The ham is cooking in this memorable campaign for the 1971 Ford Mustang starring the gifted sketch comedian SId Caesar.

Sid Caesar (1922-2014) was a pioneer of sketch comedy on television with his weekly series, Your Show of Shows, which aired on NBC from 1950 to 1954. His remarkable comic gifts included accents and double-talk dialog—his friend and writer Mel Brooks marveled that Caesar could speak fluent gibberish in four langurages. That unique talent was put to use in a delightfully hammy TV campaign for the 1971 Ford Mustang. There, Caesar played “a famous European sports car designer” against straight man Roy Stuart, a noted character actor. We’ve got one of the commercials for you here.

After six years in production, the Mustang that made its debut on August 20, 1970 was a different kind of pony car. There were now six models, including the Mach 1, Boss 351, and the luxury-themed Grande, and the new exterior look was broad and bulky. (See our feature on the  ’71-’73 Mustang here.)  The Mustang’s annual volume had been sliding steadily since 1967, and the trend continued in ’71 as sales slipped another 20 percent to 151,000 cars. Still, Mustang remained the sales leader of the pony car field, and as we can see, the “famous European sports car designer” is impressed as well. Video below.