Everybody ’s talking about Bad Bunny’s upcoming Super Bowl halftime show, which is now just over a week away. The mere thought of a brown, Spanish-speaking artist performing at the Super Bowl already triggered dozens of conservative snowflakes who don’t seem to comprehend that Bad Bunny is an American citizen. These same individuals received even more salt in their wounds when Green Day, a staunchly progressive, vocally anti-Trump band, was announced as the opening act last week.
But even before that announcement, a MAGA tantrum had been brewing in the form of an “alternative” Super Bowl halftime show presented by none other than Turning Point USA, the right-wing organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk. The alleged “All-American Halftime Show” was first announced in October, along with a poll asking people what genre of music they’d like to hear with options that ranged from worship music to, confusingly, hip-hop.
If Erika Kirk’s countrywide tour after her husband’s assassination is any indication, we can expect lots of campy fireworks, sparklers and a loud wardrobe to make a spectacle that low-key resembles a drag show, ironically. The All-American Halftime Show is set to air on Real America’s Voice, TBN, NTD and other channels we’ve never heard of before. It will also be available to stream on YouTube, X and Charge.
A 25-minute show is causing them a robust MAGA crashout. Instead of changing the channel, they’d rather stage an entire parallel universe.
Who will be featured at this alternative halftime show, you ask? No lineup has been announced, and we’re two weeks out, so your guess is as good as mine. There are unfounded rumors that Nicki Minaj might perform, which wouldn’t be surprising at all considering she’s turned into a MAGA mouthpiece.
As of today, everything else about this halftime show is still extremely vague, including who is going to headline. As of today, the only evidence we have that it’s still happening is the org’s X post published earlier this week, which indicated that this thing was still happening, and would be streamed across conservative channels (that I’ve never heard of).
According to its website, the All-American Halftime Show will be celebrating “faith, family and freedom.” Just saying, if Bad Bunny’s “Tití Me Preguntó” isn’t the perfect encapsulation of those three things, I’m not sure what is.
Calls by right-wingers to support the All-American Halftime Show grew even louder this week after some unverified reports suggested that Bad Bunny would be wearing a dress during his halftime performance. Clearly, the halftime show will be too “woke” and “gay” for MAGA to handle, to the point where they’d rather have a whole separate, probably low-production and tacky option instead of simply turning off the TV if they’re truly that bothered.
For years, conservatives called liberals “snowflakes” for not being able to “tolerate” opinions or points of view that were different from their own. It’s pretty ironic to see so many of them now going to great lengths to avoid engaging with people and points of views they disagree with, and from this vantage point, they’re looking pretty darn sensitive to me.
In the end, the All-American Halftime Show says more about the current state of conservative culture than it does about Bad Bunny or the Super Bowl. What’s being marketed as a celebration of faith is really an admission that they can no longer coexist with a mainstream culture that doesn’t consistently center them.
A 25-minute show is causing them a robust MAGA crashout. Instead of changing the channel, they’d rather stage an entire parallel universe. For a movement that once prided itself on being anti-“cancel culture,” it sure seems like there’s a lot they’re trying to erase.