In November, Stephen Hillenburg, known as the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, passed away at the age of 57. It didn’t take long for an online petition to gain momentum, calling for “Sweet Victory” to be performed during the Super Bowl halftime show as a nod to the show; the song was featured in one of its most acclaimed episdoes.
With over a million signatures, it was a serious question of whether or not the NFL would acknowledge SpongeBob in their halftime show and perform the song. Well, in the Maroon 5-led performance, the answer is... sort of.
During the halftime show, the broadcast cut to the intro of the Sweet Victory performance from SpongeBob, giving a nod to Hillenburg as well as the petition, before transitioning to Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode” performance.
While the gesture was appreciated by many fans of the show, others felt misled by the sudden cut to Travis Scott, especially considering the magnitude of the movement to perform Sweet Victory.
h/t Twitter/NFL
