Did you see M.I.A. give the middle finger during the Super Bowl halftime show last night? No? Neither did we — until we noticed the surprising amount of people talking about it this morning.
We did a little digging and sure enough, M.I.A. (rebel, against-the-grain songstress that she is) flipped the bird in front of 110 million viewers during her part in Madonna’s “Give Me All Your Luvin.”
So who cares, you ask? Apparently, the NFL.
“The obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointing and we apologize to our fans,” Brian McCarthy, spokesman for the NFL, told the AP.
The screen briefly blurred after M.I.A. flipped the bird as NBC attempted to block the image, but failed by a couple seconds. McCarthy said M.I.A. hadn’t flashed the gesture during rehearsals and her decision to do it during the show came as a surprise.
The Super Bowl halftime show is no stranger to “controversy.” Who can forget Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” when her nipple was exposed for less than a second, thanks to Justin Timblerlake. The FCC fined CBS $550,000 by the FCC for that little trick, but the network appealed and never had to pay.
While M.I.A.’s middle finger was arguably less obscene, it still has plenty of people talking. Did you catch the gesture?
