Superbowl XLV just ended. Congrats, Green Bay Packers! And thanks for preventing yet another Superbowl from going to the goddamn Steelers.
Anyway, so a lot of us just spent the past several hours watching the game as well as a lot of funny, stupid, and grossly offensive ads that cost many millions to air. And I made cookies, of course. It’s a pastime! It’s the Superbowl!
Then there were the people who just want to bitch and bitch through the whole thing. I don’t mean the people pointing out the misandry, misogyny, and other social ills prevalent in the event, particularly the advertising. Those are legitimate concerns and very worth calling out.
I mean the people who act like they’re hot shit because they aren’t into sports and find the whole thing to be a frivolous waste of time and money. And they must make damn sure everyone around them knows they feel this way. Because they are Very Smart and we benefit from this wisdom. God forbid they should just accept that sometimes that magical glowing box will display something that a lot of people will watch that they personally aren’t interested in, because it’s not like there’s any other way they can use the time!
After the game, I saw a tweet that made me facepalm pretty hard:
OK, 3 hours and about 10 billion dollars later. How is Darfur or Haiti any better off? Enjoy your Doritos. And your Bud.
Really? That’s the card you’re playing? The “there are people suffering elsewhere in the world, so how dare we indulge in our own culture” card? In all fairness, in glancing at that person’s other tweets, he seemed to be watching the game like everyone else, so perhaps not the intention. But it might have been of the crapload of people who retweeted it.
And, yes, I just referred to the Superbowl as a cultural thing. Because it is, consumerism notwithstanding. Yes, we live in a society (world?) that commercializes the hell out of everything even remotely of social importance. Our society is capitalist. This is to be expected. Despite my obvious liberal leanings, capitalism is not in and of itself evil or wrong. It’s just that it oftentimes can be evil and wrong and that should be kept in check. But on Superbowl Sunday, people get together and have parties to watch it, or are like me and watch it alone, there’s excitement leading up to it, there’s other events and activities involved. It’s got all the signs of a cultural event, and just because that culture is American doesn’t make that invalid. Contrary to common stereotype, yes, we Americans have a culture. This is part of it.
Not that those who bitch about the Superbowl because it’s a commercialized cesspool are really worried about that specifically. They just want to bitch about it because, again, they think they’re better than everyone else and want to pretend their stance is because of some sort of real concern rather than annoying others over their personal preference.
As for the “why are we worrying about this frivolous crap?” line, well, do these people listen to music? Watch movies? Play games? Read books? All these things could be considered frivolous. You sound like a damn Puritan.
And of course sports are more frivolous than, say, politics. In fact, it’s sort of WHY we like it. It’s why I can grow really tense watching the last few minutes of a Redskins-Cowboys game, yet secure in the knowledge that regardless of what happens, my life once the game is over will be the same. I’ll still be up the next morning and going to work. There’s a weird sense of fun placing importance, talking trash, feeling intense competition over something that really doesn’t change our lives (assuming no gambling is involved).
But I do have to admit the Puppy Bowl rules. 😀
