Way to Go, Left Shark!

Way to Go, Left Shark!

AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File

The Super Bowl, played on Feb. 1, turned out to be the most-watched television show of all time.  While that might make anyone who appeared on the telecast pretty happy, there may have been one exception.

Left Shark.

During singer Katy Perry's halftime extravaganza, hired dancers in palm tree, surfboard, and beach ball costumes frolicked all over the stage to the beat.  Then, to either side of Ms. Perry, two blue-and-white "shark" dancers appeared. 

                                                                                                                    

While the one seen on the right seemed to have the choreography down pat, lunging and stepping and twirling right on cue, the one on the left looked, well, like a fish out of water.  Stumbling around, trying to mimic what Right Shark was doing so effortlessly, poor Left Shark left the 114.4 million people watching on TV simultaneously baffled and bemused.

"The sharks were originally supposed to be dancers from Mesa Community College," wrote someone on social media later that night. "But 2-3 days before the performance Katy decided she wanted her own people in costume. ... The worst part is the MCC dancers had been practicing it for much longer and definitely knew it better at least in my opinion."  Um, yeah, you might say that.

Yet, let's think about this for a second.  What did Left Shark do that was so wrong, really?  Having little or no idea of what the actual dance steps called for, he may have just decided to go with the flow.  Groove to the Katy Perry song.  Have a good old time, and just stay out of the star's way.  Is that so terrible?

Nobody got hurt, people got a chuckle, and whoever was inside that costume had the chance to get his (or her) groove on in front of the largest audience in history.  All in all, not a bad way to spend five minutes.

Sometimes, like the old cliché says, when you're stuck with lemons, make lemonade.  Way to go, Left Shark!

~Eric