It seems the Super Bowl Halftime Show – headlined by an artist who calls himself “Bad Bunny” – has become a political litmus test of sorts.

It didn’t have to be, but because Bad Bunny himself wanted to be controversial from the start, that meant the Halftime Show was going to be divisive by default. Remember, this all started when Bad Bunny announced that he would be headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show, but informed everyone that they had better learn Spanish in order to understand him. And then he decided to throw in with the “cool kids” and say “ICE out” during his Grammys acceptance speech, while NFL commissioner Roger Goodell insisted that Bad Bunny could “unite people” during the show.

The hilarity began when NFL players were asked about Bad Bunny, and most didn’t have a clue who he was.
https://twitter.com/realJoeBonham/status/2020333155086115127
I guess being united in blissful ignorance is a start, right? And there were alternatives that could be watched, as there always are. For heaven’s sake, people, the Puppy Bowl became a tradition because it was a kid-friendly Halftime Show alternative, even though it is now done before the game. Turning Point USA put on their own show, which drew millions of eyes. Welcome to freedom of choice, everyone.

But what about the show itself? It can be seen here (it is limited to viewing on YouTube due to NFL copyright), but here is a small clip:

Now, even people who liked the show (or who say that they liked the show) will have to admit that it will hardly rank among the “best” of the Super Bowl Halftime Shows. That aside, people have Opinions with a capital “O,” and that includes the President of the United States.

Leave it to President Trump to manage to work a complaint about the kickoff rule into his Bad Bunny rant. However, the president was not alone in his critiques.

My mother: “who is this Bad Bunny?”

Don’t worry mom, we aren’t watching him.

— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@HarmeetKDhillon) February 9, 2026

I really tried to put the politics thing aside and approach it with an open mind, but that was objectively a terrible halftime show.

— AG (@AGHamilton29) February 9, 2026

The halftime show also featured singing cameos from Lady Gaga (which was the only English-speaking portion of the show) and Ricky Martin.

Bad Bunny’s performance featured a swath of references to the Grammy-award-winning artist’s home, transplanting the island nation’s natural beauty smack in the center of Levi’s Stadium.

During the performance, Bad Bunny trekked through stalks of greenery, flanked by farm workers, before he made his way to the heart of a real-life wedding ceremony.

Yes, that was apparently a real wedding that took place. However, despite internet rumors, the child that Bad Bunny handed his Grammy award to was not Liam Ramos, the child who was taken into custody by ICE after his father abandonded him in order to avoid arrest, but a child actor (though the fact that people jumped to the conclusion that it was Ramos would seem to indicate that the resemblance was intentional). So yes, this halftime show was definitely leaning into politics. Judging by the reactions, I would have to inform Roger Goodell that there really wasn’t anything “uniting” about it.

The truth isn’t that the show was offensive, or a slap in America’s face. If people feel that way, you’ll never be able to convince them otherwise, and you’ll never be able to convince someone who actually likes Bad Bunny that the show was bad. The truth is that this halftime show was BORING. Now, I freely admit that as a Gen Xer, I am not the target audience for Bad Bunny (I guess the Millennials are supposed to know who he is?). (I had also never heard of him before he was announced as the Super Bowl headliner.) But because I am a born and bred Pacific Northwesterner, I was watching the Super Bowl with my family and friends, and ended up watching the halftime show as a result. I was not impressed with either the music or the showmanship (Bad Bunny constantly looked like he was mumbling, and was also about to accidentally eat his microphone). Again, I’m not the target audience. But there were four Gen Z young adults, and three Gen Alpha representatives watching as well. And all but one of them walked away to do other things during the halftime show, or were watching other videos on their phones or devices. I’m not sure who Bad Bunny’s target audience is supposed to be, but no one under the age of 25 was excited, or even mildly intrigued enough to keep watching. In other words, they weren’t John Kasich.

Love the halftime show which celebrates the wonderful Latino culture. Great pick and great show. Bad Bunny hit a grand slam home run!

— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) February 9, 2026

Hey, Roger Goodell? If you want to reach out to non-football watching international audiences to draw viewers to the Super Bowl next year, I have a suggestion. Get K-pop mega band BTS to perform. The show will quite literally break the internet, and you will have more young eyeballs than you know how to handle watching the show. And yes, the Korean boy band’s songs are mostly in English. But hey, I’m just a Gen X mom of four – clearly, I don’t have my finger on the pulse of what’s “popular” if I find Bad Bunny excruciatingly boring. Politics aside, this was a hundred percent on the “meh” scale, and unengaging to boot.

Featured image: Bad Bunny at the PornHub Awards in October 2019, photo by Glenn Francis of www.PacificProDigital.com, user Toglenn on Wikimedia Commons, cropped, Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)