The Horror…the horror….

Updated on February 7, 2011 By Ken Begg 27 Comments

Well, back to work after a two-week ‘break.’

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  • Ericb

    “What so proudly we watched at the twilight’s last reaming,” Christina Aguilera

  • I wish someone would tell the singers, “This is the national anthem, it’s not about you.” Just sing the damn song.

  • alex

    At least she got dressed for the occasion. To put clothes on must have required Herculean efforts for XTina. She had no energy left to learn the lyrics.

  • Mr. Rational

    I don’t know — the lyrics seemed accurate to me. Listening to her, my twilight definitely felt reamed. And the Peas weren’t any better at halftime. I liked Fergie a lot better when she was Duchess of York. (Yes, yes, I know…NOT the same Fergie. Still.)

  • Yes, it *would* be nice if they learned the lyrics before hand. (Pop stars now undoubtedly aren’t used to singing live instead of using a track.) Some of us even learned the words as a kid, but that’s crazy talk.

    However, I’m more talking that moronic, horrifically self-indulgent manner of adding six notes for every one that’s actually in the song. The national anthem needs to be sung, not crooned.

    The whole show biz aspect of the Super Bowl now is ridiculous. And for a slate of commercials that run 2.5 – 3 million dollars for thirty seconds, wow, what a lot of pap. There wasn’t even one really good commercial this year.

  • Ericb

    “Pop stars now undoubtedly aren’t used to singing live instead of using a track”

    Or an autotune machine which makes them sound like singing robots.

  • Ericb

    Oh, does anyone actually watch the 6 hours of pre-game show? How come when they have 16 games they only need an hour to talk about them but when it’s down to 1 game they need six hours?

  • KeithB

    I liked the VW Darth Vader one. It was cute.

  • The Darth Vader one was cute. However, it’s an indictment that this was probably the best commercial, as the punch line involves making a car make a noise with your key fob. Big deal, every car does that now; like my 2006 Hyundai accent. Surely even a little kid would be aware of this. Why not have him being amazed by windshield wipers?

  • Ericb

    Some of the ads were memorable but in a bad way like that add with Joan Rivers with the big breasts. That add certainly gave me a feeling of Lovecraftian dread but so disturbed was I that I couldn’t tell you what product it was pushing.

  • But hey everyone! Packers won the Superbowl! WOOOOOOOO! U.S. out of North America! And PACKERRRRRS!

  • KeithB

    I think the point was the car *started*, it didn’t just make a noise. And remote starters are still a bit of a novelty.

    Besides, since he did not know anyone else was around it sure *seemed* like he had the Force.

  • KeithB

    And Ken, it is obvious that you don’t have a child. Dads take great pleasure in Gaslighting their kids. 8^)

    Remember the Dad in Calvin and Hobbes making up explanations of the way things work?

  • P Stroud

    They should have had this guy sing it:

    SSB,/A>

  • P Stroud

    Oops. Better try again

    SSB

  • P Stroud

    Sadly, the half-time show has been all down hill ever since ZZ Top.

  • fish eye no miko

    Haven’t singers been “crooning” the Anthem since Ray Charles? I mean, this isn’t exactly new…

    Oh, and PACKERS!! WOO-HOO! PACKERS WIN THE SUPER BOWL!

  • Ericb

    Funnily enough the melody for the Star Spangled Banner comes from a British drinking song:

    “The song was commonly used as a sobriety test: If you could sing a stanza of the notoriously difficult melody and stay on key, you were sober enough for another round”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anacreontic_Song

  • sandra

    Isn’t THIS Monster of the Day #192 ?

  • GalaxyJane

    Fortunately, I was too busy with a vomiting child to see the Joan Rivers commercial. Who knew there would ever come a time when I was GRATEFUL for a puking kid.

  • TongoRad

    My usual halftime routine is to turn the sound off on the TV and crank up whatever is in the CD player on the speakers. This year I went through a bunch of Zen Guerilla and Julian Cope songs- there was even this strange synergy about where the songs changed, and also when Slash popped up during a guitar solo. Unfortunately the camera spent too much time on the Black Eyed Peas and not enough on the Tron-meets-Logan’s Run crowd, but it was still (I’m sure) a better experience than the alternative of watching it straight.

  • Ericb

    I love Julian Cope.

  • TongoRad

    Ericb- me too, probably too much. As he is getting more primal and adolescent with each passing year, I find myself joyfully going along for the ride. The disc I had in there was Citizen Cain’d, and I found it to be a particularly cleansing counterpoint to all of that showbizzy stuff.

    Plus, I bet that his tribute song to Robert Mitchum has found its way onto Jabootu’s iPod.

  • Ericb

    I have to admit I haven’t kept up with him though. T don’t have anything of his after 1992. How does his more recent stuff compare to the classics?

  • fish eye no miko

    Oh, something I forgot:
    Captain America ad! Hells yeah!

  • TongoRad

    Captain America definitely looked better than I expected.

    Ericb- I’ll assume you have heard Peggy Suicide and just say that he has taken that work as a point of departure and gone totally off into the deep end of the psychedelic/metal/garage/pagan/borderline-insane pool he created. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing I suppose depends on your point of view, but you gotta respect someone who can make a living that way.

  • Ericb

    Thanks Tongo, I should check some of it out then. I saw him live on the Peggy Suicide tour and it was a great show. He was a complete freak dressed only in boxer shorts and socks but he looked like he was having fun.