Well, another Superbowl has come and gone. For the two most recent “Big Games” I have had no TV service and so didn’t watch the game. Before that it was tradition at college for one or two people in our group to disappear for a couple of hours for the actual game and for the rest of us to go outside and smoke or play Half-Life or something. When I was younger my father would take the family out to dinner so we wouldn’t have to sit around and watch the game that only he and to a lesser extent my brother cared about. As such, the Superbowl has never really meant all that much to me.
I mean, I appreciate the commercials that some companies put into the event. That was the only reason a good portion of America tuned in for the last three years or so the news polls say. However, the commercials were just sort of a reason to have the TV on in the background and glance at when the game wasn’t on. To tell you the truth, you would probably get a better response from people if you asked them what their favorite commercial was in certain years than if you said “what teams were playing?”
This particular Super Sunday I was at Tyler’s house playing Mortal Kombat and eating taco salad and pie. We didn’t see the game, we didn’t know who was playing and we really didn’t care. Ripping people’s spines out was much more interesting.
When I got into work Monday morning I was greeted with questions about what I thought about the “halftime show” fiasco. Apparently Janet Jackson bared one breast during a song, or Justin Timberlake ripped her clothes off or something. Anyway, that was all everyone was talking about all over the park. I went to go read some news on the net and all the fucking headlines were debating whether or not the breast flash was a stunt or an accident. There was one passing mention that there were not very many good ads this year, but almost NO mention of the score or the football game itself. The only comment I heard that was even remotely close to talking about the game was when someone mentioned the overuse of “Matrix Cam” during touchdown replays.
So I have to ask, having not seen the Superbowl hype or event for two years, has it really degenerated to the point that people don’t even care anymore? I mean, I know I never really did care in the first place, but has the advertising machine sucked all joy out of the actual event and now it’s just an excuse for flashy ads and overdone stage shows?
Next week on FOX, Superbowl goes Vegas!