This past Sunday will forever be known for two things — Malcolm Butler’s game-saving interception that made the New England Patriots the champions of Super Bowl XLIX, and the two dancing sharks that gained immediate fame and admirers during Katy Perry’s excellent Halftime Show.
While both Left Shark and Right Shark are basking in that post-game glory, one band is speaking out against the most memorable aquatic creatures since Spongebob, saying they had the idea for move-busting anthropomorphic selachimorpha first.
Speaking to MTV today, Seattle surf-pop quartet Tacocat say Perry ripped off their dancing sharks, which were featured in their 2014 video for “Crimson Wave.”
From MTV’s inquiry, which led with the headline “Did Katy Perry Steal Her Sharks From This Indie Band?”:
MTV: What did you think when you saw the Super Bowl halftime show? Were you like, ‘Katy, you fiend — you ripped off our video!’?
Emily: I didn’t get to see the Super Bowl live because I was moving. I was kind of avoiding my phone to see if I could tell if the Seahawks won just by hearing people rioting outside or whatever, but when I gave in, my phone was blowing up with Katy Perry-related text messages and tweets and photos of her actin’ like she was in our video! We demand a public apology. Or she can take us on tour. Either or.
Eric: I was watching it with Lelah and we just looked at each other and I think I said, ‘Ummm does this look familiar to you? She’s ripping us off!’ I immediately started tweeting, but I kept getting interrupted by texts.
Lelah: That halftime show was the second best thing I’ve ever seen with my own two eyes (the first being Miley). I watched it again at home and it gave me goosebumps… like four or five times. I am mostly really proud of Katy and happy to be associated. It was fun to share that ‘WTF’ moment with Eric as we watched it live, though.
Tacocat says they “officially invites Katy Perry to come over for a video-viewing sleepover after her public apology. We’ll bake her a cake and make her cotton-candy sundaes! We have so much nail polish and glitter.”
And if there is a public apology, they need it to be multi-lingual: “I think her recording a public apology in every language a posting it to YouTube would really go a long way with us. We are very reasonable people.”
You be the judge:
Ummm.. @katyperry ripping off our music video rn?? http://t.co/oZp7IOHql1 #SuperBowl49
— Tacocat (@TacocaTs) February 2, 2015