title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: Rave Cave is the smallest Tomorrowland stage. It is converted from a tunnel under a bridge which has one entrance blocked off. The stage is very intimate and can only host a small number of dancers.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: Rose Garden is one of the oldest stages at Tomorrowland. The stage is semi-circular and had a lattice framing. The stage's most iconic feature is a giant mechanical dragon which is moving constantly, including mouth opening and blinking. Steam jets are located inside the mouth and nose to give the impression that it is breathing smoke.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: Youphoria (pronounced "Euphoria") is a fairly large stage which is half covered at the rear of the dancefloor. The stage has a fairly plain design apart from the giants mushrooms which appeared to grow from the DJ booth.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: The festival's flag features the Tomorrowland logo on a background split into four quadrants diagonally, each separated by a white diagonal stripe, which in turn is bordered by a black diagonal stripe on each side, expanding towards the corners.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: The festival logo features a butterfly, crown and an eye. The butterfly symbolises freedom, the beauty of nature, and the purity of the human soul. The crown symbolises equality and stewardship, where as the eye encourages people to look out for each other and appreciate nature's beauty. The four background colours represent the classical elements of nature – water, earth, fire, and air.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: For every flag bought, Tomorrowland donates €5 to the Tomorrowland Foundation, a global charity aiming to teach music, dance, and arts to children across the globe.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: Tomorrowland's Dreamville currently has seven camping areas ahead of the 2021 event. The camping options range from the Magnificent Greens Area which houses basic campers to the Terra Soils Area which is their most luxurious camping option featuring lockable suites. Tomorrowland also offers mansion packages where guests stay in a privately rented mansion in the local countryside, and hotel packages where guests can stay in a variety of Brussels hotels.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: In terms of catering, the Tomorrowland site has numerous food outlets across the site serving a variety of street foods from across the globe; as well as local Belgian specialities.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: Tomorrowland currently has twenty six official partners including Pepsi Max, Budweiser, and Brussels Airlines which do various work to promote the festival. Since 2011, Tomorrowland has been filming the event and posting the sets on YouTube. The filming is also used to make an official aftermovie in which extra emphasis is put on the festival goers aiming to expand ticket sales for the following year. The film crew is made up of about 200 editors, producers, and camera people. Tomorrowland's YouTube channel has over 1,828,744,611 views as of July 2022, and over 10.2 million subscribers as of July 2022. Elsewhere on social media, Tomorrowland has over 7.8 million followers on Instagram, and over 2.4 million followers on Twitter.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: The 2012 edition of Tomorrowland saw the debut of the Tomorrowland's Global Journey packages in partnership with Brussels Airlines. The package includes a weekend ticket in addition to flights and hotels and saw 25 flights carrying 2,000 passengers from 17 departure cities. 2013 saw a large increase in popularity for this package seeing 140 flights carrying 8,000 passengers from 67 cities with the top five flight destination being Basel, Tel Aviv, Geneva, Oslo, and London. Buyers of the Global Journey packages had the option to upgrade to party flights of which there were twenty; ten standard, eight with streamed music and two with live DJ sets. Previous Global Journey setlists have come from Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Yves V, and Romeo Blanco. Since 2017, Tomorrowland has been partnered with Dance FM UAE allowing live setlists from the festival and exclusive interviews with the performers to be broadcast on the station.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: Tomorrowland 2013 brought €70 million to the Belgian economy, €19 million of which was spent by people living outside of Belgium. In 2016 the festival brought €100 million and employed 700 people full-time before and during the festival. 2017 reported a similar value, again bringing €100 million to the local economy but this year employing a reported 12,000 people during the festival. A crew of 12,000 was also employed for the 2018 edition. The 2019 edition saw an expanded crew, with 15,000 staff members employed, and was estimated to have made €20 million in profit.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: On March 20, 2013, ID&T Belgium and SFX Entertainment announced that it would begin organizing an American spin-off of Tomorrowland, known as TomorrowWorld. The festival is held at the Bouckaert Farm in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia, located 48 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Atlanta. The site was specifically chosen due to its resemblance to the Boom location in which Tomorrowland is traditionally held.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: The inaugural edition of TomorrowWorld, held 27, 28, and 29 September 2013, reused the "Book of Wisdom" design used for the main stage at Tomorrowland in 2012. The festival played host to over 140,000 attendees over the weekend. TomorrowWorld brought more than music, dancing and stunning visuals to the area that year - it brought an economic boost. Officials reported TomorrowWorld 2013 brought $85.1 million into the Georgia economy, including $70 million directly to Atlanta. That $70 million matches the impact the city got from hosting the NCAA Final Four in 2013.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: Nearly 140,000 attended the event, and their direct expenditures added $28.7 million into the local economy in areas such as lodging, restaurants and sight-seeing, TomorrowWorld officials said.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: The 2014 edition of TomorrowWorld was held on 26, 27, and 28 September 2014. The theme was "The Arising of Life," and used the volcano main stage which debuted at Tomorrowland in 2013. The festival hosted a pre-festival concert called "The Gathering" on Thursday 25 September 2014 for attendees staying in Dreamville, the camp grounds of TomorrowWorld. Over 40,000 people camped at Dreamville, selling out the basic camping option. More than 160,000 people attended TomorrowWorld 2014.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: The third and final edition of TomorrowWorld was held on the weekend of September 25, 26, and 27 2015. The event descended into chaos after being marred by inclement weather. Rain showers resulted in muddy terrain at the festival grounds, and entrance roadways to the grounds becoming unusable. On Saturday, due to the road conditions, organizers restricted shuttle service for attendees traveling back to Atlanta; those who were not stranded without shelter at the grounds overnight were required to hike miles towards areas where taxi cab and Uber drivers offered rides back to Atlanta at high prices. The following morning, festival organizers announced that the remainder of the festival would only be open to those who had camped on-site, and that refunds would be issued to those who were affected by the transport issues or had bought tickets for day 3.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: On March 2, 2016, the official TomorrowWorld Facebook page announced that the festival will not be held in 2016.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: As announced on July 20, 2014, by David Guetta's streamed Tomorrowland set to Brazil, and on the Tomorrowland website, the next edition to Tomorrowland Brasil was held on May 1–3, 2015 in Itu, São Paulo. Various DJ's performed such as W&W, Hardwell, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Showtek, Steve Aoki, and many more main stage performers. Some of the stage hosts were Revealed Recordings, Dim Mak, Smash The House, Q-Dance, Super You & Me and many more.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: The mainstage again reused the "Book of Wisdom" theme. All 180,000 tickets sold out one day after being announced.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: The second edition of Tomorrowland Brasil took place once again at Itu in São Paulo, Brasil during April 21–23, 2016. The lineup included Axwell & Ingrosso, Ferry Corsten, Laidback Luke, Loco Dice, Markus Schulz, Afrojack, Alesso, Armin van Buuren, Chris Lake, Infected Mushroom, Nicky Romero, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Solomun, Steve Angello, and many others.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: In November 2016, it was announced that Tomorrowland Brasil would not return due to concerns over the country's economic instability.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: In March 2018, Tomorrowland announced the coming of a new festival, Tomorrowland Winter, to take place annually during the second or third week in March in Alpe d'Huez in the French Alps.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: The first Tomorrowland Winter took place between 13 and 15 March 2019 and used the theme "The Hymn of the Frozen Lotus". It featured Martin Garrix, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Armin van Buuren, Martin Solveig, Afrojack, DJ Snake, Steve Aoki and others. For the participants, the choice of 4 or 7 day passes were available for packages including accommodation and skiing.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: On 13 August 2019, Tomorrowland announced that Tomorrowland Winter would return to the Alpe d'Huez for the 2020 edition which will be on the 3rd week of March with ticket sales opening in September. On 5 March 2020, the French Government decided to cancel the 2020 edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 6 October 2020, it was announced that the 2021 edition would also be cancelled due to the pandemic.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: Tomorrowland has also organized "Unite with Tomorrowland" events in other countries, which serve as a satellite link to the main event in Belgium featuring live streams from the festival with synchronized effects, joined by in-person headliners. "Unite with Tomorrowland" currently operates in the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Spain, Lebanon, Taiwan, Malta, South Korea, Greece, and Israel.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: On the 29th of July 2017, the Unite event in Parc de Can Zam, Barcelona, Spain was cut short after the stage caught fire due to a "technical malfunction" causing over 22,000 people to be evacuated. Firefighters on the scene hypothesised that the fire was caused by a failed pyrotechnics display however this was never officially confirmed. Twenty five percent of the stage was destroyed and twenty people were treated for minor injuries or anxiety.


title: Tomorrowland (festival)

text: In 2019, after Weekend 1, The Freedom Stage ceiling went down due to a storm, and it was kept closed for Weekend 2. The Freedom Stage was converted into an open air stage outside the doors of the stage.


title: Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy

text: The Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, which was broadcast live on February 1, 2004, from Houston, Texas, on the CBS television network, is notable for a moment in which Janet Jackson's breast—adorned with a nipple shield—was exposed by Justin Timberlake to the viewing public for approximately half a second. The incident, sometimes referred to as Nipplegate or Janetgate, led to an immediate crackdown and widespread debate on perceived indecency in broadcasting.


text: The halftime show was produced by MTV and was focused on the network's Choose or Lose campaign (the year 2004 was a presidential election year in the United States). The exposure was broadcast to a total audience of 150.0 million viewers. Following the incident, the National Football League (NFL) excluded MTV, which had also produced the halftime show for Super Bowl XXXV, from future halftime shows. In addition, CBS parent company Viacom and its co-owned subsidiaries, MTV and Infinity Broadcasting, enforced a blacklist of Jackson's singles and music videos on many radio formats and music channels worldwide. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined CBS for an indecency violation of $27,500 and increased it to $325,000. They eventually fined CBS a record $550,000 for the incident, but that fine was ultimately voided by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 2011, and a case to reinstate the fine was refused in 2012.


text: The incident was ridiculed both within the United States and abroad, with a number of commentators opining that it was a planned publicity stunt. Some American commentators, including Jackson herself, argued it was being used as a means to distract the public from the ongoing Iraq War. The increased regulation of broadcasting raised concerns regarding censorship and free speech in the United States.


text: YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim credits the incident with leading to the creation of the video sharing website. The incident also made Janet Jackson the most-searched person and term of 2004 and 2005. The incident broke the record for "most-searched event over one day". It became the most-watched, recorded and replayed television moment in TiVo history and "enticed an estimated 35,000 new [TiVo] subscribers to sign up". The term "wardrobe malfunction" was coined as a result of the incident, and was eventually added to the "Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary".


text: In April 2021, celebrity stylist Wayne Scot Lukas claimed that it was planned by Timberlake, who sought to upstage his ex-girlfriend Britney Spears' MTV Video Music Awards appearance at which she kissed Madonna. In 2015, Lukas had stated that he was not aware of what happened with Timberlake. In 2018, "USA Today" reported Lukas was seen purchasing a sunburst nipple shield from Byriah Dailey the weekend prior to the Super Bowl, telling Dailey "OK, watch the halftime show. There's going to be a surprise at the end."


text: Janet Jackson was the original choice to perform at the halftime show for Super Bowl XXXVI, but the NFL ultimately selected U2 after a group of NFL owners and officials attended the band's concert in New York City shortly after the September 11 attacks. In September 2003, the NFL chose Jackson as the headline performer of the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. Because the event was occurring during an election year, MTV decided that the show's theme would heavily focus on the network's "Choose or Lose" campaign, which encouraged younger viewers to be politically active and register to vote.


text: Timberlake had attended Jackson's "Rhythm Nation Tour" as a kid, and Jackson's energetic dance routines and daring performing style had made a deep impression on him. While Timberlake was a member of pop group 'N Sync, Jackson selected the boy band as the opening act for many dates of her blockbuster "Velvet Rope World Tour", which helped promote and introduce the then-relatively unknown group and Timberlake to the public worldwide. While on the tour, Jackson further promoted the group by performing with 'N Sync on several dates, including joining the group for a live a cappella duet of Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed". Following the tour, Timberlake and Jackson became "good friends", with Jackson also praising Timberlake. Timberlake recreated Jackson's "That's the Way Love Goes" video with 'N Sync and was inspired by Jackson's performing style. When asked who he thought was "the sexiest woman on the planet", Timberlake had said "I've thought Janet Jackson has nothing but sex appeal, so I'd probably say her." Timberlake later asked Jackson to sing backing vocals on "(And She Said) Take Me Now", a song from his debut solo album "Justified".


text: At Live Aid 1985 Mick Jagger ripped off Tina Turner's skirt on stage, an event that created widespread media publicity.


text: During the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXVIII, Jackson performed a medley of hits, beginning with "All for You", "Rhythm Nation" and a brief excerpt of "The Knowledge". Surprise guest Timberlake then appeared onstage to perform a duet of his song "Rock Your Body" with Jackson. The performance contained several suggestive dance moves by both singers. As Timberlake reached his final line of "Rock Your Body" ("Gonna have you naked by the end of this song"), he pulled off a part of Jackson's costume; the move revealed Jackson's right breast—adorned by a sun-shaped nipple shield—for less than a second, after which the CBS broadcast immediately cut to a wide shot of the stage for a pyrotechnic effect, then to an aerial view of Reliant Stadium.


text: The baring of Jackson's breast during the Super Bowl performance became referred to as a "wardrobe malfunction".


text: Following the Super Bowl, both MTV and CBS apologized for the incident and asserted that they had no prior knowledge that Jackson and Timberlake's duet would involve partial nudity. MTV's CEO Tom Freston claimed in an interview with the Reuters news agency that the exposure was a stunt orchestrated by Jackson. However, an MTV representative confirmed that the costume tear was conceptualized by the MTV staff, but added that nudity was not the intended result. The incident was publicly criticized by NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, FCC Chairman Michael Powell, and NFL Executive Vice President Joe Browne. An hour-long MTV documentary titled "Making the Super Bowl Halftime Show" as part of its "Making the Video" series was pulled from the schedule before it could air.


text: Jackson's representative explained the incident, saying, "Justin was supposed to pull away the rubber bustier to reveal a red lace bra. The garment collapsed and her breast was accidentally revealed." According to "Rolling Stone", CBS required Jackson to make a public apology for the incident. Jackson released a video apology in which she said, "The decision to have a costume reveal at the end of my halftime show performance was made after final rehearsals. MTV was completely unaware of it. It was not my intention that it go as far as it did. MTV, CBS, [and] the NFL had no knowledge of this whatsoever and, unfortunately, the whole thing went wrong in the end. I apologize to anyone offended, including the audience, MTV, CBS and the NFL." Speaking to "USA Today", Jackson said she felt humiliated that tens of millions of people saw her exposed breast, but did not feel the outrage was justified. Regarding continued backlash, she responded, "Who knows...Maybe they'll get mad at something that I do in my show, but at least it won't be new to me, since I've already gone through all of this. But I feel very positive that things are going to work out just fine. Everything happens for a reason."


text: Jackson later briefly discussed the incident on "Good Morning America" and the "Late Show with David Letterman". Jackson's outfit was designed by famed designer Alexander McQueen, with Jackson later commenting, "I don't blame him; he didn't rip it. Alexander is so great at what he does—he's a genius." In January 2018 it was revealed that Jackson asked Marcello Garzon to alter the leather outfit she brought to Houston to wear during the halftime show and signed a confidentiality agreement before altering the garment.


text: In an interview with Australia's "Herald Sun", Producer Jimmy Jam revealed Jackson considered writing a song about the incident for her "Damita Jo" album.


text: Michael Musto of "The Village Voice" commented on the media's reaction to the incident, saying, "Janet became a symbolic Joan of Arc to burn at the stake. I actually do think her breast was used as a diversionary tactic—I'm not sure to distract from Iraq specifically—but it did distract from important issues, from things we actually should be appalled by. The story got an undue amount of attention when the fact is nobody has proved how her breast harmed anyone." Speaking to Robert Tannenbaum of "Blender Magazine", Jackson had strong, if guarded, views on the reactions, reiterating her embarrassment at being exposed but argued that there was no sense in complaining about part of a woman's body while world events as grim as war and disease occurred. Jackson declared the reaction to the accidental exposure as "contradictory", noting it to occur in an era where commercials for beer and Viagra are both "very sexual" and "practically omnipresent". Jackson also said the mishap was "not intentional" and a "costume accident", also commenting on some media outlets editing her taped apology, saying, "Sometimes they cut out that I said it was an accident...That's what the media does, that's the way they are because they want it to be told a different way." In "Glamour Magazine", Jackson exclaimed, "It's hard to believe that there's a war and famine going on in the world and yet people made such a big deal about a breast. People said that it was done intentionally to sell records. Do you know what? I have never pulled a stunt. Why would you do that and have your album come out two months later? It doesn't make sense." In the ensuing months, Jackson felt overwhelmed by the hostility towards her. "People think I'm immune to being hurt by what's said. They ask me questions that shock me. Not everybody is as strong as the next person and words can kill. People push you and you start to think can I handle this? But I know I can."


text: Immediately following the incident, Timberlake sounded unapologetic for his actions, telling "Access Hollywood", "Hey man, we love giving you all something to talk about." Timberlake later released a statement saying, "I am sorry that anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the halftime performance of the Super Bowl. It was not intentional and is regrettable." Timberlake also addressed the incident at the Grammy Awards the following week, saying, "I know it's been a rough week on everybody. What occurred was unintentional, completely regrettable and I apologize if you guys are offended." Timberlake gave an additional interview at the Grammy event and stated, "All I could say was, 'Oh, my God. Oh, my God,'" Timberlake said. "I looked at her. They brought a towel up on stage. They covered her up. I was completely embarrassed and just walked off the stage as quickly as I could. I'm frustrated at the whole situation. I'm frustrated that my character is being questioned."


text: Jackson suspected ulterior motives in the media's reaction, expressing, "It was just perfect timing to take people's focus off of other things. That's what happens, and it happened to me." Comments from Michael Rich, director of Harvard's Center on Media and Child Health; Jay Rosenthal, attorney for the Recording Artists' Coalition; and Simon Renshaw of management group The Firm expressed similar sentiments. The "Boston Legal" episode "Let Sales Ring" likened the incident to being used as a distraction, portraying a news corporation which used the mishap to attract attention over other important events in the media. Daniel Kreps of "Rolling Stone" opined, "For the FCC, Nipplegate provided an opportunity to restore order and flex whatever power they had left. Faced with lax broadcast standards for cable TV and satellite radio, as well as the absolute lawlessness of the Internet, the FCC becomes hell-bent on preserving common decency in the family-friendly realm of network television... While the aftermath of Nipplegate starts to fade, the FCC will continue to carry its torch for the next half-decade." Cynthia Fuchs of "Popmatters" stated, "It behooves TV producers and consumers to focus their attentions on significant "news", rather than the daily distractions offered up by politicians, performers, professional spinners, and journalists. Janet is not that person you watch on TV. And neither is anyone else."


text: A decade after the incident, former FCC chairman Michael Powell gave his first interview regarding Jackson's performance, saying Jackson was treated unfairly and the controversy, including his own reaction, was completely overblown. Powell stated, "I think we've been removed from this long enough for me to tell you that I had to put my best version of outrage on that I could put on. Part of it was surreal, right? Look, I think it was dumb to happen, and they knew the rules and were flirting with them, and my job is to enforce the rules, but, you know, 'Really? This is what we're gonna do?' " Powell also said the treatment of Jackson, who was lambasted for causing "an outrageous stunt", was unfair, and commented on Timberlake not receiving the same backlash. "I personally thought that was really unfair", he said. "It all turned into being about her. In reality, if you slow the thing down, it's Justin ripping off her breastplate."


text: In the United States, the exposure of Jackson's breast by Timberlake led to much media attention and headlines. The incident was sometimes referred to as "Nipplegate". The socially conservative media watchdog group Parents Television Council (PTC) issued a statement condemning the halftime show, and called on PTC members to file indecency complaints with the FCC. In addition, the FCC received nearly 540,000 complaints from Americans, with the PTC claiming responsibility for around 65,000 of them. (In its appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, CBS disputed how many of the complaints were filed by individual, non-organized viewers.) Columnist Phyllis Schlafly also expressed criticism of the halftime show in her weekly column. Democratic senator Zell Miller of Georgia, both on the floor of the United States Senate and in an editorial on Salon.com, denounced the halftime show as an example of declining morality in America. The day immediately following the Super Bowl, then-FCC chairman Michael Powell ordered an investigation into the halftime show. However, an Associated Press poll conducted nearly three weeks after the Super Bowl found that although 54% of American adults considered the exposure distasteful, only 18% supported the FCC's investigation. Film director Spike Lee, speaking at Kent State University at Stark on February 3, called the incident a "new low" in entertainment. Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean called the FCC's investigation "silly", commenting: "I think the FCC probably has a lot of other things they should be pursuing."


text: The Super Bowl controversy was also a subject of humor on late-night talk shows. For example, CBS's own "Late Show with David Letterman" mocked the incident all week following the Super Bowl. The day after the Super Bowl, host David Letterman joked that he "was happy to see this thing happen ... because that meant for one night I wasn't the biggest boob on CBS". The next day, he also joked that President George W. Bush formed a "Department of Wardrobe Security" to prevent further wardrobe malfunctions. On February 4, Letterman opened his monologue by joking about having a wardrobe malfunction and referenced the incident in this night's Top Ten List. Jackson's appearance on the "Late Show" the following month increased the show's ratings 20% from the program's usual weeknight opener. Larry King also stated Jackson jokingly gave him a pair of suspenders with open holes around the nipples, commenting "I wore them once, they were cute."


text: The halftime show continued to be a subject of discussion in 2005. The parody newspaper "The Onion" ran a lead article on January 26, 2005 entitled "U.S. Children Still Traumatized One Year After Seeing Partially Exposed Breast On TV". The article's satirical target was the nation's reaction to the incident rather than the incident itself. On February 1, 2005, exactly one year after the halftime show, the PTC released a report titled "MTV Smut Peddlers: Targeting Kids with Sex, Drugs, and Alcohol", covering MTV programming during the network's "Spring Break" week from March 20 to 27, 2004, accusing MTV of irresponsibly promoting sex, drugs and alcohol to impressionable youth. In response to the report, MTV network executive Jeannie Kedas argued that the report "underestimates young people's intellect and their level of sophistication." On February 6, "New York Times" columnist Frank Rich argued that censorship on television was becoming more prevalent following the halftime show. Examples he cited included PBS editing obscene language out of certain programs such as the British terrorist drama "Dirty War" and more than 60 ABC-affiliated stations (including those owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, E. W. Scripps Company, Hearst-Argyle Television and Cox Broadcasting) refusing to broadcast "Saving Private Ryan" due to the profanity prevalent throughout the film. (The latter, which would later be ruled by the FCC to not violate regulations, would air on cable afterwards to avoid controversy.) The ESPN series "Playmakers" was also canceled following the incident. A commercial from Budweiser, which depicted a man opening a beverage on the outfit's breastplate and tearing it before it was worn, was intended to be aired during Super Bowl XXXIX the following year, but was pulled before its broadcast.


text: In Canada, where the Super Bowl telecast was broadcast by the Global Television Network, the incident passed largely without controversy: only about 50 Canadians complained about the incident to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC). The CBSC received roughly twice as many complaints about other aspects of the Super Bowl broadcast, including music and advertising issues (though some were expected complaints about Canadian content/simsub issues preventing viewing of the popular American advertisements, which is a common issue among Canadian viewers of the Super Bowl to the present day). Professor Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, stated: "I know many people in other countries are scratching their heads and thinking 'What in the world is the big fuss over there?'"


text: New Zealand news outlets re-broadcast the "nipplegate" moment (some in slow motion) with out-of-touch commentary alleging that US ultra-conservatives had made the incident into a major controversy. The nation's largest newspaper, the "New Zealand Herald", ran an op-ed from a New Zealander living in America detailing his bafflement at his American friends, who had expressed outrage at the glimpse of a nipple while supporting their country's invasion of Iraq and being fans of the television show "Sex and the City".


text: On February 4, Terri Carlin, a banker residing in Knoxville, Tennessee, filed a class action lawsuit against Jackson and Timberlake on behalf of "all American citizens who watched the outrageous conduct". The lawsuit alleged that the halftime show contained "sexually explicit acts solely designed to garner publicity and, ultimately, to increase profits for themselves". The lawsuit sought maximum punitive and compensatory damages from the performers. Carlin later dropped the lawsuit. Three months later, Eric Stephenson, a lawyer from Farmington, Utah, filed a US$5,000 lawsuit in small-claims court against Viacom for false advertising of the Super Bowl halftime show, as he, the father of three young children, claimed that pre-game advertising led him to believe that the halftime show would consist of marching bands, balloons and a patriotic celebration. The lawsuit was rejected because Stephenson should have filed a federal lawsuit or complaint to the FCC, which was already investigating the halftime show.


text: America Online, the Internet service provider that sponsored the halftime show, demanded a refund of the approximately US$7.5 million that it paid to sponsor and advertise on the halftime show. However, no other advertisers of the Super Bowl had similar demands.


text: The incident triggered a rash of fines that the FCC levied soon after the Super Bowl, alleging that the context of the "wardrobe malfunction" was intended "to pander, titillate and shock those watching" because it happened within the lyrics within Timberlake's performance of "Rock Your Body": "Hurry up 'cause you're taking too long ... gonna have you naked by the end of this song." In addition, the FCC cited a news article on MTV's website (MTV.com) claiming that the halftime show would promise "shocking moments" and that "officials of both CBS and MTV were well aware of the overall sexual nature of the Jackson/Timberlake segment, and fully sanctioned it—indeed, touted it as 'shocking' to attract potential viewers". CBS, however, argued that the exposure was unplanned, although in later statements CBS asserted that while the exposure was unplanned by CBS, it was deliberately planned by Timberlake and Jackson "independently and clandestinely". On September 22, 2004, the FCC fined Viacom the maximum penalty of US$27,500 for each of the 20 CBS-owned television stations (including satellites of WFRV in Green Bay, WCCO in Minneapolis and KUTV in Salt Lake City; current CBS owned-and-operated station KOVR in Sacramento at the time was owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group) for a fine totaling US$550,000, the largest ever placed against a television broadcaster at that time. However, the Parents Television Council and even some of the FCC commissioners criticized the Commission for fining only 20 CBS stations, not all of them, for the halftime show. 66% of respondents to a March 2005 "Time" magazine poll believed that the FCC overreacted to the halftime show by fining CBS.


text: On November 24, 2004, Viacom paid out US$3.5 million to settle outstanding indecency complaints and stated that it would challenge the US$550,000 penalty related to the incident, on the grounds that the broadcast was unintentional and thus exempt from indecency regulation. In March 2006, the FCC affirmed that the Super Bowl halftime show was indecent, so CBS paid the FCC's issued fine in July 2006 in order to take their appeal against their fine to federal court. CBS appealed the fine on September 17 at the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.


text: On July 21, 2008, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of CBS, voiding the FCC's fine on the grounds that the enforcement involved a significant deviation from prior practice that was not issued as a clear policy change. On May 4, 2009, however, the Supreme Court vacated and remanded the case back to the Third Circuit for reconsideration in light of the previously decided "Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations (2009)".


text: On November 2, 2011, the Third Circuit Court ruled 2–1 that its earlier decision was correct, citing that the broadcast was legal under the FCC's then-current policy of allowing "fleeting" indecency on the airwaves, and that it was unfair of the FCC to change the policy retroactively. On June 29, 2012, the Supreme Court declined an FCC appeal.


text: Prior to the broadcast, CBS rejected the MoveOn.org Super Bowl ad "Bush in 30 Seconds" because it was deemed too controversial. CBS stated that it had a "decades-old" policy of rejecting advertisements regarding "controversial issues of public importance", although MoveOn charged that the networks had previously accepted similar advertisements from other groups. The Super Bowl broadcast contained numerous commercials for erectile dysfunction medicines and advertisements for Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light brand featuring a flatulating horse and a dog attacking male genitalia; however, no politically charged advertisements appeared during the telecast. CBS, which also held the rights to Super Bowl XLIV, later aired a commercial during that game featuring then-Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother that discreetly refer to their anti-abortion viewpoints. The ad, sponsored by Focus on the Family, received similar controversy. In a league-mandated policy meant to clear the airwaves of such advertisements, the NFL banned those types of commercials from Super Bowl broadcasts (the league ended an advertising relationship with Levitra in March 2007 as an official league sponsor).


text: In January 2005, Fox, the network that carried Super Bowl XXXIX under the NFL's alternating network contract for the championship game, rejected an advertisement for the cold remedy Airborne that briefly showed the naked buttocks of veteran actor Mickey Rooney.


text: Moments after the Jackson-Timberlake tangle, streaker Mark Roberts added to the controversial halftime by running around the field naked except for a well-placed G-string attached to half of a miniature football. Part of Roberts' stunt was broadcast in the United States before players from both teams tackled him, allowing stadium security and police to take Roberts into custody.


text: Aside from Jackson's exposure, minor controversy was created when rapper Nelly performed his song "Hot in Herre" when a group of female backup dancers all pulled the top-layer of their costumes off, revealing shorter shorts and smaller shirts underneath. Kid Rock appeared in a poncho made from a slit American flag, which he later threw towards the audience. U.S. Senator Zell Miller complained that Kid Rock's outfit was a desecration of the American flag.


text: Website Soap Opera Central speculated that the fallout from this incident may have had a subtle effect on daytime television. These television shows are known for "love in the afternoon" and regularly depict romantic couplings; shortly before the Super Bowl, the Procter & Gamble soap operas "As the World Turns" and "Guiding Light" had gone as far as featuring rear male nudity during sexual scenes. After the Super Bowl controversy, FCC commissioner Michael J. Copps stated that it was time for a crackdown on inappropriate sexual content in daytime television, and indicated that he was reviewing whether soap operas were violating the agency's indecency prohibitions. In "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer", NewsHour correspondent Tom Bearden reports the excerpts from hearings today on regulating broadcast decency.


text: Two other major sporting events that followed the Super Bowl that year also changed their respective halftime shows following the incident. At the Pro Bowl, which would be played on February 8 at Aloha Stadium in Hawaii, singer JC Chasez, a member of boy band 'N Sync as was Timberlake, was to sing the National Anthem before the game and perform his hit song "Blowin' Me Up (with Her Love)" at halftime. However, the NFL did not allow Chasez to perform during halftime due to the sexually suggestive content of his chosen song (even though the game was carried by ESPN, which is not under the content purview of the FCC as it is a cable network, and therefore only self-regulates content as an advertiser-supported service), replacing it with traditional Hawaiian hula dancers. The 2004 NBA All-Star Game also changed its act, despite being broadcast on TNT (which is not bound by FCC content regulations as a cable network), having halftime performer Beyoncé perform "Crazy in Love" instead of "Naughty Girl", which they feared would incite controversy given its sexual content. Jackson was in attendance at the game, and dressed conservatively. The networks that were to broadcast the 46th Grammy Awards (CBS) and the 76th Academy Awards (ABC), live events scheduled for February 8 and February 29 respectively, enhanced their broadcast delays to accommodate editing of inappropriate video in addition to audio.


text: "Guiding Light" edited out nudity from an episode that had already been taped. A week later, the show's executive producer John Conboy was fired and replaced by Ellen Wheeler. All nine American network soaps began to impose an unwritten rule of avoiding any sort of risqué adult scenes, and in the months following, editors of soap opera periodical "Soap Opera Digest" wrote about how daytime television was losing its steam. NBC also re-edited a scene from an episode of its medical drama "ER" where paramedics were wheeling an elderly woman into the hospital, and her breast could be seen in the context of her injury and treatment. Even as late as Veterans Day (November 11) of 2004, 65 ABC-affiliated stations pre-empted the uncut network presentation of the film "Saving Private Ryan" over concerns about the film's violent content and FCC regulations. Benjamin Svetkey of "Entertainment Weekly" quoted L. Brent Bozell III and Peggy Noonan associating the mass pre-emption of the film with the halftime show incident. The annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was cancelled for that year in reaction to the incident.


text: A petition was filed by a consortium of broadcasters (which included Viacom) and the RIAA over an FCC indecency ruling, regarding fleeting expletives uttered by Bono of U2 when accepting an award at the 60th Golden Globe Awards in 2003. It argued that the FCC had implemented a standard "that would allow it to censor all kinds of things—anything considered blasphemous, coarse or vulgar", and observed that many radio stations, especially rock-formatted stations, had been engaging in self-censorship by censoring or removing songs from their libraries, so that they would not run afoul of the stricter regulation. Clear Channel Communications removed talk-radio host Howard Stern from several of its large-market radio stations within a month of the incident, citing the raunchy content of Stern's show. The FCC fined Clear Channel over allegedly indecent content on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show. As a result of the incident, some networks established regulations requiring time delays of as much as five minutes for live broadcasts such as awards shows and sporting events. In late 2004, the United States House of Representatives passed a bill to raise the maximum FCC fine penalty from said US$27,500 to US$500,000 per violation; the United States Senate voted to decrease it to US$275,000 per incident, with a cap of US$3 million per day. By June 2006, the two houses reconciled the differences in fine levels, settling for a fine of US$325,000 per violation in the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005.


text: The incident also prompted tighter control over content by station owners and managers. Viacom, at the center of the controversy, also employed the controversial Howard Stern in its radio division (at the time called Infinity Broadcasting). The expanding control on content is said to be a contributing factor that drove Stern away from terrestrial radio and onto Sirius Satellite Radio, and is sometimes credited as the media figure most responsible for introducing a new era in radio. It has also been reported that some teen-oriented awards shows in the summer of 2004 had also been purged of most sexual and profane content that had been perceived as staples in such awards telecasts in the past, including Fox's Teen Choice Awards and MTV's self-created Video Music Awards. Author Frederick S. Lane stated in an interview with John Eggerton of "Broadcasting & Cable" magazine that the controversy surrounding the halftime show was the primary inspiration for his 2006 book "The Decency Wars: The Campaign to Cleanse American Culture", which explains moral controversies in the American media over the years.


text: Beginning with Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005, the halftime show began to be produced by Don Mischer Productions and White Cherry Entertainment; those shows contained classic rock artists who mainly performed songs from the 1970s and 1980s (with a notable exception being Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performing their 2008 single "Working on a Dream" during the Super Bowl XLIII halftime show in 2009). This practice ended after Super Bowl XLIV in 2010; beginning with Super Bowl XLV in 2011, the halftime performance returned to having pop artists.


text: In 2012, during the halftime show for Super Bowl XLVI, rapper M.I.A. pointed up her middle finger during her performance. That incident drew comparisons with the exposure of Janet Jackson's breast in the Super Bowl halftime show eight years prior. The Associated Press asserted that people learned what M.I.A. did only when reports surfaced in the media and quoted TV critic James Poniewozik: "I had no idea she even did it until NBC issued an apology for it." NBC blurred the entire screen albeit a second too late to obscure M.I.A. giving the finger. The NFL ultimately sued M.I.A. for US$1.5 million on breach of contract grounds. The lawsuit was settled in August 2014 and the terms of the settlement remained private. As an indication of the reduced level of complaints, only 222 complaints were filed over the incident.


text: Sports would be greatly affected by the controversy. Three weeks later, NASCAR stiffened penalties on use of improper language or gestures including larger fines, loss of points (if it occurred in a post-race interview or after the driver fell out of a race), ejection of a team from the race, or lap penalties (if in-race) under the circuit's "detrimental to NASCAR" rule. Johnny Sauter was fined US$10,000 and 25 points a week after the new rule took effect for obscene language in an interview. Later in 2004, Dale Earnhardt Jr. received a 25-point penalty and a US$50,000 fine when he used an obscenity after winning the 2004 EA Sports 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. He lost the championship lead after that incident and lost the championship by 100 points. In 2007, Tony Stewart received a similar penalty after using an obscenity in a post-race interview following his Brickyard 400 win. Kyle Busch, in November 2010, was fined US$25,000 for an obscene gesture caught on ESPN, along with an in-race two-lap penalty, as the gesture was aimed at a NASCAR official.


text: The NFL also came under some smaller controversies over its telecasts. The FCC received a complaint about Fox's telecast of a January 2005 playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings; the complainant alleged that Minnesota player Randy Moss, who scored a touchdown, apparently made movements appearing to moon the spectators. However, the FCC denied the complaint because Moss was fully clothed at all times, and his gestures were shown for only a few seconds, thus warranting that the display was not indecent; game commentator Joe Buck also immediately condemned the act (and additionally, Moss was fined by the NFL). On January 13, 2007, during Fox's coverage of an NFL playoff game between the New Orleans Saints and Philadelphia Eagles, the camera cut to the stands, showing for four seconds a shirt with the words "Fuck DA EAGLES" that was worn by a female spectator. That drew a backlash from the Parents Television Council, which filed complaints with the FCC.


text: During NBC's live broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009, the five-year anniversary of the original incident, affiliate KVOA-TV's analog broadcast feed (the high definition feed of the station was unaffected) over Comcast's Tucson, Arizona system was interrupted by an unknown party, when an excerpt of a film aired by adult cable channel Shorteez was broadcast for 30 seconds to local Comcast subscribers just after Larry Fitzgerald scored his fourth-quarter touchdown to take the Cardinals to a 23–20 lead. Afterwards, 10 seconds of an end credit segment from ClubJenna (which, like Shorteez, is owned by Playboy Enterprises) was shown. Comcast offered a US$10 credit for customers who claimed to have seen the incident, and the Federal Communications Commission investigated the cause of the incident. E! Online columnist Josh Grossberg stated: "This almost makes us nostalgic for the days of Nipplegate."


text: Frederick S. Lane argued in his 2006 book "The Decency Wars" that the Super Bowl halftime show controversy influenced the primary focus on "moral values" and "media decency" in the 2004 Democratic Party primaries. Jackson claimed the incident was used in the media as a diversion for President George W. Bush's poor approval ratings and the Iraq War, with Bush and First Lady Laura Bush giving public commentary on the incident rather than focusing on other issues.


text: Viacom CEO Les Moonves ordered that Janet Jackson's singles and music videos be blacklisted from all of its properties, including CBS, MTV, and its radio station group Infinity Broadcasting. Jackson was intended to appear at the 46th Grammy Awards, which was being held the following week and televised by CBS, but her invitation was withdrawn due to the incident. Jackson was originally scheduled to appear as a presenter for a tribute to Luther Vandross, performed by Celine Dion, Richard Marx and Alicia Keys, and was chosen due to previously collaborating with Vandross on the number-one hit "The Best Things in Life Are Free". According to "People Magazine", Jackson "had been slated to speak before the accolade but was being pressured to bow out gracefully—or face being uninvited", before later being completely barred from attending. However, Timberlake was still allowed to attend and perform at the event. Both Jackson and Timberlake were initially disinvited and later re-invited under the condition that they agree to apologize on air. The majority of the artists at the ceremony were also asked to comment on Jackson's incident. Jackson's long-time producer Jimmy Jam during a pre-Grammy party "Last time I talked to her about it, she was up in the air about it", Jam told CNN. "She was literally sitting on the fence about whether she was going to come or not, or whether she was going to sit back and watch it on TV.".


text: Jackson had also been cast to play Lena Horne in a movie about the singer and activist's life, which was to be produced by ABC, but was forced to resign following the performance incident. A statue of Mickey Mouse wearing Jackson's iconic "Rhythm Nation" outfit was mantled at Walt Disney World theme park the previous year to honor Jackson's legacy, but was removed following Jackson's controversial performance. A spokesman for Disney said, "Considering all the controversy [the performance] drew, we talked it over for a couple of days and decided it would be best to replace hers with a new one."


text: The blacklisting affected promotion of Janet Jackson's first album released since the incident "Damita Jo"—her eighth studio album. A majority of the reviews for the album, including those by AllMusic, the BBC, "Entertainment Weekly", "The Guardian" and "The New York Times" focused on the negative backlash suffered by Jackson as a result of the incident but gave favorable reviews to the album itself. Despite the blacklisting, "Damita Jo" was a success and certified Platinum, selling over three million copies worldwide and also receiving a Grammy nomination. Singles from the album like "Just a Little While" and "All Nite (Don't Stop)" reached #1 on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. Although receiving positive reception, the incident also affected the performance of following albums "20 Y.O." and "Discipline" due to the blacklist. However, "20 Y.O." managed to sell over 1.5 million copies worldwide, was certified Platinum in the US and received a Grammy nomination. Additionally, "Feedback" reached the top 20 pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100, selling one million copies worldwide. Subsequent releases "Make Me" peaked atop the Hot Dance Club Songs and top 20 internationally; "Nothing" reached #1 on the digital pop and music video charts, also considered for an Oscar nomination.


text: In her first interview since the incident, Jackson appeared on CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" on March 29, 2004, which increased the show's ratings over 20%. In April 2004, Jackson poked fun at herself in an appearance on "Saturday Night Live", first while playing Condoleezza Rice in a skit, nervously answering a question by exposing her right breast (which was pixelated by NBC), and again by viewing a mock home video from her childhood in which her bathing suit top came off in a wading pool, calling it a "swimsuit malfunction". An NBC spokesman said Jackson was wearing a bra beneath her blouse during the skit. During a performance on ABC's "Good Morning America", the network promoted Jackson's appearance as her "first live performance since the Super Bowl", hinting at the chance of shock value. In 2006, during an interview on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", Jackson upheld her claim that the Super Bowl scandal was an accident.


text: "People Magazine" stated Timberlake was referred to as "the Teflon man" at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards because the incident did not affect him as it did Jackson. Media coverage overwhelmingly minimized Timberlake's role, largely mentioning him only in passing, if at all. In a 2006 interview with MTV, Timberlake said that compared to the huge backlash Jackson suffered, he himself received only about 10% of the blame; and he accused American society of being both "harsher on women" and "unfairly harsh on ethnic people". Prior to plans for the Super Bowl performance, Jackson and Timberlake had discussed potentially recording a duet for Jackson's "Damita Jo" album, as well as a rumored collaboration for a Quincy Jones album, though neither came to fruition. In November 2013, Timberlake performed a cover of Jackson's "Let's Wait Awhile" on "The 20/20 Experience World Tour" before transitioning into one of his song which was regarded as a sign of affection or apology to Jackson.


text: Media commentators stated Jackson was treated too harshly by the media and public, while Timberlake's career was not affected much by the incident. Shannon L. Holland in "Women's Studies in Communication" argued that the media reaction after the incident focused disproportionately on Jackson, "represent[ing] her as a contemporary Jezebel in that her racial and gendered Otherness was often juxtaposed with the 'normalcy' of Timberlake's white masculinity. That is, she emerged in a public discourse as the primary (if not sole) instigator of the lewd act, a scheming seductress who manipulated Timberlake for her own economic gain." Rob Sheffield of "Rolling Stone" stated "Justin isn't exactly Mr. Loyalty—he totally left Janet Jackson to take the heat after the Super Bowl.'" E! Online also commented "Timberlake wasted no time placing the bulk of the blame for the incident on Jackson. And, of course, the woman takes the blame even though the man stripped her. Pathetically typical." A reporter for VH1 said "JT still gets a side eye for leaving her out to dry."


text: One observer claimed "Despite her 'wardrobe malfunction'—for which we think Justin Timberlake wasn't punished nearly as severely for—Janet put on a pretty amazing show." "The New York Times" noted "[a]fter her right breast upstaged the Super Bowl, she was criticized by the first lady, vilified by media executives and abandoned by her co-conspirator, Justin Timberlake; less excitable commentators suggested she was merely a shrewd publicity-stunt woman with a new album to promote." Jackson's parents, Joe and Katherine Jackson, also expressed concern that Timberlake did not stand by Janet following the incident, commenting, "What I didn't like is there wasn't one person on that stage, there were two people. After a while, there was only Janet Jackson. That's all there was. Janet Jackson", adding "Janet don't pull that thing open herself. He did it. We were surprised that they didn't say anything to Justin about it."


text: Timberlake would eventually be given a "second chance", being invited back to the Super Bowl halftime show when he was named headlining act for the Super Bowl LII halftime show in February 2018. During his performance, Timberlake again sang a portion of "Rock Your Body", but stopped right before reaching the "Gonna have you naked by the end of this song" lyric, saying "Hold up! Stop!" and smiling, as a reference to the 2004 incident.


text: On June 12, 2009, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Timberlake stated his biggest regret of the decade was not defending Janet Jackson more after the media backlash. “I wish I had supported Janet more. I am not sorry I apologised, but I wish I had been there more for Janet,” he said.


text: On February 12, 2021, after social media backlash from the documentary "Framing Britney Spears" aired, Timberlake publicly apologized to both Britney Spears and Janet Jackson in an Instagram post, pledging to "take accountability" and that "I can do better and I will do better."


text: Pop singer Katy Perry parodied Jackson's Super Bowl incident in the music video for her single "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" during a scene where Perry's breast is accidentally exposed at a school event. Jackson's incident is also recreated in Eminem's "Ass Like That" music video. The controversy and sexual nature surrounding Miley Cyrus' performance of "We Can't Stop" and "Blurred Lines"/"Give It 2 U" with guest artist Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards was likened to Jackson's performance with Timberlake at the Super Bowl event.


text: The term "wardrobe malfunction" began to be used by various entertainers when describing accidental public exposures or nudity, or revealing outfits. The term's frequent usage also led to numerous entertainment outlets compiling various celebrity "wardrobe malfunctions", with Jackson included in the lists as the most infamous example and originator of the term.


text: On the April 10, 2004 episode of "Saturday Night Live", Janet Jackson as Condoleezza Rice is told by Darrell Hammond as Vice President Dick Cheney that she should show her breast at 9-11 hearings. It appears that she did, with her breast pixellated, but NBC said Jackson was wearing a bra.


text: Justin Timberlake referenced the incident when ripping off part of Kristen Wiig's outfit during an appearance on "Saturday Night Live" in 2009. The "Family Guy" episode "PTV" was written as a parody of the FCC's strict measures and regulations following Jackson's Super Bowl halftime show performance controversy. A scene from the episode involving the fictional portrayal of an extreme reaction to actor David Hyde Pierce having a wardrobe malfunction at the Emmy Awards was also a recreation and reference to the incident. Jackson's performance is again referenced in a brief scene where Peter Griffin is dressed in Jackson's Super Bowl outfit and has his breast exposed by Justin Timberlake during the musical number "The Freaking FCC". The song itself was introduced when Lois called the FCC in response to Peter's TV show antics. The episode received Primetime Emmy Award and Annie Award nominations for its subject matter. Jackson's performance also inspired the "South Park" episode "Good Times with Weapons". In the episode, the show's creators draw attention to the media and public's unnecessary reaction to Jackson's brief exposure while disregarding or accepting extreme acts of violence during a scene where the public is outraged when Eric Cartman is seen naked and having a "wardrobe malfunction" on stage, while character Butters Stotch is ignored although he is bleeding and severely injured. Several game shows have also mentioned Jackson's performance.


text: Several presenters at award shows have referenced the incident, including Anna Nicole Smith at the first annual MTV Australia Video Music Awards, Dave Chappelle at the MTV Video Music Awards, and singer Alanis Morissette at the Juno Awards. Morissette also commented: "It's disturbing and curious to me to see what came of that. We're all sexual beings, and if we don't let it out organically, we repress ourselves. If we repress anger, it turns to depression. If we repress our sexuality, it turns to pornography and rape. To think that the country was in an uproar because of a nipple." Comedian Russell Brand referenced the incident when hosting the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, saying "I can almost guarantee a Janet Jackson-style Super Bowl nip slip."


text: The performance incident made "Janet Jackson" the most searched term, event and image in Internet history. Jackson was later listed in the 2007 edition of "Guinness World Records" as "Most Searched in Internet History" and the "Most Searched for News Item". It also broke the record for "most searched event over one day". 'Janet Jackson' also became the most searched term and person for 2004 and also of the following year. It also set a record for being the most watched, recorded and replayed moment on TiVo. A company representative stated "The audience measurement guys have never seen anything like it. The audience reaction charts looked like an electrocardiogram." Monte Burke of "Forbes" magazine reported, "[t]he fleeting moment enticed an estimated 35,000 new [TiVo] subscribers to sign up." Janet's Super Bowl halftime incident also coined the phrase "wardrobe malfunction", which was later officially added to the Webster's English Dictionary in 2008. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, "Entertainment Weekly" stated "Radio stations rushed to add Jackson's new single, "Just a Little While" to playlists on Monday following the incident [...] And "USA Today" reports that jewelry stores and piercing studios are seeing increased customer interest in silver sunburst-shaped nipple shields."


text: YouTube co-founders Jawed Karim, Steve Chen, and Chad Hurley revealed that their frustration at not being able to easily find a video clip of the incident provided the inspiration for the creation of YouTube. The launch of Facebook commenced three days following the incident, in a potential attempt to capitalize on its publicity through social networking.


text: "Rolling Stone" stated Jackson's Super Bowl performance "is far and away the most famous moment in the history of the Super Bowl halftime show". "PopCrush" called the performance "one of the most shocking moments in pop culture" as well as a "totally unexpected and unforgettable moment". "Gawker" ranked the performance among the most recent of the "10 Shows that Advanced Sex on Television", commenting the set "had all the elements of a huge story" and "within seconds the world searched furtively for pictures", concluding "it remains so ubiquitous, it's impossible to look at a starburst nipple shield without thinking "Janet Jackson"". "E! Online" ranked it among the top ten most shocking celebrity moments of the prior two decades. A study of television's most impactful moments of the last 50 years conducted by Sony Electronics and the Nielsen Television Research Company ranked Jackson's Super Bowl performance at #26. The incident was the only Super Bowl event on the list and the highest music and entertainment event aside from the death of Whitney Houston. TV Guide Network ranked it at #2 in a 2010 special listing the "25 Biggest TV Blunders". "Complex" stated "It's the Citizen Kane of televised nip-slips—so unexpected, and on such a large stage, that nothing else will ever come close. If Beyoncé were to whip out both breasts and put on a puppet show with them when she performs this year in New Orleans, it would rate as just the second most shocking Super Boob display. Janet's strangely ornamented right nipple is a living legend, and so is Justin Timberlake's terrified reaction." Music channel Fuse listed it as the most controversial Super Bowl halftime show, saying the "revealing performance remains (and will forever remain) the craziest thing to ever happen at a halftime show. Almost immediately after the incident, the FCC received a flood of complaints from parents who just wanted their children to enjoy a nice, wholesome three hours of grown men inflicting damaging and long-lasting pain on each other for sport. Halftime shows would never be the same." Patrick Gipson of "Bleacher Report" ranked it as #1 in its list of the most "Jaw Dropping Moments of the Last Decade", stating Janet "changed the landscape of live television forever". Gipson explained "It prompted a million mothers to cover their eyes, fathers and sons to jump out of their seats in shock and numerous sanctions by the Federal Communications Commission, including a US$550,000 fine against CBS. Talk about a halftime show that will be hard to top." The incident was also declared "the most memorable Super Bowl halftime show in history", as well as "the most controversial", adding "you can't talk about this halftime show, or any subsequent halftime show from here to eternity, without mentioning the wardrobe malfunction".


text: New York City-based production studio Left/Right began developing a documentary on the incident with The New York Times, with FX and sister service Hulu stated to be carrying it on linear television and streaming respectively, shortly after the four entities collaborated on "Framing Britney Spears". The documentary, "", premiered on November 19, 2021, nine months after "Framing Britney Spears".


title: Death by coconut

text: Coconuts falling from their trees and striking individuals can cause serious injury to the back, neck, shoulders and head, and are occasionally fatal.


title: Death by coconut

text: Following a 1984 study on "Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts", exaggerated claims spread concerning the number of deaths by falling coconuts. Falling coconuts, according to urban legend, kill a few people a year. This legend gained momentum after the 2002 work of a noted expert on shark attacks was characterized as saying that falling coconuts kill 150 people each year worldwide. This statistic has often been contrasted with the number of shark-caused deaths per year, which is around five.


title: Death by coconut

text: Concern about the risk of fatality due to falling coconuts led local officials in Queensland, Australia, to remove coconut trees from beaches in 2002. One newspaper dubbed coconuts "the killer fruit". Historical reports of actual death by coconut nonetheless date back to the 1770s.


title: Death by coconut

text: Another way to "die by coconut" is to have sudden cardiac death as a result of hyperkalemia, after consuming moderate to large quantities of coconut water, due to the high levels of potassium in coconut water.


title: Death by coconut

text: Coconut fruit come from the coconut palm ("Cocos nucifera"), which can grow up to tall, with pinnate leaves long and pinnae long. Older leaves will break away cleanly from the tree leaving a smooth trunk. While a mature and thriving tree can yield up to 75 fruits per year, it is more common to get fewer than 30. A full-sized coconut weighs about . Coconut palms are cultivated in more than 80 countries, with a total production of 61 million tonnes per year.


title: Death by coconut

text: Concerns about death by coconut have been reported extensively in mainstream media sources. Such reports include:


title: Death by coconut

text: A later 2001 study over a five-year period found all skull fractures from falling fruit were in children under the age of ten.


title: Death by coconut

text: While the typical form of death by coconut is by trauma resulting from a coconut falling from a tree under the force of gravity, variations on the phenomenon have also been reported.


title: Death by coconut

text: In December 1923, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, a man was killed while trying to crack open a coconut with the butt end of a loaded revolver. The gun discharged and the man was shot in the abdomen.


title: Death by coconut

text: One of the most unusual variations occurred in India in the 1930s. Newspapers across the world reported that a schoolboy in India had been killed by a "magic" or "enchanted" coconut. In an effort to determine who had taken a book from a classroom, an elementary school teacher at Harnahalli required each of his students to touch a coconut bearing a namam, a religious symbol. The teacher claimed that the one who took the book would face "divine wrath" upon touching the coconut. One student resisted, but was forced to touch the coconut. He reportedly contracted a high fever, fell into delirium and died within an hour.


title: Death by coconut

text: In April 1983, a coconut was cited as the cause of death for a female goose-beaked whale. The husk from a coconut became lodged in its intestine and the whale beached itself on a sandbar at Siesta Key, Florida.


title: Death by coconut

text: There have also been reports of deaths resulting from the collapse of coconut palm trees. These include:


title: Death by coconut

text: Other reports credit the strength of the coconut palm trees with saving the lives of persons who have been tied to the trees for safety during high wind or tsunami events.


title: Death by coconut

text: Deaths and injuries resulting from falling coconuts have been the subject of several legal proceedings that have been covered in the media.


title: Death by coconut

text: In 1956, the City of Miami paid $300 to a woman after a coconut fell from a city-owned tree and struck her in the foot. In justifying the award, the city attorney explained that the city was allegedly on notice of the danger, because "a reasonable man would assume it was about to fall when it turns brown".


title: Death by coconut

text: In 1977, a jury in Hawaii awarded $39,000 to a police officer who was struck by a falling coconut. The officer was hit in the head while removing fronds from a public sidewalk in Lahaina, Hawaii. The property owner was sued for failing to maintain the trees.


title: Death by coconut

text: The American poet Frederick Seidel wrote a poem titled "Coconut", which included the following lines:


title: Death by coconut

text: On their 1995 CD "Makin' A Mess", the writing/singing team of Bob Gibson and Shel Silverstein included a song on this subject, titled "Killed by a Coconut", which humorously describes a series of men and their fatal encounters with coconuts.


title: Death by coconut

text: Falling coconut injuries were featured in the American television series "Gilligan's Island". A June 1965 episode revolved around an injury sustained by Gilligan after a falling coconut hit him in the nose. Actor Bob Denver explained the success of the series as follows: "Little kids seem to love it. It doesn't take a great intellect or reasoning power to be able to laugh at a monkey running off with Gilligan's dinner or a guy getting conked on the head by a coconut." When Denver died, the show's creator Sherwood Schwartz said that Denver didn't get enough credit for his talent as a slapstick actor, saying, "A lot of people don't think it's hard to be an actor where all you have to do is react to a falling coconut". In the 2000 film "Cast Away", the stranded character played by Tom Hanks is alarmed several times by loud thuds, which he cannot identify. He finally sees a coconut fall, making the sound.


title: Death by coconut

text: In March 2006, "Newsweek" ran a satirical article on former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay, stating he testified that he had sustained amnesia after being struck in the head by a falling coconut and, as a result of the injury, was unable to recall the events that occurred during his time at Enron.


title: Death by coconut

text: When Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones underwent surgery and hospitalization for a brain injury in April 2006, some press reports erroneously blamed the injury on Richards' having been "conked by coconuts". Falling coconuts had not caused the injury as Richards had climbed a dead tree (not a coconut palm) and had then fallen from the tree.


title: Death by coconut

text: The video game "Donkey Kong 3" has the antagonist Donkey Kong throwing coconuts from overhead at the player, trying to kill him. A hit causes a missed turn.


title: Death by coconut

text: In the "SpongeBob SquarePants" episode "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve", Patrick Star is addicted to a show where nothing happens except a man gets hit in the head by a coconut.


title: Death by coconut

text: In the "Sonic the Hedgehog" video game series, several robotic enemies stylized after monkeys throw coconuts at Sonic from the trees as he runs past.


title: Vine (service)

text: Vine was an American short-form video hosting service where users could share six-second-long looping video clips. It was founded in June 2012; American microblogging website Twitter acquired it in October 2012 before its official release on January 24, 2013. Videos published on Vine's social network could also be shared on different social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The Vine app was also used to browse videos, along with a group of videos that were uploaded by theme, and hoping that users could "trend" videos. Vine competed with other social media services such as Instagram and Snapchat.


title: Vine (service)

text: By December 2015, Vine had over 200 million active users. On October 27, 2016, Twitter announced that it would disable all uploads, but that viewing and download would continue to work. On January 20, 2017, Twitter launched an Internet archive of every Vine video that had ever been published. The archive was officially discontinued in April 2019. As of 2022, the service was closed and put into an "archival state".


title: Vine (service)

text: In December 2017, co-founder Dom Hofmann announced that he was beginning to work on Vine's successor, Byte (now Huddles), which he said was not affiliated with Twitter.


title: Vine (service)

text: Vine was founded by Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov, and Colin Kroll in June 2012. The company was acquired by Twitter in October 2012 for a reported $30 million but was later reformed as Intermedia Labs. Vine launched on January 24, 2013, as a free app for iOS devices. An Android version was released on June 2, 2013. On November 12, 2013, the application was released for Windows Phone. In a couple of months, Vine became the most used video sharing application in the market, even with low adoption of the app. On April 9, 2013, Vine became the most downloaded free app within the iOS App Store and on May 1, 2014, Vine launched the web version of the service to explore videos.


title: Vine (service)

text: In July 2014, Vine updated its app with a new "loop count", meaning every time someone watched a vine, a number on top of the video would appear showing how many times it was viewed. The "loop count" also included views from vines that were embedded onto other websites. On October 14, 2014, an Xbox One version was released allowing Xbox Live members to watch the looping videos.


title: Vine (service)

text: On October 27th, 2016, Vine announced that Twitter would be discontinuing the Vine mobile app. Vine said users of the service would be notified before any changes to the app or website were made. The company also stated that the website and the app would still be available for users to view and download Vines, but users would no longer be able to post.


title: Vine (service)

text: The discontinuation of Vine came as many different competing platforms began to introduce their own equivalents to Vine's short-form video approach. Platforms such as Instagram began to introduce their own takes on the short video angle, such as Instagram Video where users were able to upload 15-second videos to their profiles.


title: Vine (service)

text: Marketers leaving the platform was also a large part of the decision by Twitter to discontinue Vine. Many monetary sources began to move to longer short video platforms, and with them followed many popular Vine creators. Since the start of 2016, more than half of Vine users with more than 15,000 followers had ceased uploading or had deleted their accounts to move on to other platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat.


title: Vine (service)

text: On December 16, 2016, it was announced that the Vine mobile app would remain operational as a standalone service, allowing users to publish their videos directly to Twitter instead of Vine; the Vine community website would shut down in January. On January 17, 2017, the app was renamed to "Vine Camera". Although the app still enabled users to record six-second videos, they could only be shared on Twitter or saved on a camera roll. The release of the Vine Camera was met with poor reviews on both the Android and iOS App Stores. On January 20, 2017, Twitter launched an Internet archive of all Vine videos, allowing people to continue watching previously filmed Vine videos however in 2019 this was also removed by Twitter.


title: Vine (service)

text: In a 2019 article, "The Verge" reported that due to the closure of Vine, many of its influencers, like Jake and Logan Paul, Lele Pons, Liza Koshy, Danny Gonzalez, David Dobrik, and singer Shawn Mendes had migrated to other video-sharing platforms and social media.


title: Vine (service)

text: In November 2018, co-founder Dom Hoffman announced the upcoming successor to Vine, Byte, also previously known as V2; it was slated to come out in spring 2019. The Byte application launched publicly a year later on January 24, 2020.


title: Vine (service)

text: After Elon Musk completed his purchase of social media company Twitter, he posted a poll on Twitter on October 30, 2022 whether to "Bring back Vine?". It has received over 4.9 million votes, with the majority (69.6%) being in favor. An Axios article published on October 31, 2022, stated that Musk purportedly requested Twitter engineers work on rebooting Vine.


title: Vine (service)

text: Vine enabled users to record short video clips up to six seconds long while recording through its in-app camera. The camera would record only while the screen was being touched, enabling users to edit on the fly or create stop motion effects. Additional features were added to the app in July 2013; these included grid and ghost image tools for the camera, curated channels (including themed areas and trending topics/users), the ability to "revine" (share again, similar to Twitter's "retweet") videos on a personal stream, and protected posts.


title: Vine (service)

text: In August 2015, Vine introduced Vine Music, whose "Snap to Beat" feature creates perfect infinite music loops. In June 2016, Vine announced that it was experimenting with letting users attach video clips up to 140 seconds.


title: Vine (service)

text: In January 2015, Vine launched Vine Kids, an app for iOS that was designed specifically for children aged 7 to 12. It was designed by a group of Vine employees in order to try to create a safer space for younger users to eventually watch content which was deemed appropriate for children. Every video posted to the app was selected by Vine employees to ensure their safety.


title: Vine (service)

text: Vine's Head of Communication and Marketing, Carolyn Penner, noting the features of the app, told CNN that "children can always swipe back and forth on the mobile screen to find new videos, and they can also tap on the screen to produce some sound effects".


title: Vine (service)

text: Vine attracted different types of uses, including short-form comedy and music performances, video editing, and stop motion animation. On February 1, 2013, a Turkish journalist used Vine to document the aftermath of the 2013 United States embassy bombing in Ankara. Vine had also gained ground as a promotional tool; in 2013, the track listing of Daft Punk's album "Random Access Memories" was revealed via a Vine video, and on September 9, 2013, Dunkin Donuts became the first company to use a single Vine as an entire television advertisement. A&W Restaurants launched its Mini Polar Swirls on Vine on April 1, 2014, with the claim that it was the first product launch on Vine.


title: Vine (service)

text: Music-oriented videos also shared success on the service; in July 2013, a Vine post featuring a group of women twerking to the 2012 song "Don't Drop That Thun Thun" became popular, spawned response videos, and led the previously obscure song to peak at number 35 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. In March 2013, 22 Vines were presented in an exhibit entitled "#SVAES" ("The Shortest Video Art Ever Sold") at the "Moving Image" art fair in New York City. Copies of the videos were available to purchase on thumb drives for US$200 each. Angela Washko's "Tits on Tits on Ikea" was sold to Dutch art advisor, curator and collector Myriam Vanneschi during the event, marking the first-ever sale of a Vine as art.


title: Vine (service)

text: Following the shooting of Michael Brown in August 2014, then-St Louis City Alderman Antonio French used Vine as a way to document the protests in Ferguson and the surrounding area. These videos were among the earliest accounts of the racial tensions in Ferguson, and helped bring national attention to the situation.


title: Vine (service)

text: A BBC review described collections of Vine videos as "mesmerizing", like "[watching a] bewildering carousel of six-second slices of ordinary life [roll] past."


title: Vine (service)

text: An article by "The New Yorker" investigated the impact of online video platforms in creating a new generation of celebrities, stating: "A Vine's blink-quick transience, combined with its endless looping, simultaneously squeezes time and stretches it." While a given loop's brevity seems to "squeeze time", repeated viewings allow users to absorb rich detail, thereby subjectively "stretching time."


title: Vine (service)

text: Many brands used the service as a free platform for advertising their products, showing off exclusive content and creating contests to keep consumers interested in the brand. Cadbury UK had used their profile to show off new confectionaries that were in the making and created a contest around giving out samples to keep people coming back to the chocolate company. Many local and chain bookstores used the site to show off new books. Other companies developed a more personal connection with consumers using their six-second videos. This also allowed fans of different brands to show off their loyalty to the brand and in turn advertised the brand from a different perspective, this included makeup videos and the like.


title: Vine (service)

text: Soon after its launch, Vine faced criticism for how it handled pornography; while porn is not forbidden by Twitter's guidelines, one sexually explicit clip was accidentally featured as an "Editor's Pick" in the Vine app as a result of "human error". Because pornography violates Apple's terms of service, the app's rating was changed to 17+ in February 2013 following a request by Apple. Vine was listed among "Time"s '50 Best Android Apps for 2013'.


title: Vine (service)

text: Instagram added 15-second video sharing in June 2013. Since then, the video functionality expanded with additional features: widescreen videos, 60-second videos, and up to 10 minutes of video in a multi-video post. As with Vine, Instagram videos loop and have no playback controls by default. Snapchat added 10-second video sharing in December 2012.


title: Vine (service)

text: YouTube launched a GIF creator in 2014. This tool allows up to six seconds of any supported YouTube video to be converted to a GIF. Sign-ups for the GIF beta are now discontinued.


title: Vine (service)

text: TikTok (called Douyin in China) was created a few months before the discontinuation of Vine. Its current edition is the result of the merger of the original TikTok app with Musical.ly, which was founded in 2014 and became popular in 2015. TikTok is similar to Vine in that it is a simple short video platform with the added option of Duet, meaning that two different TikTok creators may collaborate at different times to create a final video; "The Verge" called it "the closest thing we'll get to having Vine back". TikTok is not much younger than Vine, as its predecessor Musical.ly was introduced only a year after Vine's inception, but it exploded in popularity in the late 2010s, in the years after the Vine app was shut down.


title: Vine (service)

text: Huddles (originally named "Byte" later Clash) is a successor to Vine created by a team led by Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann. Videos can last between two and six-and-a-half seconds and loop continuously. The launch had originally been planned for mid-2018. Reports from early 2018 showed that Hofmann had already started reaching out to social media personalities in hopes to secure viral content for the new platform. On May 4, 2018, Hofmann announced on the V2 community forums website and the official Twitter account that the project had been postponed indefinitely. On November 8, 2018, Hofmann announced the official name for 'V2' would be 'Byte', and that it was set for release in the spring of 2019. Byte underwent a closed beta period with community members from a Byte dedicated forum who were invited to test the app. Clash was officially launched on the iOS and Android stores on January 24, 2020.


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: "We Didn't Start the Fire" is a song written and published by American musician Billy Joel. The song was released as a single on September 18, 1989, and later released as part of Joel's album "Storm Front" on October 17, 1989. A list song, its fast-paced lyrics include brief references to 118 significant political, cultural, scientific, and sporting events between 1949, the year of Joel's birth, and 1989, in a mainly chronological order.


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became Joel's third single to reach number one on the United States "Billboard" Hot 100 in late 1989. "Storm Front" became Joel's third album to reach number one in the United States. "We Didn't Start the Fire", particularly in the 21st century, has become the basis of many pop culture parodies, and continues to be repurposed in various television shows, advertisements, and comedic productions.


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: Billy Joel conceived the idea for the song when he had just turned 40. He was in a recording studio and met a 21-year-old friend of Sean Lennon who said "It's a terrible time to be 21!". Joel replied: "Yeah, I remember when I was 21 – I thought it was an awful time and we had Vietnam, and y'know, drug problems, and civil rights problems and everything seemed to be awful". The friend replied: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's different for you. You were a kid in the fifties and everybody knows that nothing happened in the fifties". Joel retorted: "Wait a minute, didn't you hear of the Korean War or the Suez Canal Crisis?". Joel later said those headlines formed the basic framework for the song. Joel has also criticized the song on strictly musical grounds. In 1993, when discussing it with documentary filmmaker David Horn, Joel compared its melodic content unfavorably to his song "The Longest Time": "Take a song like 'We Didn't Start the Fire.' It's really not much of a song ... If you take the melody by itself, terrible. Like a dentist drill."


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: When asked if he deliberately intended to chronicle the Cold War with his song he responded: "It was just my luck that the Soviet Union decided to close down shop [soon after putting out the song]", and that this span "had a symmetry to it, it was 40 years" that he had lived through. He was asked if he could do a follow-up about the next couple of years after the events that transpired in the original song, he commented: "No, I wrote one song already and I don't think it was really that good to begin with, melodically".


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: Though the lyrics are rapid-fire with several people and events mentioned in each stanza, there is widespread agreement on the meaning of the lyrics. Steven Ettinger wrote:


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: A music video for the song was directed by Chris Blum. The video begins with a newly married couple entering their 1940s-style kitchen, and shows events in their domestic life over the next four decades, including the addition of children, their growth, and later, grandchildren, and the eventual death of the family's father. The passage of time is also depicted by periodic redecoration and upgrades of the kitchen, while an unchanging Billy Joel looks on in the background. Joel is also shown banging on a table in front of a burning backdrop depicting various images that include the execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém and Lee Harvey Oswald, among others.


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: Many parodies and takeoffs have been based on the song (often expanding to events that have occurred since 1989). These parodies include "The Simpsons"' parody "They'll Never Stop the Simpsons" at the end of the 2002 "Gump Roast" episode, and the San Francisco a cappella group The Richter Scales' 2007 Webby Award-winning parody "Here Comes Another Bubble."


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: In 2006, Coca-Cola sampled the song to make an anthem for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Latin America, changing the lyrics according to the country.


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: YouTuber Dane Boedigheimer, known as creator of the popular comedic Web series "Annoying Orange", produced a parody as part of YouTube's Comedy Week in 2013 titled "We Didn't Start the Viral." A copyright claim on monetization resulted in the audio being completely replaced on the original upload, although fan reuploads of the original exist.


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: Pop band Milo Greene performed a version of the song in June 2013 for "The A.V. Club" A.V. Undercover series.


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: In 2019, talk show host Jimmy Fallon performed a version of the song for "The Tonight Show", which highlights characters and moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since "Iron Man", leading to "", with backup by cast members Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Rudd, Danai Gurira, Karen Gillan and Brie Larson.


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: In 2019, the song was sung by several cast members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Jimmy Fallon, in lead up to "", to the theme of the Infinity Saga, chronicled up until that time of events by the introduction of the major characters and movie titles.


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: In 2021, a weekly podcast began, hosted by Katie Puckrik and Tom Fordyce, entitled "We Didn't Start the Fire". Each week they examine a subject mentioned in the Billy Joel song, in lyric order, and discuss its importance and cultural significance with an expert guest.


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: The song features prominently, along with a number of other Billy Joel songs, in the streaming series "The Boys" from Amazon Prime in which the character Hughie Campbell, played by Jack Quaid, has a preoccupation with the American singer.


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: In the finale episode of "Veep", "Veep", the song plays when Selina Meyer and Jonah Ryan are announced as their party's presidential and vice-presidential candidates respectively during the 2020 election, a call-back to Meyer's desire to have Billy Joel perform at her inauguration.


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: Irish rock band "The Memories" wrote and recorded "The Game" ("We're Gonna Start a Fire"), a rewritten version of "We Didn't Start The Fire" in which the lyrics reference The Republic of Ireland's time in the 1990 World Cup.


title: We Didn't Start the Fire

text: The following events, with Joel's lyric for each appearing in bold, are listed in the order that they appear in the song, which is almost entirely chronological. The lyric for each individual event is brief and the events are punctuated by the chorus and other lyrical elements. The following list includes longer, more descriptive names for clarity. Events from a variety of contexts – such as popular entertainment, foreign affairs, and sports – are intermingled, giving an impression of the culture of the time as a whole. There are 118 events listed in the song.


title: Westworld (film)

text: Westworld is a 1973 American science fiction Western film written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film follows adult guests visiting an interactive amusement park containing lifelike androids that unexpectedly begin to malfunction. The film stars Yul Brynner as an android in the amusement park, with Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as guests of the park.


title: Westworld (film)

text: The film was from an original screenplay by Crichton and was his first theatrical film as director, after one TV film. It was also the first feature film to use digital image processing to pixellate photography to simulate an android point of view. Critical reception was largely positive by contemporary and retrospective critics and "Westworld" was nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Saturn awards.


title: Westworld (film)

text: "Westworld" was followed by a sequel, "Futureworld" (1976), and a short-lived television series, "Beyond Westworld" (1980). A television series based on the film debuted in 2016 on HBO.


title: Westworld (film)

text: In 1983, a high-tech, highly realistic adult amusement park called Delos features three themed "worlds": Western World (the American Old West), Medieval World (medieval Europe) and Roman World (the ancient Roman city of Pompeii). The resort's three "worlds" are populated with lifelike androids that are practically indistinguishable from human beings, each programmed in character for their historical environment. For $1,000 per day, guests may indulge in any adventure with the android population of the park, including sexual encounters and a simulated fight to the death. Delos's tagline in its advertising promises "Boy, have we got a vacation for you!"


title: Westworld (film)

text: Peter Martin, a first-time Delos visitor and his friend John Blane, on a repeat visit, go to Westworld. One of the attractions is the Gunslinger, an android programmed to instigate gunfights. The firearms issued to the park guests have temperature sensors that prevent them from shooting anything with a high body temperature, such as humans but allow them to "kill" the cold-blooded androids. The Gunslinger's programming allows guests to draw their guns and kill it, with the android always returning the next day for another duel.


title: Westworld (film)

text: The technicians running Delos notice problems beginning to spread like an infection among the androids: the androids in Roman World and Medieval World begin experiencing an increasing number of breakdowns and systemic failures, which are said to have spread to Westworld. When one of the supervising computer scientists scoffs at the "analogy of an infectious disease", he is told by the chief supervisor "We aren't dealing with ordinary machines here. These are highly complicated pieces of equipment, almost as complicated as living organisms. In some cases, they've been designed by other computers. We don't know exactly how they work."


title: Westworld (film)

text: After a night spent with two robotic ladies, Blane is accosted by the same gunslinger Martin killed in the saloon the previous day. Martin bursts into the room and once again shoots the gunslinger dead. Martin is jailed awaiting trial, so Blane breaks him out and the two head out of town.


title: Westworld (film)

text: The malfunctions become more serious when a robotic rattlesnake bites Blane in Westworld and against its programme, a female android refuses a guest's advances in Medieval World. The failures escalate until Medieval World's Black Knight android kills a guest in a sword fight. The resort's supervisors try to regain control by shutting down power to the park. The shutdown traps them in central control when the doors automatically lock, unable to turn the power back on and escape. The androids in all three worlds run amok, operating on reserve power.


title: Westworld (film)

text: Martin and Blane, recovering from a drunken bar-room brawl, wake up in Westworld's brothel, unaware of the park's breakdown. When the Gunslinger challenges the men to a showdown, Blane treats the confrontation as an amusement but the android shoots and kills him. Martin runs for his life and the android implacably follows.


title: Westworld (film)

text: Martin flees to the other areas of the park but finds only dead guests, damaged androids and a panicked technician attempting to escape Delos, who is soon shot and killed by the Gunslinger. Martin climbs down through a manhole in Roman World into the underground control complex and discovers that the resort's computer technicians suffocated in the control room when the ventilation system shut down. The Gunslinger stalks him through the underground corridors, so he runs away until he enters an android-repair laboratory. When the Gunslinger enters the room, Martin pretends to be an android, throws acid into the Gunslinger's face and flees, returning to the surface inside the Medieval World castle.


title: Westworld (film)

text: With its optical inputs damaged by the acid, the Gunslinger is unable to track Martin visually and tries to find Martin using its infrared scanners. Martin stands beneath the flaming torches of the Great Hall to mask his presence from the android, before setting it on fire with one of the torches. Martin hears a call in the dungeon and finds a chained woman begging for help. He gives her water but this causes her to short-circuit and shutdown; Martin is shocked as he did not realise she was a robot. The burned shell of the Gunslinger attacks him once again on the dungeon steps before succumbing to its damage. The movie ends with him sitting on the dungeon steps in a state of near-exhaustion and shock, as the memory of Delos' marketing slogan resonates: "Boy, have we got a vacation for you!"


title: Westworld (film)

text: Crichton said he did not wish to make his feature directorial debut (after one TV film – 1972's "Pursuit") with science fiction but "That's the only way I could get the studio to let me direct. People think I'm good at it I guess".


title: Westworld (film)

text: Crichton's agent introduced him to producer Paul N. Lazarus III; they became friends and decided to make a film together. The script was written in August 1972. Lazarus said he asked Crichton why he did not tell the story as a book; Crichton said he felt the story was visual and would not really work as a book.


title: Westworld (film)

text: The script was offered to all the major studios. They all turned down the project except for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, then under head of production Dan Melnick and president James T. Aubrey. Crichton said


title: Westworld (film)

text: Crichton said preproduction was difficult. MGM demanded script changes up to the first day of shooting and the leads were not signed until 48 hours before shooting began. Crichton said he had no control over casting and MGM originally would only make the film for under a million dollars but later increased this amount by $250,000. Crichton said that $250,000 of the budget was paid to the cast, $400,000 to the crew, and the remainder on everything else (including $75,000 for sets).