Latest / Ridiculous History / The History of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, Part Two: A World-Class Show
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Ridiculous Histories, a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the
- 0:27Speaker 1: show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much for
- 0:31Speaker 1: tuning in. We have made it through halftime on our
- 0:34Speaker 1: series pertaining to you know, the super Bowl halftime show.
- 0:40Speaker 1: That's mister Max Williams, our super producer, Max Max Max Maximus.
- 0:47Speaker 1: That's Noel Brown over there. They call me Ben Bullen
- 0:52Speaker 1: at different times.
- 0:53Speaker 2: Ben, how did you enjoy the Ridiculous History halftime show
- 0:57Speaker 2: that took place a lot in between.
- 1:01Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 1:02Speaker 2: That that magician, Holy cow, he made all of the
- 1:05Speaker 2: people in the cheap seats disappear.
- 1:08Speaker 1: Yes, yes, which is maybe a statement about class as well.
- 1:14Speaker 3: I think so.
- 1:14Speaker 2: I was very impressed with the double meaning of his
- 1:17Speaker 2: magic act.
- 1:18Speaker 1: And folks, if you have not heard part one of
- 1:22Speaker 1: our series on the history of the Super Bowl halftime show,
- 1:26Speaker 1: get thee to Thy podcast platform of choice. Check out
- 1:29Speaker 1: Part one. We're diving straight into Part two. Excellent setup,
- 1:33Speaker 1: nol because you know, we talked previously about how this
- 1:37Speaker 1: began previously on Ridiculous History. This whole halftime show thing
- 1:41Speaker 1: began with marching bands, which are still you know, you'll
- 1:45Speaker 1: still find them there. But people began to branch out.
- 1:50Speaker 1: Not everything worked immediately. There were some hot air balloon
- 1:55Speaker 1: Accidentssnan's yeah, and you set us up again so beautifully.
- 2:02Speaker 1: Can we go to the quote from Stephen Wood writing
- 2:06Speaker 1: for History.
- 2:07Speaker 3: Boy, could we ever?
- 2:08Speaker 2: Stephen Woods says, by the nineteen eighties, the Super Bowl
- 2:12Speaker 2: was must see TV, but as we mentioned previously, the
- 2:16Speaker 2: halftime show was becoming a punchline. Not even the second
- 2:20Speaker 2: jet pack appearance at Super Bowl. I'm bad at Roman
- 2:24Speaker 2: numerals XIX. Hold on, let's see, what is that twenty? No,
- 2:30Speaker 2: I don't know. No, it's not twenty. That would be xx.
- 2:33Speaker 2: What's xix? Guys?
- 2:35Speaker 1: It is nineteen, Thank you very much.
- 2:37Speaker 2: That happened in nineteen eighty five, and it couldn't shake
- 2:40Speaker 2: the malaise. Recognizing the need to change the narrative, producers
- 2:44Speaker 2: of the Super Bowl X heck, that's twenty three, right three?
- 2:48Speaker 2: Yeah xx I halftime show in nineteen eighty nine created
- 2:52Speaker 2: one of the oddest experiences in television history. Coca Cola,
- 3:03Speaker 2: of course, was the sole sponsor for a show incorporating
- 3:07Speaker 2: three D technology.
- 3:09Speaker 3: This is in nineteen eighty nine, y'all called new optics.
- 3:13Speaker 2: That's clever, it's like new optics in uop ticks its.
- 3:19Speaker 3: Got an accident.
- 3:20Speaker 1: It's extreme right right, that is not a complex Roman numeral.
- 3:25Speaker 1: That is the brand name of the technology. So here's
- 3:29Speaker 1: the idea they had, and this is familiar to anybody
- 3:32Speaker 1: who saw the rise of three D in cinema. Coca Cola,
- 3:36Speaker 1: who you know, rains here in our home state of Georgia.
- 3:41Speaker 1: Yet they got twenty six million pairs of three D
- 3:46Speaker 1: glasses and they ran, they distributed this when you would
- 3:51Speaker 1: buy Coca Cola products. They even went to print and
- 3:56Speaker 1: newspapers were running these graphic almost like IKEA level instruction
- 4:01Speaker 1: manuals on how to use how to use them, kind
- 4:05Speaker 1: of the way that the British government had to teach
- 4:07Speaker 1: people what constituted an emergency and when to call an
- 4:12Speaker 1: emergency line.
- 4:13Speaker 2: Okay, kids, it's time to put on your three D glasses.
- 4:17Speaker 3: Sorry.
- 4:18Speaker 2: Do you guys remember the Lonely Islands. I think they
- 4:21Speaker 2: got a little more famous doing SNL stuff.
- 4:23Speaker 1: No, what is comedy?
- 4:25Speaker 3: Yeah, comedy exactly.
- 4:26Speaker 2: But they back in the day had a delightful YouTube
- 4:28Speaker 2: channel and they had this like multi part spoof of
- 4:32Speaker 2: I guess the OC called the Boo and in one
- 4:35Speaker 2: of the episodes, there was like a cartoon squirrel that
- 4:37Speaker 2: was instructing the kids at the audience at home how
- 4:40Speaker 2: to wear their three D glasses, and parts of the
- 4:42Speaker 2: episode were done in three D. And I think they're
- 4:45Speaker 2: making fun of this very thing, this idea of like wow,
- 4:48Speaker 2: the future, and it's probably pretty corny and pretty.
- 4:52Speaker 1: Bad, similar to other top down tech innovations that failed,
- 4:58Speaker 1: which we should totally do an episode on. Remember three
- 5:02Speaker 1: D televisions and all the creators of those, the manufacturers
- 5:07Speaker 1: wanted you the consumer to buy them so bad.
- 5:10Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a pretty big dice roll on their part.
- 5:12Speaker 2: One that came up snake eyes.
- 5:15Speaker 1: We call it a big swing in corporate America. So
- 5:19Speaker 1: people were very interested. It was a night everybody loves
- 5:23Speaker 1: an ostensibly free gift, a bit of swag. And so
- 5:27Speaker 1: back to our pal Steven Wood, there was one bar
- 5:31Speaker 1: owner in San Francisco who wanted his customers to have
- 5:37Speaker 1: three D glasses for the game when they watched it
- 5:39Speaker 1: at his restaurant, so he bought one hundred dollars worth
- 5:44Speaker 1: of coke products. Still, there was cynicism, just like we
- 5:48Speaker 1: were describing with three D televisions in general, the cynicism
- 5:53Speaker 1: is best summed up by a guy named Bob cost Us.
- 5:56Speaker 1: We recognize him from NBC Sports, he said, he said,
- 6:01Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna editorialize too much. He said, this
- 6:04Speaker 1: is the single proudest moment of my life as he
- 6:08Speaker 1: introduced the three D show.
- 6:10Speaker 3: Hey, who are we to say.
- 6:11Speaker 2: That Bob Costas wasn't being completely sincere We didn't ever
- 6:14Speaker 2: wear as tongue was positions, you know.
- 6:17Speaker 4: Also on the side here, congratulations is Bob Costas on
- 6:20Speaker 4: his retirement. He retired after these most recent playoffs, so.
- 6:24Speaker 1: He retired peacefully. Congratulations Bob. The succession of power is
- 6:30Speaker 1: always a very dicey moment for sure.
- 6:33Speaker 2: But yeah, you're right, Ben, I think I'm being a
- 6:36Speaker 2: bit cooy. He did have a bit of a tone
- 6:38Speaker 2: when he introduced this show, a bit of a skeptical,
- 6:41Speaker 2: sort of sarcastic vibe to him. And then the show began,
- 6:46Speaker 2: be Bob bamboozled, Bebop bamboozled. Ben, what the heck is
- 6:50Speaker 2: that with featuring Elvis Presto, Ye I get it.
- 6:55Speaker 3: He is indeed a three D magician.
- 6:58Speaker 2: Maybe that wasn't his entire bag, but it was tonight
- 7:01Speaker 2: because he did magic tricks while three D little bits
- 7:04Speaker 2: and bobs flashed around behind him, and the dancers performed
- 7:08Speaker 2: nineteen fifties swinger music.
- 7:10Speaker 3: They're really doing.
- 7:11Speaker 2: A past meets future kind of thing here, all surrounded
- 7:15Speaker 2: by a computer generated revolving cars, which I'm assuming were
- 7:19Speaker 2: like old timey cars. This is very odd and spinning
- 7:22Speaker 2: planets because you know, the future space to.
- 7:25Speaker 1: Show animation capabilities. There's actually there's a little bit of
- 7:30Speaker 1: soft power in the halftime show because people across the
- 7:33Speaker 1: world will tune in to watch clips of it. So
- 7:36Speaker 1: this is also exhibiting technology to the World Expo. Yeah,
- 7:41Speaker 1: one hundreds like the World Expo and one. One guy
- 7:46Speaker 1: at this bar in San Francisco did say this show
- 7:50Speaker 1: was good by saying the following, it's good because it
- 7:54Speaker 1: keeps people glued to the TV instead of getting up
- 7:58Speaker 1: to get a beer and going to the back through.
- 8:00Speaker 2: This guy, a cowboy in San Francisco, was one of
- 8:03Speaker 2: those San Francisco cowboys you hear a lot of know.
- 8:06Speaker 1: Unfortunately, the three D viewing kind of fizzled with the public.
- 8:11Speaker 1: It's a big ask to require people to get paraphernalia
- 8:16Speaker 1: just to witness a thing. Someone said someone. An unimpressed
- 8:21Speaker 1: reviewer said, this is like watching a football halftime show
- 8:25Speaker 1: dot dot dot in the distorted reflection of an old mirror.
- 8:29Speaker 2: That's very dystopian sounding. I like that, almost like a
- 8:32Speaker 2: black mirror.
- 8:32Speaker 3: But you know it's funny.
- 8:33Speaker 2: I mean, this is nineteen eighty nine and three dviewing
- 8:36Speaker 2: experiences when put in the hands of mega capable futurist
- 8:40Speaker 2: directors like James Cameron certainly have come a long way,
- 8:43Speaker 2: but still a relatively unpleasant and not universally beloved or
- 8:49Speaker 2: adopted technology. It really has to be like a gravity
- 8:52Speaker 2: or an avatar kind of situation to get the butts
- 8:55Speaker 2: in the seats. It seems like it's a bit of
- 8:56Speaker 2: an afterthought for a lot of movies, sort of tack
- 8:59Speaker 2: it on after the fact.
- 9:01Speaker 1: Yeah, but this again, this idea of soft power, of
- 9:05Speaker 1: an opportunity to exhibit technology that never really left for
- 9:10Speaker 1: a moment. You know, people kept trying to innovate the
- 9:14Speaker 1: Super Bowl to in their minds, improve upon the formula,
- 9:20Speaker 1: and one of the big things they wanted to do
- 9:23Speaker 1: was to include more Western celebrities. And that's why in
- 9:27Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, the halftime show finally featured the new
- 9:32Speaker 1: Kids on the block in kotb Or. It would have well,
- 9:38Speaker 1: it did, but they couldn't do it live because the
- 9:41Speaker 1: Gulf War it also started. Here's what happened. I can
- 9:44Speaker 1: give you guys the skinny what the concern there that
- 9:48Speaker 1: results in the tape delay entirely comes because the US
- 9:54Speaker 1: was at a decision point or crossroads wherein it may
- 10:00Speaker 1: have been completely possible. And this is a valid concern
- 10:03Speaker 1: that news international news of disaster and military excursion may
- 10:11Speaker 1: have preempted the Super Bowl. So that's like they're putting
- 10:16Speaker 1: it on tape delay because there are active operations in
- 10:19Speaker 1: the Gulf and they're worried that things might go you know, sidewise.
- 10:25Speaker 2: Right, and that would maybe be a little bit of
- 10:28Speaker 2: a bad look to have, like the New Kids bopping
- 10:30Speaker 2: around shaking their groove things interrupted by news of you know,
- 10:35Speaker 2: some sort of disastrous tragedy involving our troops.
- 10:39Speaker 1: Let's fast forward to the next year, yeah, where we
- 10:43Speaker 1: see some catty behavior on the parts of network TV
- 10:48Speaker 1: outfits who used to be a big deal pre streaming.
- 10:52Speaker 1: So Fox did not have rights to the game and
- 10:57Speaker 1: they instead said, you know what, we can't do the
- 11:01Speaker 1: Super Bowl live. We're going to do a live episode
- 11:04Speaker 1: of a show that I loved earlier that did not age. Well,
- 11:08Speaker 1: no living color, it did not age the film, but like,
- 11:13Speaker 1: you know, like almost like a hell in de Troy
- 11:15Speaker 1: of comedy. It launched a thousand comedic ships, you know
- 11:19Speaker 1: the way in sure did amazing stuff later, Jim James Carrey, Yeah,
- 11:24Speaker 1: did amazing stuff. Uh. And also of course the fly
- 11:28Speaker 1: Girls hats off.
- 11:30Speaker 2: Well, if I'm not mistaken, j Low was an original Flyer. Yes,
- 11:35Speaker 2: definitely a big comedic kind of Hallmark for sure. But
- 11:39Speaker 2: you're right, Ben, when you go back and watch it, now,
- 11:42Speaker 2: there are some things that do not stand the test
- 11:44Speaker 2: of a political correct scrutiny. Now that I'm like all
- 11:47Speaker 2: about one hundred percent political correctness, but boy, oh boy,
- 11:50Speaker 2: is some of that stuff a little cringe.
- 11:52Speaker 1: I'm about regular correctness. Hey, you guys, I think we
- 11:55Speaker 1: both are so thanks to CBS had you know, they
- 11:59Speaker 1: had the game and in nineteen ninety two, their halftime
- 12:03Speaker 1: show that they were airing was a snow themed production
- 12:07Speaker 1: starring Gloria Stefan, whom I know we all.
- 12:10Speaker 3: Love and the beat of the rhythm of the nights.
- 12:12Speaker 1: Yeah, and two Olympic qualified ice skaters. They had a
- 12:17Speaker 1: neck and neck with the live version of In Living
- 12:21Speaker 1: Color because again it's the early nineties. People love In
- 12:25Speaker 1: Living Color well, and.
- 12:26Speaker 2: There just weren't that many choices, and that show was
- 12:29Speaker 2: such like a pop cultural phenomenon that they absolutely could
- 12:33Speaker 2: compete with the halftime show as it existed at that time.
- 12:37Speaker 2: So the organizers realized that they needed to change their
- 12:40Speaker 2: game up.
- 12:41Speaker 1: Yeah, they had to level up. And this brings us
- 12:45Speaker 1: to January thirty first, nineteen ninety three. Our pals Bonnie
- 12:50Speaker 1: Berkowitz and lazarro Gamio that we noted earlier in part one,
- 12:56Speaker 1: they say, look, yeah, had to come up with a
- 13:00Speaker 1: show that could not be ignored. You had to keep
- 13:03Speaker 1: the viewers. So they had James Earl Jones set up
- 13:09Speaker 1: the show in his best voice of God into Nation,
- 13:12Speaker 1: you know, very Flight of Dragons, very Darth Vader.
- 13:15Speaker 3: That is now owned by the Disney Corporation.
- 13:20Speaker 2: Yes, unfortunately they literally, I mean he passed away sadly,
- 13:24Speaker 2: but they will be able to continue using his vocal
- 13:28Speaker 2: likeness very legally for all time.
- 13:31Speaker 3: Very legally.
- 13:32Speaker 1: It's kind of like how don't be evil as different
- 13:34Speaker 1: from be good? So shout out to Flight of Dragons.
- 13:38Speaker 1: By the way, it's an amazing animated series about the
- 13:43Speaker 1: It's a discourse about the nature of science and magic. Anyway,
- 13:46Speaker 1: I'm walking, I'm walking down the street for it. You're
- 13:49Speaker 1: gonna love it. You're gonna love it. You should absolutely
- 13:51Speaker 1: check it out. Our buddies that stuff to blow your
- 13:53Speaker 1: mind have a great, great weird house cinema on it.
- 13:57Speaker 1: So James Earl Jones is setting up a relatively long introduction,
- 14:05Speaker 1: and the whole time he is setting up this introduction,
- 14:08Speaker 1: Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, is just standing on stage.
- 14:20Speaker 1: So James Zerl Jones, the kid of pop, half of
- 14:25Speaker 1: the Rosebolt Stadium, is just screaming. They have Beatlemania for this,
- 14:30Speaker 1: they have Jackson Media for this, and like a minute
- 14:33Speaker 1: and a half passes while this guy has to just
- 14:36Speaker 1: sort of stand there and listen to James Earl Jones.
- 14:40Speaker 2: Well, you know the thing about that is you can
- 14:41Speaker 2: look at it that way for sure. But I was
- 14:44Speaker 2: also thinking about I wasn't even including the James Earl
- 14:47Speaker 2: Jones part in my mind. He was just standing there
- 14:49Speaker 2: for a minute and a half in silence, which would
- 14:51Speaker 2: be very expensive minute and a half of television broadcast time.
- 14:54Speaker 2: But there is something powerful about the antica pati of
- 15:01Speaker 2: Michael Jackson doing his moves. Everyone knew he just loomed
- 15:05Speaker 2: so freaking large at this point, I think it's really
- 15:07Speaker 2: telling that the first big pop group that was hired
- 15:11Speaker 2: to do the halftime show were the new Kids on
- 15:13Speaker 2: the Block, who, while you know, pretty big in the
- 15:16Speaker 2: teeny bopper scene, not even remotely the level legacy you know,
- 15:21Speaker 2: you know, royalty, that is Michael Jackson, the king of pop.
- 15:24Speaker 2: So depending on how things went down, this could very
- 15:28Speaker 2: well have been their level up.
- 15:30Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think we're disagreeing. I think that's the
- 15:32Speaker 1: same page thing. Because he also has to hold for applause, right,
- 15:37Speaker 1: we have to remember that Earl Jones is coming through
- 15:41Speaker 1: a monopoly of speakers literal voices, God well literal, but
- 15:45Speaker 1: I mean the huge, massive, booming voice, omnipresent voice at
- 15:49Speaker 1: the very least for the stadium. And so Jackson, let's
- 15:55Speaker 1: let's this run through. He pauses for applause. If you've
- 15:58Speaker 1: ever done a successful live show or public performance, you
- 16:01Speaker 1: know you have to hold for applause. That's why good
- 16:04Speaker 1: comedy shows take longer. Live anyway, So not only does
- 16:11Speaker 1: Michael Jackson rock the crowd, but he also probably converts
- 16:18Speaker 1: a couple of new fans. And we'll see there's a
- 16:21Speaker 1: Jackson family legacy to the super Bowl in just a second.
- 16:26Speaker 1: But not everyone was pleased. This is also part of
- 16:29Speaker 1: the Jackson legacy, I would argue because just like Elvis Presley,
- 16:34Speaker 1: not Presto Presley, the other Elvish, Jackson was seen as
- 16:40Speaker 1: a bit too risque, a bit too vulgar because this
- 16:44Speaker 1: is in his this is in his prime of his dancing,
- 16:47Speaker 1: when he would grab his crotch and kind of thrust up,
- 16:50Speaker 1: you know, get those get those kegels in, and people
- 16:53Speaker 1: got angry.
- 16:54Speaker 2: Well, I mean remember when people got freaked out about
- 16:57Speaker 2: Elvis and Elvis. Yeah, this is like a level version
- 17:01Speaker 2: of that, because Michael Jackson's moves were pretty suggestive, you know,
- 17:05Speaker 2: the crotch grabbing, the gyrating, all of that stuff. And
- 17:09Speaker 2: I could see how this would maybe get certain parts
- 17:11Speaker 2: of Middle America and a bit of a tizzy.
- 17:14Speaker 1: Yeah, people who are bad at sex moves. Maybe maybe.
- 17:19Speaker 1: So we're a family show. This entry into the halftime
- 17:25Speaker 1: history of Michael Jackson. This is the new era of
- 17:30Speaker 1: the megastar performer. You fast forward a few years to
- 17:35Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, You've got Diana Ross, and Diana Ross
- 17:41Speaker 1: does a banger said at Super Bowl thirty and when
- 17:45Speaker 1: she leaves, she does she does a joke that, honestly,
- 17:50Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of my old friends have done.
- 17:54Speaker 1: You know how, if you're ever hanging out, this is
- 17:57Speaker 1: such a dumb joke. You see a fire truck go
- 17:59Speaker 1: by with the with the sirens blaring. I love to say,
- 18:03Speaker 1: oh crap, that's my uber.
- 18:05Speaker 2: Uh Diana rr a bit of a firebug, aren't you?
- 18:08Speaker 3: Ben? Nobody knows this about you?
- 18:11Speaker 1: Untrue allegation that.
- 18:12Speaker 3: It is untrue. I made it up entirely.
- 18:15Speaker 2: But yeah, Ross did that, but actually could follow through
- 18:18Speaker 2: with it because a helicopter descended. Uh, and she just goes,
- 18:22Speaker 2: that's my ride and then jumps onto the helicopter and
- 18:25Speaker 2: flies away. After she finished her last song, take Me Higher,
- 18:30Speaker 2: which is also going to come into play again, a
- 18:32Speaker 2: different version not of this song, but of the same name, name,
- 18:37Speaker 2: different era, same jubilant, high flying mentality.
- 18:43Speaker 1: Yeah, but I feel like Diana Ross and well I
- 18:46Speaker 1: prefer the Ross thing.
- 18:47Speaker 3: Are you saying?
- 18:47Speaker 1: Diana Ross is a better artist than Creed. Ben art
- 18:54Speaker 1: is subjective and you can enjoy what you wish. That's
- 18:56Speaker 1: also true. No, that's also true. And no, I do
- 18:59Speaker 1: think that Diana.
- 19:00Speaker 2: Us probably will go down in history a little higher
- 19:03Speaker 2: on the list of great artists than Creed.
- 19:05Speaker 3: But to each their own.
- 19:06Speaker 2: And this began with the success of these uh super
- 19:10Speaker 2: Bowl halftime shows. Began the era that we know today
- 19:13Speaker 2: where it was all about who was going to get
- 19:15Speaker 2: booked and what did that mean for their prominence their
- 19:19Speaker 2: position in you know, pop music, in pop culture with
- 19:22Speaker 2: names like James Brown, Zz, Top Boys to Men, The Temptations,
- 19:28Speaker 2: Queen Latifah, Stevie.
- 19:30Speaker 3: Wonder you had just had some Phil Collins.
- 19:33Speaker 1: Britney Spears of course, Sparry J Blige and you know
- 19:37Speaker 1: in Sync, the inheritors of new Kids on the Block.
- 19:41Speaker 1: And and the issue here is that the concept of
- 19:46Speaker 1: a solidified headliner wasn't quite there yet. The Stiliver Rioty Show. Yes,
- 19:52Speaker 1: everybody everybody in the musical acts we have just named
- 19:56Speaker 1: was functioning in collaboration with another you know, Britney Spear,
- 20:00Speaker 1: huge star, Mary J Blige, huge star, in Sync, huge group.
- 20:05Speaker 1: They all appear at the same two thousand and one
- 20:08Speaker 1: halftime show together at a point where arguably all three
- 20:13Speaker 1: of them separately could have sold out their own stadiums.
- 20:16Speaker 2: One hundred percent. And I mean they still do that
- 20:18Speaker 2: sometimes to this day. I mean the one with Usher
- 20:20Speaker 2: for example, Yeah, he was the headliner, but they had
- 20:23Speaker 2: some guests popping, you know, in and out throughout. There
- 20:26Speaker 2: were also big names in and of themselves. I want
- 20:28Speaker 2: to say Mary J. Blige was one of those.
- 20:31Speaker 4: She's shut up a couple times. So usually now what
- 20:35Speaker 4: they'll do is they'll have a headliner and the headliner
- 20:37Speaker 4: will have some other people caught up, even sometimes bigger
- 20:40Speaker 4: than people. The closest comparison I've seen recently was probably
- 20:44Speaker 4: the LA super Bowl, where they had like Snoop dogg Eminem,
- 20:49Speaker 4: Kendrick Lamar, Kendrick Lamar, they had like, that's probably the
- 20:52Speaker 4: closest one where they had like, okay, we have a
- 20:53Speaker 4: bunch of people who are big name.
- 20:55Speaker 3: That's kind of where they're going to.
- 20:56Speaker 4: They weren't like this, but like, you know, something like
- 20:59Speaker 4: the Weekend where blah.
- 21:00Speaker 1: Blah blah, right, that's always love bla blah. Was the
- 21:03Speaker 1: best comparison for someone who has somehow not seen a
- 21:07Speaker 1: halftime show. If you've seen Saturday Night Live and they're
- 21:11Speaker 1: cold opens. They will bring in cameos who are often
- 21:15Speaker 1: famous actors or comics in their own right. And that's
- 21:20Speaker 1: sort of, that's not even sort of. That is the
- 21:22Speaker 1: formula of the halftime show. You like this person, Guess
- 21:26Speaker 1: who also shows up at the bridge? You know what
- 21:29Speaker 1: I mean?
- 21:29Speaker 3: Oh sure?
- 21:30Speaker 1: And sometimes just for the bridge, just walks out in
- 21:34Speaker 1: a crazy costume with a crazy set, does a couple
- 21:36Speaker 1: of bars, and then is off to the.
- 21:39Speaker 3: Race, sometimes walking across an actual bridge.
- 21:42Speaker 1: Sometimes yes. And this is where this is another thing
- 21:47Speaker 1: about soft power, which can be projected internationally. True, but
- 21:52Speaker 1: we also see the halftime, the halftime celebration as an
- 21:58Speaker 1: attempt to unify America, including demographics of America that fundamentally
- 22:05Speaker 1: disagree on some weird things. Look, look what we're setting
- 22:10Speaker 1: you up for. Here is the other part of the
- 22:12Speaker 1: Jackson family legacy, the Boob.
- 22:18Speaker 3: Eight. It's true, it's a palindrome as well.
- 22:21Speaker 2: There have been quite a few halftime shows that definitely
- 22:26Speaker 2: were remembered and are talked about and kind of enter
- 22:29Speaker 2: the annals of pop culture.
- 22:32Speaker 3: But there is one that will probably go down in
- 22:36Speaker 3: history as one of the most infamous.
- 22:39Speaker 2: Changed my life, well, it changed a lot of young
- 22:42Speaker 2: young people's lives. I imagine Stephen Wood from History puts
- 22:46Speaker 2: it like this. If the King of Pop's performance was
- 22:49Speaker 2: one of the greatest in Super Bowl history, his sister
- 22:51Speaker 2: Janet Jackson's showing at Super Bowl thirty eight that's in
- 22:58Speaker 2: two thousand and four was the most controversial.
- 23:01Speaker 3: UH.
- 23:01Speaker 2: This was produced in conjunction with MTV, who kind of
- 23:05Speaker 2: curated a star studded UH spectacle starring Justin Timberlake and
- 23:10Speaker 2: Janet Jackson, where and during a very key line in
- 23:15Speaker 2: the song rock Your Body, Jackson removes it's kind of
- 23:21Speaker 2: it's like a removable bra kind of thing. Yeah, I
- 23:26Speaker 2: guess all bras are removable, but it's like the piece
- 23:30Speaker 2: on its own was was like almost like.
- 23:32Speaker 1: A it's like a carapace. It was. It was like
- 23:35Speaker 1: it was like a panel on a like fast fit,
- 23:39Speaker 1: so a panel exactly popped off the he popped off
- 23:42Speaker 1: the the breast panel wherein for a brief, very brief moment,
- 23:47Speaker 1: you can see an exposed breast. You can also see
- 23:51Speaker 1: if I if I recall, there was some kind of
- 23:53Speaker 1: jewelry or autremole around that nipple, a bit of a
- 23:56Speaker 1: nipple ring.
- 23:57Speaker 2: Yeah, well you know what it wasn't It wasn't a
- 23:59Speaker 2: piercing No, it was like a ring a pasty, like
- 24:02Speaker 2: a metal pasty, but kind of star like or whatever,
- 24:06Speaker 2: star like, kind of sharp looking, actually the edges, if
- 24:08Speaker 2: I remember it correctly. But Ben, wasn't there supposed to
- 24:11Speaker 2: be a tape delay on this too?
- 24:13Speaker 1: Like?
- 24:14Speaker 2: There wasn't there always a I think the FCC requires
- 24:17Speaker 2: and broadcasts and live events to there for there to
- 24:19Speaker 2: be like a thirty second delay so that the hot
- 24:22Speaker 2: little hands of people running the broadcast can kind of
- 24:25Speaker 2: censor something after the facts.
- 24:26Speaker 1: Yeah, same way you have a tape delay in live interviews,
- 24:31Speaker 1: especially if you got someone spicy who might drop a
- 24:34Speaker 1: few George Carlin esque inappropriate words. Back to our pals
- 24:39Speaker 1: Berkowitz and Gamo, they say, Jackson's right nipple was televised
- 24:44Speaker 1: forget this nine sixteenths of a second, and immediately the
- 24:50Speaker 1: FCC was on the case. There were fines, there were
- 24:53Speaker 1: public apologies, there was there were legal actions. You know,
- 25:00Speaker 1: Justin and Justin and Janet I talked like I hang
- 25:04Speaker 1: out with him, didn't agree on the narrative. They eventually
- 25:12Speaker 1: coalesced into a unified front saying, Hey, this was a
- 25:16Speaker 1: quote wardrobe malfunction, which is where the phrase enters the
- 25:21Speaker 1: American lexicon.
- 25:23Speaker 3: What a fun one.
- 25:24Speaker 2: Yeah, it would seem that the FCC would let them
- 25:26Speaker 2: be or let them be them so let them see.
- 25:29Speaker 3: They tried to shut them down on MTV.
- 25:31Speaker 2: But never mind. Sorry ye eminem was later, But yeah, man,
- 25:35Speaker 2: wardrobe malfunction. What a You know, I got to you
- 25:38Speaker 2: gotta respect people that come up with like what would
- 25:41Speaker 2: clearly be considered a spin, but also something that is
- 25:45Speaker 2: just so perfect that it just gets adopted and used
- 25:48Speaker 2: for other stuff. I mean, certainly used in a very
- 25:51Speaker 2: tongue in cheek manner the idea of a wardrobe malfunction.
- 25:54Speaker 2: Because we talked about this a little bit in the
- 25:55Speaker 2: first part of this series, or at least we raised
- 25:58Speaker 2: the question that we promised we were going to get to.
- 26:00Speaker 3: Was this accidentally on purpose?
- 26:03Speaker 1: This was definitely on purpose, as later research would show
- 26:10Speaker 1: show just like a nipple for nine sixteenths of a second,
- 26:14Speaker 1: and I would say, what we're seeing here is pr
- 26:18Speaker 1: level damage control. I also got to say, you know,
- 26:23Speaker 1: I feel like justin Timberlake's handlers told him to pretend
- 26:28Speaker 1: this was an accident, not to be too legalistic. But
- 26:32Speaker 1: their rationalization and their argument was that that panel over
- 26:36Speaker 1: the breast came off accidentally wardrobe malfunction, but it was
- 26:41Speaker 1: clearly planned.
- 26:42Speaker 2: I would argue that that wardrobe did exactly what it
- 26:45Speaker 2: was supposed to.
- 26:45Speaker 1: Do, exactly, no malfunction whatsoever. Yeah, and thank you for
- 26:50Speaker 1: being cool, guys, because that certainly rocked my world. Jenny
- 26:56Speaker 1: Jackondi is awesome. Yes, what continues. People were writing into
- 27:01Speaker 1: newspapers A lot of folks have a lot of time
- 27:03Speaker 1: back then, and one person who subscribed to a newspaper
- 27:08Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania said, look, the FCC should find Justin Timberlake
- 27:14Speaker 1: and Janet Jackson one million dollars each. The FCC did
- 27:19Speaker 1: find CBS because they were the broadcasters, so the buck
- 27:23Speaker 1: stops with them, and for a time, Janet Jackson is
- 27:27Speaker 1: unfortunately blacklisted by TV and radio stations. Timberlake gets away,
- 27:33Speaker 1: which I think is a statement about both racism and
- 27:36Speaker 1: how America treats women.
- 27:38Speaker 3: One million percent. Ben.
- 27:39Speaker 2: I mean, you know, not to be grand standing about
- 27:41Speaker 2: it or anything, but it's just it just reeks of inequality,
- 27:46Speaker 2: you know, I mean the way Timberlake was almost treated
- 27:48Speaker 2: like a boss. You know, aha, good job JT. And
- 27:52Speaker 2: Janet Jackson was treated like a pariah. Not to mention
- 27:55Speaker 2: that the whole presentation less it's called it itself is
- 28:00Speaker 2: pretty sexist and gross, right, like a dude just reaching
- 28:03Speaker 2: out and pulling off a piece of a woman's clothing,
- 28:06Speaker 2: to which she responded, if I'm not mistaken, like with shock,
- 28:10Speaker 2: feigned shock obviously, but it's almost.
- 28:12Speaker 3: Like, oh my goodness, how dare you you cad?
- 28:14Speaker 2: You know it's but it's that's that's old timey, weird
- 28:17Speaker 2: gross behavior.
- 28:18Speaker 1: Right again, Look, Timberlake is lionized for things that jan
- 28:26Speaker 1: and Jackson is philified for. Its exactly right, well put,
- 28:30Speaker 1: and this we don't want to end on this one.
- 28:33Speaker 1: Let's go to something we're very excited about. One time
- 28:36Speaker 1: true story, ridiculous historians. Our pals over at a band
- 28:40Speaker 1: called Creed had their own halftime show and it was
- 28:46Speaker 1: very much one of the most things ever.
- 28:55Speaker 2: It was a thing that happened in in sports and
- 29:00Speaker 2: entertainment history. And look at the time, you know, Creed
- 29:03Speaker 2: was huge. I think, what was this, what year has
- 29:06Speaker 2: this been?
- 29:07Speaker 1: This would have been two thousand and one.
- 29:09Speaker 3: Oh so really really just posts nine to eleven.
- 29:13Speaker 2: Also at the height of Creed's popularity in two thousand
- 29:17Speaker 2: and one, that was I think. I was a junior
- 29:18Speaker 2: in high school. I was even I was on the
- 29:21Speaker 2: Creed train in a big way. I saw them play
- 29:24Speaker 2: an arena show in my hometown in Augusta, Georgia, and
- 29:27Speaker 2: I was super on board with that record my own prison,
- 29:30Speaker 2: which was at multiple smash hits that they regaled the
- 29:35Speaker 2: assembled crowd with. At the Super Bowl halftime show, I
- 29:39Speaker 2: believe it was the Denver Broncos and the Dallas Cowboys.
- 29:44Speaker 2: Dallas did lose the game by two points, twenty six
- 29:47Speaker 2: to twenty four, but people don't really talk about this
- 29:50Speaker 2: game as much as they talk about what is described
- 29:53Speaker 2: by some as an electrifying halftime performance by Creed.
- 29:58Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, also described as a thing. So yeah, I
- 30:04Speaker 1: love that we're getting into this. Before we go into it,
- 30:06Speaker 1: we gotta give you some context, folks. Halftime shows are
- 30:11Speaker 1: not just for the Super Bowl.
- 30:13Speaker 3: Now.
- 30:14Speaker 1: You can see halftime performances in plenty of other games,
- 30:18Speaker 1: and the formula is relatively the same. Pull the biggest
- 30:22Speaker 1: celebrity who is willing to play along with you, either
- 30:26Speaker 1: actually performing or pretending to perform, which we'll get to
- 30:31Speaker 1: after this. But of course our old nemeses that we
- 30:35Speaker 1: have now buried the hatchet with Sheryl Crowe has performed
- 30:39Speaker 1: back in five we'll see you know, your Reba McIntyre's,
- 30:43Speaker 1: your Dolly Pardons and of course Pitbull because pit bulls
- 30:47Speaker 1: is everything. Yeah, mister wild Wide, honorable pit Bull.
- 30:50Speaker 4: Read how I wrote.
- 30:51Speaker 1: It and you'll see you'll see tons of different celebrities. However,
- 30:59Speaker 1: we know it's very important to our purposes tonight to
- 31:05Speaker 1: talk about the Creed performance, and we're doing so with
- 31:08Speaker 1: help from Andy Watkins writing for Pro Football Network.
- 31:13Speaker 2: That's right, lead singer as we know him. We know him,
- 31:17Speaker 2: you might love him. It's fine if you love him, Scott.
- 31:19Speaker 1: He loves I think most important thing.
- 31:23Speaker 2: I think it really is. Singer Scott Stapp took the stage.
- 31:26Speaker 2: He was wearing a custom made Cowboy Cowboys a jersey
- 31:31Speaker 2: with his own last name on the back, which is
- 31:33Speaker 2: very white. I believe it has some blue kind of
- 31:35Speaker 2: like you know, touches here and there, and the band
- 31:38Speaker 2: launched into it's not called Take Me Higher, Dang it
- 31:41Speaker 2: I was wrong, but that is the little lyric can
- 31:44Speaker 2: You Take Me?
- 31:44Speaker 3: The song is just called Higher.
- 31:46Speaker 2: However, I was just carkening back to that Diana Ross
- 31:50Speaker 2: performance where she performed a song called take Me Higher
- 31:53Speaker 2: on a helicopter down a helicopter, of course, and this was.
- 31:56Speaker 3: A big song can You Take Me her, you know
- 32:01Speaker 3: the one.
- 32:02Speaker 2: And this is the Cowboys cheerleaders bopped along in the
- 32:05Speaker 2: background and sync with the band. Y'all. I don't know
- 32:09Speaker 2: if you've seen this, but this is a really fun
- 32:11Speaker 2: couples Halloween costume where you have one party dressed up
- 32:14Speaker 2: as Scott's staff with perhaps a mobile fan blowing his hair,
- 32:19Speaker 2: and then someone else.
- 32:20Speaker 3: I'm dressed up as one of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.
- 32:23Speaker 3: Now the dudes flying around on sheets, Yeah, with the sheets.
- 32:25Speaker 3: We'll get to the sheets. That's exactly right.
- 32:27Speaker 2: So the cheerleaders are bopping around, you also have acrobats
- 32:32Speaker 2: jumping around doing somersaults in the air, pretending to be
- 32:36Speaker 2: flying whilst hanging onto these long strands of fabric, the
- 32:42Speaker 2: idea being that they were supposed to be taking wing
- 32:45Speaker 2: or what.
- 32:46Speaker 1: Very shirt dasa. So aerialists are performing, you know, very
- 32:50Speaker 1: cir Cirque Desilay, and then Creed pivots to the next track,
- 32:56Speaker 1: because again the soft power of the halftime show is
- 32:59Speaker 1: to unify a divided country towards support of football, but
- 33:04Speaker 1: also towards support of the American experience or experiment. So
- 33:09Speaker 1: Creed's next track is My Sacrifice. And during this you
- 33:14Speaker 1: could say it is sincere, you could say it is manipulative,
- 33:17Speaker 1: but it is true. They because it's two thousand and
- 33:21Speaker 1: one in the context, right, So they show rescue workers
- 33:25Speaker 1: during the horrific events of September eleventh when DC and
- 33:31Speaker 1: New York City were attacked by terrorists.
- 33:34Speaker 3: And really quickly wanted to add.
- 33:35Speaker 2: Andy Watkins, writing over at Pro Football Network, was clearly
- 33:39Speaker 2: a fan. He writes about all this stuff in very
- 33:42Speaker 2: glowing terms, describing it as emotional and patriotic, a performance
- 33:47Speaker 2: given by Creed, which was, he says, sorely needed and
- 33:50Speaker 2: unexpectedly galvanizing, which we will get to.
- 33:53Speaker 1: Yeah, here's the thing that I wanted to say. They
- 33:58Speaker 1: go to this very deep place, They the hearts of
- 34:01Speaker 1: everybody watching, everybody in the audience, and then they shift
- 34:06Speaker 1: to another song. They end with a song called Don't
- 34:10Speaker 1: Stop Dancing.
- 34:12Speaker 2: Is that doesn't sound like a Creed song. I know
- 34:14Speaker 2: what the heck is Don't stop Dancing? Is that like
- 34:18Speaker 2: Jackson five song?
- 34:19Speaker 1: It also this is why I ask whether this is
- 34:23Speaker 1: this memorial to the events of nine to eleven is
- 34:28Speaker 1: cynical or whether it is sincere because that's a weird
- 34:32Speaker 1: tonal shift.
- 34:33Speaker 3: Is not it is for sure. I don't know this song.
- 34:36Speaker 2: I don't think it was one of their hits that
- 34:38Speaker 2: has stood the test of time. But I do have
- 34:41Speaker 2: to you know, Devil's advocate here give credit? Where credits?
- 34:44Speaker 3: Do the lyric?
- 34:45Speaker 2: It is not just some sort of like totally pat
- 34:48Speaker 2: you know song to Shake Your Button.
- 34:50Speaker 1: It's the lyrics club song.
- 34:52Speaker 2: No, the lyrics are at times life is wicked and
- 34:54Speaker 2: I just can't see the light. A silver lining sometimes
- 34:57Speaker 2: isn't enough to make some wrongs seem whatever life brings.
- 35:02Speaker 2: I've been through everything and now I'm on my knees again.
- 35:06Speaker 2: Where does he say stop dancing?
- 35:08Speaker 1: Well, it's this is the one that has the Tallahassee
- 35:13Speaker 1: Boys choir. At least the idea here is similar to
- 35:18Speaker 1: I will survive, you know, like we have. We have
- 35:22Speaker 1: encountered terrible events, tragedy beyond words and we're going to
- 35:28Speaker 1: soldier through. So I think that was the aim of them,
- 35:32Speaker 1: and they found Creed's version of that song and performed that.
- 35:36Speaker 1: So look, obviously this is huge spectacle. Every time you
- 35:42Speaker 1: watch it, you you, like Max Noll and myself, come
- 35:46Speaker 1: away with another piece of observation, something new to glean.
- 35:51Speaker 1: One thing that stood out to Max about this in
- 35:53Speaker 1: particular was the fact that the Salvation Army, the public
- 35:57Speaker 1: address announcer, and Jerry Joe himself, who is often called
- 36:02Speaker 1: the Tzar of the Dallas Cowboys, they got cut off
- 36:05Speaker 1: and they got played off stage for the Creed performance.
- 36:10Speaker 4: It was like somebody who's like set that was kind
- 36:12Speaker 4: of bombing and they start playing the music or like
- 36:15Speaker 4: it's getting a war.
- 36:16Speaker 1: And they're going too long on the speech.
- 36:17Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 36:17Speaker 4: Look, they're talking about charity and Jerry Jones is up
- 36:20Speaker 4: there with his wife and like a young child, and
- 36:22Speaker 4: these women just run out and start dancing around them
- 36:25Speaker 4: and they're playing Creede over them. It's like, this is impressive,
- 36:27Speaker 4: but it's also very obvious that their lip thinking the
- 36:29Speaker 4: entire time.
- 36:30Speaker 1: Ah, that's oh, that's where I want to get to.
- 36:33Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, yeah, and I did find the lyric. It
- 36:35Speaker 3: does exist in the song.
- 36:36Speaker 2: There's one little part I guess that reats a couple
- 36:38Speaker 2: of times, but it says it literally. It's referencing the children.
- 36:40Speaker 2: It says, children don't stop dancing. Believe you can fly away.
- 36:46Speaker 1: Away hashtag Nora Kelly. Indeed, uh, this is this is bonkers.
- 36:52Speaker 1: The whole thing very American. If you if you were
- 36:55Speaker 1: trying to explain the stereotypes of the United States to
- 37:00Speaker 1: someone who is unfamiliar with this country, someone from you know, oh, Bhutan,
- 37:05Speaker 1: for instance, who has never seen a halftime show, then
- 37:08Speaker 1: show them the Creed halftime Show and say this is
- 37:11Speaker 1: kind of it.
- 37:12Speaker 4: They'll be like, I mean, maybe this gross domestic happiness
- 37:14Speaker 4: thing is not what it's cut out to be. Maybe
- 37:16Speaker 4: we should lean back in the GDP because this thing
- 37:18Speaker 4: is awesome and also terrible.
- 37:20Speaker 2: Well, I think that's the thing. I mean, it does
- 37:21Speaker 2: seem of their hearts are in the right place. Creed was, like,
- 37:24Speaker 2: you know, had had Christian roots. They were kind of
- 37:27Speaker 2: a band that kind of all of America to some
- 37:30Speaker 2: degree could rally behind because they were very popular, but
- 37:32Speaker 2: they were also more or less wholesome, and their songs
- 37:36Speaker 2: do have kind of these like a little bit pat
- 37:38Speaker 2: but uplifting messages. But I think the thing that stands
- 37:42Speaker 2: out and the reason this is memed and kind of
- 37:44Speaker 2: made into these goofy couple's Halloween costumes so much, is
- 37:47Speaker 2: it just feels very self aggrandizing on the part of Creed.
- 37:52Speaker 2: You know, it's like we are here to bring a
- 37:55Speaker 2: to heal America with.
- 37:56Speaker 1: A rock you know, Scott Staff with a Messiah complex
- 38:00Speaker 1: say it ain't so, he said sarcastically. There's there's also
- 38:05Speaker 1: this one thing we have to I know several of
- 38:08Speaker 1: us were listening through this week's series and you're wondering,
- 38:14Speaker 1: like we have in the past, how often are these
- 38:17Speaker 1: performers actually singing versus how often are they lip sinking? Now,
- 38:23Speaker 1: In their defense, a lot of musicians, outside of halftime shows,
- 38:28Speaker 1: especially if they're known for dancing and choreography, they work
- 38:32Speaker 1: with backing tracks for sure. You see it all the time.
- 38:36Speaker 1: Well they'll have you know, their ad libs or their
- 38:38Speaker 1: chorus come in behind pre recorded, and then it's happening
- 38:42Speaker 1: because they're doing complex moves.
- 38:44Speaker 3: For sure.
- 38:45Speaker 2: I mean these days right, sure thing, yeah, and see
- 38:48Speaker 2: these days, I mean, artists don't even really try to
- 38:50Speaker 2: hide it as much. I mean, remember back when being
- 38:52Speaker 2: caught lip sinking would have like tanked your career.
- 38:55Speaker 1: Shout out Millie Vanilli, Milli.
- 38:57Speaker 2: Vanilli or Ashley Sims on ESA now, which that was
- 39:01Speaker 2: truly embarrassing because it was a whole incorrect song that
- 39:05Speaker 2: was triggered and then she just kind.
- 39:07Speaker 3: Of awkwardly does a little jig on stage.
- 39:10Speaker 2: It was just absolutely it's one of the most cringeworthy
- 39:12Speaker 2: things you can watch. But you know, artists like Britney Spears,
- 39:15Speaker 2: massive productions and incredibly physical dance routines. It's not even
- 39:18Speaker 2: really a secret or an open secret. It's just a
- 39:21Speaker 2: thing that is done. And there are certainly parts of
- 39:24Speaker 2: shows where the artist will sing. But also, like you know,
- 39:26Speaker 2: Charlie XCX, he's one of the biggest artists ever right
- 39:30Speaker 2: this second. She doesn't live sing, but everything she does
- 39:33Speaker 2: is through auto tune. That's like a feature, not a bug.
- 39:36Speaker 1: And kudos to you, Charlie, because I loved I loved
- 39:40Speaker 1: your performance on the recent Saturday Night Live where she's
- 39:44Speaker 1: very open about that fun, very cool and a very
- 39:47Speaker 1: talented actor with the lip Syncin conversation goes on and on,
- 39:53Speaker 1: we could say I believe we could say that now
- 39:57Speaker 1: many many audience members for any live show are there
- 40:01Speaker 1: to see a performance, to have a spectacle and experience.
- 40:05Speaker 1: You can listen to the song get Home. You're there
- 40:07Speaker 1: for something different.
- 40:08Speaker 3: I mean, unless you're Adele or something.
- 40:10Speaker 2: Who is not up there doing crazy gymnastic dance moves
- 40:14Speaker 2: and who is her stock in trade is her voice
- 40:18Speaker 2: and doing this absolutely live raw vocal performances, or.
- 40:21Speaker 1: Like Tom Waits, who would just you're there to experience
- 40:27Speaker 1: this guy the magic really eclectic and weirdy. So it
- 40:31Speaker 1: would be interesting if he ever lip SYNCD for sure.
- 40:34Speaker 3: And I you know, it makes me think it would
- 40:36Speaker 3: be really fun.
- 40:37Speaker 2: Maybe we should add us to the list now to
- 40:39Speaker 2: do a history, a ridiculous history of lip syncing.
- 40:43Speaker 1: Yeah, why not? Because it goes back to uh ooh,
- 40:47Speaker 1: it goes back to a lot of things. Lip Syncing
- 40:49Speaker 1: as a way of deceiving an audience is an ancient art.
- 40:54Speaker 1: You see it in religion as well, right, exactly, all right,
- 40:58Speaker 1: let's put in the voice of God speaks through me
- 41:00Speaker 1: pre James Earl Jones. One of my favorite examples of
- 41:05Speaker 1: lip syncing a kind of a kind of bite of
- 41:09Speaker 1: the thumb to shout out Shakespeare comes with the Red
- 41:13Speaker 1: Hot Chili Peppers. When they did super Bowl forty eight,
- 41:18Speaker 1: that's XLVII for all of us playing along at home
- 41:23Speaker 1: when they did when they came out here, they didn't
- 41:26Speaker 1: plug their guitars in. They said, why are we going
- 41:29Speaker 1: to bother to act like we're actually playing the song?
- 41:33Speaker 1: And flee who is just this amazing, very sincere person.
- 41:39Speaker 1: Two days after the Super Bowl is twenty fourteen, he
- 41:43Speaker 1: said the NFL had encouraged the frontman, Anthony you know
- 41:49Speaker 1: Tony Anthony Keatis, to sing live during the show, but
- 41:53Speaker 1: then told the rest of the band that they would
- 41:56Speaker 1: have to pre record an instrumental track and still up
- 42:01Speaker 1: and so for the Chili's for the Chili Peppers, they said,
- 42:05Speaker 1: why do we want to perpetuate a charade.
- 42:07Speaker 3: The pep PEPs.
- 42:08Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny too because this, you know, in music,
- 42:11Speaker 2: especially with like live bands, there is sort of a
- 42:14Speaker 2: bit of a fraught history with this kind of stuff
- 42:16Speaker 2: because like television shows where bands would perform, most notably
- 42:20Speaker 2: like Top of the Pops in the UK, the bands
- 42:23Speaker 2: are always required to lip sync to their songs, and
- 42:27Speaker 2: some bands would actively protest against this, like Nirvana, I
- 42:31Speaker 2: think they're doing come as you Are, and if you
- 42:33Speaker 2: watch the tape from that, they're pantomiming playing guitar really
- 42:39Speaker 2: poorly and just kind of like Kurt Cobangs just sort
- 42:43Speaker 2: of opening his mouth like you know, wide on for
- 42:46Speaker 2: every part and it's just so punk rock.
- 42:48Speaker 1: And there are other examples of folks just being on board.
- 42:51Speaker 1: The Chili Peppers incident speaks to I think speaks to
- 42:57Speaker 1: their character. At least Flees Care because he was so
- 43:01Speaker 1: candid about this. With his candor, he pulled back the
- 43:04Speaker 1: curtain on one of the worst kept open secrets of
- 43:09Speaker 1: the Super Bowl halftime, which is that artists do often
- 43:12Speaker 1: rely on pre recorded instrumental tracks, if not additionally pre
- 43:17Speaker 1: recorded vocal tracks.
- 43:19Speaker 2: You know, and I will say, just to look at
- 43:21Speaker 2: both sides that you know, having done live sound and
- 43:25Speaker 2: things in my previous life, like I understand from the
- 43:28Speaker 2: production standpoint, how this would be a lot writing on it,
- 43:32Speaker 2: a lot writing on it, a lot of quick changeovers,
- 43:35Speaker 2: you know, a lot of variables that they maybe just
- 43:38Speaker 2: want to mitigate as much as possible. So but then
- 43:41Speaker 2: you have, you know, performances like Prince where it's just
- 43:45Speaker 2: a centerpiece, full live band.
- 43:47Speaker 3: That is what you're signing up for. That is what
- 43:49Speaker 3: you're getting, and you know every moment of that.
- 43:52Speaker 2: Also, you know, Prince would never participate in anything where
- 43:55Speaker 2: he was lip syncing or doing anything like that.
- 43:57Speaker 3: That's just not his that's not his vibe.
- 44:00Speaker 2: So you do get some really epic, you know, live
- 44:02Speaker 2: performances eventually in the Super Bowl halftime show.
- 44:06Speaker 1: Absolutely, And of course it's easy, with the immense privilege
- 44:10Speaker 1: of retrospect, to look back and you know what do
- 44:13Speaker 1: we call it to be the Monday morning quarterback about
- 44:16Speaker 1: how a show should have been performed or how it
- 44:19Speaker 1: could be tuned up. But in this case, what we're
- 44:22Speaker 1: seeing again is a fascinating piece of ridiculous American history
- 44:28Speaker 1: that continues today. Thank you so much, folks for tuning
- 44:31Speaker 1: in and joining us on this journey. Big big thanks
- 44:34Speaker 1: yes to our super producer mister Max Williams, who co
- 44:39Speaker 1: wrote this research brief, big big thanks, of course to
- 44:43Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland aka the Quister. He wants to go on,
- 44:48Speaker 1: he wants to do a halftime show. I think if
- 44:51Speaker 1: we start a petition maybe he'll do it.
- 44:53Speaker 4: Oh Strickland, The Rolling Stones halftime show of podcasts.
- 44:58Speaker 3: I love it. It's very very true.
- 45:00Speaker 1: Hearing the colons in that title.
- 45:02Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I love hearing the good colon. Huge thanks
- 45:04Speaker 3: to aj Bahamas, Jacobs the Puzzler.
- 45:07Speaker 1: Yeah, big, big thanks to Rachel Big Spinach, Lance, Chris
- 45:10Speaker 1: Rossiotis Eve's Jeff go here in spirit? Who else?
- 45:14Speaker 3: Who else?
- 45:14Speaker 1: Who else? Other than oh of course Scott from.
- 45:17Speaker 2: Creed, Thank you, and our personal Scott from Creed Alex
- 45:22Speaker 2: Williams to compose this bang and.
- 45:23Speaker 1: Bob nice nice. So we hope everybody is enjoying Thanksgiving times.
- 45:31Speaker 1: Please please, if you are ever at ever at a
- 45:35Speaker 1: decision point, or you have some questions about how to
- 45:38Speaker 1: have awkward conversations with your family, check out our episode
- 45:43Speaker 1: on stuff they don't want you to know how to
- 45:45Speaker 1: talk to your family during the holidays.
- 45:48Speaker 3: We'll see you next time, folks.
- 45:56Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, app podcasts,
- 46:00Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.