Best Super Bowl Commercials Ever

On the world's biggest single television stage in mid-winter you have some of the most spectacular television advertising ever witnessed. The Super Bowl is not just the greatest game in American sports, but is also the night when advertisers pull out all the stops.

Never will you find a more wealthy collection of ads and stars. Musicians, sports stars, famous actors and actresses, and the quirkiest sets of ads that will ever air on television make it one stop shopping for four hours of commercial heaven. Here are five of the greatest commercials that have ever been witnessed on the Super Bowl ad stage.

Apple Breaks Orwell's 1984

Ridley Scott's dark portrayal of the world imagined by George Orwell only to have it leveled by a hammer-throwing track and field athlete. The commercial follows grey and worn out men all dressed the same marching to a room where they watch some grey film that is clearly a mention of brainwashing and mental programming.

Shots break away to a female athlete being chased by riot police who can't catch her before she throws her giant hammer into the screen, smashing it into brilliant light. The suggestion is that Apple will wake up the world when it introduces the new Macintosh computer. It is one of the enduring images of that year and Apple forever changed the world with its computing prowess.

Michael Jordan and Larry Bird Play HORSE

A Big Mac is a big deal, and in 1993's "Nothing but Net" commercial, Michael Jordan walks in with his McDonald's meal and Larry Bird challenges him for it. The first one to miss a basket watches the other eat.

After several normal attempts, the shots get trickier like from the parking lot outside the arena and then finally they still haven't missed just as M.J. is going to try a shot from atop the Sears Tower. The commercial was so good, placekickers Chip Lohmiller and Pete Stoyanovich spoofed it later that year with "Split the Uprights".

Apple Computers and HAL

A couple of years ago, HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey complained to Dave that he liked his Macintosh better than HAL. Now everyone likes Apple phones better than HAL. The commercial was still funny as sci-fi nerds everywhere laughed at their ultimate geek moment when they understood every aspect of the commercial and why it was funny. Nerdiness lives!

Wazzup

Imagine a bunch of guys drinking beer with nothing better to do than call each other and yell WAZZUP! into their phones at each other. Yeah, they've probably had too much to drink.

Budweiser didn't get too much of the commercials as they have been spoofed many times over and the ad campaign ran for a few years after the original aired during the Super Bowl in the late 90s. Watch the "Wasabi" spoof when a bunch of Japanese chefs mistake Wazzup for wasabi.

Horses Score a Field Goal

Budweiser's clydesdales make their first appearance playing a football game like normal horses do during their down time on the ranch. They line up on opposing sides with a football between them and then suddenly the ball is hiked.

Another huge clydesdale comes up and kicks the ball between two power poles and over some power lines to score a field goal. One rancher turns incredulously to another and asks "They always do that?" "Nah," the other replies. "They usually go for two." It's a classic misdirection joke that was the laugh of that year's big game.