Puppy Bowl V

For those of us who could not care less about football, but who like puppies (who doesn't?) Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl series is just the ticket. Last Sunday was the fifth annual Puppy Bowl, and it did not disappoint.

The show opened with a heartfelt but perhaps slightly inaccurate rendition of the Star Spangled Banner by Pepper, the African Grey parrot. All I can say is, I laughed until I cried. You can watch the video clip here.

It seemed to me that there were not as many player ejections this year as in past years. In fact, I believe only one player was ejected: Griffey, the Labrador retriever mix, for "un-puppy-like behavior." (Humping.) And it was nothing short of incredible that there were NO pauses in play for poop on the field.

I wondered if they had taken the puppies out for a walk before the game, to prevent field-side "accidents." If so, someone clearly walked the Husky mix puppy a little too long, because Schroeder spent the entire game asleep. Personally, he is my vote for Fan Favorite MVP. (Oddly enough, Schroeder is missing from the Starting Lineup list at AnimalPlanet.com. Revisionist history?!) The cuts to Sleepy Schroeder, asleep in a pile of toys, served as a wonderful visual punctuation to the rest of the insanity.

The appearance of the digitally enhanced "talking" puppies from the latest Air Buddies movie was the only jarring moment. Puppy Bowl is about puppies being puppies, and somehow the "celebrity guests" broke the tone of the show. Or maybe it's just because I can't stand the Air Buddies movies. Hard to say.

Despite all the cuteness, and all the magnificent plays, I think I laughed the hardest at the "streaker." Whether it was the ref chasing after it with a tiny coat, or the black "privacy bar" over the naughty bits, I laughed even harder at the streaker than I did at the National Anthem. And that's saying something!

The Kitten Half Time Show was, as in previous years, something of a disappointment. My advice to Animal Planet is to either cut down on some of the distractions, or to spend some time getting the kitties used to all the lights and movements and things going "poof" beforehand. At least half of the kittens were too freaked out by everything that was going on to really play with the toys. Although several kittles decided to sack out on the sidelines in meatloaf position, which was absolutely hilarious. Best Kitten Half Time Show moment: when the little fluffy gray kitten grabbed a toy mousie and stuffed it in his mouth (or tried to).

Despite the streaker (good) and the Air Buddies (bad), Puppy Bowl is for the most part a show without contrivance. This is the true genius of Animal Planet's Superbowl counter-programming: they manage to tread lightly. 90% of Puppy Bowl is just a bunch of puppies playing with toys, and I applaud the Animal Planet folks for their restraint in this department.