The joke is getting old that people watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, and it’s not really true, anyway. You want a damn good game, first and foremost (Seahawks, that means catching the football). But the array of ad buyers did a fine job of keeping us amused between bouts of bad refereeing and John Madden stating the obvious. MasterCard beautifully tweaked its “priceless” campaign to include Richard Dean Anderson’s MacGyver at a grocery store buying the everyday effluvia — tweezers, tube socks — that allow him to make a grand escape. Careerbuilder.com imagined your boring, dead-end job as being bossed around by actual monkeys (and, in a later ad, actual jackasses). Bud Light hilariously suggested a secret husband getaway on the roofs of suburban houses. A caveman whose homing pterodactyl got eaten by a T. rex got fired by his cave boss for not using FedEx (his subtitled plea “But FedEx doesn’t exist yet” being the brilliant touch). I loved the almost-European sense of humor in some ads, including Humvee’s bizarre giant robot–monster reptile coupling. But my favorite off-kilter gag was the Ameriquest spot involving the use of defibrillators on a pesky fly hovering over an unconscious patient, and the inopportune appearance of said patient’s wife and daughter at the moment the doctor’s aide proudly says, “That killed him.” I’m not sure what it had to do with Ameriquest — which made it very European — but I laughed. I hope that if you were rooting for the Seahawks, commercials like that took your mind off that bogus Steelers touchdown. And that ridiculous offensive pass-interference call against Seattle in the end zone. And the dropped balls! Ameriquest, take me away . . .

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.