Justin Trudeau’s Halloween costume was a familiar sight to many who drew a connection between his inflatable shark and his recently-confirmed partner Katy Perry’s Super Bowl performance a decade earlier.
On Oct. 31, the former prime minister posted a photo of himself in a shark costume with his son, Hadrien, who was dressed as an injured surfer for Halloween. Trudeau also held a surfboard with a bloodied bite taken out of it. The post’s caption said the costume took “a little father-son Halloween teamwork.”
Internet users were quick to point out that Trudeau’s inflatable shark looked similar to the ones that performed alongside Perry in her viral 2015 Super Bowl performance.
The halftime show, which featured Missy Elliott and Lenny Kravitz as special guests, drew 121 million viewers and is the fourth most-watched performance, according to Billboard.
As the American singer delivered a medley of her songs “Teenage Dream” and “California Gurls,” she danced alongside palm trees, surf boards, beach balls and, of course, sharks. One shark in particular, known as “Left Shark” solidified the performance’s viral, meme-making status, as viewers joked that the dancer had given up midperformance.
Trudeau’s Halloween post was filled with comments of people who simply attached a GIF of Perry and the sharks dancing. To them, it seemed like yet another sign of Perry and Trudeau’s couple status, which had been confirmed a few days earlier when the two made their first public appearance in France.
Trudeau’s former partner, Sophie Gregoire, commented on his Halloween post, writing in French, “Amazing! It warms my soul to see you creating together” with a heart face emoji.
The two separated in 2023 and have three children together, including Hadrien.
Though neither Trudeau or Perry confirmed that the costume was indeed an intentional nod — to be fair, the material of both costumes does not appear to be the same — it certainly became a moment to reminisce about the pure fever dream that was the 2015 Super Bowl halftime show.
