The biggest headline to come out of Sunday night's (February 6) Super Bowl wasn't the incredible performance by Green Bay Packers quarterback and game MVP Aaron Rodgers, nor was it the batch of high-profile commercials (lead by Eminem's dramatic endorsement of Chrysler), nor even the fact that 111 million people in the viewing audience made it the most-watched American television show in the history of the medium. Rather, people were still talking about Christina Aguilera's performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before kickoff, which contained a pretty high-profile lyric flub.
Aguilera subsequently apologized and also got a little back-up from Fergie (who later participated in the halftime entertainment as both a member of the Black Eyed Peas and as a stand-in for Axl Rose), but that didn't stop the late night hosts from poking fun at her mishap. Just about everybody who performs a monologue ended up cracking a joke about Aguilera, including David Letterman (who noted "I know all about public humiliation") and Jay Leno (who said "Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told everybody if you see something at the Super Bowl that isn't right, tell somebody — and immediately 50 million people called after Christina Aguilera did the national anthem"). But leave it to Conan O'Brien to take it a step further and cut together an especially biting piece of video to poke fun at the flub.
"Everyone is talking about how Christina Aguilera screwed up the lyrics to the national anthem," Conan joked. "Some people noticed right away, and they were not happy." O'Brien then threw to a clip of Aguilera singing the song and getting a rude interruption care of a jet pilot in the midst of a flyover.
"That's a gutsy pilot to make that decision!" O'Brien noted after the clip.
"I read on the Internet that was for 'Burlesque.' It had nothing to do with the words," quipped Andy Richter.
What did you think of Conan O'Brien's send-up of Christina Aguilera's performance at the Super Bowl? Let us know in the comments!