One of the most popular numbers from The Little Mermaid looked a little different during the Tuesday, November 5, special live show. Shaggy took the stage as Sebastian for the famous “Under the Sea” number in the show, live from Los Angeles.
However, when the singer, 51, came out, he was wearing red jeans and a red leather jacket – but nothing else that would show he was playing a crab. In fact, it caused quite an uproar on social media.
“They put Shaggy in Michael Jackson’s Thriller outfit and called him Sebastian,” one Twitter user wrote.
Other reactions included, “Why is Shaggy wearing a low budget Thriller jacket!?!? WHY THEY DO MY MAN LIKE THAT!!” and “Is there a reason why the entire cast is in full costume, but Shaggy is just wearing a red leather jacket?”
Others compared the look to Britney Spears‘ in the “Oops I Did It Again” music video. “Shaggy or Britney, who wore it better?” one tweet read.
Shaggy in #TheLittleMermaidLive like pic.twitter.com/ymntw9PUHh
— Lesley Hauler (@LesleyHauler) November 6, 2019
The comments didn’t get any better when Queen Latifah appeared as Ursula and her black costume was elaborate and incredible. “After seeing all the effort put into Queen Latifah’s Ursula costume, I’m left wondering who Shaggy pissed off at Disney,” one user wrote. Another added, “The whole costume budget for #TheLittleMermaidLive went towards Queen Latifah’s Ursula and I’m 1000% okay with that.”
He later returned to the stage to perform “Kiss the Girl,” and while he sounded great, the look was distracting. “Not even Shaggy’s Iron Man plastic upper and lightly starched red jeans can ruin ‘Kiss the Girl,'” a fan tweeted.
However, there was an explanation to why the “Wasn’t Me” singer wasn’t wearing claws.
“For those wondering, Shaggy wore crab claws in early rehearsals and it looked ridiculous,” SVP of Live Programming at ABC, Robert Mills, tweeted during the live show. When one of his followers responded that they thought it looked more Thriller, he wrote, “I thought more Eddie Murphy Delirious.”
He then shared a photo of the outfit with claws.
All done. Thanks for watching #TheLittleMermaidLive! And here you go pic.twitter.com/NKHI0qsYsa
— Robert Mills (@Millsy11374) November 6, 2019
Elsewhere in the cast, the costumes were amazing. Auli’i Cravalho starred as a stunning Ariel in a full tail. John Stamos played an adorable Chef Louis, while Graham Phillips appeared as Prince Eric.
