14 DAY TRIAL // The Super Bowl 2015 was last Sunday, and as promised, Katy Perry strove to deliver a memorable performance at Halftime. She did that with some help from Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott, but also through various costume changes, elaborate sets and lots of backup dancers and impressive choreography.
Because everything was top-notched, when one of the two sharks who joined her for the “California Gurls” segment missed the cue and started improvising moves, everyone noticed. In a matter of hours, Left Shark was a celebrity on its own.
Left Shark becomes a meme
You can see the two sharks in the photo attached, while the GIF below shows the exact moment when the left one went off track. The dancer inside the suit later explained that visibility was very restricted in the suit, so he couldn’t exactly see what was going on. So he did what he thought would look good.
Left Shark became a meme online, with some even going as far as to proclaim it the real star of the Super Bowl, or at least of the Halftime performance, a distinction that he had to share with surprise performer Missy Elliott.
Besides showing love for Left Shark with animations and GIFs and hilarious captions, some got tattoos. That’s right, there is at least one person out there who will have the blue dancing shark Katy Perry used in her Halftime performance inked on their arm for the rest of their life.
And then, some people tried to capitalize on the hype, which is when Perry’s attorneys decided to step it: enough fun had been had.
3D printed figurines of Left Shark are off limits
No word yet if the attorneys are also going for those who are selling merchandise like T-shirts with the Left Shark, but Fernando Sosa from Orlando, Florida, has been sent a cease and desist letter warning him he was infringing on Katy’s copyright by trying to sell 3D printed figurines.
Sosa was furious, writing on Instagram that he’d gotten less hassle from “dictators like Putin and Kim Jong-un,” and announcing that all plans for the 3D printed Left Shark figurine had been canceled.
To prove he wasn’t lying, he also posted a photo of the letter he received from Perry’s attorneys, in which he’s told that all concepts used in the Super Bowl performance constitute Katy Perry’s intellectual property. Since she didn’t sign off on the making and sale of the Left Shark figurines, he was in violation of copyright.
For what it’s worth, Katy loved the Left Shark meme - as long people didn’t try to make money off it.
By the way, the sharks are so famous that they even made their first appearance on TV, on the Late Night Show hosted by John Mayer. Mayer, we should add, is dating Perry again.
Also shout out to this guy who loved the Sharks so much he drew blood for them 👊 pic.twitter.com/F89tfeKVq6
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) February 5, 2015
Night' pic.twitter.com/CffDndSzS7
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) February 3, 2015
Here is the cease and desist from Katy perry's lawyers.. Note that I never mentioned her name or implied that i got permission to make this.. #leftshark #rightshark #3dprint A photo posted by Politicalsculptor.com (@mstyle183) on Feb 5, 2015 at 11:02am PST