Viral Super Bowl ‘MVP’ Left Shark is Now Available in 3D Printed Form #LeftShark

For those of you who watched Super Bowl XLIX this past Sunday and happened to stay in front of your TV during the halftime show to watch Katy Perry’s much talked about performance, you certainly would have noticed the dancing sharks. What you may not have noticed, however, was that one of these sharks seemed to be a little bit off with his dance moves.

Within minutes, “Left Shark” (#LeftShark), who has also been referred to as “Drunk Shark” (#drunkshark), began going viral on the internet, for his rather inept ability to dance. As you can see in the animation to the left, his moves just were not on par with “Right Shark”. Immediately people began creating various Left Shark memes, and Katy Perry even went as far as declaring him, not Tom Brady, the MVP of the Super Bowl via her Twitter account.

It turns out that Left Shark was played by a dancer named Bryan Gaw, and his inept dance moves were actually part of the act.

“The sharks were given two main objectives. One, perform Katy’s trademark moves to the ‘Teenage Dream’ chorus, which they both did perfectly; and two, to have loads of fun and bring to life these characters in a cartoon manner, giving them a Tweedledee/Tweedledum-type persona,” explained Katy Perry’s choreographer RJ Durell to The Hollywood Reporter after the show.

If you follow the 3D printing space at all, you probably have seen the emergence of 3D printed memes. These are famous memes that have been taken off of the two-dimensional internet, modeled in three dimensions and than printed out on 3D printers. One notable designer has been at the forefront of creating these unique, entertaining 3D memes, and his name is Fernando Sosa (AKA Political Sculptor).

Using Shapeways as his platform for selling these memes, Sosa has made quite a name for himself. Now, he has created a 3D printed Left Shark meme, which is currently available for purchase on the site for just $24.95.  The miniature shark measures 2.096″ w x 2.36″ d x 2.696″ h, and is printed in full color sandstone.

“As soon as I saw him on reddit, going viral as the MVP, I knew I had to make him,” Sosa tells 3DPrint.com. “I must say that this is my quickest piece that I have ever made. Thankfully the simplicity of the costume saved me some time modeling, which is normally the hardest part besides the hollowing aspect.”

Sosa woke up at 4:40 AM this morning to get started on his model, and by 10:00 AM he had finished it. The model went live on Shapeways at 11:00 AM, and Sosa made his very first sale at 11:07. The only question we have for Sosa is how exactly do we know this is Left Shark and not Right Shark? Sosa’s only explanation was as follows:

“This is definitely Left Shark for sure because I consider myself a #leftshark kind of guy, which according to Twitter is someone who doesn’t give a crap about what other people think. Team #leftshark all the way!”

This goes to show that there is some profit to be made within the 3D printing space, creating popular viral memes. Who or what will be the next meme to go viral? What do you think of Sosa’s Left Shark 3D printed meme? Discuss in the Left Shark forum thread on 3DPB.com.  Check out the video of both Left Shark and Right Shark dancing behind Perry below.