The Super Bowl has become so overhyped as to become ridiculous (Fox had five-plus hours of pregame coverage on Sunday). And there’s always the overhyped halftime show, which I never give a damn about, in which some band (lately more has-beens than fresh acts) gives a performance on a stage that is rushed by an audience which is rocking out with the kind of enthusiasm that can only have been bought. Call me a purist, but I watch the Super Bowl because I truly like to watch, you know, football, not because it’s the biggest self-indulgent media event of the year.

Anyway, equally overhyped with the Super Bowl are the commercials, which have become a monster of their own. Of recent years, probably my favorite has been Reebok’s memorably hard-hitting Terry Tate, Office Linebacker.

But every year it seems like I hear people say, gee, “The commercials weren’t very good this year.” Why is it that seems to be the conventional wisdom every year?

I can’t say I necessarily disagree this year, but there were still some good ones. My favorite from this year is actually not a new commercial at all but is a full year old. It involves Doritos and a mousetrap. Video below:

The complete surprise factor is what makes this ad so laugh-out-loud funny. (That and the ass-kicking.) This is one of those genuinely imaginative, offbeat concepts that I look at and say, “How did they come up with that?” It’s subversive and weird and I like it.