A Bunch of Losers Are Putting on a Halftime Show To Compete With Bad Bunny’s

I am not a fan of the NFL, to say the least. However, I’ve had a pretty great time soaking in some halftime shows! A month and a half before the birth of our children, my wife and I watched The Weeknd give a selfie performance? Like, held the camera up at one point, while in a hall of lights? It was fun, and I hadn’t really heard his music before that.

I can’t explain why. There was no real rhyme or reason to it. But after that, I started going out of my way to watch the halftime shows. There was a fun hip-hop-oriented show in 2022. Rihanna owned the stage the following year, all on her lonesome. Usher had a blast in 2024, with plenty of special guests. Then, there was Kendrick Lamar, whose performance felt like a cultural and social movement.

Watching the halftime show last year felt necessary. There was something special and different about it. Not only did it cap off Kendrick’s one-sided feud with the guy from Degrassi, but the man turned the show into a political statement so fiery it made me stand up and shout with excitement. It was a beautiful expression of African American art that exposed millions to a point of view they may not have seen otherwise. It ruled.

So, naturally, I was frigging thrilled to see Bad Bunny get the nod for this year’s game. I love Bad Bunny, but that took some doing. I had no idea who he was until he performed at Wrestlemania in 2021. Then, he sealed the deal by wrestling Damien Priest in front of a sold-out crowd in Puerto Rico two years later. I kept an open mind and was exposed to an artist of whom I’m now quite fond.

Some of the best art in life can come your way if you open yourself up to new experiences. If you need the new to be in a more familiar package, like me with pro wrestling or the Super Bowl halftime show, that’s okay! What matters is that you don’t try to fight it. It’s art! It won’t hurt you, and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to experience it again. What you shouldn’t do is throw a crybaby-style fit and complain that the art will negatively affect Americans or some such nonsense.

But that’s exactly what’s happening. The backlash against Bad Bunny being picked for this year’s halftime show has been swift, annoying, and spewed from all the usual suspects. Except now, many of those losers hold significant positions of power. There have been threats of deportation, despite Bad Bunny being from Puerto Rico. It’s unfathomably dumb and excruciatingly hateful. But wait, it gets dumber!

Turning Point USA, a group of dweebs founded by someone who said lots of terrible things that you can easily look up, will be hosting a counter-halftime show on the eve of the Super Bowl. They’re calling it The All-American Halftime Show and … that’s it. There is no other info. They don’t have a musical guest yet (though I’m sure Kid Rock is already knocking on their door). It feels like they’re just testing the water, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this just ended up disappearing in a month.

It’s not that I don’t think it could be successful. As Dustin pointed out yesterday, Conservatives have certainly sat through some horrendous sh** to own the libs. I can pretty safely assume that this show will be sh** as well. Am I being subjective? Hell yeah. But excuse me if hearing Ted Nugent sing about 16-year-olds doesn’t float my boat.

There’s also the matter of money. Is Turning Point willing to shell out big bucks to hire legitimate talent? Halftime show performers are paid union minimum, so they aren’t raking in the dough. It’s about the platform and the audience. Modern Conservatism is so much about the grift, I can’t see anyone like Lee Greenwood or Creed signing up unless they’re getting big bucks, because the exposure certainly won’t be worth it.

I’m sure some people have already signed up for updates about this nonsense, and some will watch it out of spite, but a show being potentially exclusively live-streamed won’t bring in Super Bowl numbers. There’s little upside to doing this aside from probable grifting prospects that may follow as a result. A “grifting backend,” if you will. It may not pay out right away, but maybe later, if it’s successful.

However, the media landscape is not well built for online counter-programming. The WWE attempted to counter the Super Bowl halftime show in 1999 and actually did quite well, but they had The Rock in his prime, wrestling in a title match, and they were on the USA Network. It’s a lot easier to pick up your TV remote and type in a different number than it is to hop over to a streaming service. Impossible? No. But humans are lazy. Ya gotta make things easier for them.

At the end of the day, the saddest part about all of this is that it’s born out of ignorance, hatred, and fear. The only statement being made is that the people behind it think they can decide who is and isn’t American. They only want you to speak one language: theirs. It’s disgusting. So screw them. Screw their bigoted attempt at a movement. Bad Bunny is as American as can be. If they can’t handle that, they can enjoy their little pity party. Bet it’s gonna suck.

I’ll be too busy watching Bad Bunny tear the f***ing house down.