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. The Nickelodeon telecast 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 scorebug. 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.
SLIME CANNON SPLOSION pic.twitter.com/OYptGTqkG6
— Nick Maraldo (@nickmaraldo) January 10, 2021
That wasn’t all. Why not use the goalposts as an outline for the superimposed face of SpongeBob SquarePants?
Will Lutz fails to kick the ball into Spongebob's mouth, the FG try is no good pic.twitter.com/fq28H98Spt
— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) January 10, 2021
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.
oh my god, this is fun.pic.twitter.com/H4IKRNCD2N
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 10, 2021
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.
we need a slime cannon.
— Sun Devil Football (@ASUFootball) January 10, 2021
Why yes, I will gladly operate the HR slime cannon at Kauffman Stadium.
— Sluggerrr (@Sluggerrr) January 10, 2021
RT if you agree we should add Slime Cannon TDs as an official stat on the site
— ProFootballReference (@pfref) January 10, 2021
Saints: 2 slime cannon explosions
Bears: 0 slime cannon explosions
— Tyler Greever (@Tyler_Greever) January 10, 2021
when i die please have nickelodeon live stream my funeral and slime cannon me into the ground
— Rohan Nadkarni (@RohanNadkarni) January 10, 2021
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.
