The Promise
Being that most of NFL’s fans are now people who grew up watching Spongebob, we all expected something big from them. Even the parents of those who grew up watching it love Spongebob too! Earlier in the year there was a petition for the NFL to put in “Sweet Victory” in the halftime show. As you could imagine, many people signed it, and I’m sure the NFL did recognize it at the time. There were over 1 million people who wanted to see magic happen on that field. We waited through the first half, as did everyone else in America.
News articles everywhere started writing about this. If you scrolled through Facebook you would see photos about it, and multiple articles asking, “Will Spongebob’s ‘Sweet Victory’ be played during Super Bowl 53’s halftime show?” Over time the petition started going viral, spreading to every 90’s baby in America.
The Reason
On November 27th, 2018 America was stunned by the death of Stephen Hillenburg. Nickelodeon tweeted that afternoon about the loss of their beloved friend, and fantastic writer. The reason this was such a shock to everyone because Stephen was only 57 years old. There was a possibility that not everyone knew Stephen had ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). This is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. Eventually those who have it will no longer be able to move or take care of themselves.
We all wanted “Sweet Victory” to play during the halftime show in remembrance of Stephen. As said before, we were all shocked by his death, and felt as if he needed one last hoorah. We will always remember the man who created a great cartoon, but he deserved more than what the NFL actually played.
The Show
Every year we are promised the best halftime show the NFL could give us. We got to watch Maroon 5 (one of my favorite bands), Travis Scott, and Big Boi. Maroon 5 was the best part of the show, and they played their most famous songs. The NFL also thought it was good to add two other Rappers. I’m not sure if anyone else felt the way I did about them, but I didn’t know the Rappers at all. I’ve heard of Travis Scott once, but I have never heard of Big Boi in my life. The songs they sang didn’t seem relatable or that great to listen to during a concert. I have read some of the comments on the video I put in below, and one person brought up the fact that this concert was performed more like a regular concert rather than something special. I agree with them, because this is one of the biggest music events of the year, and people have payed thousands of dollars to be there.
If you watch the video, you will see there is a solid 10 seconds, if even, of “Sweet Victory” being played. This angered many people because we got to see how much they didn’t care about what the audience wanted. We wanted “Sweet Victory” to be played to take a moment and remember a great person who created and wrote a cartoon while being ill. While we appreciate the fact that they did use a small clip from the episode, we feel they used it in the wrong way. They used it to bring in a completely different artist rather than using it to start at least a small part of the song.