Here’s a news flash: The Super Bowl is the biggest single-contest sporting event in the world — in terms of betting, legal and otherwise.

In Las Vegas, where sports books range from lowly offices on a street corner to swanky places like Caesars Palace and the Las Vegas Hilton, Super Bowl Sunday is almost like a national holiday. Fans will stake out seats at the big places overnight, and the casinos routinely stage lavish parties for high rollers.

Everyone is familar with the standard point-spread wager available the on the game, as well as the over/under bet on the total points scored. For entertainment purposes only (wink, wink), we provide you the latest information on this year’s line: Packers favored by 21/2 points, and the total 441/2 points.

But those are boring, often as boring as the game itself, recent Super Bowls notwithstanding.

So some enterprising sports book operator a few years back, in an effort to gain some publicity and separate a few more suckers from their money, came up with an array of proposition bets, now simply known as “props.”

Some of these bets are straightforward, such as how the first points of the game will be scored — rushing touchdown, passing touchdown, a TD some other way, field goal, or safety. Others key on a particular player, such as the number of passing yards Aaron Rogers will have. Some are a little more bizarre, such as how long the National Anthem will last from the first note to the last.

Or this one that the Hilton posted last year: Which would be greater — the rushing yards from the Saints’ Reggie Bush, or the combined points, rebounds and assists by Lamar Odom of the Los Angeles Lakers? The common bond for this bet was, of all things, Kim Kardashian — she was dating Bush at the time, and Odom is her brother-in-law. (Someone at TMZ put the Hilton up to this stunt.)

Props are now so popular that many books offer them on nearly every game. And some of the “sharps” — the bettors who actually make a living off sports betting — actually prefer these to the normal bets, because they are hard for the books to handicap accurately.

So what? I like the entertainment value. The crazier, the better.

With that in mind, here are a few wacky prop bets for Super Bowl XLV. Some are real, others are only a figment of my imagination — at least for now.

Odds of Jimmy Johnson’s hair moving anytime on screen Sunday: 50-1 against.

Will Christina Aguilera wear a cowboy hot while singing the National Anthem? 3-1 against.

Number of times Frank Caliendo will exclaim “Boom!” in his pre-game impersonation of John Madden: Over/under 2-1/2.

Number of remarks about Terry Bradshaw appearing nude in the move “Failure to Launch”: Over/under 1-1/2.

Who will Fox announcers say has better hair: Troy Polamalu or Clay Matthews? Pick ‘em.

Will a punt hit the “Jerryvision” overhead screen at Cowboys Stadium? 10-1 against.

How many times will your drunk neighbor spill his beer? Over/under 3-1/2.

When your significant other will ask, “How much longer does this game last?”: Before/after 13:15 of the third quarter.