We’ve made it to this year’s version of The Big Game, the final game of the NFL season. And between two teams loved by millions! *is whispered something in earpiece*

In lieu of a topic theme this week, I was pondering what reminded me of The Big Game, and I thought of three things.

 

An episode from the first season of Rugrats, in which the men watch Ultra Bowl XXXVII while watching the kids as the moms are out shopping. Grandpa gives Tommy a chocolate bottle, which upsets Angelica so much she fights Tommy and the others over the bottle in a battle clearly more exciting than what the men were watching.

 

 

From the first Ace Ventura film, the Eagles battle the Dolphins in presumably Super Bowl XXIX, since the film was released in 1994. How convenient that the actual Super Bowl that season was played in Miami! I guess that makes the fact a kidnapped Dan Marino comes back in the second half more plausible. But the team mascot being the halftime show? How small-time! Definitely worse than the actual halftime performance which…pulling up Wiki, um holy crap.

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The halftime show was titled “Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye” and was produced by Disney to promote their Indiana Jones Adventure attraction at Disneyland that opened later that year. The show featured actors playing Indiana Jones and his girlfriend Marion Ravenwood who were raiding the Vince Lombardi Trophy from the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. The show also had performances by singers Tony Bennett and Patti LaBelle, jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, and the Miami Sound Machine. The show ended with everybody singing “Can You Feel The Love Tonight”, the song featured in Disney’s (which later acquired ABC) 1994 film The Lion King. The dancers on the field were members of the Coral Gables Senior High marching band.

This halftime show also had a connection with past ABC programming: the first two Indiana Jones films had their broadcast premieres on ABC, and the network aired a TV series, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, from 1992 to 1993 (actually serving as the lead-in to Monday Night Football at one point).

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That must have been something. Anyway, I’m thinking the Ace Ventura writers didn’t know exactly how the Super Bowl worked! That is not an original thing when it comes to TV/movies depicting actual sporting events! The Major League II goofs page on IMDB is a solid read for that reason.

And finally, something I did not realize celebrated its 25th anniversary last year.

 

Back in 1999, this was the (then) WWF’s first special event they tried during the Super Bowl halftime show – a previously-taped empty arena match featuring Mankind vs. The Rock for the WWF Championship. As a match today, it’s…not great. Walking and brawling, lots of The Rock spouting his catchphrases while poor Mick Foley took stupid bumps for him and it ended with The Rock getting pinned by a forklift. It was nonsense, so it was perfect for the Attitude Era.

But seriously, I hope the game is great. I hope the ads don’t try to pitch us a AI-infested hellhole universe. And I hope all of you have fun posting below. Be careful about posting events right as they happen, as I can only imagine the many streaming outlets that we will be watching this game on will be on significant delays!