There’s something odd about the ways in which the Super Bowl is perceived as the transcendentally American entertainment (not gonna say “the big game” like a shill). For starters, it’s rare that it’s a particularly good game, although I can remember some beauties in recent memory (the nail-biting original Mahomes-Hurts face-off in 2023, the Patriots’ unreal second-half charge in 2017, the Seahawks’ tragic last-minute defeat in 2015), nor does it seem to meaningfully represent the best of what the sport has to offer. But that’s fine – not every game has to be good for me to watch, and even if the game sucks you can just talk shit with your buddies and indulge in greasy food and cheap beer, which is a central part of the enjoyment of any sporting event.
And this time around, even if the game sucked, at least the arrogant-ass Chiefs got bodied in their attempt to be America’s team.
But what is viewed as transcendental is not the game itself, but the part I hate, which is everything surrounding the game – the branding of every second (“now it’s time for the BUDWEISER play of the quarter!”), the genuflection to American militarism, the ads in which A-listers humiliate themselves to flog whatever crap Silicon Valley is turning out, the dorky halftime shows with medley performances by all our most inoffensive pop stars (even if the campy “salutes to _____” and performances by evangelical death cult spinoff Up with People of yesteryear were probably even worse).
And this extends to the responses thereto, the attempts to scry some kind of weltgeist from the associated detritus among the commentariat. Whether it’s Beyonce cosplaying as a Black Panther, the glut of ads for crypto scams, or Timberlake v. Janet’s nipple, there is a persistent if unacknowledged belief that any of this can be used as a prism through which to view the American experience, instead of what it actually is – a means of selling shit.
So I fully expected, given who the performers were, for American conservative pundits to do the online fuming that they like to do – yelling at the teevee really is their favorite activity, and mostly they seemed to just be grumpy about Styx or whoever not performing. But conversely:
“It was an intricately detailed work of performance art that spoke directly to so many different strands of American history.” – Collider
“Kendrick Lamar sent a coded message to Black America during Super Bowl. And we got it.” – The Root
“The performance’s political messages (like the moment where Lamar’s dancers formed a human U.S. flag) were subtle enough that some in MAGA-world found themselves debating over whether the show was even worth getting upset over.” – Rolling Stone
Because that which is obvious cannot be subversive. Even when a work stands in opposition to power, it can so quickly turn into a Medieval morality play. Think about two Ruben Ostlund films, The Square and Triangle of Sadness. The first was giddy and witty and entered its satirical targets like a well-pointed arrow. The second was giddy but only at its own cleverness, and failed to enter its satirical targets, merely slapping them with a plushie.
I mean, like all halftime shows, this one sucked, but for completely independent reasons. It was just kinda lame, in the exact same way almost any kind of institutional art is lame. Kendrick and SZA both can do better, and for two artists who have produced so much actually subtle, actually complex music over the years, this felt a spectacle as silly as Katy Perry dancing with cartoon sharks.
But to me, the commentary just seems so desperate – a search for green shoots at a really bleak and dusty point, looking for emotional security above all else, hoping that culture could wishcast politics into existence, and thereby provide a correction to one’s present emotional trajectory. Even if the comments themselves are imbecilic, the sentiment just bums me out. Poor bastards.
When all I feel I can say is “it’s all a bit shit, isn’t it? This performance included. Let’s make Georgian food for dinner tonight, yeah?”
And the khachapuri turned out great.
