I was talking to a friend about how conservatives spend half their time complaining about popular culture (like “Avatar”) and how it’s destroying the nation’s reserve of Hayekian modesty. I was wondering the other day: do I ever hear liberals talking this way? The answer is “yes”, it’s something olds of every stripe enjoy doing, but it’s fair to say that liberals restrict it to casual conversations whereas conservatives like to write columns where they treat the popularity of “Girls” and Lil Wayne as signs of the apocalypse.
I realize K-Lo (via) may be an extreme example of course:
I don’t want to linger on this, but last night’s Super Bowl half-time show was ridiculous — and gratuitously so. Watching Twitter, it was really no surprise that men made comments about stripper poles and putting dollar bills through their TV sets, was it?
Why can’t we have a national entertainment moment that does not include a mother gyrating in a black teddy?
The priceless moment was Destiny’s Child reuniting to ask that someone “put a ring on it.” As I mentioned on Twitter last night, perhaps that case might be best made in another outfit, perhaps without the crotch grabbing.
Also too: I wonder why conservatives do so badly with younger voters and with women voters in general. Quite a mystery.
JGabriel
K-Lo:
There’s really something kind of adorable in the idea of Kathryn Jean Lopez calling anyone else “gratuitously ridiculous.”
.
Handy
Young people, minorities and women should be flocking to the GOP. It it the biggest mystery of our time.
schrodinger's cat
I have suggestion for K-Lo, she should move to Afghanistan, where women are covered from head to toe, especially after the troop drawn down.
Sloegin
Hayekian? Izzat when a hyena yaks something up all over the floor?
trollhattan
To K-Lo’s credit, she edited her original post, which read, “gyrated like a black teddy.”
Wag
I would have thought the right would be celebrating the sentiments behind “put a ring on it” instead of freaking out about it.
Maybe its the messanger. Let’s see if we can get someone a little more
whitewholesome to sing the message…schrodinger's cat
BTW what did the conservatives not like about Avtar? I thought it was fairly inoffensive.
Robin G.
I admit, I was a little taken aback by Beyonce’s performance last night. I thought we were moments away from another Wardrobe Malfunction. But it takes self-loathing misogyny to jump from “that was unnecessary” to open slut-shaming.
OT, but I finally watched Game Change last night. I thought it was well acted, but at first wasn’t sure why it needed to be made. It didn’t seem to have a higher purpose other than interesting political gossip. Then the husband pointed out that it could be viewed as an allegory for the current state of the Republican Party, with the soulless win-at-any-cost old guard GOP cynically opening to door to the true crazies, thinking they would be useful tools, only to watch in horror the rubes took control and would, as the Tea Party, hellishly devour the Republican party. I don’t know if the movie was actively going for that, but I like it.
Betty Cracker
You don’t have to be a conservative who gets the vapors at the sight of a leg-and-fanny number like Sister Inviolatte of NRO to hate the Super Bowl halftime show. I’ve hated it for years, and last night was no exception. I despise the contrived spectacle of it all, the phony concert-goers with their choreographed jazz hands. It just sucks.
redshirt
@schrodinger’s cat: Hippies, white guilt, alien Indians, ecological rights, etc.
flukebucket
The first Super Bowl that I have a very clear memory of was when Namath and the Jets beat the Colts. I could not help but laugh last night thinking about how much the half time shows have changed. I had no idea that the woman singing was the same woman who lip sycned the national anthem. I had no idea that there was some connection between Destiny’s Child and Beyonce. The half time show was a hell of a lot better than the Go Daddy kiss commercial. Man, that was wretch inducing.
catclub
@trollhattan: So instead of Black Jimmy Carter, its Black Teddy Roosevelt? Huh!
Wag
@schrodinger’s cat: Too Green and anti-land raping.
Citizen Alan
@schrodinger’s cat:
Anti-military. Anti-corporate. Pro-environment. Thinly disguised allegory about U.S. genocide of Native Americans. For a conservative, what’s not to love?
trollhattan
@schrodinger’s cat:
IIRC they got a whole “worshipping nature instead of gawd” vibe from it, and rooted for the dudes shootin’ down the big Tree o Satan.
dedc79
Beyonce tried a version with “If you like my personality and respect me and want to spend the rest of your life with me in a coequal relationship then you and I should talk about marriage, because this relationship will not get any more phyical until we are married” but it didn’t work as a chorus.
Poopyman
With a title like that I was expecting this to be a gardening thread. Now, get offa my lawn.
Politically Lost
I live in a deep blue state in the deepest blue portion of that state. (So blue its got blue balls turning purple, as in coast wine country. In fact, I was at a superbowl party last night with the founders of a 60’s-70’s era commune, a.k.a. my family.) And, yes. The olds (and I am agitated to know that I’m entering that stage of life) talk the, “kids these days,” and “oh, my god they’re putting that on TV…”
However, the key difference that I see is that it is mostly tongue and cheek, and they care much more deeply about how they raise their own children and are not so much worried about how other people take care of their families. In other words, the liberal olds that I know worry about their own values and let the culture do what it does without getting huffy about it.
Betty Cracker
@schrodinger’s cat: Haven’t seen any conservative critiques of Avatar, but the evil corporate greedheads vs virtuous natives meme seems tailor-made to offend them.
redshirt
@Betty Cracker: Agreed. They should instead highlight kick ass marching bands. Much more traditional, sincere, and fun.
But then I remember the SB is half about football, half about getting non-football fans to watch.
My sister yesterday: When is Beyonce coming on?
jackmac
K-Lo misses “Up With People” as halftime entertainment.
grape_crush
…it was really no surprise that men made comments about stripper poles and putting dollar bills through their TV sets…
Because women aren’t supposed to look, act, or feel sexy unless they’re hoores or strippers, according to the Gospel According to K-Lo.
Why can’t we have a national entertainment moment that does not include a mother gyrating in a black teddy?
Because the Amish don’t watch a whole lot of teevee.
Because the national entertainment industry figures that, if a viewer is offended by the sight of a sexy woman, that viewer is smart enough to remember how to operate a remote control.
Maybe the Puppy Bowl would have been the national entertainment moment that K-Lo’s looking for?
redshirt
The hoe is the best of all outdoor tools. I will argue this point vociferously.
Citizen Alan
I was not ecstatic over the Beyonce halftime, but it was a damned sight better than the Black Eyed Peas. And call me a heretic, but it was also better than Bruce Springsteen creaking around the stage and then sliding his crotch into the camera.
Betty Cracker
@flukebucket:
Word! I almost tossed a Triscuit.
Cacti
@schrodinger’s cat:
I thought Avatar was offensive for a different reason…
Rehash of the white messiah story, with blue-skinned aliens standing in for brown-skinned people.
Robin G.
@schrodinger’s cat: The conservatives had different complaints, but the White Man Is A Better Native Than You theme offended a lot of our side, myself included.
Arm The Homeless
Does Lil’ Wang really reresent some subset of this generation?
One day SoCons will realize that the easiest way to nueter pop culture is to make it banal. Convince him to do milk ads or Jiffy, then let American culture do what it does best to entertainment figures: tear them down.
JGabriel
@schrodinger’s cat:
bECAUSE YER A COMMIE, YOU lIBTARD!
aVTIR WAS A
GROTESKgROTISQEUGLEE DEPICSHUN OF CAPITALISTS AS EVIIIL! aND OF BLU ILLEGALS AS COOL REVOLOOSHUNARIES!i WOOLD NEVER TAKE MY KIDS TO SEE THAT SOSHILLIST PRO-ILLEGALS GARBIJ!
COMMIES!
.
quannlace
You beat me to it. The ‘Uppies’ could perform one of their self-penned songs, like ‘What Color is God’s Skin?”
Nemo_N
I think liberals take it too far to the other extreme; popular culture as the bringer of all good social change.
It gets creepy at times since sometimes liberals think there is no substantial difference between media and reality.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: Their outrage meters are sensitive, it is easy to trip them with the most innocuous of things.
BTW why does one need a half time show? Isn’t the game, entertainment enough?
Cacti
@jackmac:
Elvis Presto in 1989 was K-Lo’s high water mark for Super Bowl halftime entertainment.
Noskilz
I assume there’s a hypocritical Samuel Pepys angle to much of it. And there’s also playing the family values card to enhance their stature as serious folk.
Andrew
@Cacti:
Yeah. Avatar is super racist bullshit AND it’s basically just Disney’s Pochahontas (hella racist in its own right) in space. I loathe that movie.
TOP123
On a Dre-produced Westside roll with two posts in a row, I see…
Poopyman
@redshirt: I wouldn’t go that far, and certainly not with hoes they make these days. Those 19th century hoes, now, that was a tool.
Doug Galt
@Citizen Alan:
Black Eyed Peas were awful. I’m somewhat Bruce-phobic but I thought he was ok.
They should just have Prince do it every year. He burned the place down.
gian
I thought the two broke girls ad with the stripper pole would’ve been the too sexual thing that prudes would find offensive
El Caganer
I’m trying really hard to give a shit what K-Lo thinks. And failing.
Tokyokie
@grape_crush: Are you kidding? All the participants were nekkid! I know they tried to put tutus on the hedgehogs, but they shamelessly kept shucking them.
JGabriel
@Nemo_N:
The reality is the message.
.
aimai
@Betty Cracker:
I agree but the first duty of a lady–as I understand from Peggy Noonan–is to avert your eyes and walk on by. I’m such a god damned lady I’ve never watched a superbowl or a half time extravaganza. I also have phenomenally low blood pressure. Coinkydink? I think not.
Citizen Alan
@schrodinger’s cat:
There are no other sporting events happening at the same time to allow the network to cut away for a “halftime report” (which is what usually happens during a football game’s halftime), and they can’t realistically have thirty minutes of commercials. Ergo, put a heavily advertised mini-spectacle on during the middle of halftime to keep people bored with the first half from leaving altogether.
NonyNony
Given how Twitter works, doesn’t this say more about the people that K-Lo has chosen to follow than anything else?
I didn’t see anything like that in my G+ feed. Though honestly, my G+ circles are mostly comic nerds and gaming geeks and don’t seem to have noticed that there was a football game on last night at all…
Citizen Alan
@Doug Galt:
The amazing thing about the Black Eyed Peas show was that there were all these songs that I’d always hated but had never actually realized were Black Eyed Peas songs. So now, I hate them twice as much.
LGRooney
@grape_crush:
That was my thought. Isn’t that more a problem statement for what’s going on in the heads of the men (or conservatives)?
Robin G.
@Doug Galt: This. Prince was the best halftime show I’ve ever personally watched.
redshirt
@Poopyman: I see your point, but there are high quality hoes out there today. They can be had for not much more money than your Made in China crap. You just got to know where to look.
schrodinger's cat
@Citizen Alan: OK that makes sense.
McJulie
@Doug Galt: My comments: “Huh. Well, I guess it’s still not as bad as the Black-Eyed Peas.” and, “You know, the more Superbowl halftime shows I watch, the more amazed I am by Prince.”
Bubblegum Tate
@schrodinger’s cat:
In addition to all the other stuff others have cataloged, wingnuts claimed it was “anti-troops” because of course they did.
NorthLeft12
@Betty Cracker: One of the few half time shows I have ever watched and enjoyed, was Sheryl Crow at Pittsburgh in the 2002 AFC championship game. She debuted “Soak up the Sun”. It was just her and her band, playing a great song in a perfect setting [it was freezing but very sunny]. The crowd got into it spontaeneously. No prompting/bribes required.
Cacti
@Robin G.:
FSM agreed and sent rain for Purple Rain.
SatanicPanic
Maybe all those Republicans are right- it’s not the message it’s the delivery that needs work. Because Beyonce’s songs actually are pretty reactionary but it’s not hurting her sales. Maybe if they could get Rick Santorum to wear a leather outfit and do sexy dances they’d have more luck.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Andrew:
Avatar was basically a remake of Dances with Wolves with Smurfs.
grape_crush
@Tokyokie: I know they tried to put tutus on the hedgehogs, but they shamelessly kept shucking them.
Took me a second to realize that you were talking about the Puppy Bowl and not making a double entendre…
…that being said, it looked like the kitties were well-groomed, if not shaven.
schrodinger's cat
@Bubblegum Tate: OK now I remember, I had forgotten about the movie and the various critiques. I thought it was an OK movie B+ not too bad neither was it earth shaking. I remember M_C loved it.
ruemara
Meh. Still love Avatar, still loathe K-Lo.
Cacti
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
The lack of a pompous Kevin Costner was also an improvement.
lamh35
OT, but what is going on with John McCain $ some racist tweet he sent??
Citizen Alan
@grape_crush:
Not to defend prudish douchebags at all, but I didn’t watch halftime live, and when “Beyonce/stripper” comments started showing up on Facebook, I just assumed it was sexism. Then, I went back and watched it and realized that, no, she was, in fact, literally peeling off her clothes and flinging them into the audience before finishing the rest of the show in a black leather/lace teddy and stiletto heels. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I’m pretty sure the producers were intentionally going for a stripper aesthetic, so I can’t complain too much about people who notice and comment on it. If Justin Timberlake had done the halftime and started by stripping down to leather undies before doing similar choreography, I’d say the same thing.
Heliopause
Oh, I don’t know. George Carlin, for instance, basically made an entire career out of complaining about how stupid and destructive popular culture is, and every left-leaner I ever met gobbled it up. His farewell address, if you will, was telling Keith Olbermann, “this country is finished, it’s been sliding downhill a long time, and everybody’s got a cell phone that makes pancakes so they don’t want to rock the boat, they don’t want to make any trouble. People have been bought off by gizmos and toys in this country and no one questions things anymore.” Perhaps the real difference is that lefties can at least laugh about these things.
FlipYrWhig
@gian: Of course that was also a joke about how Super Bowl ads are gratuitously sexxxay. A joke in turn somewhat undermined by the sexiness of the actresses, but, uh, I ain’t complainin’. If they wanted to make the same point more comically, CBS should have asked Melissa McCarthy to do the same routine, although I don’t trust that they would handle that quite right either.
Flying Squirrel Girl
@Andrew: I hated it for those reasons, AND the foreshadowing rearview mirror shots. Really? In the future when giant robots fighting vehicles will do the heavy lifting for us, we will STILL rely on goddamn rearview mirrors?
redshirt
I was disappointed with the Kitty Halftime show this year. First – creepy dude who hosts a show on Animal Planet? Didn’t need to hear from him. But more importantly, the cat’s didn’t seem into it. [hipster] I remember back when Puppy Bowl was cool, man, and the cats would go absolutely bonkers when they dropped the confetti. This year, meh. [/hipster]
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Flying Squirrel Girl:
Cameron also copped out by making the aliens a little too human…
Woodrowfan
(deleted)
Watched Puppy Bowl instead. puppies rock! Could have done without the comments by the “stars” of Animal Planet’s “reality” shows tho.
pajaro
Nemo,
We liberals just can’t win. I thought we were the totebaggers who were watching foreign films while listening to NPR.
Roger Moore
@redshirt:
Rusty pitchfork.
redshirt
@lamh35: He compared the President of Iran to the monkey they apparently shot into space last week. Funny stuff from Gramps McTireswing.
SatanicPanic
Prince was the best that I have ever seen, Beyonce was the best in the last five years. Who was worse- The Who or Black Eyed Peas?
Joey Maloney
@SatanicPanic: Maybe if they could get Rick Santorum to wear a leather outfit and do sexy dances they’d have more luck.
MY EYES!
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Does Hayekian mean “has no” or “false”? The US is one of the least modest countries, period. We’d brag about being the shittiest country in the world if that is what we were best at.
wasabi gasp
George Clooney needs to suck the donut glaze from her lips in a GoDaddy spot.
ranchandsyrup
Too hung over and chicken wung over to think about Gin and Juice, Doug.
Teh Facebooks scolds are making a meal out of the halftime. I saw numerous conservatives railing on about the skimpiness and moral decay. I saw one liberal from the Bay area say,
this reply cracked me up:
ETA, great example of how BOTH SIDES DO IT ignores the nature and extent to which both sides actually DO something.
schrodinger's cat
@Certified Mutant Enemy: Star Trek had the same problem, hence we had different types of forehead aliens.
Quicksand
@jackmac:
Fixed, or something.
scav
The Down with Hos Hoedown is one of the cherished traditional dances of the piously worthy who have the authentically sourced pick-up trucks to prove their credentials.
jp7505a
@Politically Lost: I’m old enough to remember when Elvis on the Ed sullivan show caused TV sets all over the county to explode.
Self-Righteous Little White Guy
If only Mitt Romney had won, we could have enjoyed an Osmond Family Jubilee! /KLo
freelancer
@lamh35:
It’s pretty goddamned awful.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Cacti: Which could be said to be the same for John Carter, Batman, Superman. If Avatar was a White man messiah, destroying everything was a pretty messed up way to do it. I thought it was more of a story about someone deciding he was on the wrong side and fixing his mistakes.
Flying Squirrel Girl
Is it just me or is there always a brouhaha over the halftime show when the entertainment happens to be female and non-white? The last time I remember this kind of kerfuffle was when Janet Jackson was the halftime entertainment. I’m no Black Eyed Peas fan, but I’m *pretty* sure Fergie dresses pretty provocatively too, right?
jibeaux
@Betty Cracker: Seconded. Personally, I’d love to see Rhiannon Giddens, who has about the best pipes in the business, get up there in her jeans and long tunic shirts and braids and just sing like a freaking angel to a silent stadium, but that’s in a different universe.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
If only they’d book Lawrence Welk to do the halftime show this country would be in a much better place.
Hoodie
Gimme a break,that halftime show was pretty mild, not that much more skin than you’d see in a Busby Berkeley musical or Olympic ice skating. The music at these things sucks anyway, so why not have someone dancing around who is at least attractive in a non starved-supermodel way? Is K-Lo pissed because a “mom” can do that, i.e., because Beyonce has two legs up on her sorry ass?
Roger Moore
@Quicksand:
No difference. Corporations are people, my friend.
FlipYrWhig
@ranchandsyrup: Yes, one can only feel utter shock that a broadcast football game included incidences of violence and sexualized images of the human female. Also, I daresay that the foodstuffs advertised were themselves something short of wholesome. That’s why I only allow my hypothetical child to watch other children playing noncompetitive hopscotch while eating lentil chips wrapped in reusable cheesecloth.
Suffern ACE
Yes. Liberals are known to keep their pop culture critiques to themselves. Nickelback is awsome!
grape_crush
@LGRooney: Isn’t that more a problem statement for what’s going on in the heads of the men (or conservatives)?
Yes. But to be fair, it happens in the heads of women and non-conservatives as well.
jibeaux
@gian: That’s what I watched and said, damnit CBS, I’m watching this with my son. Beyonce is at least doing something athletic and impressively choreographed, not just sliding down a pole.
kindness
I had Dark Side of the Moon blasting during 1/2 time. About 1/4 of the way through the game it got the commercial time too. At that unplanned 1/2 hour light outage I switched over to Let It Bleed.
Bobby Thomson
I think a lot of you are forgetting that in addition to being a blatant ripoff of Dances with Wolves, Avatar came out before the troop draw down in Iraq – and it didn’t take much imagination to see parallels.
Flying Squirrel Girl
@jibeaux: I’m sure Rhiannon’s “look” would be just as offensive to the same people complaining about Beyonce’s look, they’d just have to find something beyond “slutty” to rationalize it.
ranchandsyrup
@FlipYrWhig: You can always take your hypothetical child to hypothetical dyke week just to belt and suspenders it.
Roger Moore
@Suffern ACE:
I think there’s a clear difference between “Nickelback sucks!” and “Nickelback is a Canadian scheme to destroy America!”
handsmile
@Noskilz:
Samuel Pepys!? Sir or madam, this is a Balloon Juice thread! If you insist on dragging the English Restoration into things, I suggest you try Crooked Timber right down the Intertubes hallway on the left.
mir13
Loosen up, K-Lo Baby. You’re too uptight. How do you expect to propagate the species without a liberal amount of crotch grabbing?
Also too; Puppy Bowl ROCKS!
jibeaux
@Flying Squirrel Girl: I dunno, I think people are fairly comfortable with the concept of biracial and A-A female singers by this point. Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson both looked fantastic and wore actual clothing.
peach flavored shampoo
K-Lopez Translator: I hate skinny black women with talent and money.
I’m surprised she didn’t pontificate about how many foodstamps Beyonce blew buying that outfit and microphone.
Punchy
I see your bet, and raise you.
Flying Squirrel Girl
Ah well this is true. I am only seeing negative things about Beyonce’s performance today, haven’t seen much of anything about Keys and Hudson. (Full disclosure: there was a game of some sort last night?)
redshirt
Who’s gonna write the first article tying the halftime show to Obama’s destruction of America?
I mean, he brought the lip-synching phony on stage first!
West of the Rockies
@Betty Cracker: For me, it was the way-too-loud kissing noises and that guy’s marbled-pink face. Yuck. Okay, so I guess I’m shallow for commenting on the guy’s appearance, but it has always struck me as a strange dynamic when (typically the guy) thinks, “She should love me for who I am; I’m witty and intelligent.” And yet the girl such a guy typically goes for is not being noticed for her wit and intelligence. Weird double-standard. Also, too, it pisses me off when I see a young couple out on a date and she is in heels and a cocktail dress and her hair and make-up are impeccable; meanwhile, he shows up in dirty board shorts, flip-flops, and a “Bite me” tee-shirt.
J R in W Va
@Robin G.:
Me Too!!
I wondered what the heck he thought he was doind when he “changed” his name to “the artist formerly known as Prince” and then soon after to the Ankh symbol, which isn’t even speakable.
Then I found out it was because of a contract with a terrible record company which wasn’t prepared to allow him to produce records with songs he liked, and which eventually expired. So now he’s Prince again, the contract finally expired, and the record company couldn’t have the music he produced while known as “Ankh”.
So that made sense, just dirty record company bizyness. He gets the music going and has a beat, and is pretty good looking too. Maybe the NFL could come to an agreement with him to be their half-time host, like Pink and Hank and Faith hosted Monday Nite / Sunday Nite football
Emma
@Nemo_N: How many liberals do you really know? Because I know a hell of a number and none of us have ever expressed the idea that popular culture is always a force for good. Hell, let’s talk about 24. Big pop culture success as an apologetic for torture. I think you would find it hard to get a liberal to approve of it as a force for good.
jibeaux
@Flying Squirrel Girl: It’s not really my thing, but it was hardly something new and wildly different from any other SB halftime show. Madonna, Prince, Janet Jackson, these are supposed to be examples of restrained sexuality? I just happen to like Jennifer Hudson’s whole look a lot better.
Ted & Hellen
The core problem remains the same as it has been for many, many decades: THE DOUBLE STANDARD.
If Justin Timberlake stripped and gyrated while “singing” in a half time show that was a mirror image of Beyonce’s, he would be crucified and mocked and abused by all but some women and all gay men.
This double standard is in evidence on every national and most local tv news shows as well: The men are in suits and ties; the women are only 3/4 dressed, often showing cleavage and bare shoulders/arms.
Why are male news readers with nice bodies expected to cover up when women do not?
Sexual objectification is a natural human behavior, but here we are in 2013 and it’s still only really OK for it to go in one direction.
Why is that?
Higgs Boson's Mate
Didn’t see Beyonce’s performance, but if K-Lo is against it then I’m all for it – whatever it was.
West of the Rockies
By the way, off-topic, but I see that Tagg Romney is mulling a run for Senate. Isn’t that great: I’m sure he just wants to give back to his country. It can’t have anything to do with the power and money that would go rolling his way, right? Just another privileged white money-pig thinking he has a god-given right to whatever he wants.
Flying Squirrel Girl
@J R in W Va: I once heard him referred to as “The artist formerly known as The artists formerly known as Prince.”
Ted & Hellen
Holding breath to see if I will be banned for the above comment…
scav
@handsmile: Pish. I somehow think Samuel Pepys would have vastly enjoyed Beyonce, perhaps not even resorting to double code to expess it. He’s good and varied and flawed enough company that I’d rather keep him here if at all possible.
Besides, we’ve already dabbled in Richard III today so skipping Restoration would hardly be fair.
Citizen Alan
@McJulie:
Yeah, I remembered that Prince was great, but I just went back and watched it, and I had totally forgotten that he performed it in the rain!
West of the Rockies
@Ted & Hellen: Well, Ted & Helen, there were those Calvin Klein underwear ads featuring some thoroughly-waxed guy scowling with brooding, puffy-lipped disdain at the camera. It goes both ways, but the majority of sexual objectifaction images do certainly involve women.
Rosalita
Every year the half time show has to out-do the last one. I’ll hand it to Beyonce, she didn’t look like she was going to fall off her high heels like Madonna did last year. But other than that, meh. Jezebel’s reference to her butt doily made LOL.
I agree The Purple One was the best. Half-time is for getting something to eat anyway, right?
Emma
@Ted & Hellen: Have you ever seen the Beckham underwear ads? Oh, wait a minute, I have an idea for a great half-time show….
J R in W Va
@Flying Squirrel Girl:
Dirty F’n Hippy! AmIrite?
Suffern ACE
@Rosalita: I thought compared to Madonna’s show, Beyonce showed some restraint. Where were the hunky greek soldier dancers carrying her Cleopatra boat into a mass of a funky marching band? This was just Beyonce giving a concert.
jp7505a
I’ve always wondered, whither the skimpy underwear, loud music, flashing lightS, fireworks, sweaty male and female backup dancers are really meant to distract from the fact that most of these folks can’t sing very well.
I know a lot of the 50’s and 60’s pop icons could not sing that well, but at least the act didn’t look like a Victoria’s Secret commercial.
FSM, I’m getting (gotten) OLD
SatanicPanic
@Ted & Hellen: Why are you going to get banned for that? I know you know the answer to your question because it’s right there in your comment:
These people, for the most part, don’t own TV stations.
SatanicPanic
@West of the Rockies: You just know there were HOWLS across the nation that CBS ran that ad.
JenJen
I’ve been wanting to write something about this for hours, but I seriously can’t stop laughing.
SmBuckeye
Different time and context, but U2 halftime in 2002 by far best. We usually skip the actual one and just watch U2 and cry.
schrodinger's cat
@Ted & Hellen: Two words Freddie Mercury. I have seen him in concert (on TV/ you tube etc,unfortunately not IRL), shirtless. And I don’t think anyone cared.
West of the Rockies
@jp7505a: Agreed, jp… I personally found no musical hook (melody) in the music I heard yesterday. Beyonce struck me as a very well-rehearsed performer who knew all her marks, where to look into the camera, etc., but (for me), something was lacking. She’s evidently a great business woman, and scads of people find her to be incredibly talented and entertaining. I guess I’m just getting old, too.
trollhattan
@Ted & Hellen:
It is because men and women respond differently WRT things sexual.
You’re welcome.
Southern Beale
I dunno, we liberals spend a shit ton of time, column inches and bandwidth complaining about Rush Limbaugh and Fox News destroying the country.
Anyway, an amazing thing happened in Tennessee today: I just found out that we don’t have to abide by ANY state law! Isn’t this fabulous?
Bokonon
Who ever said that pop culture is “liberal”, anyway?
Pop culture stands for one thing only – money.
And Jo-Lo’s own beloved paragons of virtue in Corporate America show this all the time in their advertisements and programming. Their political views are divorced from their sales efforts.
For example, consider the level of groundbreaking raunch in Fox’s sitcoms and cartoons.
One other thing … nothing can be ever be as bad as the Black Eyed Peas halftime show. NOTHING. Not even another appearance by “Up With People”.
Baron Elmo
Conservatives would respond with “Liberals don’t NEED to complain about popular culture, because they totally and unfairly dominate said culture (insert rants about sluts, gays, black people and Oliver Stone) and they’re rooting for society to crash and burn anyhow.”
I never fail to be astounded by the inability of right-wingers to understand this simple fact: creative artists tend to be liberally inclined. T’was ever thus. The endless celebration of the appallingly mediocre Ayn Rand is proof of how the conservative world clings to its handful of popular successes like grim death.
Some of my favorite wingnut reads are articles where the author makes the dubious claim that YES, there are right-wing artists galore out there, but the meanie cultural establishment keeps them squashed down and impotent. Roger Simon has made a career out of this kind of crap.
Uncle Ebeneezer
Tom Petty was the last great Halftime show imo. The Who sounded awful. Bruce looked silly doing flips and power slides. Aerosmith is just creepy nowadays (though I loved their 70’s stuff). And every one of the more modern acts have just been ridiculously over-produced Pepsi ads.
El Caganer
@Ted & Hellen: No question there’s a double standard. Still, I’d find it a bit jarring if I tuned in to the six o’clock news and the weather guy showed up in a breechclout.
handsmile
@scav:
With Pepys and Beyonce, you might well be onto something:
“Anon there came one there booted and spurred…And by and by, she being in her hair, she put on his hat, which was but an ordinary one, to keep the wind off. But methinks it became her mightily, as every thing else do. The show being over, I went away, not weary with looking on her…” (from Saturday 23 August 1662)
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1662/08/23/
And come to think of it, perhaps his Diaries were just a 17th-century blog.
Brachiator
Best part of the entire Super Bowl, for me.
Some liberals like to complain about Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift or anything that is not the creaky old shit that they think is classic rock, or something like it.
@Bokonon:
This is America. Practically the only culture that anyone knows or cares about is popular culture.
But the best pop culture endures. Also, many musicians got into jazz, blues, rock, for the money and the girls (and the boys). And there ain’t nothing wrong with that as long you deliver the goods.
Uncle Ebeneezer
Speaking of conservative attitudes: I spent much of the weekend watching Ken Burn’s “National Parks.” When the idea of protecting our national treasures came up for debate, it was striking how few Conservatives actually prioritized conservation from an environmental/resource perspective. But as John Muir put it, anything that can generate a dollar is at risk.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@schrodinger’s cat:
Star Trek at least had the excuse of budget limitations…
Seanly
I watch the Superbowl for the football game which was pretty boring until after the lights came back on.
I hardly ever watch any of the halftime shows and didn’t like what tiny bit of Beyonce’s performance I did see. Her outfit was rather typical fare for performers.
I hated the GoDaddy ad (too much Foley art on the literal face sucking) and thought the farmer ad was much more repugnant. There are many, many other countries where people live & die their entire lifes as farmers. Not everything allegedly “good & wholesome” was defined by some hard-scrabble BS remembrance of life during the Dustbowl. I thought it was going to be some Christian message & then there was a stupid Ram pick-up truck.
Mino
@Ted & Hellen: Did the Calvins commercial even things out a bit for you?
And I’m waiting for Lady Gaga.
Rita R.
I find the pearl-clutching about this amusing. I’m no Beyonce superfan and I’m on the far side of 40, okay, 45, but that was a powerful, high-energy, impressive performance, and in no way a strip or pole dancing show. She has an amazing voice and her dancing was sharp and much more of those militaristic, sharp-edged type of choppy moves than booty-shaking… though I’ll concede there was a little of that for Crazy in Love and, unsurpisingly, Bootylicious.
Those costumes were basically full-bottom-cut leotards with skirts, not very low cut in the front, hardly shocking. And they were wearing ankle boots with high, but not stiletto, heels so they could dance. As for the “stripping” moment, if you blinked you missed it — I didn’t even notice she took off that little jacket and skirt the first time I saw it, and it was really not all that much more coverage in any case than she ended up with. And you know what, I love that she’s not super-skinny and owns it. To me, she was powerful sexy, not “I’m your plaything sexy” and there’s a difference.
It was also nice for a change to see a Super Bowl half-time performer whose heydey wasn’t sometime in the late ’70s. I long ago lost my tolerance for the baby boomer domination of our culture.
Violet
@West of the Rockies:
I was underwhelmed too. She’s a great performer and obviously had rehearsed a lot and knew her marks. But it just lacked something. Plus, maybe it’s my TV, but the sounds seemed a bit off.
I liked it better when the Destiny’s Child singers joined her. Could have done with a few surprise guests to spice it up.
Sly
Women who (express sexuality through artistic forms) is something some men can’t handle without resorting to blatant misogyny, so all women should not (express sexuality through artistic forms).
Replace the parentheticals with “serve in the military,” “run for political office,” “work in management or own a business,” “refrain from marriage and/or bearing children,” and countless other examples as the particular circumstance demands.
More than anything else, really, the root of misogyny is possessing a really low opinion of men.
Cacti
@Ted & Hellen:
Because male business dress hasn’t changed in 100+ years?
Cacti
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I’m not as familiar with the the first two, but it’s fairly well-known that Superman’s co-creators took a lot of his back story from Moses.
MomSense
@kindness:
With all the nerdy, trekkie talk on this thread I completely misread that to be DORK Side of the Moon. And then for a second I thought there was a Weird Al album I had totally missed.
celticdragonchick
@jibeaux:
This.
I have a Carolina Chocolate Drops CD sitting here at the desk as I write this. I saw her at the Bethabara Celtic Festival a couple of years ago where she sang Hey Johnny Cope (a Scottish Jacobite tune from the 18th century) and I was absolutely spellbound.
She is simply one of the best folk singers (African American or otherwise) I have ever heard, and she and the CCD are doing amazing work in resurrecting traditional African American fiddle and banjo music from the last 200 years. (Check out some of her Scottish traditional waulking songs set to beatbox on youtube)
Summer
I’m so surprised for the lack of love! I thought Beyonce was amazing! (And that it needed to be said!)
Cacti
@Summer:
Most of the critiques were about her outfit, which I think is dumb.
As for Beyonce herself, she sang songs someone else wrote, performed dance moves that someone else choreographed and that were being done by 2-dozen other women, and performed on an impressive stage, with lots of pyrotechnics, also designed by someone else.
Beyonce is pure manufactured pop spectacle. She does have a nice voice, I’ll give her that.
Cris (without an H)
The Who, hands down. A once-great act, driven by their own pride to a humiliating ruin — a true musical tragedy. The Black Eyed Peas weren’t tragic, they were simply comic.
JenJen
@SmBuckeye: U2 halftime show 2002 is the best, forever. I was tending bar during that one, and when Bono ripped open his jacket to reveal Old Glory, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
It’s a big deal for a bartender to get all emotional.
Cris (without an H)
You didn’t build that!
ThresherK
@Cacti: Now, now, let’s not forget the well-dressed man of today is no longer wearing white spats and Arrow collars. (h/t Israel Baline)
I mean, I break out the celluoids whenever I can, but I’m always the only one in it.
gwangung
No kidding. You see stuff more revealing in ballet and modern dance.
It’s a tribute to the costume designer that people think it’s “sluttier” than they really were.
LanceThruster
@Summer:
Yeah, ignore the haters. Musical tastes always differ, and for every person who disliked it, there’s most likely a dozen that loved it. I’ve seen acts that I didn’t like but enjoyed their halftime show and vice-versa.
Freedom of choice…it’s all good.
FlipYrWhig
@Cacti: Imagine! A pop spectacle at the Super Bowl! :P
Ted & Hellen
@trollhattan:
Actually, the answer is that the double standard persists to this day.
If you think straight women don’t respond favorably to the sight of a scantily clad man, you are living in the 50s, my friend.
Also too: Male entertainers are more afraid of being perceived as doing anything “gay” like stripping down, than they are of lower record sales.
Ted & Hellen
@El Caganer:
But let’s say the weather guy showed up in tight pants and a form fitting tank shirt.
Why exactly would that be weird?
The answer is DOUBLE STANDARD. The culture in general is comfortable with objectifying the female form, even in business settings, but not the male.
Ted & Hellen
@Mino:
Different tier. I’m talking about specific, popular male musical entertainers stripping down as part of their acts; not generic and unidentified, but hot, models doing so in commercials.
Ted & Hellen
@Cacti:
And why is that? DOUBLE STANDARD.
Why are women executives expected to show leg, cleavage, and clomp around in six inch hooker shoes? DOUBLE STANDARD
les
@West of the Rockies:
Was it just me, or did that ad basically say “We make underwear for the 17 guys on the planet that look like this. Everybody else, forget it.”
Tehanu
@Flying Squirrel Girl:
The Simpsons once had a throwaway caption that read “The Artist Formerly Known as Buddy Hackett.”
West of the Rockies
@les: I think that’s a pretty accurate description, les. I have to confess to being annoyed by the pouty posing of so many underwear models (male or female). OMG, you’re in extraordinary shape and are being mongo bucks to prance around in your underwear; no wonder you’re all so unhappy and brooding. Quel horror!
johnny aquitard
@Wag:
That’s because K-Lo immediately thought that referred to a cock ring.
Remember, it’s always projection with these people.
West of the Rockies
@Rita R.: I know what you mean about boomer-generation acts being the predominant show for such events as the Super Bowl. I get a bit tired of that.
It’s curious, how we have to defend our generation’s icons and end up in a back-and-forth pissing match: The Beatles were the greatest ever! No, The Beatles sucked!
It does get tiresome.
West of the Rockies
@West of the Rockies: Ooops, that should read “being paid mongo bucks….”
johnny aquitard
@Citizen Alan:
I missed most of the halftime show, but Missus A. told me our five-year-old son asked why that lady had her shirt open down the middle like that.
Hmm.
JenJen
@Rita R.: Word. All of it.
wuzzat
@Certified Mutant Enemy: I thought it was a remake of FernGully with big blue space kitties. Whatever, it was pretty, but not good.
mclaren
Your words are strange to me, friend. What is this “Super Bowl” you speak of?
jake the snake
@jibeaux:
Word. Love me some Carolina Chocolate Drops.
Nothing against Beyonce, but “pop entertainment”
is all Las Vegas now, all flash, no substance.
I hated the Farmer commercial. Never a fan of Paul Harvey, but his speech was true in all the wrong ways. My father and grandfather were both farmers, so I know.
The only advantage of farming is that you work yourself to
death rather than someone else working you to death. Either way, your dead with little to show for it.
RosiesDad
@jake the snake: Saw Carolina Chocolate Drops at Mountain Jam last summer. They were good enough that we sat out in the cold and rain to listen to their set.