Super Bowl Halftime Bloopers: 10 Huge Mistakes on the Big Stage

It's hard to criticize anyone who has to perform during the Super Bowl halftime show: They're live (mostly) in front of an absurdly large audience on a stage that's set up in under 10 minutes. That said, we'll gladly pick apart the performances and bring you the 10 best bloopers of all time. Lip-syncing, flashing, technical errors and downright bad judgment -- it's all here! Check out our picks below for the best-worst bloopers in Super Bowl halftime history.

Black Eyed Peas, 2011
A minute into the Black Eyed Peas' performance, Fergie's microphone started cutting out, and it was all downhill from there. Oddly enough, it seemed that the AutoTuned Peas were singing in at least two different keys. Then there was Fergie bleating out 'Sweet Child O Mine' next to Slash, sounding like one of our drunken coworkers at a karaoke bar. Then, at the climax of the performance, BEP's stage was supposed to transform into the word "LOVE," but the letter V wouldn't fully light up. Suffice it to say, we didn't "LOIE" this one.



The Who, 2010
We're not sure how this happens, quite frankly, but it appears that Roger Daltrey pulled off the rare combination of hitting the wrong notes while singing live and then missing his cues while lip-syncing -- within the same song. The fact that he did it during 'Won't Get Fooled Again' just makes it sadder.


Bruce Springsteen, 2009
The Boss' halftime show could have easily been stopped early due to injury after the Jersey rocker flew crotch-first into a TV camera. Springsteen was somehow able to finish the show in the same octave range and later blamed the mishap on "too much adrenaline, a late drop, too much speed."

Prince, 2007
Three years after Janet's boob flash, halftime shows were still under plenty of scrutiny for anything that might be remotely offensive. While Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones were predictably tame in 2005 and '06, it was hard to know what to expect of Prince. On the one hand, he's a Jehovah's Witness. On the other, he once wore assless pants on MTV.

Things were fine until the guitar solo during 'Purple Rain,' when Prince's silhouette was projected onto a giant curtain from behind -- and making it look like he was holding a giant penis. Some of the 140 million viewers cried foul, while many hailed it as one of the best halftime performances ever.
Janet Jackson, 2004
With four seconds left in the Super Bowl, the Patriots kicked a field goal to beat the Carolina Panthers 32-29, but the most enduring moment of the 2004 game was Janet's exposed, jewel-covered nipple. The legacy? FCC fines, tons of outrage, much safer halftime performers and "wardrobe malfunction" entering the lexicon. Look at Justin Timberlake's expression in the picture above -- it's as if he could see the crapstorm to come.

Shania Twain, 2003
It's public, though maybe not common knowledge that Shania's band, like most Super Bowl acts, was not actually performing live (that amount of audio setup is pretty much impossible given the short timeframe). Shania, for her part, sang live -- mostly. Check out the video around the 4-minute mark and you'll see some obvious miscues. Even Shania's Darth Hooker outfit couldn't distract viewers from those slip-ups.


U2, 2002
We'll admit it -- we were really moved by U2's post-9/11 performance, which featured the names of the victims scrolling behind the stage. But 10 years later, we've noticed a few things wrong with it. For instance, the projection screen for the names of the deceased looked exactly like a tower -- and then came crashing down. Then there was U2's choice of playing 'Where the Streets Have No Name,' which features such lyrics as "Still building and burning down love" and "We're beaten and blown by wind/trampled in dust." C'mon, Bono: Would singing 'One' have been too perfect?


New Kids on the Block, 1991
This atrocity was dedicated to the troops serving in Operation Desert Storm, so, naturally, it started off with a bunch of kids "singing" the never-annoying 'It's a Small World After All.' After that, NKOTB took the stage, but viewers at home were forced to wait until after the Super Bowl to see the performance, which was pre-empted by halftime coverage of the war.


Elvis Presto, 1989
In the olden days of the Super Bowl (aka 1989), not every halftime show featured a big-name act. That year's extravaganza, which was dubbed "Be Bop Bamboozled in 3-D," featured one Elvis Presto, an Elvis impersonator who didn't sing any Elvis songs. Instead, he hunka-hunka'd his way through instructions to what was deemed the "world's biggest card trick," but came off like a really crappy homework assignment for the audience. Judging by the video, the confusing stunt was a disaster in every dimension.


Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, 1987
Oh, you didn't like 'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'? Then you must have forgotten about this piece of choreographed excrement. In order to plug a new Disneyland ride, Patti LaBelle, Tony Bennett and the Miami Sound Machine appeared in this "adventure" that featured Indy (not played by Harrison Ford) trying to recover the "stolen" Vince Lombardi trophy. This trash was so forgettable that only the last five or so minutes are available online, so you'll have to do with the truncated clip below. But hey, maybe the world is a better place without the complete footage.