Spongebob Made An Appearance At The Super Bowl Halftime Show & Nothing Was The Same

It's a rare occurrence when something during the Super Bowl truly catches my attention. Look, I'm here for the commercials, but other than that, everything about the big event can be sort of hit or miss, at least IMO. The football game itself could be a nail-biter, or it could feel like it drags on for 10 hours. The halftime show could be stellar, or it could make your eyes glaze over. Well, if you ask me, Super Bowl LIII did not disappoint with its halftime performance. I mean, freaking Spongebob appeared at the 2019 Super Bowl halftime show. Like, best nostalgia moment ever???

You can judge me all you want for still having a very childlike obsession with SpongeBob SquarePants, and for being genuinely excited to see a short, yet brilliant clip from the Nickelodeon show air during Maroon 5's Super Bowl halftime performance. This is a hill that I am more than happy to die on.

Besides, it looks like it looks like I have some company on that hill, seeing as how I'm far from the only one who was psyched to see Spongebob share the stage, in a sense, with Maroon 5 and Travis Scott during the Super Bowl halftime show.

Granted, Spongebob's time onscreen during the halftime show was, well, a bit short-lived. When fans on Twitter saw the yellow sponge — you know, the one who lives in a pineapple under the sea? — for only a brief few moments, and subsequently realized that the camera had already cut to focus on Travis Scott's halftime performance, they were more than a bit let down.

Fans couldn't believe Travis Scott — or anyone, really — had the audacity to "interrupt" Spongebob during his big moment. I have to agree, it was kind of a load of barnacles.

Look guys, at least we're getting some very high-quality memes out of this whole situation.

In case you're not quite sure why Spongebob made an appearance at the Super Bowl halftime show in the first place, the recent death of SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg sparked a Change.org petition for the song "Sweet Victory" — which originally comes from rock artists David Glen Eisley and Bob Kulick, but is now often associated with SpongeBob SquarePants thanks to the iconic episode "Band Geeks" from the hit Nickelodeon show — to be played/performed at the Super Bowl LIII halftime show. And, well, the petition actually worked: Over 1.2 million people signed, and bam, just like that, Maroon 5 and Travis Scott honored the late SpongeBob creator with a tribute to the song — or, you know, a really short tribute, at least. Hey, I'll take it.

In a statement sent to Elite Daily, Isreal Colunga, who started the petition on Change.org, said,

It was surreal to celebrate Stephen Hillenburg’s legacy on such a grand stage. I created the petition on Change.org as a bit of a pipedream and it kind of just took off. We had over a million signatures, reached the front page of Reddit multiple times and my friends wouldn’t stop sending me links of news coverage. This really is a testament to both how beloved Spongebob is and the power of everyday people when unified behind a goal. I want to thank everyone for the support and especially Change.org, this wouldn’t have been possible without their platform. I guess, when I think about it, this dream ending fits with Spongebob’s eternal optimism.

And personally, that — i.e. "Spongebob's eternal optimism" — is exactly why I lit up when I saw the yellow sponge onscreen, even if it was only for a few seconds.

Michael Jones, Change.org managing director, added in a statement,

The 1.2 million signatures and passion for this petition make it very clear that when fans get behind something, the results can be incredible. We’re thrilled to call Isreal’s campaign a ‘Sweet Victory.’

I'd maybe amend that to a "Short And Sweet Victory," but still, it's a "Sweet Victory" nonetheless.