It was the very definition of flashing — a less-than-one-second shot of Janet Jackson's exposed right breast at the end of Super Bowl XXXVIII's halftime show, a moment that changed our pop-culture world. Except, that is, when it didn't.
On the 10th anniversary of the Feb. 1, 2004 wardrobe malfunction that launched a half-million complaints to the Federal Communications Commission and a Congressional hearing, here's a look back at both the things that changed and the things that didn't.
Things That Changed
"I am sorry if anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the halftime performance at the Super Bowl," Timberlake's apology went.
Around the same time, Jackson almost, but not quite, coined the term herself, with her camp explaining that the incident was the result of a "malfunction of the wardrobe."
Though regularly mocked, "wardrobe malfunction" was Timberlake's and Jackson's official story: Yes, the costume was supposed to be ripped, they maintained, but, no, it wasn't supposed to be ripped down to the breast.
To Oxford, a wardrobe malfunction is a noun meaning "an instance of a person accidentally exposing an intimate part of their body as a result of an article of clothing slipping out of position."
2. Timberlake and Jackson's relationship. In 2002, the May-July pair (he was 21 at the time; she was 36) were rumored to be, if not exactly dating, then bumping and grinding at nightclubs. After the Super Bowl, they went their separate ways, though Timberlake reportedly has been in touch. "He has reached out to speak with me, " Jackson told Oprah Winfrey in 2006, adding, "... and in my own time, I'll give him a call."
[Related: The Story Behind Oreo's Blackout Bowl Tweet]
3. MTV's and the NFL's relationship. In 2001, the envelope-pushing network produced its first halftime show for the rulebook-bound footballers. Just three years later, it produced its second halftime show—the one with Jackson, Timberlake, and Jackson's breast. "It's unlikely that MTV will produce another Super Bowl halftime show," an NFL exec predicted after Super Bowl XXXVIII. To this day, it hasn't.
4. Timberlake's career. It got bigger. And bigger.
5. Where and how you watch funny cat videos. In 2005, when Jawed Karim couldn't find clips of the Jackson-Timberlake incident online, he suggested to two former PayPal pals that they start a site like YouTube. And so the trio did. They actually started YouTube. And now you can find about 33,000 YouTube search results for "janet jackson super bowl flash" (and, of course, about 2.3 million results for "funny cat videos.")
6. "America's Got Talent" — no, really. Two months after the wardrobe malfunction, Howard Stern told his radio listeners, "Janet Jackson's breast got me in a lot of trouble." Seven months after that, with the on-alert FCC breathing down the neck of the provocateur's broadcast station more than usual, Stern signed the deal to take his act to federally unregulated satellite radio. With the debut of his Sirius show in 2006, Stern stopped making controversy, and by 2011, he was deigned sufficiently radioactive-free to be tapped as a judge on NBC's family-friendly variety series.
No comments:
Post a Comment