Yay/ Nay.

Yay:

The Office Super Bowl Special.

The Office is generally reliably funny - and funnier than anything else on TV right now except maybe 30 Rock - but this season it hasn't been as funny. That is until their one-hour Super Bowl special, which featured a roast of Michael, Stanley in a wheel chair [but because he had a heart attack!?] and Dwight mutilating a CPR dummy. The best part however was before the credits even rolled, as Dwight thought the way to teach everyone about fire safety was to simulate an actual fire - throwing a cigarette into a trash can, but only after he had made certain to unhook all the phones, heat all the door handles with a blow torch and jam all the exits. The ensuing several minutes as the workers of Dunder-Mifflin tried to escape was the perfect bit of Office mayhem and stupidity to serve as an antidote to what has been a rather somber season. The Office works best when it makes uncomfortable situations funny, but this season with storylines such as Pam flunking out of art school, Meredith's alcoholism and the Dwight-Angela-Andy love triangle things have been more overwhelmingly uncomfortable than funny. As per usual, everything ended awkwardly with Micheal nearly in tears and Jack Black making out with Cloris Leachman. But at least this time it was funny.

I am up so late that NBC has posted this clip already:



Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl.

So apparently - this has been on for several years now, but unfortunately I haven't watched it until my friend and I stumbled across it during our post-Office channel surfing. But omfg.best.idea.for.a.tv.show.ever. Let's put some puppies in a giant box! And paint it like a football field! And throw them some chew toys! And film it! No one watches anything else on Super Bowl Sunday except football so no one will notice that we have given up! Fucking genius. And more importantly, fucking cute.

This is from last year's Puppy Bowl, but let's be honest cute puppies are cute puppies:



Nay:

The City.

I finally decided that maybe I should give Whitney's Hills spin-off a try, just because, well I am unemployed and bored. I watched less than 10 minutes of the first episode and knew already that it would suck. Why? Olivia Palermo is basically the real-life Blair Waldorf but since she's not a real TV character but like, a "real" person she's just annoying and not entertaining. Hey! But her even more annoying cousin that follows her around was arrested for drugs! And prostitution! Why isn't he on the show more?! And Whitney's new bf Jay is the Australian Justin-Bobby, complete with greasy unwashed hair, a "band" that he has to "travel" with, commitment issues and philosophical waxings over dinner that don't make any sense if you actually think about them. And Whitney's new bff/LC replacement is some girl named Erin who is only interesting because her dad is from AC/DC. Oh, and everyone calls Whitney "Whit." God. And Whit-Whit isn't even interesting, even when she gets more stuff to do than just make funny faces at LC from across her desk. Whitney would probably make a good friend in real life, but in fake life [because come on, you know this is fake] she's just not that interesting. I stopped watching and watched on old episode of Gossip Girl instead.

But the real reason this show is no good is because its opening credits look EXACTLY like the original Beverly Hills 90210 opening credits. And not in a good kitschy hey-remember-that! fun kind of way. But in a let's just steal that style because everyone that watches this show is too young to know there was even an original 90210 kind of way.

Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:


Pepsi. And Bob. [And The Who].

I have a creepy love-obsession for Bob Dylan so I have to respect Pepsi for wanting him for a Super Bowl commercial...but with Will.i.am?! Does recording a song about Obama make you my generation's The Times They Are A-Changin' bard? God, I hope not. This commercial is decidedly less creepy than the Victoria Secret commercial, mainly because it features young Bob and not the old one who I am pretty sure is skeezy. I wonder how Jakub Dylan feels knowing that a song written to commerate his birth is now a Pepsi commercial...but probably he just wishes they chose a Wallflowers song instead. And Bob is probably happy that Pepsi chose Forever Young since no one - and I mean no one, since this even applies to a Bob addict like me - listens to the album its on, Planet Waves. So maybe five people will purchase that album at Best Buy this weekend. And as if it wasn't enough for Pepsi to hijack that illustrious icon of the 60s Bob Dylan they also hijacked one of its anthems, My Generation, for another commerical. I am pretty sure My Generation rails against the conformist commercialism inherent in Pepsi ads, but hey, there are only two actual members of The Who left and they can't keep touring forever, and Kennedy Center Honors just don't pay the bills.

Unacceptable, but I watched it three times anyway:




Teenage wasteland, indeed: