Wonder about true meaning of Super Bowl Sunday?
Paul Turner has
Here in the land of the free, Americans can observe Super Bowl Sunday in the manner of their own choosing.
You can focus on the football game.
You can sit back and let the marathon television extravaganza wash over you.
You can declare that you are all about the hors d’oeuvres.
You can try to ignore it.
And so on.
What began as a sports event played in a stadium that still had a few empty seats has morphed into a cultural juggernaut.
But when an occasion gets so big that it produces rival factions and can be interpreted however we want, is it in danger of losing its meaning and identity?
Sounds like a job for Charlie Brown and his thoughtful “Peanuts” friend, Linus.
“Isn’t there anyone who knows what Super Bowl Sunday is all about?”
“Sure, Charlie Brown. I can tell you what Super Bowl Sunday is all about. Lights please.”
And there were
in the same country marketers
“Super Bowl Sunday is about selling beer and SUVs, Charlie Brown. You needn’t be a cynic to realize that the National Football League exists largely to attract an audience for TV commercials. And Super Bowl Sunday is the sacred feast day of our economic system.
“There isn’t really any ‘Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain’ subterfuge because we all know what’s up. And we have even come to regard the advertising as entertainment. But make no mistake, Charlie Brown. This day is about money. And the carnival barkers running the show want ours.”
It’s the triumph
of deeds over words
“The nominal centerpiece of the day, the game itself, is decided by actions, not talk. Even those spectators who are blasé about football can connect with the appeal of a contest whose outcome is determined by talent and toughness instead of insider lobbying and ceaseless yammering. In a society drowning in vacuous verbiage, we treasure unbridled physical excellence pursued in a high-pressure framework of hard and fast rules.”
The stress-free holiday
“Unlike other special occasions on the calendar, Super Bowl Sunday can be blissfully free of the family weirdness and crushing expectations that sometimes mark other big days. Assuming that you don’t actually care about the outcome of the game, Super Bowl Sunday can be a chance to laugh with friends, eat pizza and make up your own traditions. About the worst thing that can happen is you might discover one of your prized rum balls stuffed behind a couch cushion.”
Your chance
to repudiate pop culture
“For those who disdain everything from sports to television to materialistic values, Super Bowl Sunday offers a glorious opportunity to make a statement. Whether by feigning obliviousness, mumbling something about bread and circuses, alluding to ‘plantation gladiators’ or saying things like ‘I wouldn’t waste my time on that nonsense,’ the earnest individual who scoffs at Super Bowl bombast and pretension can revel in a satisfying day of not being a corporate droid. Plus, if you wait long enough, it’s a good Sunday for avoiding crowds.”
Place your bets
“Super Bowl Sunday is, well, the Super Bowl of small-time gambling. If you have ever set foot in a workplace or actually attended a Super Bowl party, you probably know there are now seemingly hundreds of ways to bet on the game, the commercials, the singing of the anthem, the halftime show and the gasbag analysts’ wardrobes and toupees. And when a party-going winner is mystified about just why he or she won some arcane first-quarter wager, you can paraphrase a line from the movie ‘Chinatown’: ‘Forget about it, Jake – it’s the Super Bowl.’ ”
Hype
“Roman numerals? Give me a break, Charlie Brown. Are my taxes paying for those military jets to fly over the stadium? And the announcers’ somber tones suggesting this hoopla really matters … what’s up with that? Oh, that’s right. America loves overdoing it and this staged celebration of excess and focus-grouped tastes makes that trait fun to mock in a laughing-at-ourselves kind of way.
“Have you tried the clam dip, Charlie Brown?”
It’s about community, sort of
“So, the day means many things. But in an era of exponentially increasing audience fragmentation, the idea of that many people all watching the same thing at the same time is intoxicating. Sure, being able to discuss the Ferris Bueller commercial Monday morning doesn’t necessarily make the world a better place. But perhaps, at least for a moment, a broadly shared frame of reference brings us together in some small way at a time when so many other things tear us apart.
“So that’s what Super Bowl Sunday is all about, Charlie Brown. That and selling mass-market beer.”