{"id":288239,"date":"2026-02-09T02:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T02:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/288239\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T02:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T02:56:11","slug":"pokemon-super-bowl-ad-has-trevor-noah-lady-gaga-turns-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/288239\/","title":{"rendered":"Pokemon Super Bowl Ad Has Trevor Noah, Lady Gaga, Turns 30"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cPok\u00e9mon\u201d is turning 30 this year, and the franchise is kicking things off with a star-studded (and Pok\u00e9mon-filled) ad on Super Bowl<\/a> Sunday.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrevor Noah, Lady Gaga and more celebrities reveal their favorite Pok\u00e9mon and appear alongside animated versions of them in the commercial, titled \u201cWhat\u2019s Your Favorite?\u201d Noah starts by walking down a sunny boardwalk and asking, \u201cWhat\u2019s my favorite?\u201d He\u2019s followed by actor Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (\u201cNever Have I Ever,\u201d \u201cFreakier Friday\u201d), who describes her favorite \u201cjet-black\u201d Pok\u00e9mon while sitting in a make-up chair. Formula One driver Charles Leclerc appropriately says his favorite is \u201cextremely fast,\u201d rapper Young Miko likes her \u201climitless\u201d Pok\u00e9mon and Blackpink member Jisoo says hers is \u201cso cute.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a recording studio, Lady Gaga reveals that her Pok\u00e9mon \u201chas a 12-octave vocal range\u201d and \u201calways finds a way to make it funny.\u201d The camera pans over and the adorable, singing Pok\u00e9mon Jigglypuff is sitting on the couch. The two huddle over a microphone and have a duet together, singing Jigglypuff\u2019s iconic, self-named song that puts people to sleep from the \u201cPok\u00e9mon\u201d anime. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe rest of the stars are soon joined by their Pok\u00e9mon partners. Noah is paired with the yellow, goofy duck Psyduck. \u201cEvery single time you met a new Pok\u00e9mon, it felt like you met a new part of yourself,\u201d he says. Luxray, the big, electric lion, naps on Ramakrishnan\u2019s desk as she says, \u201che likes to sleep. Just like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJisoo likes Eevee for its ability to transform into various forms, and Young Miko adores the ghost Pok\u00e9mon Gengar because \u201che\u2019s mischievous but that\u2019s sort of his love language.\u201d Spanish soccer star Lamine Yamal is paired with the formidable legendary Pok\u00e9mon Zygarde, and Leclerc reveals his partner to be Arcanine, the fast and powerful fire-type.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is one of those moments where you get to reward your childhood self,\u201d Noah told Variety about getting the call to be part of the Super Bowl ad. \u201c\u2018Pok\u00e9mon\u2019 has been part of my life since the age of 9 or 10. It first came to South Africa in the Pok\u00e9mon trading card packs. Kids went crazy trading them around. But it really blew up in my life with the Game Boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNoah said he played the original \u201cRed,\u201d \u201cBlue\u201d and \u201cYellow\u201d versions of the first \u201cPok\u00e9mon\u201d video games, and watching Psyduck in the anime TV show cemented the creature as his favorite. Psyduck, one of the main Pok\u00e9mon used by Misty in the series, was a water-type who could use powerful psychic moves, but the timing and effectiveness of its abilities was disrupted by its constant headaches.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI feel like \u2018Pok\u00e9mon\u2019 is a perfect allegory for society. It\u2019s like this crazy world where you\u2019ve got all these different characters who have their strengths and weaknesses,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe reason I choose Psyduck is because I grew up as a neurodivergent kid, still figuring out what ADHD does in your brain. When I watched Psyduck in the TV show, it\u2019s this little weirdo in a weird world. Psyduck can\u2019t handle its brain. It\u2019s trying to figure out how things work. It\u2019s the most powerful, then the least powerful. It can literally freeze the whole world, levitate everything and throw it away, but then sometimes it can\u2019t even walk out of a Pok\u00e9 Ball in the right direction. It was the classic tale of of the unlikely hero, the hero that we hope we all have inside us. We don\u2019t expect it, and then against all odds you figure everything out, and you come out on top\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPok\u00e9mon\u201d is celebrating its 30th anniversary with the new video game \u201cPokopia,\u201d a life simulation game set for release on March 5 on the Nintendo Switch 2. The first-ever Pok\u00e9mon outdoor facility, Pok\u00e9Park Kanto, also opened this month in Tokyo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cPok\u00e9mon\u201d is turning 30 this year, and the franchise is kicking things off with a star-studded (and Pok\u00e9mon-filled)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,40571,94826,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-288239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-pokemon","11":"tag-super-bowl","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}