“Why we could compete with Jenny and Lee from Gogglebox”

Funny, annoying, entertaining or just plain puzzling. That's a short and sweeping generalization that sums up how I feel about the large amount of advertising that runs during the breaks of some of my favorite TV shows.

In our house, the adverts often generate more commentary than the programmes themselves. My partner and I think that if there was an advertised version of Gogglebox, we could give Jenny and Lee a run for our money – we make each other laugh by sharing our opinions on the often cheesy adverts on our small screens.

We are especially loud when it comes to loud things. There is an advert for instant noodles with a screaming donkey in it that really gets on our nerves.

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Another, more recent commercial for a different brand of noodles featured a horrible slurping sound, but the makers eventually apologized to those who suffered from the sound and replaced it with a more “tolerable” slurping sound. Regret? Possibly.

There are many others with crazy and annoying sound effects that are obviously designed to draw attention. We grab the remote to turn the volume down.

There's a lot of life insurance policies being broadcast simultaneously on a Freeview channel and people seem to be getting really excited about the idea of ​​everyone partying at their expense when they die. Not while I'm doing it.

It might be depressing to watch if we hadn't created our own – admittedly irreverent – versions of the voiceovers to accompany it.

Then there are the ads we like. I think any that make babies laugh are worth repeating ad infinitum.

Those that tell a story in a few precious minutes are clever and entertaining. A currently popular example is a little girl buying a bar of chocolate for her mother at the corner shop – a past and present tearjerker as she “pays” with her most prized possessions.

One advert I watched over and over as it aired for many weeks – my other half even called me through from the kitchen so I wouldn't miss it – involved a man dressed as a doughnut doing his shopping and encouraging customers not to miss out on savings at a particular supermarket (or risk being a doughnut). The punchline, “A bit rude”, as someone reached through his stomach to get to a shelf, made me laugh every time. Little things, I know.

The highlights are the ads we have to wait for every year. The anticipation and limited airtime most likely add to the entertainment factor. I am of course talking about Christmas and the big competing campaigns from well-known brands and supermarket chains.

The golden crown with the most carats surely goes to the charming little carrot that has dominated our screens for the past eight Christmases. With the year flying by, we'll soon find out if she'll be back for a ninth season with another helping of festive cuteness. Fingers crossed.