Did anyone really think that Super Bowl advertisers could altogether avoid lowbrow humor?

For the most part, this year’s spots were tamer than last year’s ads – remembered mainly for a crotch-biting dog and gas-passing horse – but Super Bowl XXXIX did feature one spot in which a bear kicked Burt Reynolds in the groin, and another in which a gyrating woman caught her broken shoulder strap just before her breast was exposed.

According to most reports, this year’s ads were to be squeaky clean, after singer Janet Jackson’s right breast was exposed last year during a halftime duet with singer Justin Timberlake. The incident, which the two blamed on a “wardrobe malfunction,” is said to have prompted 542,000 complaints to the Federal Communications Commission.

As a result, Fox was so sensitive about the content of ads to be aired during the game this year that four commercials were reportedly vetoed before Game Day: one, for cough remedy Airborne, that showed Mickey Rooney’s naked rear end; a spot for Ford in which a clergyman seemed to lust, and a spot for Anheuser-Busch that made light of last year’s halftime show. A spot for Internet registrar GoDaddy.com in which a woman gyrated in front of censors was also reportedly pulled, but it appeared during the first half anyway.

With a record $2.4 million on the line in airtime alone for every 30-second spot, the challenge for advertisers this year was to clean up the humor while creating ads that nevertheless would dominate today’s water-cooler discussions.

Did they succeed?

Here are some highlights and lowlights of this year’s Super Bowl ads.

Funniest spots. There were two. The first was delivered early in the first quarter. As skydivers jumped out of a plane, one would-be chutist yelled, “I can’t do it!” His instructor asked, “Not even for a six-pack of Bud Light?” and tossed a six-pack out the door. The pilot then came crashing out of the cockpit and dove after the six-pack without a parachute, leaving the plane without anyone at the controls.

The other funniest commercial was for Ameriquest Mortgage Company. In it, a man stepping up to a counter in a convenience store says “You’re getting robbed” repeatedly to someone on his earpiece cell phone. Mistaking the incident for a stick-up, the store’s husband-and-wife proprietors fire Mace at him, hit him with a baseball bat, and shock him with a stun gun. The tagline: “Don’t judge too quickly.” Great visual humor.

Most lowbrow. The ad for GoDaddy.com featured a voluptuous woman breaking a shoulder strap, almost exposing a breast, and gyrating in front of an unspecified panel of censors. Funny? Not really, but it’ll probably get buzz anyway.

Lowbrow runner-up. A FedEx spot opened with an announcer explaining how the company wanted to create the best Super Bowl ad. The spot featured a dancing bear kicking Mr. Reynolds, the actor, in the groin. Worth a chuckle.

Most nostalgic. In a commercial that showed a woman crying out for help after realizing someone has stolen her check card, Visa brought out the babyboomer generation’s favorite Marvel superheroes – Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Storm, Thor, and, finally, a late-showing Under Dog – to deliver the message that the cards are safe.

Biggest “Huh?” An MBNA spot for its affinity credit cards featured singer Gladys Knight diving for a score during a rugby match. The voiceover said: “They both have a lot of hits, but what else do they have in common?” As credit cards appear on the screen with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and rugby labels on them, the voiceover said, “If you’re into it, we’re into it.”

It’s difficult to imagine the meetings at which this concept was hatched. Does the average consumer even know what an affinity card is?

Most extensive use of animals. A giraffe, an ostrich, a kangaroo, some sheep, elephants, a camel, and a cow stampeded to the front of a barn. Inside the barn, it was revealed, were the Budweiser Clydesdales led by a donkey.

Turns out it was the donkey from one of the 2004 Super Bowl’s most popular commercials, in which the donkey dreamt of being a Clydesdale. This year he obviously had his wish granted.

Upon seeing the other animals at the door, a frowning coachman said to the donkey: “Now look what you’ve started.” The spot ended with a pig rushing toward the barn saying, “Gosh, hope I’m not too late!”

Most creative preview. A spot for the new Ford Mustang showed a police car pulling up behind a red Mustang convertible, which was stopped, with the top down in winter weather, at a desolate, windswept intersection. The traffic light was green. The policeman stepped out of his car to investigate and found a grinning man, motionless, behind the wheel. When he tapped the driver’s face with his pen, a “clink, clink” sound revealed that the driver was frozen solid.

“You just don’t introduce a convertible this irresistible in the middle of winter,” the voiceover said. “Coming this spring, the 2005 Mustang convertible.”

Weirdest. Olympus showed two spots promoting its new m:robe 500, a gadget the company calls “the first digital music player with a built-in digital camera.” People in the spots were shown doing obviously computer-enhanced robot dances, making movements impossible for real human bodies. Creepy.

Most patriotic. An Anheuser-Busch ad in the second half featured returning American soldiers being applauded as they walked through an airport. If that one didn’t choke you up, you have no soul.

To be thankful for. Paul McCartney mercifully did not expose either of his breasts during halftime.