Left Shark Was TOTALLY Planned!

Turns out, the lovable bumbling oaf known as "Left Shark" was supposed to be that lovable and bumbling! According to her choreographer, the break out star of Katy Perry's Super Bowl performance, "Left Shark," did the routine correctly despite all appearances of completely winging it. (Or rather, finning it?! Anyone?!)

Amidst the widespread meme-ing of Perry's comically off-count shark dancer, her choreographer RJ Durrell explained to the The Hollywood Reporter that the whole thing was planned. Yes, Left Shark actually didn't forget the steps. Those were his steps. Durrell said, "We love the laughter and joy this moment has created for the world and think the left shark nailed it!" Sure! Go with that!

The left and right sharks, who were played by two of Perry's long-time dancers, were supposed to be character foils of one another. The right shark was the type-A, left-brained, perfectionist shark, and the left shark was the type-B, right-brained, goofball shark. I'm not kidding you. As Durrell puts it:

The sharks were given two main objectives. One, perform Katy’s trademark moves to the "Teenage Dream" chorus, which they both did perfectly; and two, to have loads of fun, and bring to life these characters in a cartoon manner, giving them a Tweedledee/Tweedledum-type persona.

So while it looked like left shark just missed an eight count, he was actually just really good at staying in character (wink, wink). In this case, staying in character was equivalent to haphazardly flailing about and smacking your shark suit in the mouth.

Durrell delved a bit further into the binary energies of left shark/right shark, like a true literary scholar:

Clearly, that was portrayed with the overzealous shark on the right hitting precise dance moves, while the left shark was playing up the more goofy, fun-spirited sports-fan mascot type, who was just happy to be at the Super Bowl.

With Durrell's explanation, I'm reminded of being in college and trying to explain a text that I didn't understand at all. Past a certain point, I just became really great at BS-ing to cover up the fact that I had NO idea what I was talking about. If you just keep talking, something that sounds like the right interpretation will come out.

This sort of sounds like what Durrell is doing, which makes the beauty of the Left Shark phenomenon all the more glorious. It was a hilarious event that garnered an even more hilarious explanation. All in all, laughter was the winner of Super Bowl XLIX! For that, Left Shark, America owes you everything.

Image: Giphy (2)