Blast from the Past: Best Super Bowl Commercials

This week's edition of Blast from the Past is surely not original, but it is entertaining! Over the years, the Super Bowl has become more than just a football game. I--for example--have less interest in football than I have in obscure Scandinavian poetry. But I find myself at a Super Bowl party almost every year, and sometimes host them. I'm there for the snacks, the revelry, occasionally the game, and mostly, the commercials. But this is not a recent phenomenon. It's been going on for a while now.




And, since the Blogger software tried to eat this post as I wrote it, I'm going to call this one finished! Hope your team won, or at least you were relieved that it wasn't a blowout. Happy Monday, everybody.

In Case You Missed It: Autotuned Why, Why, Manti?

Very well done, and possibly the best thing to come out of the bizarre Manti T'eo fake girlfriend "scandal."

From Brooklyn's Gregory Brothers, via Joe.My.God.

Bad Lip Reading The NFL

Hilarious, as usual.

FOX & Friends vs. Bob Costas

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As I've said before, I'm not the sort of liberal that you'd classify as a "gun grabber." I grew up around guns, I know how to handle them, and shoot them. I don't particularly have a problem with gun ownership, even multiple gun ownership. But I'm not a gun fetishist either. I don't hold the 2nd amendment to be the only important one, or more important than the others. I don't think the founders intended that we be armed "just in case" we have to fight our own government. And I think it is completely reasonable to draw the line somewhere between muskets and thermonuclear warheads.

FOX "News"--having repeatedly proven itself to be speaking for and playing to the arch-right tea-baggin' nut jobs--cannot tolerate any dissent on the subject. Or rather, moderate, thoughtful discussion. Bob Costas related a piece from a FOX "News" writer that commented upon a recent shooting, and he did it during the football game he was covering. It was apropos, because it was a football player who had done the shooting, and it was his team that was playing, the same weekend!

Now, for the crowd that is constantly decrying so-called infringements upon free speech, they're sure ready to jump all over Bob Costas for expressing his opinion. And they're also ready to attribute words and thoughts that Costas did not say. I'm aware that the first amendment applies to government censorship of free speech, but I also believe that there was absolutely nothing wrong with what Costas had to say, and agree with what he had to say as well.

[Excerpt]

‘Fox & Friends’ defends gun culture: Costas’ gun control talk ‘dangerous’ after murder/suicide



In the wake of a tragic murder/suicide involving an NFL football player, the co-hosts of Fox & Friends on Monday defended gun culture while blasting NBC broadcaster Bob Costas’ call for gun control. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

RIP, Andy Griffith, Dead at 86

This clip was always my favorite Andy Griffith performance, though I also enjoyed The Andy Griffith Show, Matlock and Salvage 1. And as soon as I can find it, I intend to watch A Face in the Crowd.

What it Was, Was Football
 

Jimmy Fallon as Tebowie

Thanks to Stupid Monkey Planet for pointing this out. Fantastic.

The Tim Tebow Skit from Saturday Night Live

When I watched this skit on Saturday Night, I thought it was cute. Kind of funny.  It wasn't riffing on religion or Christianity as much as it was riffing on excessive displays of religiosity. Saturday Night Live is  satire, and in satire, very little is off limits to my mind. Sure, SNL can sometimes be unfunny, and can veer off the rails all the way to offensive. But this wasn't offensive. Do you know how I know? Because Pat Freaking Robertson was offended. 'Nuff said. He doesn't matter.

Rush Limbaugh Denied Chance at Football Team

(Fantastic) image from source, Wonkette

Heh. The headline makes me laugh, after some of the rumors I've heard about el Rushbo, but that's not important right now. What's good about this story is the schadenfreude. After all, this is the man who took great delight in the "embarrassment" suffered by President Obama after losing a shot at the Chicago Olympics. Obama merely got outbid. Rush was shamed. Not that he'll see it that way, seeing as he's utterly shameless.

[Excerpt]

Rush Limbaugh Not Allowed To Buy That Football Team

The greatest news for America last week was that unstable, obese radio junkie Rush Limbaugh had snuck his way into a group of investors fixing to purchase St. Louis’ NFL team, the Rams. . .

Read more at: Wonkette

Sarah Palin Yanks Football from Charlie Brown Press

Image from source, AmericaBlog

While I often link to stories on other sites, I try to put my own spin on things, especially when it comes to the snark. But this post at AmericaBlog, taking the press to task for going along with the McCain-Palin campaign's carrot and stick activities today, was simply too good to pass up.

Lucy, Charlie Brown and the football? It's one of the best--and funniest--analogies I've seen in a long time. Kudos, Mr. Aravosis!

[Excerpt]

McCain permits press to observe Palin meeting with Colombian president, for a whole 15 to 20 seconds, then kicks them out

Wow, brave media. After treating the press like dirt this morning and refusing to let anyone cover Palin's meetings with foreign leaders at the UN, leading CNN to cancel its camera coverage of Palin's phony photo opps, the Palin/McCain campaign promised the media that it was all a misunderstanding. So during the next event, the media was let in to cover it. All for a grand total of 15 to 20 seconds. Then they were told to get out. . .

Read more at: AmericaBlog

MAD TV: OSU Buckeye Fans Gay?

OK, I'm having a frivolous post run here today. But hey, I have incendiary political posts in spurts, so why not fun stuff?

Football season is upon us again, and as a native Ohioan, I'm obliged to support the Buckeyes, even if I have no genuine interest in football. If you're from Ohio (particularly Columbus), you're a Buckeye by default.

This video is from a couple of years ago on MAD TV. It was something of a heyday for the show in my opinion, when Josh Meyers (Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyers' brother) and Ike Barinholtz regularly teamed up for comedy.

The gag is, of course, the inherent homoeroticism (usually unacknowledged) of team sports, and sports fandom. And you have to give credit to Meyers and Barinholtz for their fearlessness as actors. Even in this day and age, unabashed same-sex attraction--even in acting--is a rarity. Of course it helps that it is painfully funny. (Incidentally, it would have been just as funny if the characters were Wolverines fans. . .)