Good Lord, right-wingers, get your act together. It’s unhealthy to spend so much energy being sad about a performer at the Super Bowl halftime show.
Yes they are still panicking about Bad Bunny. So much so that they did the most hilariously helpless library thing imaginable: created a Change.org petition.
“The Super Bowl halftime show should unite our country, honor American culture and remain family friendly, and not be turned into a political stunt. Bad Bunny represents none of these values; his performances and drag style are the opposite of what families expect on football’s biggest stage,” the petition reads.
Did any of these people see a Super Bowl Halftime Show over the last 25 years? We had Kendrick Lamar, Usher, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Shakira, Beyoncé and Prince. In fact, we have to go back to 2003 find a country artist, and it was Shania Twain, who at least dabbled in pop music.
You will notice that conservatives do not suggest the return of Twain, because she loves drag and non-binary and trans artists.
The anger against the Puerto Rican rapper is in reality just simple racism…very finely– disguised as a vague yearning for America’s lost glory. But in reality, the right is furious at having to hear Spanish songs. And how dare conservatives be forced to look at a foreign artist – oh, wait… they keep forgetting that Puerto Rico is a United States territory.
And the signatories of this petition really do not hesitate to publish the most sectarian comments.
“The Super Bowl used to be about America – strong, grounded, united. Today we feel like we’re forgetting the people who built that unity with their bare hands. It’s not about the music. It’s about the memory. Of a country that was once great and proud and grateful – and the fear that we can’t do it again,” one comment said.
“The people who built this unit with their bare hands”? What does this mean?
Another signatory wrote: “American sports speak the language we understand. »
Ok, this one is both racist And incoherent.
Or how about: “Most Americans speak English…no racial hatred intended, but it’s the truth. I don’t even really know who he is. Bring country music back to football! Stop listening to Jay Z all the time.”
You know that whenever you see a qualifier like “no racial hatred is intended,” what follows is guaranteed to be racist as hell.
“George Strait is a much better choice than this thing who doesn’t know if he wants to be a guy or a girl,” someone else wrote.
Of course, let’s add a little homophobia to this!
The only reason conservatives are particularly obsessed with the Straits is because President Donald Trump named him a Kennedy Center honoree earlier this year. There is no wave of organic demand here.
Plus, it’s just plain embarrassing to compare Strait’s numbers to Bad Bunny’s. In 2024, Bad Bunny songs were streamed 11.5 billion times. He was also the most played artist on Spotify from 2020 to 2022, and he is the Latin artist #1 on Billboard’s rundown of the past 25 years. And his latest album, “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS”, reached number 1 earlier this year.
To be fair, Strait, 73, has a hit album that’s still hovering around the Billboard 200… at number 119.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson, certainly a man with extensive knowledge of modern culture, thinks Lee Greenwood should play the Super Bowl. Yes, the man who literally has only one song that everyone knows, “God Bless the USA”, released in 1984. The guy is 82 years old – no one claims Greenwood.
But there is more going on here than just abject racism. Conservatives are furious that they cannot capture this culture. They control the three branches of government and they are terrorize the country, but they still can’t force us to listen to the fifth-rate people who have attached themselves to Trump.
The NFL isn’t going to get rid of Bad Bunny, especially not because of a petition that only garnered 30,000 signatures.
Inasmuch as point of comparison This would certainly infuriate the signers of this petition, the Justice for George Floyd petition received 19 million signatures, a petition to designate the KKK a terrorist organization received over 3 million, and a petition to cancel student debt received 800,000. Hell, even a petition to make actor LeVar Burton the host of “Jeopardy” collected 296,000 signatures.
Conservatives will have to make do with the alternative Turning Point USA halftime show, which now has a website but no artists. Lara Trump came forward and offered to playalthough he was literally never asked. She’s sure to be a huge draw, what about her most recent single get around 2,800 streams on Spotify.
If fortune favors us, Turning Point may make Creed’s headlines, as they have threatened. We might then hope for a repeat of his 2001 halftime show, a really unbalanced experience with shirtless men on aerial silks and the worst lip sync you’ve ever seen.
The idea of Creed as a family alternative to Bad Bunny is particularly comical. The band’s lead singer, Scott Stapp…ok, we’re going to need a list here:
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He started a fight with the members of group 311.
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He made a sex tape with Kid Rock and four women, for which he I had to continue to prevent it from being sold. But that’s okay because, for Christians like Stapp, getting sucked off by groupies it’s not really sex.
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He was arrested for public drunkenness approximately 24 hours after the wedding.
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He was accused of domestic violence crimewhich was later classified as a misdemeanor.
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He sautéed from a Miami hotel balcony during a drug binge, falling 40 feet and breaking his skull, hip and nose.
It’s more of a family thing, isn’t it?
On the other hand, the only dirt you can find on Bad Bunny is that his ex-girlfriend sued him in 2023 for including a recording of her lyrics “Bad Bunny, baby” on two songs, for which she asked $40 million.
There is nothing the right can do to change the fact that Bad Bunny will perform at the Super Bowl. He will sing in Spanish. He could wear a dress. He could kiss a guy. But whatever he does, he will be a reflection of the United States – a country of polyglot immigrants and a glorious mix of cultures.
George Strait never could.
