Justin Timberlake’s Prince Tribute Wasn’t Technically A Hologram, But Still Rubbed People The Wrong Way

Strangely enough, Prince became the inadvertent focal point of Justin Timberlake’s hotly-anticipated halftime performance at this year’s Super Bowl. When news broke this weekend that his camp had planned to incorporate a Prince hologram — in tribute to the game being held in Minneapolis — the backlash was immediate and swift. Despite this, Timberlake did incorporate a sort-of hologram of The Purple One, what amounts to a projection on an enormous screen, while he sat at a piano playing one of Prince’s beloved hits, “I Would Die 4 U.”

Of course, the internet had a field day with this blank slate, ripe for memes and all sorts of projections. Others, like Sinbad and Anthony Bourdain, simply tweeted out their disgust with the show. All in all, it did seem strange to move forward with the decision to include Prince in the show after the reaction was so, so clearly a negative one. There’s still a lot of people who remain disappointed with Justin for the way he handled controversy with Janet Jackson, who had a costume malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl Halftime Performance, and faced the brunt of the backlash for a complete accident. Either way, check out the reactions to his Prince stunt below.

https://twitter.com/pradacarey/status/960327652262465537

https://twitter.com/markgierl/status/960325618620444672

https://twitter.com/eveewing/status/960330032798404609

But the real reason people were disappointed should be obvious: