Super Bowl Thoughts

Well, that was a lackluster championship game. Not much drama, not very high quality football overall. Even the defenses didn't seem to be playing that well, except against the run - most of the offensive problems seemed to be self-generated. Plus, the commercials were mostly uninspired as well.

Fortunately, the entire Sunday was redeemed by some challenging thoughts on the Lord's Prayer from Pastor Tim and Ruth during service, mounds of junk food at Mike P's place, shooting hoops on his indoor mini-basketball hoop from every possible angle of the living room (both first story and second story), then watching Grey's Anatomy, Simpsons, Family Guy, and the classic B-movie "Big Trouble in Little China." Now I know who "Lo Pan" is in the Ultimate Showdown music video.

Amusing quote from The Sports Guy's Super Bowl Diary regarding "Grey's Anatomy" (which wasn't all that bad last night, although we learned from Andy that "Code Black" is defined by each individual hospital, so it doesn't always mean unexploded ammunition. Darn):

(Note: I think God created "Grey's Anatomy" as a way to stick it to guys who watch football all day, then have to deal with girlfriends or wives who play the "Screw you, you're watching this with me, you spent all day watching football!" card on Sunday night. There's really no way out unless you're giving up any and all hope for sex later that night. This is why the ratings are so high, I'm convinced. Wait, am I sharing too much here?)

Some thoughts on the commercials:
Funniest: Both Ameriquest commercials ("That Killed Him" and "Turbulence") got big guffaws in our crowd. Some other ones that had us chuckling included Bud Light ("Secret Fridge" - although, this is one that will probably get older and older every time you see it), Michelob Ultra ("Touch Football" - "You were OPEN, and now you're CLOSED!"), and FedEx ("Caveman" - "You're fired." "But FedEx isn't invented yet!" "Not my problem.")

Most Sentimental: Definitely the Budweiser spot with the Clydesdale pony pulling the cart out, not knowing some other horse is helping him. Awww.

Neatest gimmick: The Mastercard spot with MacGyver shows that you can still make a clever commercial using an old tagline, if you know who to appeal to. I also thought the Degree ("Stunt City") and ESPN Mobile ("Sports Heaven" with all the 2nd-tier stars that only sports fans would really know) commercials weren't bad.

Biggest flop: Diet Pepsi's two commercials featuring Jay Mohr (Bob Sugar?) were rather uninspired. "Brown and Bubbly" is supposed to be an appealing tagline?

Most disturbing: Hands down, the winner (loser?) goes to the Hummer 3, the apparent progeny of Godzilla and some Mecha Man. Gyah. Second place would go to Burger King for making a Whopper look completely unappetizing (do we really need to see people dressed up as slices of onion?).

See this link for some memories of the most memorable Super Bowl commercials of all time. Who could forget the Bud-weis-er frogs, MJ vs. Larry, Monster.com "When I grow up I want to have a brown nose", and 2003's "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker"?