Sunday, February 6, 2011

Super Bowl 2011 ads: Because a shot to the balls is so-o-o funny

6 comments:

Veldan said...

I know this won't be a much appreciated view, but i do think that we may be getting a bit sensitive with this one.

The humour isn't the "man getting hit in the balls" but rather that the "jerk has his uppance come".

That's how i see it at least, we're supposed to cringe and think "ouch" but we also think "...and serves him right for being a prick with no good reason".

The other ad however (the post following this one) is a totally different matter. That one puts a really stark contrast between "hitting Men is funny/acceptable" and "hitting Women is assault/deplorable".

For added impact, watch it without sound... The man getting hit, no one cares or gives a shit. The woman gets hit and "oh crap, we gotta run before we're in trouble"

Jay Hammers said...

"The humour isn't the 'man getting hit in the balls' but rather that the 'jerk has his uppance come'".

Reminds me of the many men who think Big Ben deserves to be locked away as a rapist because he's "a jerk".

Widespread acceptance of male genital pain is what led to widespread "ball tapping" and is a symptom of male disposability.

Maybe the Pepsi can should have circumcised the jerk as a child or falsely accused and castrated him. That would have been hilarious!

William Gruff said...

The advertisements are infantile and clearly aimed at puerile halfwits but they do tend to support the view that violence against men is amusing as well as perfectly acceptable.

A stream of vocal complaints and a well aimed boycott campaign might show Pepsi that they were ill conceived.

slwerner said...

Jay Hammers - "Reminds me of the many men who think Big Ben deserves to be locked away as a rapist because he's "a jerk"."

Exactly! The can was launched by the beta dweeb who'd been embarrassed by the alpha "ladies man".

Rather than try to improve himself, the beta chose to try to bring the alpha down (to his level). He didn't do it via wit or wisdom, but with juvenile physical violence to the alphas genitals. Perhaps it's some sort of message that the beta knew he could never compete sexually with the alpha guy, so by attacking the alphas genitals, the beta gains no (sexual access) advantage with the women there, but merely ensures that the alpha will not have any "success" either.

It's most insidious that it seeks to pit men against one another in both the alpha being a jerk to the beta as well as the betas physical attack on the alpha.

Men who are more naturally gifted do not need to "walk all over" others to get ahead. Instead, they should be trying to teach those beta guys how to conduct themselves so as to be appealing to women [I don't agree with the personal goals of Roissy, et. al., but they do a damned fine job of trying to help other guys improve].

And, more beta types should not be turning on nor physically attacking those who are more alpha. Instead they should study how those alpha types conduct themselves and try to learn to do likewise.

Men need to work towards de facto mentoring as a goal, not creating hostile adversarial relationships.

Veldan said...

"Reminds me of the many men who think Big Ben deserves to be locked away as a rapist because he's "a jerk"."

Yes, because that is even slightly related to what i said. /s

Receiving physical pain and getting knocked on your arse for being a bastard to someone is in no way equal to being jailed for most of your life for the same reason.

One will heal (hopefully) in a short order and leave no lasting damage (generally speaking, not always the case i'm aware).

The other follows them for life.

Most of the widespread acceptance i see of it is as a "shock factor". Most Women i know watching it, barely get a chuckle or rise form it as they can't really quantify the pain. If you want to know who laughs, cringes and chuckles? It's generally Men. They can whince and feel the sympathetic pain and get a big reaction from it. Which is exactly what an ad is looking to insight, a reaction.

Trying to cast a "Man fall down... funny" Homer Simpson moment to relate to circumcision and rape accusation is definitely trying to reduce how severe the latter really are.

Pick your fights well, something which can be brushed of as "not so harmless fun" isn't the best podium to argue serious issues on. The second video in this series however, shows a much more disturbing image which doesn't really hold any humour what so ever.

Axel said...

I've been in theaters with shrieks of female laughter over a good shot to the nutz, so my experience differs from Veldan's. The reason this is "funny" to women and to the sizeable mangina class is because it is a severe pain only males can feel. For women, it is
"comeuppance pain"- pain that is men's just deserts for being privileged, cocky men, delivered right at the headquarters of malenss.

Does it belong in the same class as Hofstra and Dwayne Dail? No, but it's only "harmless fun" to chivalrous men and women.