1992 Super Bowl halftime
While this may be the "gayest Super Bowl ever," especially with Madonna as the halftime entertainment, Deadspin's Tom Scocca's reminds us that the big game has had a gay influence for a long time.
In fact, a survey of Super Bowl halftime history reveals that, pace Madonna, these splashy, highly choreographed song-and-dance theatrical routines have often owed a debt to gay culture. The early shows may have featured old-fashioned university marching bands, but by Super Bowl V, Carol Channing was headlining. By Super Bowl XXVI, Brian Boitano was figure-skating onstage, with music by Gloria Estefan.
1992 Super Bowl halftime
While this may be the “gayest Super Bowl ever,” especially with Madonna as the halftime entertainment, Deadspin’s Tom Scocca’s reminds us that the big game has had a gay influence for a long time.
In fact, a survey of Super Bowl halftime history reveals that, pace Madonna, these splashy, highly choreographed song-and-dance theatrical routines have often owed a debt to gay culture. The early shows may have featured old-fashioned university marching bands, but by Super Bowl V, Carol Channing was headlining. By Super Bowl XXVI, Brian Boitano was figure-skating onstage, with music by Gloria Estefan.
Scocca has put together an inspired and brilliant chart placing all 45 Super Bowl halftime shows on the Kinsey 1-6 scale. Disney’s New Mousekeeters of 1977 are a 1, an “exclusively heterosexual” act, while I loved him putting the 1972 Carol Channing, Ella Fitzgerald and U.S. Marine Corps Drill Team as a 5.5 on the gay scale. Last year’s Black Eyed Peas were rated “asexual.” Comedy gold.
