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Superbowl Open Thread

Jill

I only kinda halfway watched it because being out watching the Superbowl is a Thing You Must Do, but I did pay attention to the halftime show. Beyonce! Wow. Beyonce. You are a superstar for a reason and I love you and want to be you and I am so glad you never wear pants because there is absolutely no reason for you to ever wear pants. 2013 is really her year, huh? Inauguration and the Superbowl? Not bad. I did not watch the commercials, although I saw that Audi one this morning and I agree with Amanda that it is gross. No, kissing someone isn’t rape, but walking up to a virtual stranger and planting a kiss on her because she’s hot and you’re “brave” isn’t really treating her like a person who should have some say in who she wants to kiss. It’s treating her like she’s an accoutrement to your sweet life, like that car. But as Amanda points out, it is forever fascinating that there exist “gross dudes who will die on the hill of claiming that creeping on women and forcing yourself on them is a legitimate form of flirting.” What did you all think? About the game or the commercials or Queen B or the lights going out because Beyonce is just too bright or whatever?

83 thoughts on Superbowl Open Thread

  1. In general I thought the ads were sub-par. The Audi ad bothered me way less than the Fiat ads from last year. Beyonce was pretty solid, but as a lot of people have noted, The Black Eyed Peas set the bar super low for years to come.

    We had a party mostly because it was an excuse to cook a lot of party food, and early on we established a pretty satisfying faux rivalry between The Murderers and The Homophobes. (I was rooting for The Homophobes, which was… odd.)

    1. Beyonce did what she did, but I was saddened by it.

      I should think she has enough talent that she doesn’t have to simulate stripping and having sex and that sort of thing to be a fine entertainer, but perhaps she doesn’t have much of an imagination. Sad.

      I wouldn’t have wanted kids watching, but no doubt they see enough of that sort of thing that they are used to it, which is another part of what makes me sad.

      Just my two cents.

      As for the game, who would have thought SF would mount such a comeback? They almost did it …

      2. I should think she has enough talent that she doesn’t have to simulate stripping and having sex and that sort of thing to be a fine entertainer, but perhaps she doesn’t have much of an imagination. Sad.

        I think that Beyoncé should be able to use dancing and even (shock!) sexiness in her work (and maybe even because she enjoys those things) without people implying that she’s too stupid to act like a proper lady.

        1. And I just rewatched the entire thing to make sure and I am still very confused as to where you think the simulated stripping and sex are…

        2. Beyonce (whom I never called “stupid”) can do whatever she wants. God knows she’s getting paid enough that she doesn’t have to give a hoot in a holler that a COBOL programmer in Maine finds her act depressing.

        4. If saying “she doesn’t have much of an imagination” isn’t calling her stupid it’s pretty close, at least.

      3. Really? Women are going to be objectified and slut shamed no matter what they do, so how about the amazing and fabulous Queen B gets to do whatever she wants and you can step right off to the left, to the left.

        She’s an amazing and talented WOC, who sings about kicking jackasses to the curb, and about self-sufficiency for women. Her back up dancers and her touring band are all women. She is fanfuckingtastic and, imho, one of the best celebrity feminist role models out there.

        1. Nope. Not a role model. What about a black woman whose skin and hair are lighter every time she gets on stage is supposed to make me want to showcase her as a WOC role model to my daughter? It makes me sad that a woman with that much fame and with such natural beauty (if you look at her in her younger years) still needs lighter and longer extensions, lighter skin, and a different nose. I’m not hating on her performance, it was good. Don’t like her music, but that’s just me. She is a hell of a dancer, but she is not a role model to me and mine.

      4. Beyonce did what she did, but I was saddened by it.

        I should think she has enough talent that she doesn’t have to simulate stripping and having sex and that sort of thing to be a fine entertainer, but perhaps she doesn’t have much of an imagination. Sad.

        I wouldn’t have wanted kids watching, but no doubt they see enough of that sort of thing that they are used to it, which is another part of what makes me sad.

        Just my two cents.

        As for the game, who would have thought SF would mount such a comeback? They almost did it …

        No one would deny that there are much mure sophisticated dancers out there, many of of them women of color, whose works would no doubt contain a good deal of creativity- however- you wouldn’t find that sort of thing in ANY BIT OF THE SUPERBOWL HALFTIME SHOW! Or in any sort of enormous sports stadium.

        Beyonce’s act (no doubt choreographed by some top pop choreographer) is popular culture and as that, well it certainly beats the hell out of the shit marching bands they had when I was a kid. It is also possible to appreciate her act viscerally for ‘the way it makes you feel,’ and still be nauseated by the cult of celebrity which worships her for her fame. Additionally, you have to remember that Beyonce is just a person caught up in the revolting world of big money and it’s very easy to look at how people in a situation which you aren’t in and hypothesize how you would be in that situation.

      5. Beyonce’s show was not for young children. I don’t have an issue with it because it was shameful – it certainly is not – but I would not let a 6-12 yr old watch it for the same reason I would not dress them in a sexy pirate outfit for Halloween. We do not have to have PG rated entertainment at halftime shows watched by most of the country including its children. There is still such a thing as age appropriate entertainment.

        1. My 4 year old niece enjoyed the hell outta it. It was just dancing and singing, two of her all time favorite pastimes.

        2. Good for her. That’s why I said 6-12 yr olds. You could play XXX porn in front of a 1 yr old with no issues, they wouldn’t even know what it was. Each to their own, the show was PG so parental guidance applies. I would not let a child who was becoming aware of their sexuality watch that show. It reinforces the body exploitative view of women singers that predominates our popular culture. Male singers can be conventionally “ugly as sin” and make it without issue, but we gape in shock at people like Adele actually succeeding (despite the people trying to take her down for her looks). Kids are smarter than we realize and they pick up cues far better than we realize.

        3. If you think my 5 year old (yes I know I said 4, her birthday was recently) niece has no idea of the way women are sexualized you’re dead wrong. If we were to block all the scantily clad women singers from her she would listen to men sing exclusively. Take it from me, that half time show was by far not the worst thing society has unleashed on my niece. At least this wasn’t explicitly marketed to her during her Wonder Pets commercials. (I’m looking at you, Bratzilla dolls).

        4. yes I agree there is worse stuff out there specifically targeting kids – e.g. Barbi & GI Joe and the “adult” clothing. I just wish we adults sucked it up a few times a year and tolerated a G rated half-time show at the national championships. NFL needs ratings and ratings they shall have by any means necessary. Then again I grew up with the mom who covered my eyes when we had to walk down Bourbon Street. So yeah I will be sending the kid out of the room “excessively” when he gets past the toddler years. I’ll be one of those parents.

        5. Kids are smarter than we realize and they pick up cues far better than we realize.

          Okay, so this is the last I’m going to say about this. Her mother does realize. I do realize. But you make deals with the devil when dealing with our culture and exposing kids to it. For every book about the voyage of The Beagle and kick ass girl heroes I read to her, she also gets shown a movie about a docile princess. For every moment she looks at me and says, “Well, I can be Batman because girls and boys can do anything, right?” her friends tell her that only girls can wear sparkle shoes and she should have sparkle shoes or is she a boy? So everyone draws the line somewhere and I am perfectly happy to let a kid watch people dance and sing and play flaming guitars.

        6. I find it interesting that, in my experience, there’s been a lot of backlash aimed at a halftime show deemed too inappropriate for “a family program,” with much concern for its impact on the children, but I’ve yet to see one legitimate criticism of the players’ bad behavior, which included brawling on the field and Cary Williams shoving a ref to no consequence.

          You wouldn’t allow your child to watch a halftime show because “it reinforces the body exploitative view of women singers that predominates our popular culture,” but it’s okay to watch an entire game in which grown men (role models) are rewarded for being violent by still being allowed to play?

        7. it’s okay to watch an entire game in which grown men (role models) are rewarded for being violent by still being allowed to play?

          What are you, some kind of feminist radical? Next you’ll be saying domestic violence isn’t for children!

  3. We watched the Puppy Bowl on a loop. Hey — they have touchdowns and the MVP was a female mutt! Kittens at halftime and hedge hogs for cheer leaders? It was awesome.

  5. After the husky puppy, the hedgehog cheerleaders rocked. I wish they would have shown them on the big screen at the actual Superbowl.

    The funny part was watching all of the announcers realize that they really had nothing worthwhile to say for 30 minutes.

  6. Personally, I just want to know what type of stockings Beyonce wears. They’re always so shiny.

    Oh, and I thought the Amy Poehler ad for Best Buy was pretty cute.

  7. I actually liked the Audi ad when I first saw it, but then read a couple people pointing out the (obvious) gross nonconsensual aspect and changed my mind. I’m at a loss to explain why that went right over my head.

    I think this was the first football game I watched more or less start to finish. I really liked the concept of the half-hour break in the middle to give the players a little time to rest and recuperate, but I was surprised that the NFL was being so solicitous of its employees’ well-being.

    2. I missed the nonconsensual aspect of the Audi ad on my first viewing too.

      Basically I had the impression that she had kissed him willingly and the black eye was delivered by a jealous, possessive asshole of a boyfriend. (Or possibly by a jock who hated the idea of some loser coming in and getting with one of the hot chicks (possibly one that he wanted) and punched him to “put him back in his place.”)

      Of course, further awareness of details (she didn’t leave with him, she never gave any actual indication of consent, he really didn’t give her the opportunity to do so) turns that assumption on its head.

      But I think the culture we live in often impresses us with a tendency to assume consent, or at least assume “romance,” unless blatantly indicated otherwise. There’s a romanticization of some types of agency-violating behavior as “sweeping someone off their feet” and a definition of sexual assault that too often relies on the presence of “no” rather than the absence of “yes,” and we’re taught to value the romance factor enough to overlook the coercion that underlies some of the “romantic gestures” people are so fond of.

  8. Guess that means I’m a rapist or some such thing, as I stole a kiss from my woman many years ago. I told her what I just read and she laughed, she said yeah you violated me, but look at what it got you (great woman, kids, life etc,etc). you feminists can pathologise men all you like but I’d do it again since I’m not the criminal scum you think men are. She agreed that feminists have the true pathology, whatever that is ( myself I feel it’s self hate which you deflect onto men or a similar defense mechanism), and stated that men have become pussies. I agreed with her that feminists could only thrive in an environment where men are pacified and marginalized I stated to her that feminists would dismiss her opinion and that she has been brainwashed by the patriarchy.

      1. Damn! Outta here at light speed, too.

        He should’ve have stuck around and learned something. Too late for that, though…

    2. hahahahaa wtf was that?

      I showed my husband Warrens post and my husband agreed that Warren is an idiot who can’t read. And since my husband is a Man, Warren should take that comment as Fact.

      (that’s how it works, right?)

      Anywho- I don’t watch football. Can’t stand sports. Beyonce doesn’t impress me much either so I didn’t catch her show. I google the commercials later and the Doritos commercials never fail to entertain. The Go Daddy left me creeped out.

      1. I showed my husband Warrens post and my husband agreed that Warren is an idiot who can’t read. And since my husband is a Man, Warren should take that comment as Fact.”

        I agree with your hubby.

  9. @The Warren. Reading the article before commenting is generally a wise approach. Also, a bit of talk therapy to sort out those blustery, knee-jerk emotions of yours might be a good idea.

    @FashionablyEvil I suspect they’re Danskins or similar brand of dance tights. Even the non-shimmery ones tend to be shimmery.

    RE: Puppy Bowl half-time. Love it until I saw a tabby kitten that looked like a baby version of my dear cat I lost last July to cancer. Then I resented the fact you can’t snatch up kittens on a TV screen. Bleeping physics.

  10. When I saw the Audi commercial, all I could think was that if they had him striding confidently up to her and saying something to her that we couldn’t hear, followed by her kissing the hell out of him, it would have been just as cute and not nearly as creepy. Personally, I think that gaining the confidence to be suave and get her to lay one on you is far cooler than gaining the confidence to grab onto her like a lusty pirate.

    1. Yeah, I thought similar. Even if they even had him come up, turn her around, pause, then she could nod or something. I actually like your idea better though.

    2. Oh, I would have SO liked your version better.

      Weirdly, like Anon21 above, I kind of liked it on first viewing, and I’ve been trying to figure out why it sort of flew past my radar. I think in my case is because I created a backstory for it where they knew each other, something had gone wrong due to stupid high school politics, and so this wasn’t a “kiss the hot girl out of nowhere” thing, but some kind of culmination of this other story.

      Part of that might just have been I prefer reading better stories into things, part of it might be I was only sort of half-paying attention, so I didn’t really see the approach to the kiss the first time (and assumed it was more obviously consensual) and part of it might be that I went to prom alone because the woman who was going to ask me and I had a fight a few weeks before prom and so she asked someone else instead (then ditched him at prom and we sort of reconciled, although didn’t actually hook up or anything in the end). I rather suspect the “there is another backstory here” may come from that.

      Regardless, I *love* Caperton’s idea.

        1. I did, didn’t I?
          That’s kind of embarrassing. 🙂

          (Mind you, I *am* a storyteller as a hobby, so it might just be ingrained habit by now. *grin*)

    3. When I saw the Audi commercial, all I could think was that if they had him striding confidently up to her and saying something to her that we couldn’t hear, followed by her kissing the hell out of him, it would have been just as cute and not nearly as creepy. Personally, I think that gaining the confidence to be suave and get her to lay one on you is far cooler than gaining the confidence to grab onto her like a lusty pirate.”

      I agree, but it’s my guess that advertisers are going for shock value and also to cater to the mainly male audience at football games. Yes I’m a man, an old one, but I thought it was nauseating.

  12. I was unimpressed with the Beyonce show mainly because… there wasn’t that much Beyonce in it. Her singing and dancing was (typically for the Super Bowl) overwhelmed by the lights and explosions.

    It was basically a fireworks show that happened to have some singing in it, not a musical performance with stage accents.

  13. The only commercial I noticed was the GoDaddy one. Creepy, repulsive, and highly insulting to women and men (including nerdy guys) alike.

    1. The thing that frustrates me about Go Daddy is that I consistently find their ads repulsive and yet I cannot name another domain hosting company.

  14. I thought the Audi commercial was kind of wierd but I was just happy that there was no Tim Tebow and his Mom telling pregnant women not to listen to their doctors if they get sick and need to terminate their pregnancy. I’ve been online on the big news websites and I just disagree with the whole, steal a kiss thing. The thing is, it wasn’t like they were flirting or something and he stole a kiss, he just walks up and kisses her and quite frankly I don’t care if it’s 1900s Chicago, that would never be ok. Sure, people might have overlooked it in a boys will be boys kind of way but I don’t think anyone would have ever defended just walking up and invading someone’s space. In my mind, I just pretend it’s the girl that gave him the black eye, even that doesn’t make it ok. I just don’t understand, I get the point of the add. I also think it’s interesting that the product that they were selling was Audi. If that was a Budweiser commercial people would be much more pissed off, but hey, it’s a presumably well off white guy, driving a nice car, no less but ‘get some Budweiser in ya and show that lady how much of a man you are’ would have ruffled a few more feathers (especially since it was set at prom).

    At the same time. That’s partially my defense of it, in that it was essentially a ‘real men fuck the prom queen’ kind of ad and I don’t think that shit is ever going away. I mean if I got pissed every time an attractive white woman was used as a prop to illustrate some guy’s emotional or just general growth I’d be walking around setting shit on fire and swinging chainsaws around 24/7.

    I was pretty happy with the game in that it was exciting. I really think they missed a pass interference call. I think Smith just got tangled up with Crabtree but I still think they should have called it. I’ve seen some people say ‘you don’t call that on a goal line stand at the Super Bowl’ but I honestly think that during the regular season that gets called. That wins the game too. As much as I like a game of football, that stuff can be annoying and you don’t see that in Soccer so much because all of the penalties kind of seem like a game of theater so everyone seems to have so much more leeway (not a soccer fan btw, I’m sure pretty much anyone would have a more nuanced view).

    Ray Lewis I like, in spite of myself. If you ever watched his bio, I think you can find it on youtube, it’s hard not to feel sorry for him, and his issues with his dad but at the same time, I was kind of annoyed because his mother was taking care of him (and I could be wrong) but he doesn’t seem to acknowledge that. All he talked about was how incomplete he felt and how unhappy it made and you’d think he’d throw his mom (who apparantly workd like 3 jobs) a bone. It’s interesting because it seems to me like the stuff he says about fathers is from the heart, at the same time, he talks about desperately wanting a relationship with his coke addict father, and it’s possible that he loves his mother more than anything and they just weren’t going that direction in their coverage of him.

    There other sticky issues with Ray Lewis being a hero, the murder charges in 2000, the steroid accusations, etc. It’s funny, because they have Joe Flacco on the team, who used the ‘R’ word and got in trouble this year too.

    On the other side of the line you’ve got Randy Moss with all of his kids. Although, I’m sure he pays child support and stuff. I think it just goes to show you, in the internet age it’s so hard to have heroes.

  15. I worked at a pizza place and it was…frantic.

    Most people were very nice and really understanding about how crazy the day was, and were shocked and pleased deliveries were at 45-65 minutes and carryout was at 25, really good for how busy it was, but a few drunk people became ENRAGED we couldn’t deliver in less than 20 minutes and called repeatedly and abusively.

    Other than that, it was okay.

    1. I worked Melbourne Cup day as floor staff at a reasonably expensive bar one year and between the constant needling for table service (which we didn’t do no matter how insistent the customer was that they were too drunk to walk to the bar) and the guy who deliberately extinguished his cigarette on my arm I have pretty much sworn off working a major sporting event ever again.

  16. I thought it was a good super bowl all around, though the commercials were definitely underwhelming. I thought Amy Poehler and Seth Rogen were funny in theirs though. I guess the trick to having a funny ad is just to put funny people in them, rather then have a bunch of advertising egg heads try to figure out what “people will find funny.”

    Beyoncé isn’t really my thing, but I thought it was a really good halftime show. The last two since they ended the “we can only get safe classic rock acts in the wake of Janet Jackson scandal” period were lame.

    The game itself was a good one I thought. The power outage let people socialize, and was great joke fodder.

  17. The Audi and GoDaddy commercials made me sick to my stomach. I had to turn my eyes away from the GoDaddy commercial, it was so sickening.

    The game itself was exciting, power outage and all. Watching SF a-l-m-o-s-t come back from so far behind was a joy, and that 108-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by the Ravens was amazing. I didn’t have a favorite going into the game, but I usually wind up rooting for the underdog. (My home team is the Philadelphia Eagles, and they were just so bad this year, it was embarrassing.)

    I was not overall impressed with the Beyonce show. There was just so much flash-bang glitz that I was overwhelmed.

    1. Oh, and I couldn’t stop thinking what Harbaugh family dinners must be like … do the brothers get along off the field, or are they at each others throats?

        1. The article hints at that early on, but never really gives any examples of them not getting along. It really only talks about Jim’s disdain for the media and then goes on to be a bit of a hit piece. I’m not a Jim H or Niners fan, but that felt like it was written by either someone with an axe to grind or just desperate for juicy angle about the bros.

  18. I almost threw myself out the window during that ‘so God made a farmer’ ad that was, I guess, about a truck or something.

    1. I didn’t hate that ad, although I admit as I saw it I was wondering “What product with an extremely tenuous connection to farming is this ad going to try to sell?”

    2. I got sucked in by that one at first, but then again I have family members who still farm and I know what a struggle it is for them. But knowing it was a Super Bowl ad made me suspicious, and sure enough it was just an ad for a damn truck. I wish it had been a commercial for some kind of Farm-Aid style support-small-farms kind of charity, or if the auto company would at least make a token donation to actual farmers instead of making them into props to sell trucks.

    3. I turned it into a game, trying to guess what it was hocking. I decided Levi’s but it was trucks. 🙁 I still think it made a better denim commercial.

    4. Yeah the whole “God made farmers as care takers of the land” had me gritting my teeth.

      The Creator made NA’s the care takers of the land, thanks. We did a hell of a better job too.

      1. Now, now. Surely you realize that you were just keeping it warm until white men could be bothered to show up and do things right, don’t you?

        2. Since it is an ad for pick-up trucks by a major car company it’s safe to say the Judeo-Christian god referred to at various times as God, Yahweh or Jehovah.

    5. I hated it too. I really don’t need to hear about God making farmers. And I never liked Paul Harvey, either. Folksiness isn’t for me. I’ve enjoyed the Will Rogers broadcasts and movies I’ve heard and seen, but it really wasn’t the same kind of thing.

  19. Was I the only one seriously disappointed that the “Destiny’s Child reunion” ended up being only a minute of Kelly and Michelle cameo’ing in Beyonce’s most rage-inducing song?

    2. I remember listening to her sing it on Inauguration day and when she got to “was still there,” I yelled, “You’re off key!” at the TV. She sang those three notes a good solid half note flat and I have no idea if it was momentary loss of the tune or a deliberate attempt to “embellish” the song.

      If I ever become President (yeah right), I am for damn sure going to demand that my anthem-singer can and will sing the thing properly, live, and on key with no fucking embellishments, because having an expression of severe agony on one’s face while listening to the National Anthem would probably be bad for politics.

  21. To this day I find “first kiss” stories depressing because my own happened to be a total stranger grabbing me and violently shoving his tongue down my throat in a club when I was sixteen. It was not rape (unfortunately, I can compare), but it was horrible nonetheless. Not a cute ad, not a funny ad.

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