Super Bowl ads not so super this year

The commercial laughs came early in Super Bowl XLIV with Betty White taking a body slam for Snickers, a dog putting his owner in a collar for Doritos and the 1985 Chicago Bears reuniting to shuffle for Boost Mobile.

Even the potentially controversial Tim Tebow pro-life commercial for Focus on the Family was light-hearted.

While his mother, Pam, told of how much her "miracle baby" Timmy meant to her, big Tim knocked her off the screen with a tackle. Viewers were referred to the group's Web site. It was a smart move not to go for a hard sell on this one.

The commercials for Budweiser and Bud Light were good but not great.

Beer maker Anheuser-Busch usually scores high on just about every Super Bowl favorite list. But this year spots about a man building his house out of beer cans and people making a human bridge for a beer delivery truck were just so-so.

The traditional sentimental Clydesdale commercial - this time featuring a lifelong friendship between a horse and cow - came late in the game.

Snickers, Doritos, Bridgestone Tires, E-Trade and Coca-Cola were among those with worthy efforts.

As usual there was a heavy dose of juvenile male-oriented humor including back-to-back commercials with people in their underwear.

Menswear company Dockers had men marching and singing without pants and CareerBuilder.com took us to an office where "casual Friday" was taken to the extreme with people in their underwear.

There were movie commercials teasing to the upcoming "Alice in Wonderland," "Robin Hood" and "Wolfman" as well as a plug for the new Harry Potter attraction opening this spring at Universal's Florida theme park.

With more than 40 commercials airing by the beginning of the fourth quarter there was a lot of clutter.

One of the first was the best:

Mars Snickers: Young guys are playing football and one of them looks like Betty White. All he needs is a Snickers to turn back into himself. Meanwhile, another has turned into Abe Vigoda with the tagline: "You're not you when you're hungry."

Other memorable moments:

• "The Late Show With David Letterman": A surprise in-house CBS commercial revisited Letterman and Oprah Winfrey's popular Super Bowl spot from 2007 - on the couch eating potato chips while watching the big game, but this time with a third person - Jay Leno. Letterman says it's the worst Super Bowl party ever. "He's just saying that because I'm here," laments Jay.

• Bridgestone Tires: A car carrying a killer whale speeds toward a pier and skids to a stop flinging the animal back into the ocean. Now that was a bachelor party.

• Doritos: A dog with a bark-curbing shock-collar is teased by a chip-eating jerk who wants the pooch to bark. The dog sneaks up behind the guy, slips the collar on him, barks and then steals the chips.

• E-Trade: The investment firm's new talking tot explains to his girlfriend via webcam why he didn't call last night. He was diversifying his portfolio and ... other things.

• Budweiser: In a tribute to "Lost," some castaways find a liquid reason to celebrate being stranded.

• Coca-Cola: Rich Mr. Burns from "The Simpsons" loses everything but store clerk Apu makes it all right with Coke in a feel-good commercial for the soft drink.

• Bud Light: Astronomers see asteroid headed toward "doomed" Earth and decide to spend last moments partying with beer. Turns out they were wrong when the asteroid shrinks to a cinder so they keep partying.

• Boost Mobile: The 1985 Chicago Bears may be aging but they've still got some moves. They recreate their song and dance for a mobile phone service.

• Homeaway: Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo from "The National Lampoon Vacation" films get overcharged for a bad trip.