Super Bowl LI

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Overview

Super Bowl LI was the 51st National Football League (NFL) championship game between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons that took place at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas on February 5th, 2017. The game resulted in the Patriots' dramatic victory against the Falcons by 34-28 after making the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history.

Background

Conference Championship Winners

After an 11-5 season, the Atlanta Falcons won the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers 44-21 to earn their first Super Bowl appearance since 1999.^[1] It was the last game ever played in the Falcons' home stadium, The Georgia Dome. The New England Patriots, 14-2 in the regular season and helmed by head coach Bill Belichick and star quarterback Tom Brady (who was suspended the first four games of the regular season following #DeflateGate), defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 36-17 in the AFC Championship game. The game will be the Patriots' NFL-best ninth Super Bowl appearance and their 7th of the 2000s.

Halftime Show Announcement

On September 29th, 2016, pop star Lady Gaga revealed via an Instagram post that she would be performing at the halftime show after having performed the National Anthem at the previous Super Bowl.

Developments

Snickers announced they would air the first live 30-second commercial in Super Bowl history. Nintendo also announced that they would air their first ever Super Bowl ad, showcasing the Nintendo Switch (shown below).

Other notable advertisements for the game include an ad for Mr. Clean known as "Sexy Mr. Clean," Marshawn Lynch visiting Houston, Scotland for Skittles, Cam Newton playing Pee Wee Football for Buick, and Wendy's recalling their Twitter Own.

CBS Sports^[2] published a compilation of all the ads leaked before the Super Bowl.

Budweiser Immigration Ad

Beer company Anheuser-Busch leaked an ad that depicted their founder, Adolphus Busch, immigrating from Germany and struggling as he founded what would become one of the biggest beer companies in the world.

Speculation that the ad was in reference to the supposed #MuslimBan by President Donald Trump. ^[3] The company insisted that the ad was being made before the ban and was not intended to be political.

Sad Tom Brady

During the first half of the game, many viewers at home took notice of the Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady looking visibly dismayed on the field, as his advances were repeatedly blocked by the defense line while the Falcons made their strides towards Super Bowl victory with three touchdowns in the second quarter, including a 82-yard interception return from the Atlanta Falcons' cornerback Robert Alford. By the halftime, the New England Patriots' star athlete had been dubbed #SadTomBrady on Twitter.

Halftime Show Performance

At halftime, Lady Gaga quickly took the social media by the storm after making her entrance to the stage by descending from the ceiling while suspended by wires, which apparently reminded many viewers of a memorable scene from Nickelodeon's animated TV show SpongeBob Squarepants. Soon, many jokes drawing comparisons between the flying Lady Gaga and a still shot of SpongeBob Squarepants suspended by wire began circulating on Twitter and Facebook.

The Patriots' Comeback

While the Atlanta Falcons continued to extend their lead by a margin of 25 points well into the middle of the third quarter, the New England Patriots began turning the tide of the game with roughly 17 minutes remaining in the match, during which they rallied from a 25-point deficit with three consecutive touchdowns. After clocking into overtime for the first time in Super Bowl history, the Patriots secured their fifth NFL championship title with the final touchdown by the running back James White.

Lady Gaga's Halftime Show

On February 5th, 2017, at the beginning of the halftime show at Super Bowl LI, Lady Gaga sang a mashup of American folk songs "God Bless America" and "This Land Is Your Land," recited a bit of the American Pledge of Allegiance, then jumped from the roof of NRG Stadium and was lowered onto her stage via cables.

Immediately after the jump, members of Twitter began making jokes by comparing the jump to other notable jumps in pop culture. Some of the tweets compiled in the Twitter Moment^[1] around the event compared the moment to Toy Story, Professional Wrestling, and the film Black Swan (shown below).

Spongebob Comparisons

One of the most popular comparisons people made was between Gaga's jump and a moment in the first Spongebob Squarepants movie in which Spongebob hangs from the ceiling via rope after singing "Goofy Goober Rock." Bustle^[2] was quick to make the comparison after the show (shown below), as did many Twitter users.

Bustle^[3] also published a compilation of tweets making the comparison and a reference became the top post on /r/DankMemes^[4] the following day, receiving over 6,800 upvotes.

The Falcons Blew a 28-3 Lead

Following the Falcons' monumental collapse, image macros and various other memes were made to commemorate the occasion. Popular points of comparison included Hillary Clinton's loss in the 2016 United States Presidential Election, the NBA's Golden State Warriors, who blew a 3-1 series lead to the Cavaliers in the finals, as well as the Cleveland Indians, who also blew a 3-1 lead in the World Series. The memes were covered by The Daily Mail^[12] and The Daily Dot^[13] in the coming week.