It’s Super Bowl weekend, and it’s also every red-blooded American’s excuse to pig out on pizza and wings before drowning ourselves in beer.
For football fans, Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year. But even if you don’t know the difference between first down and first base doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy the festivities too. After all, everyone knows that the Super Bowl isn’t really about football; it’s about cute puppies, funny commercials and Janet Jackson’s nipples (at least that one year).
Here are our six of our favorite things about Superbowl Sunday that have nothing to do with men in tight pants jumping on each other. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Commericals You Acutally Want to Watch
For many, Super Bowl Sunday is the one day of the year they actually care about football. And for TV fans, it’s the one day of the year we actually don’t fast forward through the ads. That’s because advertisers pay zillions of dollars for the privilege of airing their most creative spots during Superbowl ratings bonanza. In this recent classic commerical pictured here, a pint-sized Darth Vader learned that the Force won’t work on his dog or other things around the house, but it will start a Volkswagen Passat.
The Halftime Show
The modern-day Super Bowl halftime show has come a long way from the collegiate marching band tributes of the ’60s and ’70s. Nowadays, the big show is more like a celebrity circus where the unlikely likes of Ben Stiller, Aerosmith and Britney Spears come together in a high-production pop culture orgy. Everyone from rock legends like The Who and Paul McCartney to Vegas staple, Cirque du Soleil and SNL legends, The Blues Brothers have entertained millions of half-drunk, food comatose football fans.
Puppies!
If you don’t know a damn thing about football, that’s fine. Neither does a ten-week old Australian Shepherd mix gnawing on a chew tone on the fifty-yard line. Animal Planet’s annual “Puppy Bowl” brings new meaning to the term “tailgate party” as an assortment of adorable pups wrestle and play while viewers at home attempt to cuddle and squeeze their flatscreens. And while the Superbowl may have Beyonce in their Halftime Show, the Puppy Bowl gives us kittens!
And they don’t lip-synch.
Halftime Show Hi-jinx
Nothing makes for a great Halftime Show like an obscene gesture or a nip-slip. Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake raised the bar for the Halftime “holy sh*t!” and introduced a new phrase into the America lexicon with their infamous “wardrobe malfunction.”
But during a performance featuring Madonna, LMFAO and Cirque Du Soleil, among others, M.I.A. took the term “offensive line” to whole a new level when she flipped off the audience while allegedly dropping the “F-bomb” during the 2012 Superbowl Halftime Show. When Madonna’s offended, you know you’ve gone a little too far…
Post-Superbowl TV
Using the most watched television broadcast of the year to launch new shows and bring in more viewers to current ones is a no-brainer. Which is why TV fans are always excited when the game ends to see what networks serve up for desert. In fact, some of the most beloved shows of all time (“The Wonder Years” and David Simon’s long running “Homicide”) were kicked-off post-game while other series like “The X-Files” and “The Simpsons” offered up fan-favorite episodes.
For this year’s edition, CBS is running a special episode of its modern day Sherlock Holmes series, “Elementary.” Which means that after the bowl is over, the game is on!
Tight Ends with Tight Ends: “Lingerie Bowl”
Sadly, the “Lingerie Bowl” is no longer with us, but the LFL is making a “Hail Mary Pass” this year by airing the 2011 game on Youtube during the official Halftime Show. Though the LFL is now the lingerie-less women’s “Legends Football League,” fans of the frilly sport can still enjoy watching girls in shoulder pads and panties get their full-contact on, thanks to the Internet.
