Super Bowl LVIII commercials were hit and miss

Actress Aubrey Plaza also made fun of her unaffected persona in a Mountain Dew Baja Blast ad in which she deadpanned that she was “having a blast” in various exciting scenarios, including riding a dragon with "Parks and Recreation" co-star Nick Offerman.

Pete Davidson appeared in a Best Foods ad (Hellman’s East of the Rockies) in which he quickly got together - and broke up - with a cat that said, “Mayo.” For co-star Kate McKinnon, it felt like a homage to her recurring "Whiskers R We" sketch from "Saturday Night Live."

Arnold Schwarzenneger's ad for State Farm made fun of his Austrian accent, his struggles with the letter "R" and his famous pronunciation of "choppa."

But the best of this bunch was a very silly appearance by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as “The Dunkings,” for Dunkin’ Donuts, with an appearance from Jennifer Lopez, who masterfully pretended Affleck’s dancing wasn’t amazing.

Some Super Bowl veterans made their impact in the commercials, too. Budweiser’s Clydesdales helped deliver beer to a small town bar in a snowstorm – with the help of a dog! People love those big fuzzy horses, they love unlikely animal friendships and they love it when animals help people get drunk. This one checks all the boxes.

Other return commercial stars missed the mark. Was anyone clamoring to see CGI babies play pickleball for E-Trade? Does anyone ever want to watch televised pickleball, especially when it’s being played in the Uncanny Valley? Similarly, it's not clear where the clamor for more T-Mobile commercials with Zach Braff and Donald Faison singing show tunes came from - even if they brought in Jason Momoa.

That's one of two different commercials, in the year 2024, with references to the 1983 film "Flashdance." A Nerds Clusters ad had a piece of candy dancing to Irene Cara's "Flashdance...What A Feeling." It wasn't great, either.

An Uber Eats ad had overwhelming celebrity star power and a strange, unfunny concept: That you have to forget something to remember something else and that means you should use Uber Eats? Despite the star power of Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, David and Victoria Beckham, Jelly Roll and Usher, this commercial was a dud.

Some ads got weird, such as the Sunday Ticket commercial in which Seattle Seahawks flew like actual hawks. Likewise Ravens and Eagles. That’s a slap in the face to the Arizona Cardinals and Atlanta Falcons. The ending also implied that these flying players pooped footballs. In addition, Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV both spent big on commercials as services for people to watch the NFL – which is about to stop operations for eight months.

Drumstick hired comedian Eric Andre for a very weird commercial about an in-flight medical emergency and a "Dr. Umstick," a doctor who is also an ice cream treat. It's mainly impressive that they spent over $7 million to show the world a Drumstick wearing a doctor disguise.

A few simply didn't work. The M&M's "champions ring of comfort" was confusing, especially because Scarlett Johansson was in it for no reason. Also, near-champion Bruce Smith was there, having lost four Super Bowls. So was Terrell Owens, who played in one. The concept of twisting Oreos to make important decisions throughout history simply didn’t land, especially with Kris Jenner’s limp joke about “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” as the big punch line.

Another high-budget commercial that disappointed was Verizon's commercial in which Beyonce tries to "break the internet," a phrase people haven't really used in five years. But it's nice to see Tony Hale working again after "Veep."