The Brilliance of the Paramount Plus Super Bowl Ad
I wanted to do a quick blog on, in my opinion, one of the funniest Super Bowl commercials in years.
A few days ago, my wife sent me the full ad on YouTube from the Paramount Plus account.
Originally, she thought I would love it because of the band Creed. Indeed, Scott Stapp and the legendary Mark Tremonti were in the ad, playing their classic 1999 hit Higher, and it instantly popped me. But it was deeper than that.
The commercial had all of these incredible characters in it. The Master Chief from Halo, Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog, Jeff Probst from Survivor, Peppa Pig, Arnold Shortman from Hey Arnold!, Lt. Dangle from Reno 911, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, the great Drew Barrymore, and the iconic Sir Patrick Stewart.
With every character involved with the streaming platform, as well as the Super Bowl airing on multiple Paramount properties, including Paramount Plus, Nickelodeon, and CBS, this was a perfect opportunity to strike.
The content was genuinely funny. It felt like a throwback. There was constant back-and-forth between every character and the comedy came fast and furious. There wasn’t a wasted moment in the entire two minutes.
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Being stuck at the bottom of the freezing Paramount Mountain, everyone was trying to figure out how to get to the top so they wouldn’t suffer any more cold. The southpaw Tua was trying to throw a grappling hook to the top, but didn’t have enough arc to do so. After saying if the hook was a football, he could do it, Sir Patrick said one of the more inane questions ever uttered in humanity:
“What about a football-shaped head?”
Arnold, looking befuddled and worried, was speechless. Sir Patrick continued on.
“We throw the child.”
After Barrymore and Sir Patrick went back-and-forth on the process, with everyone siding with Sir Patrick, Tagovailoa said he would not throw Arnold, the man who made Captain Jean-Luc Picard famous took off his overcoat and unveiled a 1920s style football uniform, complete with a “Sir Patrick” #1 jersey. (WRITER’S NOTE: On the YouTube video comments, someone said they wanted this sold from Mitchell and Ness. I would purchase this as well.)
Stewart looked at his play wristband and had only one to utilize: THROW THE CHILD. I legitimately rewound it several times over, laughing every time.
Then, out of the purest form of nowhere ever created, the aforementioned Stapp and Tremonti appeared, with Barrymore stating matter-of-factly, “And Creed’s here.”
Sir Patrick, holding Arnold’s head like an actual football, unleashed a motivational sports quote for the ages: “It’s the fifth quarter, and we need a hole-in-one before the seventh inning stretch. Be brave.” He kisses the sixth grader’s cranium, complete with Arnold closing his eyes, and drops back in the pocket with a “Hip hip, HIKE!”
Just as Stapp finishes the line “Can you take me higher?”, Arnold is launched by a southpaw Stewart, grappling hook in hand. As Arnold is flying through the air, Sir Patrick then sings the lyric “I just threw him higher”, dueting with Stapp on the last word. Stapp, in an underrated hilarious moment, throws a quick “Come on” fading out. Everyone is now singing along, as Sir Patrick continues on with “To a place where we won’t freeze.” Lt. Dangle is showing his tremendous Creed tramp stamp, which is freshly inked and exquisitely done.
Even Arnold showcased his hope, singing “He just threw me high…”
And then Barrymore’s vision comes to fruition, as Arnold narrowly misses the top, smacking Paramount Mountain face first, giving out a pained “I’m good” as he’s slowly sliding down the base of the mountain. The team wonders how they would get to the top now, with Sir Patrick asking another ludicrous question into the ether:
“Now if there was only someone made of pigskin.”
Lt. Dangle immediately points and says “Bingo.” Everyone shifts over to the illustrious Peppa Pig, who simply utters an “Oh Dear.”
FIN
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Now, I know the live broadcast ad was cut from two minutes to sixty seconds, but it was still funny. This ad, however, was perfection personified. I was so happy to see this commercial in full here, as it gave me hope for entertainment.
As lame as it might sound, a lot of mainstream work currently does not excite me or make me laugh. This was perfect, mixing in legendary characters, performers, and hitting on the perfect note with the Creed memes on social media. Everything clicked. My wife might already have her own Paramount Plus account, but I might buy my own now, just to support.
In all seriousness, I give a massive thumbs-up to Paramount Plus for this advertisement. It was a jolt in the arm for the Super Bowl commercials and a hope that quality and solid comedy still exists in Hollywood. Great stuff.
