Churches holding super bowl parties last night were in for a rude surprise. No, not the NFL's ban on congregations holding super bowl gatherings.
This one came during the halftime show in the form of some very suggestive shadow puppetry
But did parishiners - and the rest of the world - even know what Prince hit them with?
For his final number, Prince takes hold of a Glyph-shaped guitar and starts to play "Purple Rain." A white billowy screen comes up, and we see a larger-than-life silhouette of Prince with a giant Glyph shaped phallus! Prince brings the guitar down low and launches into a raging, full-neck solo, only it looks in silhouette like he’s jamming hard on something else...
It was a giant poke in the eye to the NFL, FCC and puritans everywhere.
It was also a brilliantly choreographed piece of subversion.
The question is, will it rise to the level of a Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction?
So far, the big joke’s gone over the heads of the MSM, who are reporting that Prince delivered a solid and wholesome show.
No doubt National Football League officials were pretty pleased, too. They know that the halftime show is still haunted by the specter of 2004, when Justin Timberlake enlivened an otherwise unmemorable show by baring Janet Jackson’s breast. Somehow, Timberlake’s role has been largely forgotten, but Jackson’s career has still not recovered. And compared with the controversial Jackson, Prince must seem like a pretty safe bet.
Yesterday’s command performance was yet more proof that Prince has made that familiar journey from pariah to American treasure. He has a catalog of hits that everybody seems to love (even the players, who normally take little interest in the halftime show, were quoted praising Prince), and he sings and plays and moves as well as he ever did.
Best of all, he does not carry himself as a pop-star emeritus. Did you see his face during the first verse of "Purple Rain," when he tossed his bandana into the crowd? He looked as if he were getting away with something.
He sure did – and judging from the coverage so far, he has. And I don't think we'll be seeing Prince grovel for the forgiveness of a national TV audience.
UPDATE: some more rave reviews for Prince's wholesome performance:
Detroit News:
His dirty days well behind him, Prince didn't tempt the network censors or push any limits of good taste.
Sun-Sentinel
The dancers might have rated as the show's raciest feature, until Prince stepped behind a billowing tube of fabric late in the set. Cast in silhouette with his guitar pointing outward, Prince briefly looked -- as the saying goes -- very excited to be here. But only the truly dirty-minded would imagine that he was baiting CBS, which was so memorably burned at halftime three years ago by Janet Jackson's partial disrobing.
Really?
And here's the AP- joke's on them!
Phew! CBS got through the halftime show without a "wardrobe malfunction." The Artist Formerly Known as a Munchkin of Wardrobe Dysfunction began by singing "Let's Go Crazy," but he didn't.
Prince, who became a Jehovah's Witness in the mid-1990s, no longer wears yellow, butt-baring pants as he did at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards (prompting Howard Stern's send-up at the '92 VMAs). The closest thing to a fashion statement Sunday night was an odd kerchief on his head. So the NFL had no repeat of the 2004 Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake show, which happened the last time CBS broadcast the game.
The 48-year-old Prince, who rose to stardom in the '80s with his distinctive fusion of R&B, funk, soul and rock, once looked androgynous and produced songs that (lest we forget) drove Tipper Gore nuts (and made her a fat target for anti-censorship types like Frank Zappa).
Musically, the diminutive, erstwhile prodigy from Minneapolis kept it old-school, rockin' the house with "Purple Rain" and other golden hits.
He delivered one of the best Super Bowl halftime shows -- ever. Consequently, he didn't come across as a painfully safe choice -- or a has-been, the rap against the previous couple of Super Bowl halftime acts, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones.