Justin Timberlake’s Halftime Show Drew Mixed Response From Celebs on Twitter

Setting aside the legal, ethical, societal and cultural issues inherent in Justin “Owes Janet An Apology, Owes Britney An Apology” Timberlake performing at the Super Bowl Half Time Show under a massive project of The Purple One himself, Prince, here’s what many on Twitter identified as the problem: Prince was better than Justin. Like, so much better. Like, so, so much better that even if Justin busted out his best performance of all time, as long as he was doing it under a big picture of Prince, the whole audience’s reaction would still be, “man, I miss Prince.” That was the general consensus on Twitter, where celebrities and citizens alike voiced their reactions to the concert, responses ranging from “loved it” (Nikki Haley, natch) to “hated it” (Anthony Bourdan, double natch). Timberlake’s resident hype man and partner in comedy Jimmy Fallon obviously loved it, but others were skeptical. Here are some of the most notable takes:

(Joseph tells us what you know)

Leslie Jones summed it up well with “I miss you, Prince.”

Also worth noting: it would appear that the crowd at the actual event was less than into it:

Although in fairness, it’s probably very, very cold there, and I’m not sure I would get up and dance at a concert where I’m a football field away from the performer and I came to see football, anyway.

For whatever it’s worth, the Prince’s Family Twitter account, run by Prince’s brother, approved of the performance:

But also, can we talk about what JT was wearing? His Man Of The Woods #aesthetic was all flannels and denim, and this was not that. Nor did he don a “suit and tie” as he is so famous for wearing. Instead he went with…a deer shirt? And a bandana? It’s a lot of look, I’ll give him credit for that, it is a lot of look.

As for turning Minneapolis purple, well, that’s pretty cool.

Except, just kidding, it was fake.

Why can’t we ever have one nice thing?

Related: Bradley Cooper is Having More Fun at the Super Bowl Than Anyone Else