Bad Bunny Broke NFL Super Bowl Records. But the Right Keeps Trying to Say Otherwise
It’s a great day to be a fan of Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny. Not only did he have a magical, absolutely gorgeous performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show featuring some of our favorite celebrities, but he also broke the record set by last year’s performer Kendrick Lamar, garnering 135+ million viewers.
Predictably, the reality is not setting in well with MAGA. On X, Nick Adams ranted about the show, saying “The NFL is reportedly FUMING after losing MILLIONS on Bad Bunny’s halftime show to TPUSA and Kid Rock’s record-breaking livestream. Boycotts work!”
For context, Kid Rock’s performance at Turning Point USA’s “All-American” Super Bowl halftime show pulled in between 4 and 6.1 million viewers initially and has surpassed 19 million YouTube views. That is certainly a far cry from “losing millions.”
“Source?” one user asked, to which another posted my new favorite link.
Honestly, all the discourse surrounding not just Bad Bunny’s performance, but Lamar’s as well, is exhausting. America was not made to be a white-focused, English-speaking xenophobic mess. Our culture is culture. It comes from our Latinx neighbors, our Black friends. The food you enjoy has its roots in Europe, in other parts of the Americas.
A user on X posted a more in-depth reasoning behind the numbers of both performances, saying, “What did happen is this: the conservative group Turning Point USA organized an alternative “All-American Halftime Show” streamed online at the same time as the official NFL halftime. That livestream, starring Kid Rock and others, drew a few million viewers on platforms like YouTube — a small fraction of the official halftime audience — but some supporters have touted those numbers.”
So why do they keep lying?
That really is a good question. The obvious answer is that none of them like losing. They dislike being wrong even more. Also, racism. But lying about things that are easily fact-checked and verified is a new level of unhinged, even for them.
Nick Adams is also a notorious liar, because there is no way any of the stuff he posts about on X actually happened.
It also cannot be overstated that there is nothing “All-American” about this alternative halftime show. The America they are portraying is the kind that still believes that the south won the Civil War. All-American was what Bad Bunny showed us during his performance: Culture, love, and acceptance. And also just a really good time.
At least this has reminded us of who we should not listen to, like Kevin Sorbo. Never mind that, again, Bad Bunny cannot be deported because he is a legal US citizen. But intelligence has never been on the side of the right-wing, MAGA supporters.
(featured image: Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
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