Fans were promised a nod to SpongeBob SquarePants at the Super Bowl this year, and while they got it, they aren’t too pleased about the delivery.
It had been teased before the Super Bowl that the halftime show was going to feature a tribute of some kind to SpongeBob SquarePants. Fans had started a petition for this to happen as a way to honor Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of the series, who passed away in November of last year.
Fans were especially hoping to see the tribute in the form of a reference to “Sweet Victory,” a song which is performed by SpongeBob and friends in an arena, making it perfect for the Super Bowl.
The halftime show yesterday did have a short reference, and it was a nod to “Sweet Victory.” During the show, a brief clip from that scene was shown and then, when fire started raining down in the SpongeBob clip, special effects made it look like a fireball was about to hit the stadium. Out of the fire, Travis Scott emerged in flames on stage.
Here’s the full show:
The official SpongeBob SquarePants twitter account even said thanks for being included in the show. While some people are loving the tribute and thought it was really pretty cool, other fans didn’t love it so much.
Best part of the whole halftime show was Spongebob opening for Travis Scott
— Josh Hart (@joshhart) February 4, 2019
So honored and humbled! Thankful for being included and for all our fellow sea creatures 💛💛 pic.twitter.com/F8lesQvDBz
— SpongeBob (@SpongeBob) February 4, 2019
Overall, fans were pretty disappointed in this so-called tribute. They felt like it was shorter than it should have been and that it wasn’t really a tribute to “Sweet Victory” at all, especially since it led into Scott’s “Sicko Mode” rather than a remix of “Sweet Victory.” Of course, fans found ways to use hilarious memes to express their feelings of annoyance and disappointment.
When they cut away from spongebob pic.twitter.com/sRrz1bPyKI
— Leaf (@LayLeaf0) February 4, 2019
Me after Maroon 5 teased playing “Sweet Victory” from the spongebob band episode but then didn’t play it... pic.twitter.com/Y549IuPKt1
— VVolves🐺 (@LittleVVolves) February 4, 2019
Super bowl to Spongebob fans: pic.twitter.com/PUP1Ys95iy
— 💖💙💜Elise 💖💙💜 (@troubledmn) February 4, 2019
It does seem like a bit of a missed opportunity. The set-up was there for the song to be played, and many people were excited and expecting to hear the song after seeing the quick SpongeBob scene.
At the same time, Travis Scott wasn’t really featured in the show that much at all, so it makes sense that he wanted to sing one of his own songs instead. At the very least, his entrance was definitely pretty exciting to watch.
It would have been great if at least one of the artists featured in the halftime show would have done at least a short part of “Sweet Victory,” but that’s not how it turned out. This show with headliner Maroon 5 seemed overall pretty short and less impressive than many were hoping for.
What do you think of the SpongeBob SquarePants portion of the halftime show? Share with us in the comments!