SpongeBob's "Sweet Victory" Concert

About

SpongeBob's "Sweet Victory" Concert refers to a memorable scene in an episode of Spongebob Squarepants in which the cast performs David Glen Eisley's "Sweet Victory" at the halftime show of a football game. The scene has been remixed numerous times online, and has been cited by many as one of the best moments of the series in general.

Origin

On September 7th, 2001, the Spongebob Squarepants episode "Band Geeks" premiered in the United States.^[1] In the episode, Squidward Tentacles starts a marching band, whom SpongeBob is a member of, to play at the Bubble Bowl so he can impress his rival Squilliam Fancyson. At the performance, he reluctantly conducts the band, believing he failed to teach them how to play well, but is proved wrong as the band performs David Glen Eisley's "Sweet Victory".^[2] SpongeBob had secretly trained the band the night before the concert.

Spread

"Band Geeks" is regarded by many fans as one of the best episodes of the series, particularly for its finale.^[3][4] Edits of the scene, featuring other songs, became prominent on YouTube shortly after the website's creation. For example, an edit posted by TheSpongeGuy mixing the scene with "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson gained over 3.3 million views (shown below, left). An upload by Cosbydawg91 paired the scene with Chocolate Rain.

Edits continued to be popular throughout the 2010s. Other popular examples include an edit featuring "Chop Suey" by System of a Down posted by Brett Clough that gained over 69,000 views (shown below, left). Another posted by DevilArtemis gained over 88,000 views (shown below, right).

Super Bowl Petition

On November 28th, 2018, Israel Colunga posted a petition to Change.org for "Sweet Victory" to be played during the halftime show of Super Bowl LIII. Colunga posted the Change.org petition in tribute to Spongebob creator Stephen Hillenburg, who had died two days prior due to complications involving ALS:

Stephen Hillenburg--the creator of SpongeBob Squarepants--has passed away recently. As a tribute to his legacy, his contributions to a generation of children, and to truly showcase the greatness of this song, we call for Sweet Victory to be performed at the Halftime Show.

The petition quickly grew popular, gaining over 770,000 signatures in less than a week. Vice wondered if Maroon 5, the scheduled performer of the halftime show, would slip "Sweet Victory" into the traditional medley order that Super Bowl performers usually perform. The petition was also covered by the Daily Dot.

Super Bowl LIII

On February 3rd, 2019, Maroon 5, Travis Scott, and Big Boi performed during the halftime show. Between Maroon 5's opening performance and Travis Scott's performance of "Sicko Mode", an animated segment featuring Squidward was shown along with the opening of the original "Band Geeks" scene, but "Sweet Victory" itself was not played (shown below).

The same night, the halftime show was posted to the NFL's official YouTube channel, and gained over
900,000 views, 22,000 likes and 167,000 dislikes in a day (shown below).

Many Redditors posted various memes expressing their disappointment with the halftime show on /r/dankmemes, especially due to Hillenburg's passing. Within 24 hours, a Disappointed Black Guy meme posted by Redditor Snugop's^[7] gained 16,300 points (96% upvoted) (shown below, left), and Redditor PopTarnek's^[8] post in which an audience cheers for "Sweet Victory" and boos for "Sicko Mode" (shown below, right, the template itself being taken from the Spongebob episode "Culture Shock") gained 11,800 points (97% upvoted).

On /r/bikinnibottomtwitter,^[10] Redditor The_MadestLad posted an image from the Spongebob episode "Have You Seen This Snail?" with the caption "We didn't get sweet victory instead we got sicko mode", which gained 29,900 points (97% upvoted) in a day (shown below, left). On /r/meirl,^[11] Redditor haveyouseanthis posted an image of the halftime performance with the caption "WHERE THE FUCK IS SPONGEBOB", which gained 23,500 points (93% upvoted) in a day (shown below, right).

On Twitter, Chris Scavenger^[5] posted an image from Spongebob with the caption "You know what the problem is? The NFL had it set to "M" for "Maroon 5", when it should be set to "W" for "Wumbo!" #SuperBowl", which gained 256 retweets and 1,015 likes in a day (shown below, left). YouTuber and animation reviewer Saberspark^[9] posted an image from the Spongebob episode "Walking Small" with the caption "You used me…FOR HYPE DEVELOPMENT!", which gained 7,188 retweets and 25,648 likes in a day.

On February 4th, YeekStudios posted an edit of the halftime show in which "Sweet Victory" is played instead of "Sicko Mode" (shown below).

On February 4th, 2019, the Dallas Stars' official Twitter account posted an edited version of the original "Sweet Victory" scene spliced with footage from Dallas Stars games with the caption "The #SuperBowl halftime show fans deserve". The tweet gained 2,000 retweets and 5,000 likes within a couple hours (shown below).

Music Video Crowdfund

On February 5th, 2019, a GoFundMe^[12] was created to crowdfund a music video for "Sweet Victory" with a goal of $15,000(shown below). Within ten days, the campaign gathered upwards of $520 of its goal.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References