Star Wars, Simpsons and the Super Bowl

In our What We Talk About When We Talk About TV series, Michael Foley takes a look back at this year’s Super Bowl, and the enduring appeal of the event, through a pop culture lens.


 

6 o’clock; every day after school. The intermittent flashes of contemporary American culture I experienced watching The Simpsons were important for my formative years. The ritual was interrupted but once per annum, Budget Day: my least favourite day of the year – although now for completely different reasons. I can still remember my disappointment; switching on the T.V. for today’s dose of that golden American family only to see a gormless Taoiseach stumbling over some ham-fisted joke one of his aides wrote for him. On one non-Budget Day, an episode of The Simpsons featured Homer watching something called the Super Bowl. An entire day of public T.V. interrupted not by Enda Kenny; but a loud, brash and fast, totally American sporting event. Even before I began watching American Football when I was 16, I was aware of its cultural importance. The Super Bowl is the iconic American television event.

It is unsurprising that the Super Bowl is the most widely watched American sporting event every year. It is an unarguably patriotic and a wholeheartedly American piece of television. The national anthem is an emotional moment for many of the players who often shed tears at reaching this momentous point in the tournament. Military flyovers are perfectly timed with the anthems emotional climax, as jets shoot out plumes of red, white and blue as they hurtle over the stadium, simultaneously showering the sky with the star spangled banner while honouring the importance of the military to American life.

Homer Simpson watching the Super Bowl

What about the commercialisation of the event? America, the epicentre of global capitalism. Every year we hear that the adverts are one of the main reasons, if not the the chief reason, to tune in: just have a look at this buzzfeed article. To really get the cultural experience of the event, you have to watch the American broadcast, not the ad-less game on the BBC. What happens during the game’s frequent breaks tells you the most about American culture. My housemate, not a fan of the sport, insisted we watch an American broadcast because he heard there was a possibility that the trailer for the next Star Wars would be on show.

A Star Wars advert was the perfect commercial match for this years Super Bowl; an inter-media reference and interesting pop culture analogy for the central narrative of the game. The New England Patriots have dominated the sport for the previous decade. Their coach Bill Belichick, who wears an Emperor Palpatine-esque hoody, and Star quarterback Tom Brady both supported Donald Trump in the election. They have been accused of illegally spying on other teams’ practices and deflating their footballs below the allowed limit to gain a competitive advantage. Even without the lightsabers, the New England Patriots are clearly the Super Bowl equivalent of the Sith Empire. The Atlanta Falcons on the other hand, have never won a Super Bowl. Naive and wholesome, they were the underdogs coming out of the blue – a true Rebel Alliance. It wasn’t enough for Super Bowl just to be a match. They needed to shove an age old narrative into the mix.

And it started so brightly for the Rebel Alliance. The Atlanta Falcons jumped to an awe-inspiring twentyfive point lead. But bit by bit the Patriots clawed their way back. It was unheard of; the greatest lead a team has ever come back from in the Super Bowl is ten points. The Patriots leveled with seconds to spare, forcing tense overtime. After winning the coin toss, hope was lost as The Patriots drove down the field and scored a seamless touchdown. Instead of destroying the Death Star, Luke Skywalker — Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan —  missed his shot and the Empire decimated the rebel base, forever crushing any hope for a successful uprising.The Patriots claimed their fifth Super Bowl.

Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan and New England Patriots QB Tom Brady
Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan and New England Patriots QB Tom Brady

Obviously the idea of New England, which is comprised of six states in the northeast of the U.S, winning the Super Bowl is not inherently offensive to me: I’m from Kilkenny after all. I’ve heard New England is beautiful in the Autumn and has some of the best clam chowder in the world. But what does offend me is evil. Edmund Burke said that “all it take for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”, or in this case, give up a twentyfive point lead to the american football equivalent of the Sith Empire. It is only with this context that you can really know how I felt at four o’clock in the morning watching Tom Brady hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy. It was a George Lucas vision as perceived by Samuel Beckett.

Nonetheless, I will stay up until four in the morning next year. I will stay awake through each artistically shot advert and every celebrity midtime performance. I will partake in the cultural extravaganza in the same way I undertake any Star Wars marathon; with unfettered enthusiasm. I will watch every year until the empire falls. And will the Patriots fall? My dear, without a doubt.

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