Left Shark incident, explained: How Katy Perry’s Super Bowl 49 haltime show became a meme
The Super Bowl has returned to Glendale, Arizona for the first time in eight years, and with it comes the halftime spectacle of the big game.
Rihanna is hired to host a show for the audience at State Farm Stadium in 2023. Her performance is highly anticipated — she hasn’t released any new music since her album Anti in 2016 — but she’ll face a tough task surpassing Katy Perry, who headlined the final halftime show of the Super Bowl in Arizona.
Perry put on an unforgettable show at State Farm Stadium. She rode in on a giant mechanical lion and sang “Roar”, performed with Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott, and ended with “Firework” during her 12-minute performance.
But the lasting memory of the show came at the end of her “Teenage Dream” performance, just before transitioning into her popsicle-melting rendition of “California Gurls.”
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It wasn’t something the singer did herself. It all had to do with a mistake made by one of their backup dancers who was dressed in a shark costume.
The dancer – who became known simply as “Left Shark” – appeared to forget the choreography throughout the song. The slip went viral and is now one of the most iconic Super Bowl halftime moments of all time.
Rihanna may be able to match or surpass Perry’s performance, but she’ll have a hard time creating anything with Left Shark’s virality. Here’s a look back at the iconic misstep that will forever be remembered in Super Bowl lore.
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Why is Left Shark famous?
Left Shark is famous for forgetting to choreograph the “Teenage Dream” number in Katy Perry’s halftime show at Super Bowl 49.
At the beginning of the song, the two sharks – dubbed Left Shark and Right Shark – danced in step with each other. So were the large anthropomorphic beach balls that Perry sang with.
But as the number progressed, Left Shark seemed increasingly to lose track of where he (yes, he; read on) was in the dance. The result? He seemed more than a little off the beat and thrashed to get back on track as you can see in the video below at around the 3 minute mark.
Or watch the GIF below for a quick look at Left Shark’s most iconic moves:
Of course, Left Shark’s Super Bowl viewers were amazed, amused, and finally delighted. His blunders on the NFL’s biggest stage eventually made the shark a viral sensation on social media and helped make Perry’s halftime show the most watched of all time.
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Left shark meme
Left Shark’s online fame grew quickly, which led to a series of jokes. Shortly after Perry’s performance, rapper Snoop Dogg jokingly claimed on Twitter that he was the one in the Left Shark costume.
Several other celebrities did the same, while Buzzfeed ran an instant quiz classic titled “Which Katy Perry Halftime Show Shark Are You?” The quiz required you to select artists as Super Bowl MVPs, a famous shark and your favorite Katy Perry song, among other things, to give you your answer.
Then of course came the memes. Countless tweets and social media posts featuring Left Shark have been created with people using it to poke fun at everything from XXX to a depressing Nationwide commercial that aired during the Super Bowl.
But the funniest memes were the ones poking fun at the Seahawks’ decision to throw the ball at the goal line instead of running it with Marshawn Lynch. The top two were stills of the shark with superimposed text that read:
“Pass the ball off the 1-yard line.”
“Why the hell would you throw the ball?”
In fact, the creators of the memes had a point. It was fortunate, however, that Pete Carroll’s big mistake wasn’t the only one that happened on the Super Bowl stage that night.
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What does “be the left shark” mean?
“Be the lefty shark” is a phrase popularized by a graduation speech by NBC television reporter and host Meredith Vieira at Boston University’s 2015 graduation ceremony.
Vieira used Left Shark to encourage students “not to strive for someone else’s idea of perfection,” which she deemed unattainable, according to the Washington Post.
Do you remember the last Super Bowl when the Patriots won? You may be thinking about Tom Brady’s empty balls now, but I’m thinking about Katy Perry’s halftime performance. She was on stage dancing with two sharks. The shark on the right knew every dance move and performed perfectly. But it was the left shark who went rogue and danced to his own crazy beat that stole the show. So never be a conformist for the sake of convenience. Or as Mark Twain put it, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to stop and think.”
Be the left shark.
So essentially, “Be the Left Shark” means be yourself, march to the beat of your own drum, and don’t be afraid to stand out from the crowd. Just like Left Shark, it’s okay to do things a little differently.
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Where is Left Shark now?
The person who played Left Shark’s name is Bryan Gaw. He revealed a few years later that he was behind the viral dance.
According to an NPR interview published on Jan. 31, 2018, Gaw was part of Perry’s touring ensemble for five years. He explained that he left that role a year before the interview to become a stylist in Los Angeles.
He told NPR that he accepted Left Shark and even put it on his resume.
“Actually, I don’t get any negative feedback from it,” he said of the viral moment. “If anything, people are like, ‘Whoa, that’s so cool!’ “
Gaw hasn’t spoken to any major media outlets since, but appears to still be working as a hairstylist as of 2023, according to his Instagram account. He also lists dancers and artists as his main work there, along with some of his photographic work.
He also has his own website – www.bryangaw.com -.
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Was Left Shark planned?
Yes and no. As Gaw explained to NPR, he and the other backup dancers were allowed to improvise the choreography for part of the song.
“So there’s a set choreography,” he said. “There’s also what’s called free-style choreography, or you can move or play your character as a dancer. … I’m wearing a 7ft blue shark costume. That’s not cool. So what’s the other option? Well, I’m going to play a different character.”
Gaw envisioned his character as an imperfect, everyday human, so he rehearsed his freestyle moves with that in mind.
As such, Gaw planned to be a little silly with his dance moves. However, he did admit that he took it to another level at the Super Bowl.
“Absolutely,” Gaw said when asked if he should take his silliness to the extreme. “I’m on a maximum stage!”
This process led to Left Shark’s fame. But while Gaw’s dance moves may have been intentional, there’s no way he could have predicted that he’d become the biggest meme to emerge from Super Bowl 49.