Super Bowl XLI: The Year of Cruelty?

First of all, I would like to say that if my Super Bowl prediction won any of you money, I’ll expect my cut by the end of the week…

But what was up with Peyton Manning winning the MVP?...

And how about that Starship Enterprise deck they did the trophy presentation on?...

I also want to give kudos to Prince for putting on a pretty good show in pretty bad conditions. I especially liked his rendition of Foo Fighter’s “The Best of You”…

Now, to the commercials…

As my fiancé said, this was the year of the cruel commercial with people slamming into cars (Doritos), astronauts floating to their deaths (FedEx) and even suicidal robots (GM)…

There were some good spots, though, just not as many as I would’ve liked…

Sierra Mist made a strong showing with two good commercials featuring Jim Gaffigan and Michael Ian Black. Emerald Nuts gave us a goofy—but funny—ad featuring Robert Goulet. And regardless of what others might say, I think the Kevin Federline Nationwide commercial was funny…

I also liked CBS’s Oprah-Letterman promo, but I guess that doesn’t count…

There were some definite misses in the game too. Not only did Budweiser’s Jay-Z commercial not make much sense, you couldn’t hear anything Don Shula said. Coke made its Super Bowl return, but its two spots were just plain weird.

It also wasn’t a good night for contest winners. Both Doritos contest-winning ads missed the mark and Chevrolet’s college challenge winner’s ad (“Hot In Here”) was also pretty weak—especially after I heard the other finalists’ pitches. The only possible exception was the winning ad for the NFL, but I’m not sure about it either…

For me, two commercials were head and shoulders above the others: the Snickers ad featuring the two men who accidentally kissed and my choice for the best ad, the Bud Light auctioneer wedding…

So what did you think? What were your favorites?...