Nickelodeon and CBS celebrated Super Bowl LVIII by finally letting SpongeBob SquarePants and his Bikini Bottom friends perform Sweet Victory.
It’s a Big Game performance years in the making that saw the cartoon sponge finally giving football fans the show they’ve always wanted. However, it was more than a simple recreation of the original Sweet Victory moment made famous by its appearance in an early SpongeBob episode. While those classic vocals and instrumentals returned, the music video itself boasts a more cinematic art style with shots of Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers celebrating around colorful jellyfish explosions.
It's an appropriately dramatic take on something fans have waited years to see, and you can see it too in the video below.
SWEET VICTORY: SUPER BOWL LVIII EDITION@Nickelodeon pic.twitter.com/ESAr65cUBK
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) February 11, 2024
Football fans have long awaited SpongeBob’s Big Game debut. While Nickelodeon fans finally get their wish today, this wasn’t the case in 2019. At the time, watchers petitioned to see Sweet Victory performed as part of the Super Bowl 53 halftime show in order to celebrate original SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg who had passed only a few months prior. Although the halftime show didn’t entirely revolve around the Bikini Bottom crew, the yellow sponge did at least make a quick appearance before rapper Travis Scott took the stage.
CBS announced beforehand that the Nickelodeon mascot would return to the Super Bowl this year. In other sponge-y news, SpongeBob SquarePants was recently renewed for Season 15. Netflix users will get their own SpongeBob content when Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie eventually arrives.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
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