Something Incredible Happened During Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show

I had a birthday party to attend last night, and it was a lot of fun. A good friend turned 40, and I got to see a few folks I lived with over a decade ago, as we talked about our aging bodies and boring jobs. New Jersey Transit got me home in time to read my kids a comic book and help get them to bed. Then, I zoned out on the couch as my wife went to get ice cream. I was flipping through BlueSky, like any good East Coast Liberal, and saw my friend and site mate, Mike Redmond, enthusiastically note that it was “time for white people to get really mad,” and I turned on my TV with gusto!

My wife and I were not interested in the Super Bowl, but we were both pretty amped for Bad Bunny’s halftime performance, and boy oh boy was it worth it. I flipped it on right before it started, paused it, and waited for my wife to return. She did, and we just had a fantastic time. The show was joyous and fun. It was sexy and proud. There was an energy emanating from it that felt like a true distillation of the American spirit. Not the one coopted by people who drive pickup trucks but never use the bed. This is the American spirit that tells you to take pride in who you are and shout it from the rooftops.

Again, I’m one of them elites (in affiliation, but not in bank account), so, of course, I was going to like this, but it was still better than I could have imagined. The staging was immense, and personal. There was lots of faux-controversy surrounding Bad Bunny’s selection for the show, and he handled it in the best way possible: by living. These were people who were unbothered by their detractors and chose to celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That included a real-life wedding!

There were plenty of amazing surprise guests in the show, but one of the most shockingly lovely elements was that the whole number was centered around a wedding. According to The Hollywood Reporter, that wedding was real! I’ll admit that, when the happy couple kissed, my dumb brain said, “wow, that kiss looked real, good on those actors for commiting so hard.” It was no act! The couple, whose names have not been made public, had asked Bad Bunny to attend their wedding and, well, he did them one better.

Mr. Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio signed their wedding certificate as a witness, and they got to celebrate their love in front of millions of people. It also further drove home the message of the show. These are your friends and neighbors. They are lovers and workers and family. Their roots are deep, and they will not be uprooted by hatred, bigotry, or crybaby nonsense. The message was loud, clear, and sealed with a kiss.

The NFL (whatever that is) won’t let me embed the show, but you can watch it here.