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I'm Stephen Metcalf, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest. We Have No Pants Edition.

This is also the daily podcast from slate.com for Wednesday, February 10th, 2010.

On today's program, we're going to talk about inevitably Super Bowl ads,

the Temple Grand and Biopic on

HBO and karaoke killings in the Philippines. Julia, our listeners, I hope, noticed the

wagging tail sound to my voice. It's because J. Wow, Julia Turner is back in the studio. What a delight.

I'm so glad to be here. I miss gabbing with you guys, although it was fun to be just a pure listener

and hear my able subs. They were so very able. And we're also joined, of course, by Dana

Stevens Slate's film critic. Hello, Dana. Hey, Stephen. And great to see you again, Julia.

Let's dig right in with topic number one. And to that end, we've asked Seth Stevenson to join us remotely from our studio in Washington, D.C.

Seth Stevenson is a regular contributor to Slate.com, and you may know his work on advertising, which is especially acute and witty, and we're delighted to have him with us.

Seth, thanks for joining us.

Hey, guys. Friled and honored to be on the GabFest.

Wonderful. Let's dive right in.

What, what, this, this was the most watched television, we're told, in absolute numbers,

the most watched television show in U.S. television history.

It beat out, I guess, the finale to MASH, which calls to mind a contrast,

which is that this, back in the old day of superpower sitcoms that were universally beloved, there were at least several media events that everybody watched.

It's been whittled down to one. It's been whittled down to the Super Bowl. So this is a premium opportunity for advertisers to establish their brand, push their brand, mall their brand,

destroy their band, embarrass themselves, etc.

...