The Snuggie Has Become Self-Aware

It is so rare in this media-saturated, meta-critical age to find anything that is absolutely pure, untainted by this cynical world, and completely unaware of how ridiculous it is. That's why the blissfully obtuse commercial for the Snuggie, the "blanket with sleeves," was so refreshing last year. It was raw, unadulterated cheese.

The nation hadn't seen a commercial that goofy since the classic Mentos spots of the early '90s, and those commercials had the excuse of being foreign. The amazing part about the Snuggie commercial was how straight-faced the makers presented their product. Couples and families were seen watching TV, reading books and enjoying each other's company while literally wearing blankets. At no point during the making of their commercial did anyone stop and say, "Hey, isn't this a bit silly?"

It was as if the makers of the Snuggie were somehow living in a remote Appalachian mountain village, cut off from irony and the internet, and the TV viewing public was witnessing their unfiltered genius.

But last night on TV, I caught the new commercial for the Snuggie, available in Royal Blue, Forest Green and Soft Rose, and I'm sorry to report that they're now in on the joke. The same lame families are wearing the Snuggie while lounging around the house, but now they're also dancing while making coffee, playing Win, Lose or Draw, snuggling babies and dogs, laughing in a movie theater, and cheering on their favorite sports team at an outdoor stadium. That's right, the Snuggie is being worn in public. In other words, they've deliberately turned up the cheese factor in the hopes of becoming "viral."

What went wrong? Why did the Snuggie folks have to ruin a perfectly good national joke? I suppose we are partly to blame. By endlessly watching the video online, blogging about it, making Snuggie parodies, featuring the product on TV talk shows and actually buying the product as a gag gift, we tipped them off.

It's like when somebody told William Shatner how terrible his "interpretive" albums from the '70s were, and the next thing you know he's on the MTV Movie Awards singing the categories. I'm sorry, but I'll take "Rocket Man" Shatner over Priceline Shatner any day.

All this post-modern self-mockery has got to go. Can't we just collectively mock something without the subject releasing its own wink-wink parody? Sadly, I'm afraid not. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go pick up the new William Hung album.