Super Bowl LIII Halftime Show short

"Super Bowl LIII Halftime Show short" is a SpongeBob SquarePants NFL short. In this short, Squidward introduces Super Bowl LIII's halftime show right before the song "Sicko Mode" plays.

Characters

• Squidward Tentacles
• Eugene H. Krabs
• Mrs. Puff
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Patrick Star
• Bikini Bottomites ^(cameo)

Synopsis

Squidward introduces a musical guest, and Mr. Krabs, Mrs. Puff, Patrick, and SpongeBob are introduced in a recreation of the scene from "Band Geeks." Then an unchanged clip from the episode plays where the brass musicians play the "Send Them Victorious" fanfare, just as "Sicko Mode" begins to play.

Production

Art

• File:SpongeBob animation by Tim Prendergast.gif
• File:Super Bowl LIII Halftime Show short 009.png
• File:SquidwardSuperBowlScreenshot.png

Development

After Stephen Hillenburg passed away on November 26, 2018, fans created a petition to have "Sweet Victory" play at Super Bowl LIII to honor his legacy. Soon after the petition reached one million signatures, the Mercedes Benz Stadium tweeted a gif of SpongeBob from "Band Geeks," hinting that the show would be featured at the Super Bowl. Furthermore, SpongeBob was spotted during rehearsals for the half-time show. Rodger Bumpass recorded some exclusive dialogue for this short, and archive audio of Tom Kenny was used.

The short was created at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio by Tim Prendergast and Emily Merl, two motion graphics designers who have worked on various shorts for the SpongeBob social media accounts. Prendergast animated the characters, and Merl handled cleanup and coloring. Nico Colaleo, a former Nickelodeon employee, edited the animatic and performed temporary vocals for Squidward before Rodger Bumpass recorded his lines.

According to Colaleo, the SpongeBob crew did not know which song would play after the animation. The animators were "in the mindset" that Sweet Victory would play, but Colaleo stated that "it was the NFL's decision, and the end result was them 'meeting us halfway' on the idea all the fans came up with online."

Music

( ‣ ) Production music

( • ) Original music

( ◦ ) SpongeBob music

 ‣ Send them Victorious (B) - Graham De Wilde [fanfare]

Reception

While many outlets noted the significance of SpongeBob SquarePants being featured, many fans were heavily disappointed that "Sweet Victory" was not actually performed during the show, causing major backlash on sites like Twitter. It also caused a multitude of SpongeBob memes to spawn against the NFL, an example being an edit of of the "you used me for land development" meme, replacing "land development" with "Sicko Mode."

Trivia

General

• The short was used to introduce Travis Scott, who was performing his song "Sicko Mode."
• This and the "Nick Takes Over the Super Bowl" short were the only SpongeBob shorts to air during the Super Bowl.
  • Coincidentally, both shorts use Adobe Flash animation.
• The short aired on CBS, a sister property to Nickelodeon, as both are owned by National Amusements.
  • The season 8 episode "It's a SpongeBob Christmas!" also premiered on CBS on November 23, 2012.

Videos

File:Super Bowl SpongeBob SquarePants Half-time 🏈Show Moment Nick

File:Sweet Victory Playing At The Mercedes-Benz Stadium After Super Bowl LIII