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Samsung's new commercial spoofs the Super Bowl with the help of Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen

Samsung's new commercial spoofs the Super Bowl with the help of Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen

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Paul Rudd Seth Rogen Samsung Super Bowl commercial
Paul Rudd Seth Rogen Samsung Super Bowl commercial

Last year Samsung took a shot at Apple with a Super Bowl ad for the Galaxy Note, and now the company has debuted a new spot that riffs on the licensing restrictions of the big game itself. In the commercial, Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd play two writers pitching ideas for a Samsung Super Bowl commercial — to Mr. Show and Breaking Bad's Bob Odenkirk, no less. The joke is that every single time the pair try to mention the Super Bowl itself — or any of the team names — Odenkirk has to cut them off because the names are trademarked.

Super Bowl commercials have a tradition of swapping out nondescript team jerseys or generic phrases like "the big game" in lieu of the trademarked names because doing so would cost money; Samsung would have to pay a fee if it wanted to actually use the licensed name "Baltimore Ravens" or "San Francisco 49ers" in its commercial. Whether you take the spot as a dig at the NFL, the litigious behavior of some of Samsung's competitors, or the company simply tiptoeing up to the line of what it can get away with, it's nevertheless an opportunity to watch three great comedians do what they do best.