Over a decade after his incident with Janet Jackson at Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004, Justin Timberlake will once again return to the stage of the Super Bowl Halftime show on February 4th, 2018 at Super Bowl LII.
In the months leading up to his performance, Timberlake will most likely be subject to plenty of questions about whether or not Jackson will return to the stage with him. As of now however, it seems like Timberlake has eyes for someone else; NBC’s Super Bowl LII play-by-play broadcaster, Al Michaels.
Timberlake isn’t asking for Michaels to bust out the pipes for a duet during ‘SexyBack’ or Can’t ‘Stop the Feeling!’. Instead, the pop star is asking the broadcaster to simply “shake his booty.”
Yes, you read that right. Here’s JT’s full quote:, which came from an interview with Mike Tirico during NBC’s Sunday Night Football:
“What I really want to do is take the opportunity to put together a performance that feels like it unifies. I feel like that would be the ultimate accomplishment, and then the icing on the cake is at some point, within that 12 minutes, that everybody is shaking their booty.
“I have a goal to make [NBC play-by-play man] Al Michaels dance. So Al Michaels, if we can get you to shake your booty at the Super Bowl halftime show. By the way, we can start that hashtag — #AlMichaelsShakeYourBooty. That would be the icing on the cake.
“So, unity, Al Michaels dancing — what a time to be alive.”
Okay so maybe Timberlake isn’t asking for Michaels to come on stage, but instead to be dancing high up in the NBC booth to Timberlake’s tunes. That could very well happen, but the booty shake? Who knows.
What we do know, though, is that the hashtag has gained a lot of momentum on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/PatGarofalo/status/922283237996720135
https://twitter.com/itslindseeey/status/922283234548883457
Here’s the full interview with Tirico. Timberlake mentions #AlMichaelsShakeYaBooty around 2:20.
Tirico’s reaction is absolutely amazing.
About David Lauterbach
David is a writer for The Comeback. He enjoyed two Men's Basketball Final Four trips for Syracuse before graduating in 2016. If The Office or Game of Thrones is on TV, David will be watching.