SNL's Unseen 'Tampax Secrets' Skit Nails The Absurdity Of Hiding Tampons

If you’ve ever had a period, this SNL sketch is absolutely for you

There is such a stigma about periods, even in 2019, that most people who have them still try to hide the fact that we have them. Case in point: how many of us have “discreetly” folded up a pad or squeezed a tampon in our hands to carry to the bathroom? Or done a stealthy pass of period products between friends? Well, SNL’s “Tampax Secrets” sketch is absolutely brilliant in the way it nails this weird rite of passage we’ve all endured.

Saturday’s amazing host, Fleabag‘s Phoebe Waller-Bridge, joins cast members Aidy Bryant and Melissa Villaseñor in the amazing parody about how we all handle tampons in public. Because there’s really no reason any of us should feel weird about deigning to have periods.

LOL. Watching Waller-Bridge ask for a tampon and become downright delighted about hiding it in dog poop and a dead mouse is *chef’s kiss.*

The parody ad highlights the new Tampax “Secrets” line, which hides tampons in objects that are arguably less offensive to the general public than a tampon. In addition to the dog feces and dead rodent, there are things like white dreadlocks, a signed copy of Mein Kampf, a box containing a VHS copy of The Cosby Show, truck nuts, a respectfully folded Confederate flag, and “a real bomb.”

It’s funny because it’s true. Due to various factors of my own vaginal health, I have to wear pads more often than not. And if there’s anything less cool than carrying around a menstrual mini-diaper (shoutout to Always Infinity), I have yet to think of it. So I’ve spent one week of almost every month of my life since I was 13 “discreetly” wadding up my pads in my fist before heading to the bathroom or hiding them in secret pockets of my purse. I relate to this sketch on a very spiritual level.

Although it would be kind of cool to pass a pad or tampon inside a human skull as a disguise, no?

Trying to hide the fact that more than half the population menstruates is ridiculous, and so is censoring the way we talk about periods in general. Not to mention the embarrassment we all feel about having the audacity to need and use tampons.

Too bad this sketch was cut for time in the end, because it needs to reach its full audience. Let’s all raise our menstrual cups and hope that it does.