Remembering Puppy Monkey Baby: A Time Where Super Bowl Commercials Didn't Stink

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Just a decade ago, we were watching a baby with a monkey tail and the head of a pug sell us Mountain Dew cans. Now we're watching 100 different software companies show us how to complete the simplest task imaginable…but with AI!

I mean seriously, when did Super Bowl commercials get so bad? Maybe bad isn't even the right word. I guess unforgettable would be the better term. Puppy Monkey Baby wasn't this insane stroke of genius, but at the very least, it was memorable.

Hell, here I am 10 years later, and I still think about that little fucker dancing around in a diaper. I even remember when he sat courtside at the NBA Celebrity All-Star Game the next week. 

Chris Marion. Getty Images.

This was a common thing not too long ago. A Super Bowl commercial would hit so well with the audience that it would launch a cultural phenomenon. Puppy Monkey Baby would permeate into our day-to-day lives, and he wouldn't leave for months. 

When was the last time a Super Bowl ad had that same kind of impact? The biggest standouts from this year were just depressing commercials of people losing their dogs. And there were MULTIPLE of them!

The commercials used to be a massive part of the Super Bowl experience. Whether it was the boys all yelling "WHAZZUP" on the phone together. Or a talking baby who livestreams himself selling stocks. I'll speak for myself, but there used to be times where I'd take a piss during the actual game because I didn't want to miss any good ads during the break. After all, you'd be talking about the best ones with your friends the next day at school, work, practice, etc. Sometimes you'd be talking about the commercials more than the game, itself! 

Not anymore. This year, you even had a company phone it in by playing a Backstreet Boys karaoke lyric video and calling it a Super Bowl ad. What happened to the game I love???

I did enjoy the one with Ben Affleck and all the old sitcom characters, though. I thought the Pepsi commercial with the polar bears was really clever, too. I don't want to generalize and say that all of the ads were disappointing; there were definitely a few good ones. 

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But the commercials, as an entire spectacle, have just lost all their luster. Pair that with a shitty game, and the Super Bowl feels like one massive dud. 

We gotta bring more of the juice back to all aspects of the Big Game. We might need a hero like Puppy Monkey Baby to save us.