Call me a cur-mudgeon, but I think that this year’s Super Bowl commercials featuring canines, well, went to the dogs. They were derivative at best, poorly conceived in the great midsection and downright cruel at their worst.  

The obvious winner was the “Here, We Go” spot for Bud Light, featuring a scruffy little Terrier mix “rescue dog.” He tirelessly fetches beer at a party—by the bottle, the six-pack and even the keg. There was a brief, nonspecific pitch to “Help Rescue Dogs” on a Styrofoam cooler at the end. Thanks for that, Buds, but beer-retrievers-as-men’s-best-friends have been done to death—by Goldens, Border Collies and others. Too bad that this was, by far, the best we got. 

VW weighed-in with a portly pup who is inspired to get in shape, alone, by the image of a passing sedan. When the dog later triumphs by fitting through a formerly too-narrow dog door, the payoff is that he gets to … chase the car??! As I watched him dash, pell-mell after the fleeing auto, I cringed at the prospect of the first cross street. 

What, do you suppose, is the one thing dogs do that gets them killed by cars, most often? The Fahrvergnügen folks need to usetheirnoggins. 

It gets worse. Skechers featured a Bulldog wearing its sneakers—to win a dog race? Granted that there’s some humor in a built-for-comfort breed acting against type, but dog racing is a pastime so inhumane that it’s banned in many states. At least they might’ve included a shoe box touting the good folks at greyhound rescue!

Nothing, however, even approaches the remarkably stupid Doritos dog spot. In it, a brindle Great Dane who has killed and buried the family cat buys his moronic owner’s silence with a bag of corn chips. The even bigger two-legged idiots were the company flacks who chose this ad from hundreds of entries in a contest. 

Was Michael Vick (his possible rehabilitation notwithstanding) unavailable to them?

The people have spoken: Following a campaign led by Martin Scorsese, a Doberman named Blackie is in the running to be named “Best Dog in a Theatrical Film” at the first-ever Golden Collar Awards.

According to Dog News Daily, the sponsor of the awards, hundreds of Dobie devotees wrote to support Blackie after The Los Angeles Times published an op-ed by Scorsese. The Oscar-winning director wrote on Sunday that Blackie was unfairly overlooked by the nominating committee for her work in Hugo.

The director’s tongue-in-cheek piece suggested that Blackie was snubbed because of the Doberman’s imposing looks: “enormous and handsome,” as opposed to twice-nominated Uggie, a compact and cute Jack Russell Terrier. Scorsese also notes Blackie’s brave choice to portray an unlikable, mean guard dog, where Uggie played it safe as a lovable pet in Water for Elephants and The Artist. (We’re not sure why the conversation doesn’t include this year’s other breakout thespian, a Jack Russell named Arthur, who played Cosmo in Beginners.)

Blackie’s fans descended on Dog News’ Facebook page and, according to the site, posted more than 500 comments in less than 24 hours. Scorsese appeared on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday to speak out again for Blackie. By Wednesday, Blackie was officially on the list of nominations.

The Golden Collars ceremony will be held on Feb. 13 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in L.A., complete with a red carpet entrance. Organizers are hoping Blackie will attend—perhaps with Scorsese on the other end of the leash.

Scene-chewing pups basked in the limelight during last night’s Golden Globes Awards. And, we have to say, we saw it coming at Bark. First, Best Supporting Actor winner Christopher Plummer gave a gracious nod to his canine costar, “my favorite Cosmo the dog,” from the lovely Michael Mills’ film Beginners, which Bark praised for its realistic portrayal of how we live with dogs.

Second, and even more high-profile, was the stage appearance of Uggie (another Jack Russell), who stole the show from his fellow Artist costars, when the silent picture stars took Best Comedy or Musical. Check out our interview with Uggie's owner/trainer Sarah Clifford in the current issue. (If you don’t believe me, watch the acceptance speech video.)

Another Bark favorite The Adventures of Tintin—based on a Belgian comic book series that featured a spunky co-pilot named Snowy—captured the prize for Best Animated Film.

We’ll be looking for more dog magic at the Oscars.

A friend sent me a “Top 10 dogs in ‘geek’ culture” list. (In many circles, “geek” and “cool” are practically synonymous.) The friend who sent me this knows I always that Doc Brown’s dog in Back to the Future was named Einstein, and I was pleased to see that he made the list.

It was also entertaining to see that Superman’s dog Krypto made the list. Krypto was introduced in the 1950s comics, though Superman has no dog in some movies and TV shows.

The rest of the dogs on the list are not a big part of my geek world. I liked Scooby Doo as a kid, but have not carried a profound interest in him into adulthood. To be fair, I had always found the phrase “Rut roh” to be comical, but I’ve recently learned that this phrase is wrongly attributed to Scooby Doo, and is actually the catchphrase of Astro from the Jetsons. Perhaps Astro should be on this list.

Who do you think is missing from a proper list of dogs in geek culture, whatever that means?