Has anyone, besides me, found themselves truly annoyed by recent commercials? I don’t mean the kind of annoyance where you just want the ad to end so you can go back to your show, movie, or song. No, I mean the kind of annoyance that comes from having your intelligence insulted.

Back in the day, it started with commercials focused on making men look dumb, which was understandable, [just kidding, guys!] but now it is almost as is if advertisers are going out of their way to dumb down their marketing. Like they really believe our intelligence levels are this low.

In the grand scheme of things there are a lot of annoying commercials. However, in the Monica household, Laffy Taffy’s unfortunate “Thunder Pants” commercial ranks high. In this one, an obnoxious sounding little girl and a grown man share a regrettable joke; What do thunderclouds wear? “Thunder pants.” Then they both dissolve into the kind of forced, manic laughter that makes me wonder if someone wasn’t armed with a taser they weren’t afraid of using behind the scenes.

Of recent annoyance, for me anyway, is Hostess’ new tag line; “We Speakie Snackie.” Just who exactly are we marketing to with this “Speakie Snackie” nonsense?

Toddlers do not work, and they do not pay for groceries at the grocery store, so why on earth are advertisers marketing to a toddler aged education?

And another thing, why are so many commercials piloted by make believe talking animals? Anytime a talking animal is involved I immediately feel the advertiser thinks I’m stupid. What other reason could there be for foisting such lazy marketing on the American consumer?

I don’t want to buy my eyeglasses from a know-it-all owl, nor do I want to put my home and car insurance in the hands of a gecko. Why does Liberty Mutual think anyone would trust an insurance agent who travels around with a giant, dressed-up Emu?

Now, Pete Davidson is in a Verizon commercial telling us he’s scared of commitment in a ridiculous baby voice as if people can’t take one look at him and see he’s frightened by life. We don’t need you to tell us Pete, we get it.

As consumers I think we need to demand a return to commercials that are at least funny. I feel if I must watch or listen to it, I should at least get a chuckle out of it. Orbitz had it right back in the day when they were calling people “Lint Lickers” and “Cootie Queens” in their commercials. Their tagline was even a moral, of sorts — Dirty mouth? Clean it up!

I didn’t feel my intelligence was insulted, and I not only laughed, I gave Orbitz gum a try.