Don't be no cloud on a sunny day," says another Midwestern actor infected with Jamaican happiness inspired by a German car company.
When they were filming the spot, Dumas and other actors wondered if it would be controversial.
"We were talking about this on set — this is gonna make somebody upset," he said "There's going to be someone who's got a bone to pick. When it broke on Monday … I started getting emails from my friends saying, 'I just saw your commercial on CNN.'
"I'm like: What's it doing on CNN? I thought it was on YouTube." The politically correct huffing and puffing "just seemed so over-the-top for this spot."
A few years ago, when the gerbils hit the wall, there were gerbil lovers cringing in emotional pain. On YouTube message boards — where Americans critique commercial art — many gerbil fans were positively outraged.
"OM ... G. Did they actually use gerbils? This is animal abuse!" wrote Whitexripple.
Then monkeyguyman1 became enraged and responded in kind.
"Again, I love gerbils and this doesn't offend me at all," wrote monkeyguyman1, presumably because monkeyguyman had already been taken as a pen name. "Any gerbil fan that says this is offencive (sic) can go (love) a hamster."
"This is terrible," wrote Cassie Byler.
Yes, Cassie. And it is also terrible to compare stuffed gerbils propelled from a cannon to fictional white Jamaicans from Minnesota who drive Volkswagens.
But that's the point. They're commercials. Ridiculous images with ridiculous premises, selling Americans stuff they don't need as they watch prime athletes destroy their bodies on a field called a "gridiron."
So eat some wings. Watch some football. Have a beer or four. Don't worry, be happy. It's the Super Bowl.
twitter @John_Kass
