Check Out the Commercial Natasha Lyonne Was Talking About on Sack Lunch Bunch

Almost everything in Netflix's children's-programming-for-adults special John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch sounds like it's been made up for maximum weirdness, while still existing within the mundane world of being a kid. (Well, maybe not Andre DeShields singing about how knowing algebra can save your eye.) Dotted in between the big production numbers, surprising guest stars (hey, David Byrne and Jake Gyllenhaal!), and comedy sketches are talking-head interviews where the members of the Sack Lunch Bunch (kids ages 8-13) are asked to talk about their genuine fears. Their answers are among the more sincere and disarming moments of the special.

And then there's Russian Doll star Natasha Lyonne, who drops by to lay down her own set of idiosyncratic fears, including escalators, auto-flush toilets, and nuclear disaster. As a follow-up, an off-screen Mulaney asks her about her earliest acting jobs. True to form, Lyonne entertainingly lays down a few oddball selections for early TV commercials she starred in (including Minute Maid orange juice) before singing the jingle of something called "The Women of Robotech," which she says was a "robot-syle Barbie doll."

Confused, yet intrigued, I set out to find these women of Robotech. Lyonne was pretty much right: they're futuristic Barbie dolls, from a mid-'80s Japanese/American animated series called Robotech. Kind of a contemporary of Voltron, if you remember that show. It's kind of fascinating that, even back in 1985, toy companies were marketing their action figures specifically to girls like this. Where was this kinda attitude with Marvel and Black Widow??

Can we talk about how the elite fighter squadron women also have to come equipped with fancy evening gowns and a change of clothes for aerobics?? We sure can! But not before paying homage to one of the greatest tag lines in marketing history: "Isn't she neat?!" Very neat.

YouTube was successful in finding me old commercials for Robotech figures, but I was still worried that I wouldn't be able to pick out a grade-school Natasha Lyonne from the gaggle of girls playing with their Robotech dolls. But I was mistaken; as soon as she shows up on screen, it's obvious:

That irrepressible heavy Long Island accent. Hell, even the beginnings of her signature rasp. And of course that untamable head of red hair. All unmistakably Natasha Lyonne. Isn't she neat??

So thanks to John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch for not only entertaining us so peculiarly over the Christmas holiday but for also setting us on this course down memory lane with one of our other favorite Netflix stars. And thanks to Natasha Lyonne, as usual, for everything.

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Joe Reid is the senior writer at Primetimer and co-host of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. His work has appeared in Decider, NPR, HuffPost, The Atlantic, Slate, Polygon, Vanity Fair, Vulture, The A.V. Club and more.