The first year of the College Football Playoff brought some excitement to the sport, as it meant the death of the BCS and the first step towards a postseason system that most fans had hoped for for years. Unfortunately, it also brought with it Larry Culpepper.
Dr. Pepper has long been a major sponsor of college football games over the years and they shelled out the cash to be a lead sponsor for the College Football Playoff as well. With that meant a new ad campaign meant to tie in the Dr. Pepper name with the playoff, which brought us Larry Culpepper, a borderline psychopath concessions vendor who insisted the playoff was all his idea in a series of commercials that turned from “kind of goofy if not a little annoying” to “uncomfortable” very quickly.
Over the years Culpepper’s schtick evolved into an unstoppable and unavoidable force on college football Saturdays. College football fans were bombarded with various commercials that featured Culpepper yelling about “Ice cold Dr. Pepper here!” while ranting about inventing the playoff. There was nowhere to run and hide from Culpepper. He was everywhere, a ubiquitous annoyance that wore you down until eventually, Stockholm Syndrome took hold and you started questioning whether you actually enjoyed the Culpepper commercial you just saw for the 15th time that day.
Alas, our long national nightmare is over, as Dr. Pepper is reportedly moving on from Larry Culpepper.
BREAKING: Jim Connor, who spent the past several years playing football fanatic Larry Culpepper in Dr. Pepper commercials, has told me that the company will not feature Culpepper in commercials going forward. Connor says the decision “Rocked my world” and was “An incredible gig.” pic.twitter.com/an0DJBKO0w
— Adam Carriker (@AdamCarriker94) May 21, 2018
First, I’d like genuinely to wish the best to Jim Connor as he moves on from the Culpepper character because he was incredibly committed to it and played what they wanted to a tee. It’s not really his fault Culpepper haunts college football fans’ dreams.
I’m not naive enough to believe Culpepper won’t be replaced by something just as bad if not worse. Among the biggest problems of being a diehard college football fan is that there are only so many major national sponsors and, thus, if you plan on watching a full 12 hours of football on a Saturday as is your God-given right, then you are destined to see the same ads from those sponsors over and over.
However, this is not a time for dread, wondering what monstrosity will stare us down every Saturday this fall, but instead one of celebration. Larry Culpepper lorded over us all for four years, but no longer. His reign of terror is over and we are freed.
For now.
