The NFL tried something different for Sunday’s NFC wild-card game between the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints, airing a telecast on Nickelodeon aimed at younger viewers. It quickly became the talk of social media, and was one of the strangest things many viewers had seen in quite some time.
At first glance, the broadcast seemed fairly conventional, save for the unusually-colored on-screen score bug. Those who kept watching, however, were treated to quite the spectacle. By far the most notable features were the “slime cannons” that appeared in the end zone when a team scored a touchdown.
That wasn’t all. Why not use the goalposts as an outline for the superimposed face of SpongeBob SquarePants?
There was much more. There were cartoon eyes on players, and there were TV characters explaining the definition of various penalties. Some of the replays even had cartoon effects added on.
Whatever the intent was, Twitter loved the spectacle. “Nickelodeon” became a trending topic on Twitter, and the slime cannons in particular were a massive viral hit.
Maybe the most amazing part? The broadcast ended up looking a lot like these Twitter jokes thought it would. Bet they didn’t expect that.
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