My Super Bowl Hangover

I always try to stay a safe distance from the massive corn and cheese of the Super Bowl, but sitting around the lunch table at work today made me realize another layer of it that I'm just exhausted with.

The commercials.

And not just the extravagance that Super Bowl advertising represents, though that in itself is gag-worthy--100 grand for a one-second ad of a fat dude? C'mon, Miller.

But here's what's really remarkable to me.

People were going around and chiming in about how "disappointed" they were with a "sub-par" batch of Super Bowl ads. What did I think of the ads? I couldn't care less--I was too busy watching one of the most exciting games I've ever seen on the big stage. And even the outcome of the game is never something I lose any sleep over.

Now I'm all for a Super Bowl party with good friends and tasty food 'n' drink, but how much energy can we possibly appropriate to dissecting a 30-second advertising spot for Doritos or Pepsi like it is a short story by Faulkner? The only thing more ridiculous than AB-Inbev shelling out three million bucks for a 30-second ad is the amount of energy and attention it inevitably gets from a general population that, amazingly, seems to have nothing better to do or think about for a two-day stretch of their lives every year.

I hardly ever consider myself a moralizer, but this just seems at a whole other level of indulgent decadence that almost transcends my realm of understanding. Let's just enjoy the Super Bowl experience for what it is--a ritual where we get together with friends and enjoy a game and each other's company (and even get a chuckle at a few commercials)--but can't we just leave it on the field with the final whistle?

Note to anyone who reads this: I promise I'm not usually as curmudgeonly as this makes me sound.