Super Bowl provides more than just in-game enjoyment

My eyes stayed trained on the TV as I shoveled delicious finger food into my mouth and focused on the one thing that grabbed my attention during the Super Bowl -- the commercials.

The million dollar advertisements regrettably kept me next to the wings, chips and guacamole throughout the night. A football game kept interrupting the commercials to show the Patriots and the Giants run around and tackle one another, which was annoying. I used that time, however, to make sure my plate was always full and occasionally used the bathroom or answered a text message so that I would be ready to give the commercials my full attention.

With my attention turned anywhere but toward the TV screen during the game, the only football I focused on during the night was the Coca-Cola commercial with the polar bears pushing and tackling one another in attempts to save the bottle of Coke. In the end, the polar bear managed to finally catch the fumbling bottle in the apparent end zone. Touchdown and let the true game of analyzing the commercials begin!

The majority of this year's Super Bowl commercials referenced stars, ads and other forms of entertainment from the '80s and '90s. Hyundai had the first commercial of the night and started off this theme by creating an a cappella rendition of the theme song from "Rocky" to inspire its workers.

As the commercials continued throughout the night, so did the references to the '80s and '90s. Some of these included Elton John as a tyrannical king of Pepsi, Jerry Seinfeld attempting to haggle his way into buying the first Acura NSX "Seinfeld" style, a laughing Matthew Broderick paying homage to "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" in a Honda CR-V and John Stamos taunting a women with Dannon Oikos yogurt.

Although those were the most obvious, there were subtler indications of bringing it back a few generations in other commercials. We listened to James Brown's "Get Up Offa That Thing" as a chubby dog got back into shape to chase a Volkswagen Beetle, chuckled as the French bulldog Mr. Quiggly moonwalked like Michael Jackson across the finish line in Sketchers, felt inspired by Clint Eastwood's speech for Chrysler at halftime and watched as athletes Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, Deion Sanders and Troy Aikman were put to the test against Bridgestone Tires.

Making connections between the commercials and the '80s and '90s became more of an intriguing game to me than the actual football game. Every time I found a connection to the past I not only became excited as if my team had just scored a touchdown, but I also would eat another wing with ranch. I started to regret this game of mine after I made eight connections in different commercials, but I kept with my pursuit as any committed fan would.

There were also some more modern references that I thankfully did not have to place in my wing-eating '80s and '90s category. Audi's commercial mocked the crazed "Twilight" obsession by showing a vampire driving to a vampire party with the song "The Killing Moon" by Echo and the Bunnymen playing in his car moments before he accidentally destroys all of the vampires with the bright headlights from his car. The use of LFMAO's "Sexy and I Know It" song in the M&M commercial for the new brown candy shelled M&M also helped.

There were of course the commercials that made me want to stop eating the plethora of food on the table in front of me and change the channel to anything else until the commercial ended. Luckily, that feeling only truly overcame me when I was forced to sit through the Go Daddy commercials with its suggestively nude women and its lack of not only a witty script but also any true plot.

Commercials involving babies or small children always seem to hit the humor and cuteness levels perfectly. Just remembering last year's Volkswagen commercial with the little kid impersonating Darth Vader makes me laugh and want to watch it again.

The two commercials this year that included babies were once again cute and entertaining. E*Trade brought back its amusing talking babies to discuss fatherhood this time, while the other baby commercial showed an old lady slinging a baby in a makeshift slingshot to snatch Doritos from a taunting child.

But my favorite commercial with a child was TaxACT's incredibly random, humorous and relatable commercial with the little boy who desperately needs to go to the bathroom after hearing the sound of running water but can't find an open bathroom.

I was happy for the kid when he finally relieved himself, but then was forced to sit in a stiff cross-legged position for the next two minutes as the sound of dripping water ran through my head until the football game interrupted the commercials again and I was able to sprint to an open bathroom.

Although more in-depth dissections of the Super Bowl commercials will occur now that people can watch all of them repeatedly on the Internet until they have their favorite ones memorized, my analysis must end.

Although I now have an uncomfortably full stomach from my game about the references to the '80s and '90s, I can sleep soundly knowing that if the apocalypse does occur this year, like the Mayan's predicted, the Chevy Silverado and Twinkies will survive the destruction.

Contact reporter Ryann Dannelly at ryann.dannelly@richmond.edu