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Eleven minutes. Madonna, Shakira, BTS, Justin Bieber, a children’s chorus, and the Muppets, all crammed into the break of the first World Cup final ever to have a halftime show. I went looking for what the internet actually made of it, across two Reddit threads and the comment section under the official video. What I found didn’t sort itself into one verdict. So, let’s explore the good, the bad, and the downright savage.
Not everything here is cynical. Buried under the noise is a lot of people being genuinely, unguardedly moved, and a fair bit of warmth about it.
The Muppets, of all things, did a lot of the emotional work. Lildragonfly27 on r/popculturechat: “Muppets had me laughing so hard I cried. I think JB was good vocally but why that song.” Fearless-Lead-397, in the same thread that was busy tearing the show apart everywhere else: “I was so happy to see Miss Piggy and Kermit and the Sesame Street crew, it was so wholesome, they were the best part of the whole show.”
The most convincing endorsement came from someone on r/worldcup who wasn’t even talking about themselves. thotguht: “BTS got my wife to watch and she then stayed for the rest of the game and was into it. That’s a win IMHO.” That’s the whole point of booking a pop lineup, reported back by an accidental witness.
And under the official video, where BTS’s fanbase turned up in force, the mood was pure. @Ayesha_editx-v2f, at 196: “I love the way Shakira and Burna Boy hugged all the kids after their performance ended.” @taslimarahman010 on the finale: “All of them collapsed together at the end. That gave me goosebumps.” Different room, different show entirely.
Then there’s the actual criticism, the specific and considered kind, not the jokes. This is where the real production notes are.
The single most common complaint wasn’t the acts. It was the edit. BlackSheepBoPeep-, at 395: “The high caliber of artists did not match the mismatched set list and low budget camera work. But the kids were cute.” pinenavy was blunter about the joins: “The transitions between artists were very clunky.” And maffy118 put a finger on something specific: “The camera-work on the Madonna portion looked so amateur, you couldn’t get a sense of where the performance was even happening in the stadium.”
The football side had a sharper, more structural objection, and it had nothing to do with taste. turquoisesilver: “The players’ ligaments start to stiffen up and they lose some of that adrenaline after 30 minutes waiting to go back in play. It’s prioritising commercialism over the game.” TallPublic9076 had the number: “It nearly doubled the halftime break, ended up being 27 minutes.” Nobody here is saying the artists were bad. They’re saying it was staged in the wrong place, at the wrong length, in the middle of a match. Vivid_Motor_2341 summed the whole considered case up in three sentences: “Did I enjoy it and think it was well done? Yes. Should it have been a halftime show? No. They should have done it to open the game.”
And then there’s the stuff not trying to be constructive at all. It’s just funny.
No_Data_8160 filed the shortest review in the entire dataset, three words: “I was whelmed.” supa-factor summarised Bieber’s whole slot in four: “Bieber: ‘anyways, here’s Wonderwall.'” anyways_0183 went full drag-race on him: “go justin! give us NOTHING.” Iwannastoprn described the tonal whiplash: “the whole stadium was cheering and then he just… performed as if it was a funeral.” And enriquesensei said what half the thread was thinking: “Bro went hallelujah in the middle of a soccer game.”
The Muppets got the affectionate treatment. JunePickle: “Even Kermit is surprised my boy The Count showed up.” Ranba_12 crowned a new tournament MVP: “Miss Piggy. She’s the real GOAT.” breckerz clocked the reaction shot of the night: “Ronaldo sat completely still behind the wheel the entire time like 😀 is sending me.”
The single most upvoted comment in the whole dataset, 👀 2,505 upvotes 👀, is savage precisely because it’s so calm about it. Careless-Plane-5915: “Justin Bieber droning on with his guitar directly after Dynamite was a choice. Thank god for Shakira.”
Three moods, three rooms, one eleven-minute show. Nobody agreed on much. Nobody needed to.
