Hulu Super Bowl Commercial: Return to 2009's Funny Campaign Falls Flat in Teaser

They say you can never go home again. They should probably add "you can never do the same Super Bowl ad again" to that mix.

That won't stop Hulu from trying to reclaim its hilarious and genius campaign from 2009, of course.

Remember when Alec Baldwin let us know that Hulu was actually a devious plot concocted by aliens to turn our brains into "mushy mush" so they could eat them?

It was a brilliant move by Hulu—make fun of the very product they were hosting, television shows, while showing off the appeal of their service and, most importantly, making us all laugh. If you don't recall the commercial, here you go:

Well, Hulu is up to those old tricks again, this time incorporating Will Arnett to tantalize the human race with HuluPlus. The problem is—at least on the teaser ad—it doesn't seem nearly as funny as the first one was:

See what I mean?

I want to like it, I really do. I love the premise, I think Arnett is hilarious and I even think the metaphor of Arnett having a harder time getting into HuluPlus is clever because, oh yeah, you have to pay for the service now.

And c'mon, the nod to 30 Rock (Devon Banks has replaced Jack Donaghy—gasp!) and Arrested Development reference (see right) are nicely incorporated by Hulu as well.

So why is this still so boring?

Is it because my mushy-mush brain doesn't want to think quite as hard to find the humor, or point, of this teaser ad? Is it because teaser ads aren't supposed to be funny, they are just supposed to get people talking about or possibly even writing an entire article about the spot to generate buzz for the company leading up to the Super Bowl?

Is it because I'm an entitled brat?

Yes, yes and yes. Well played, Hulu.

I guess.

Just know that if the actual Super Bowl ad isn't more appealing than this teaser, I'm going to be pissed and yell really loudly at the party I attend about how great Netflix is, Hulu, just to screw with you.

Enjoy the Super Bowl, everyone.

Hit me up on Twitter—my tweets are chicken soup for the Internet soul.