Are you ready for some commercials? OK, it doesn't have quite the same ring as Hank Jr.'s musical query to Monday Night Football fans, but on Sunday the question is as important as which team you're rooting for.

Even non-football fans hunker down in front of the TV to see what sales-pitch diamonds and disasters are sandwiched between plays from scrimmage.

At ABC's asking rate of up to $2.5 million for half a minute, almost five times the cost of the highest-priced commercial during a regular program, there better be more mini-masterpieces than duds. But it's a gamble, the corporate equivalent of the millions that bettors are putting on the outcome of the game.

Anheuser-Busch's commercials usually have at least one spot highly-ranked, often as the best, in the annual best-commercial competition, or, more accurately, competitions. Of course, the beer company apparently stacks the deck a bit by buying more Super Bowl commercial time than any other advertiser.

Rating the ads, many of which admittedly are better than much regular programming, has itself become entertainment. Numerous Web sites already have conducted best Super Bowl ad surveys based on previous year's offerings. Just as many will do so the same on game day.

CBS, which has to watch rival ABC telecast the game, is tangentially getting a piece of the big game by counting down the best Super Bowl commercials of all time in an hour-long prime-time special on the eve of the big game.

I don't know about all-time best, but last year none of those Clydesdales were as entertaining to me as those crazy CareerBuilder office chimpanzees.

C'mon. Admit it. You know just how that lone homo sapiens feels. You've sat by the whoopee cushion chimp. You've had a boss that looked just like that guy, er, chimp in the ad. And you've actually told others that you do work with a bunch of crazy apes.

I so disagree with this assertion that opposable thumbs are overrated and that guinea pigs are the ad industry's mammal of choice. Nope, it's monkeys for me.

And I'm not alone, according to a story by the New York Times, CareerBuilder spent "in excess of" $2 million for last year's three chimp commercials. They were such a hit that the company recouped the money spent on the ads in just three weeks. Office of the Apes returns with two 30-second spots during Super Bowl XL.

It's a good move, because apes 'r' us. The popular primate references that come immediately to mind include the cymbal clanging fellow welcoming you to today's blog (here's an animated version), his cousin the organ-grinder monkey, the see-hear-speak no evil chimps, a monkey's uncle, Hey Hey We're the Monkees, Tarzan's faithful buddy Cheetah (although what's up with this big cat name?), sock monkeys, Saturday Night Live's Dieter's monkey (just don't touch it) and Marcel, Ross's capuchin buddy from Friends.