A tense — yet uneventful — first half of the World Cup Final featuring Spain and Argentina on Sunday, July 19, left much anticipation for the match’s inaugural halftime show. While excitement around the show was already budding over headliners like Madonna, Shakira, Justin Bieber, and BTS, the performance that might have actually stole the show in the end was from … The Muppets?
Though Kermit announced via an Instagram post right before the game that The Muppets would be present during the halftime show, it seemed that many fans were not expecting the celebrity puppets on the world stage — let alone for them take over and quickly become the icons of the 11-minute performance.
First, after Madonna opened the halftime show with her hit “Music,” members of the Electric Mayhem, The Muppets’s rock band, took the stage to complement an orchestral performance from the New York Philharmonic. Their performance also incorporated the famous Norwegian Viking row used by fans of the Norway national football team to show their support for their athletes. Then, after performances from BTS, Justin Bieber, and Shakira, Miss Piggy and Kermit were present at the end of the show, performing a duet with Count von Count behind them.
For a performance that enigmatic, fans naturally had to take to the internet to create the funniest memes of The Muppets at the World Cup. A picture says a thousand words, and that still might not have been enough for these users to showcase their shock about the performance.
These users leaned into the energy of The Muppets’s unique performance.
For all the discourse around favoritism in the games, these users might have decided the winner of the game before any goals were scored.
And these reactions cemented just how much of a milestone the performance was by cheekily calling out a certain soccer legend.
This user also made a jab … just not at any athletes.
While the rest of the world watched in bated breath as the match went into overtime after neither team scored a goal in the second half, the Muppets were living it up, meeting celebrities in attendance like Tom Cruise. With this halftime show under their belt, could fans be seeing The Muppets at the Super Bowl next year? Only time will tell.