as if to say “jealous?”
• Sandra gives a recipe for tuna salad that has the longest list of ingredients in history.
• In describing how she puts chopped jalapeno in the aforementioned tuna salad, Sandra snaps and says she likes to “spice it up and make it hot.”
• When asked if she can recommend an ingredient that is inexpensive and useful, though her answer is Italian seasoning and pumpkin pie spice, she has to begin it with, “Well, I do have to say that these pouches are very affordable.”
• When complimented on her “tablescapes,” Sandra responds with a “thank you” that is not unlike what I would imagine Madonna’s “thank you” would be if you said “I loved you in Swept Away.”
• Sandra is asked if she has tips on how to create a “beautiful and creative” “tablescape.”  She begins her answer by saying she’d just been thinking about “the tuna market.”
• The video then abruptly cuts off.