Spotlight: Meet the Hoopers, A family in chaos

Spotlight: Meet the Hoopers, a family in chaos

This is the issue at hand: It is highly, highly, highly suspect that Mr. Hooper and Mrs. Hooper, through sexual congress, created Kevin Hooper. And it is also highly, highly, highly suspect that The State Farm Agent and Kevin Hooper are not somehow tied together, given that they look so much alike. That means something is afoot. Some possible explanations:

The Looper Theory: This one asserts that The State Farm Agent is the future version of Kevin Hooper. He escaped back in time after an attempt to kill him went awry. He moved into the house next to the Hoopers to watch after the younger version of himself to make sure he stays safe from anyone else sent back in time to kill Young Kevin because that would, in turn, kill the current version of himself. Or something. I don’t know. Time travel is stupid and confusing. 

The Dead Wife Theory: This one asserts that Kevin Hooper was actually originally born as The State Farm Agent’s son. They were a young family of three. It was the mom and the dad and the son. But then catastrophe struck: In a horrible and impossible to avoid accident, Kevin’s mother was killed. The State Farm Agent fell into despair. He was inconsolable and also unable to care for Baby Kevin. Child Protective Services was going to remove Baby Kevin from the home. The Hoopers, having seen all of this take place, offered to take Baby Kevin into their family. And so they did. After years of counseling, The State Farm Agent was able to correct the trajectory of his life. He thought it’d be too traumatizing to tell Kevin about everything, though, so now he just exists as an overly eager neighbor, watching his son grow up from just out of arm’s reach.
 
The Dead Parents Theory: This one is essentially the same as The Dead Wife Theory except in this one The State Farm Agent is Kevin’s older brother instead of his father.   
 
The first theory is a bit too fantastical to feel true. The last two theories are a bit dark, which I guess makes sense because this whole series is a commercial for an insurance company, and one time an insurance company ran an ad about dead children during the Super Bowl, so I suppose they could be true. But I think the truth here is simpler, because the truth generally is. So, a better explanation:

The Infidelity Theory: This one asserts that early into her marriage to Mr. Hooper, Mrs. Hooper had an affair with The State Farm Agent. Kevin Hooper was born of that.

The five Meet The Hoopers commercials they’ve shown so far are fat with evidence that this is the correct theory. Let’s go one by one through each.

 

Commercial: Meet the Hoopers
 
This is the commercial where we’re introduced to everybody, and so the very first image we see in the Meet the Hoopers campaign is a group portrait of the family, and that would make sense given that the commercial series is about them. But look closely. There are several Easter eggs in the picture that hint at the turmoil the Hoopers are hoping to keep hidden. There’s:
 
(1) The Baby: See his look of consternation? Everyone else is smiling because everyone else is old enough to understand the importance of appearing happy. Not the baby, though. He can’t hide his hurt. There was probably a scene a few minutes before this picture was taken where he asked why Kevin looked so much not like anyone else in the family and so they told him that Kevin had a different dad and now Baby Hooper’s mad that Kevin gets to be included in the picture. Babies are always doing selfish and hurtful shit like that. 
 
(2) The Scarlet Letter: Look at Mrs. Hooper. What’s the first thing you notice about her? Because I’ll tell you what the first thing I notice is: That bright red sash that runs across her blouse. It looks a lot like when they made Hester Prynne wear that bright red adulterer’s A on her chest in The Scarlet Letter. And now look at Kevin, the alleged result of Mrs. Hooper’s alleged affair. Bright red belt. That can’t be a coincidence. I mean, who the fuck wears a red belt?

Grandpa Hooper also has touches of red in his outfit (the overalls), which to me suggests that he was possibly complicit in the affair. Maybe he encouraged Mrs. Hooper to cheat? Maybe he’s always had an issue with Mr. Hooper and was hoping that the affair would be enough to force the two apart? (Baby Hooper is probably just wearing red because he needed to match the other three.)
 
The only one not wearing red in the picture is Mr. Hooper. It’s because he’s the victim here. He probably made Mrs. Hooper and Grandpa Hooper wear that red (he probably bought that belt for Kevin, too, though Kevin is likely unaware at this point that anything is amiss). It’s their secret shame. He’s forcing Mrs. Hooper and Grandpa Hooper to wear their disgrace in their family photo rather than acknowledge it directly. Sometimes keeping something hidden is worse than just talking about it.
 
(3) Hands: Look at Mrs. Hooper in that photo again. Notice her hands? See how she’s holding the left one in front? There should be a ring there, but there’s not. Mr. Hooper is wearing his wedding ring. Where’s Mrs. Hooper’s? Mr. Hooper likely took it after he found out about the infidelity, then told her to make sure her ring-less hand is showing in the picture, same as how he made her wear that red.

We’re literally one second into the campaign and this shit is already a fucking Breaking Bad-level of nuanced complexity. 
 



 

Let me point out three more things that happen during the first commercial that support The Infidelity Theory’s thesis statement.

(1) Image to Audio Correlation, pt. 1: There’s a whole history of academic text on the relationship in movies and TV shows and music videos and so on between the images shown on screen and the words that are said aloud while those images play.The first thing we hear the first time we see The State Farm Agent is "The all-star family…" He’s literally standing there with everyone else the first time we hear the word “family.” That’s not an accident. It’s a subtle clue that he’s wrapped up in all of this.

One more thing here: Notice his shirt? The biggest and brightest red available. They’re basically throwing this shit in our faces now. And to extend that point…

 



 

HIS WHOLE FUCKING HOUSE IS RED!!!! This motherfucker was probably sleeping with every wife in the subdivision. What a sleaze. Also, notice he lets himself into the yard? A metaphor for how he lets himself into the bedrooms of the women in the neighborhood as well, I’m sure. This all fits together too perfectly for it to be a bunch of coincidences.

 



 

(2) The Adulterers, Together: The first time we ever see Mrs. Hooper and The State Farm Agent together on screen they’re both wearing red and also her gloves are red and also he’s holding a red thing and, I mean, come on. They might as well be wearing signs around their necks.

Also, I’d like to point out that they’re working together here trying to rescue the remains of a burned dinner, which is likely another metaphor. The burnt food represents either the affair between Mrs. Hooper and The State Farm Agent since they’ve been caught or it represents the relationship between her and Mr. Hooper. It’s getting easier and easier to make out these grayed lines of betrayal.

 



 

(3) Image to Audio Correlation, pt. 2: The last thing we hear in the commercial is “It’s the Hoopers!” and as it’s being said Mrs. Hooper is shooting a no-look shot at the rim behind them, but in doing so the basketball knocks the first “O” out of “The Hoopers” and then that “O” crashes into the house, destroying it. It’s both a symbolic and literal display of the way she’s wrecked the family’s name and the house. Also, to swing back around to the beginning of all of this, the commercial opened with just a shot of the official family members and now, after having given us very many hints, it closes with a new shot of the family, this time including The State Farm Agent. 

This is some Sherlock Holmes shit, my dude. 

 

Commercial: The Hawks and the Hornets
 
This is the commercial where Mr. Hooper tries to give Kevin the sex talk. Kevin initially shoots him down, but eventually agrees to it once Mr. Hooper dangles the prospect of adding Kevin to the insurance so he can drive. This one is used to establish that Kevin already suspects that something strange is going on and that maybe his dad ain’t really his dad after all. Four things to point out here.





 

(1) Kevin’s Laptop: As soon as Mr. Hooper walks into the room Kevin closes his laptop. An easy joke to make here is that he was looking at porn. But look at Kevin’s face. That’s not an I Nearly Caught Looking At Porn face. He doesn’t look afraid or embarrassed. He looks nervous and worried and slightly enlightened. I suspect he was looking at either The State Farm Agent’s Facebook page because he’s begun to suspect that something isn’t right, or he was looking at Amazon trying to find some sort of made-for-home DNA test so he could sort everything out on his own. Either way, he didn’t want Mr. Hooper to see his screen because that wasn’t a conversation he was prepared to have just yet.

(2) Kevin’s Statement: “Dad, I’m not gonna talk about that with you.” That’s what he says when Mr. Hooper expresses interest in talking to him about sex. I’d initially thought he was bucking back because that’s just what teenagers do when their parents try to talk to them about anything serious, but there’s just too much emphasis placed on the word "you" when Kevin says it. He says it like maybe there’s someone else he’d rather have the sex talk with. Like his real father. 







(3) The Ring: Mr. Hooper is very clearly wearing his wedding ring in this picture. I’m mostly just pointing this out because I said he was wearing a ring in that family portrait earlier and I’m trying to prevent a whole bunch of "How could you even see Mr. Hooper’s ring???" emails and tweets and whatnot. Sometimes people are not very chill. 







(4) The Knights: Look at the poster on the door and also the one directly above Kevin’s head. They’re both of a red knight battling a blue knight. I think it’s pretty clear at this point that the red knight represents The State Farm Agent and the blue knight represents Mr. Hooper. That’s the only reason those pictures are there. It has to be. I’m saying, when’s the last time you asked a boy what he wanted as a birthday present or whatever and he was like, "I’m really into knights right now. Anything knight-related would be great." Never. Kids don’t like that shit. And yet, there they are in the room. Nothing is an accident. 

 

Commercial: Robbed



This is the commercial where Mrs. Hooper is convinced the Hoopers have been robbed. It’s also the one where we finally get the highly contentious Mr. Hooper vs. The State Farm Agent guy confrontation we’ve been waiting for. This shit is a goddamn modern day Greek tragedy, man. I am so invested in it. 





 

(1) Image to Audio Correlation, pt. 3: We got another great example here. This time, after frantically running down the stairs to the living room, Mrs. Hooper exclaims, “We’ve been robbed,” and just as she’s finishing her statement we’re shown The State Farm Agent. The commercial is supposed to be about how Mrs. Hooper thinks a burglar has robbed her family of some jewelry, but really it’s about how Mrs. Hooper thinks her affair with The State Farm Agent has robbed her family of something far greater: their sanctity. 

(Also, that motherfucker is still wearing red.) 
 
(2) Mr. Hooper’s Reminder: After Mrs. Hooper declares that her rings have been stolen, Mr. Hooper responds, “You ain’t got no rings.” She doesn’t have any rings, engagement or wedding, because Mr. Hooper took them after he found out about her infidelity. He’s reminding her of that, and he’s upset he has to do so.







(3) The Confrontation: After seeing the back and forth between Mr. and Mrs. Hooper, The State Farm Agent senses a moment. He stands up and says, “Don’t worry, Mrs. Hooper. If you ever do get a ring State Farm can cover your jewelry in case of a robbery.” That’s him offering himself to her again. "I have a ring for you, Mrs. Hooper. I still love you, Mrs. Hooper. Let me escape you from the dull domestic hell you’re in, Mrs. Hooper. Run away with me, Mrs. Hooper." Mr. Hooper responds with a very wonderful If You Don’t Sit Yo’ Bitchass Down look. 





 

(4) Baby Hooper’s Plea For Peace: The forgotten person in all of this is the baby, and I didn’t realize it until this commercial when, after Mrs. Hooper and Mr. Hooper talk about her not having a ring, Baby Hooper very heartbreakingly mutters, “I want a ring.” Really what he’s saying, though, is he wants happiness. He wants love. He wants to live in a home that isn’t filled with quiet disdain. The sadness shrapnel hits a bunch of innocent bystanders when a marriage is withering. 🙁

 

Commercial: No Good Clippers

This is the commercial where Grandpa Hooper is looking for a pair of clippers to cut out some coupons he’s found. Five things here:
 
(1) Once again, we see The State Farm Agent letting himself into the home of the Hoopers, same as when we’re shown him letting himself into their yard. I fucking hate this guy, man. I spent, like, twelve hours watching these commercials and I just have true and very real black hole in my heart for him. Also, notice that Kevin sees him come in. Look at his face. Poor Kevin has unraveled the mystery. There’s a clear discomfort there. 
 
(2) Grandpa Hooper’s Jab: Frustrated at not being able to find a pair of scissors, Grandpa Hooper shouts out, “I can’t find one good clipper in this house…” He’s supposed to be talking about scissors, but really he’s talking about Mr. Hooper and Mrs. Hooper, both of whom he feels contempt for now. 

(3) A Relationship Worth Salvaging?: After picking up on Grandpa Hooper’s sly disrespect, Mr. Hooper fires back, “I’ll bet you if you look hard enough you’ll find two good clippers…” and this tells me that despite the obvious rockiness of their relationship, Mr. Hooper is still in love with Mrs. Hooper and hopeful of an eventual reconciliation. I’m hoping for it too, if I’m being all the way honest. But I’m not 100 percent sure it’s going to happen, because as Mrs. Hooper is agreeing with Mr. Hooper we see a shot of her literally caught in between The State Farm Agent and Mr. Hooper. Look:







Evil on the left. Good on the right. Only perceptible for a split second. This is truly masterful cinematography from the director. 

 



(4) The State Farm Agent’s Snake Move, pt. 1: Early in the commercial as Grandpa Jones is barking, we see The State Farm Agent in the background offering donuts to the family. He approaches Mr. Hooper first, which he’d like for us to believe is him showing deference. Has he finally realized that wrecking this family is an unsavory act? Has he grown morality? Is this a genuine nicety? No. It’s a smokescreen. Because…







(5) The State Farm Agent’s Snake Move, pt. 2: As soon as The State Farm Agent sees that Mr. Hooper is distracted with his paper and donut, he approaches Grandpa Hooper and makes mention of how the clippers aren’t necessary because the coupons aren’t necessary because State Farm can save him plenty of money. "Don’t worry, Grandpa Hooper. I can take care of your daughter, Grandpa Hooper. I want to take care of your daughter, Grandpa Hooper. Help me win her, Grandpa Hooper."

What a snake. What a real fucking snake. 

 

Commercial: Droppin’ Dimes

This is the commercial where Baby Hooper and Kevin Hooper film a rap video. There are only two things I’ll like mention here. 







(1) The Look: Look at Mr. Hooper’s face. There’s no happiness there. There’s no glee. That’s not the face of someone watching his son having fun and expressing himself through music, which is a great thing to see when you’re a dad. That’s the face of a man looking at a love child born from an affair between his wife and the man standing next to him. That’s the face of a man who’s trying not to kill someone, anyone, everyone. I have so much respect for Mr. Hooper for not just hauling off and cracking The State Farm Agent over the head with a lead pipe.  

(2) "Kevin, where’d you get all them dimes from?": That’s what Mr. Hooper shouts at Kevin Hooper as Kevin drops a bunch of dimes all over the place. I know where Kevin got all those dimes from. I’m sure you do, too, now. Here’s a screenshot from the extended version of the "Droppin’ Dimes" music video on State Farm’s YouTube channel:







The Infidelity Theory is the right one. The State Farm Agent is Kevin’s dad. And he’s still actively trying to ruin The Hoopers. 

We’ve met the Hoopers. Now it’s time to save the Hoopers.