Just days after “Saturday Night Live” released a skit parodying the idea of an Uber year-in-review feature, the company itself launched an actual year-in-review feature. In a move that implies Uber’s marketing team is either completely stupid or cynically trying to capitalize on a modest post-“SNL” increase in social media mentions, the company has made it so we can all marvel at how much we’re being charged for food and transportation.
Spotify Wrapped is just one of the many ways that corporations are trying to distract us from the way that art has been swallowed up by corporations to the point where it has been stripped of all its subversive power, while artists have been constantly ripped off for their work. It’s a way of putting a happy face on a decidedly unhappy situation, like when Joe Russo presented the garbage future of AI as some kind of media utopia. While we’re all at least somewhat aware of this grim scenario, we also can’t help but be a little drawn to the idea of sharing our most-streamed songs and artists, especially if it means we can surreptitiously showcase our incredibly diverse musical tastes.
An Uber Eats Wrapped, however, doesn’t have the same appeal. We don’t really want to share the fact that we’ve ordered the same late-night Taco Bell dozens of times over the course of the year, and that’s basically the idea behind the “SNL” skit. It’s funny because no one would want that. Clearly, Uber didn’t really get the joke when the company rolled out an actual Uber Year in Review feature called “YOUBER,” which summarizes your Uber and Uber Eats activity because everything is terrible.
SNL Said Packaged Uber Eats Was a Bad Idea, So Uber Did It
The best “Saturday Night Live” sketches often become memes in their own right. In the Lonely Island years, pre-recorded digital shorts were the segments with the greatest memorability potential, and although Andy Samberg and his compatriots are long gone, “SNL” still produces good pre-recorded sketches. The “Uber Eats Wrapped” skit is an example of this, attempting to trick companies into tracking our data and our collective horror at the idea of that data being sent back to us. At least I think that’s what it was. Given that Uber literally launched a year in review days after the skit aired, it seems like there may be some terrible pre-arranged “synergy” at play here.
The December 13, 2025 episode of “SNL” featured “The Crown” star Josh O’Connor (who is also in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming “Disclosure Day,” a trailer for which was just released). The British actor did a solid job on an episode that featured some equally solid sketches, including the “Uber Wrapped” sketch. Like many long-running series, it was pretty fun. He sees Cast Play users who are excited to see their Spotify Wrapped appear, but immediately recoil at the idea of a similar wrapper feature for Uber Eats. Highlights include Andrew Dismukes being in the “top 1% on nuggets” and James Austin Johnson’s Uber Eats age being “dead.”
Today, Uber launched a real-life version of Uber Eats Wrapped with YOUBER. It won’t tell you your Uber Eats age, but it will remind you how expensive food is and how much we’re all willing to pay for it now that we have these omnipresent portals to hell that are our phones in our pockets.
YOUBER is basically Uber Eats Wrapped but worse
Do you really want to know what YOUBER is? There’s a whole press release peppered with equally tortured suitcases (it’s so YOUnique) just waiting to be read for those who are interested. But hey, I’ll give you the weak points.
On the one hand, the company says this new feature follows “years of hearing your request.” Do you know anyone who has asked this? Joe Russo, did you ask that? Unlike the “SNL” version, YOUBER combines both grocery shopping and food ordering to give you a snapshot of your activity over the past year. The number of trips you’ve taken, the number of restaurants you’ve ordered from, and your favorite restaurant are all part of the new feature that, while it won’t tell you if you’re in the top 1% of nuggets, it will tell you if you’re in the top 10% of customers at a specific restaurant. All of this combines to determine which part of the ninth circle of hell you end up in, that is, the part of the app where you are assigned a personality.
It’s bad enough that Uber is already reducing us to one rating (something satirical in one of the best episodes of “Black Mirror”), but now the company has branded us all with one of 14 “Uber Personalities,” which include “Do-Gooder,” “Rise and Shiner” and “Effortless Icon.” What does all this mean? Obviously it has something to do with your ordering and driving habits, but it’s not entirely clear, and I’m too much of an effortless icon to care anyway.
