British singer Robbie Williams has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide, but isn’t exactly a household name in the United States.
That’s why his sudden announcement Wednesday that he was chosen to be the halftime performer for the 2026 Super Bowl caused such a stir.
The glut of people taking him seriously may have also hastened his confession on Thursday that he was just kidding.
“I’m not doing the Super Bowl halftime show,” he wrote. “I got bored and decided to get into trolling.”
It was fun while it lasted.
Conservatives were still handwringing over rapper Kendrick Lamar’s performance in Sunday’s Super Bowl when Williams decided to punk the world.
“OMG. I’ve just been asked to do next year’s halftime at the Super Bowl,” he wrote on X Wednesday. “So honoured guys. Thank you.”
Many of the more than 6 million people who viewed the post appeared to buy it.
“Well, there goes another halftime show no one will know the names or words of the songs being performed,” one person grumbled on X. “Who are you, again?”
“Dude’s movie made less than $3 million in the US and he’s doing our halftime show?!?,” another wrote, referring to Williams’ musical biopic “Better Man” in which he’s portrayed as a CGI primate. “Jfc no thanks.”
“After this year the bar ain’t very high lol. No seriously congratulations though,” another commented.
Someone else went straight for the gush: “That will be the greatest Super Bowl halftime show ever!”
Here are some other responses:
You had them going, Robbie.