Thursday, February 08, 2007

Sensitivity up, sense of humor down

Okay, it’s been about four days since the Indianapolis Colts walked off of the football field in Miami with their Super Bowl win…but the game is still being talked about.

No, people aren’t talking about offensive or defensive strategies, or even the fact that history was made with Tony Dungy being the first black coach to lead his team to a Super Bowl win.
All people are talking about is the drama.

I don’t know which controversy is more ridiculous…

In the ‘Faces in the News’ section in yesterday’s Times, there was a brief from the AP about some talk concerning Prince’s half-time performance.
Problems for some viewers arose during the legend’s “Purple Rain” segment when he played his guitar behind a sheet, creating a silhouette. Some thought behind the sheet, the guitar looked like an extension of his…ahem…manhood.

“A number of bloggers have decried ‘Malfunction!’ – including Sam Anderson at New York magazine’s Daily Intelligencer. Daily News television critic David Bianculli called it ‘a rude-looking shadow show’ that ‘looked embarrassingly rude, crude and unfortunately placed.’”

Come on people, he’s Prince…how does he shock or surprise you anymore? And compared to some other performances he’s done, I’m sure many considered it pretty tame.

Then there’s the stuff about the commercials.

A story in USA TODAY talks about the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and a letter sent to General Motors criticizing their ad about an assembly-line robot dreaming about jumping off a bridge after dropping a bolt. Really people? I mean, suggesting that that commercial could harm humans is a long shot. Kind of makes me think folks over at the foundation don’t have much to do…

Then, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is upset over the Snicker’s commercial where the two guys chewed on opposite ends of a candy bar until they kiss, then proceed to do “manly” things, I guess to ward off any feelings of homosexuality.

GLAAD promptly issued a statement, calling the commercial 'anti-gay.'
I'm sure I haven't covered all of the commercials that didn't sit right with some, but you get the idea.
My question is, don’t some people watch the big game just to see the ridiculousness of the commercials?

The last time I checked it was 2007, not 1907.
Where’s everyone’s sense of humor?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

C'mon now...I LOVE Prince. He's a musical genius and I was in Heaven when I heard the first few notes of All Along the Watchtower. Prince doing Jimi?! Golden. But even I had to giggle a bit at that silhouette. It WAS kinda funny the way he was holding that guitar. If you know anything about the man or have seen him perform though, you know that is a stance he normally takes while playing. But also know that Prince has changed his life signigicantly (again) and no longer cusses or performs some of his older songs that might be a little "questionable".