The Thanksgiving Parade Was Rainy, But The Internet Loved Jennifer Hudson’s Umbrella Holders

For millions of Americans, Thanksgiving Day doesn’t start until the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is on television. The parade has run for nearly 100 years and it takes place rain or shine. This year, rain was on the forecast, but that doesn’t mean the show was any less entertaining. In fact, for those watching Jennifer Hudson perform, the show was even better.

This year's parade, available on NBC or with a Peacock subscription, brought everything the show is known for. In addition to the famous floats and balloons, including the return of Spider-Man to the parade, several musical performances take place in Harold Square both before the proper parade arrives and while it’s happening. Those performances largely happened in the rain this year, and most of the performers just dealt with it, but Jennifer Hudson apparently decided she really didn’t want to get wet. This led to her dancers incorporating an umbrella into the performance, and the internet is having a blast with it.

Hudson’s performance was entertaining on its own, but unfortunately it feels like a lot of people didn’t notice it. Instead they were fixed on the umbrella that was keeping her dry. It was like the umbrella itself was dancing, as it would travel between the hands of different dancers so that whoever was closest to Hudson at any given moment was holding it over her head.

Honestly, now I have so many questions. There must have been rehearsals for this number. Was the umbrella part of the number the whole time? It was certainly known in advance that rain during the parade was likely, so perhaps they practiced this. Or are the dancers so good they were able to incorporate the umbrella on the fly and make it work?

Working the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in the rain can’t be a great deal of fun. From the bands marching down the street to the balloon wranglers in ponchos, nobody has any choice but to just deal with it. Certainly not everybody can have their own umbrella sherpa to keep them dry, but then not everybody has won an EGOT.

Of course, not everybody attempted to avoid the rain. Some seemed to embrace it. Another tweet regarding the parade and the rain is going viral because the float promoting the upcoming Season 2 of Wednesday is happy it was a dark and gloomy morning in New York. It doesn’t appear anybody here wanted an umbrella.

While many of the musical performances at the Macy's Parade are lip-synced, a not-unusual step considering the technical requirements to sing live can be prohibitive, Hudson certainly appeared to be singing live. It should be said that it's possible the umbrella may have had a specific purpose to keep the microphone dry rather than Hudson herself.

Hopefully everybody both working and attending the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this year stayed relatively dry. We certainly know Jennifer Hudson did.