Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles lashed out at Bad Bunny‘s history-making Super Bowl LX halftime show on Monday (Feb. 9), calling the singer’s record-setting performance “pure smut, brazenly aired on national television for every American family to witness.” The conservative congressman wrote, that “children were forced to endure explicit displays of gay sexual acts, women gyrating provocatively, and Bad Bunny shamelessly grabbing his crotch while dry-humping the air.”
The shocked response to what has been reported as the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show in history, with more than 135 million people tuning in, has drawn ire from a number of conservative voices, including Donald Trump. In a counterpoint to Benito’s set, which carried a message of unity, love, respect and togetherness, Trump called the halftime show “absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER,” while condemning it as “an affront to the Greatness of America.”
In his post, Ogles claimed that Benito’s set “openly glorified sodomy and countless other unspeakable depravities,” saying that such “flagrant, indecent acts are illegal to be displayed on public airways.” Because of his upset, Ogles said he is requesting that the Energy and Commerce Committee launch a formal congressional inquiry into the NFL and NBC for what he described as “their prior knowledge, deliberate approval and facilitation of this indecent broadcast.”
At press time spokespeople for NBC and the NFL had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on Ogles’ post.
Ogles’ letter to the House committee referenced the lyrics to two songs in Benito’s set, which was the first-ever performed almost entirely in Spanish, “Safaera” and “Yo Perreo Sola,” which he said included sexual content that would be “readily apparent across any language barrier.” Although the Puerto Rican superstar did perform part of both songs — whose recorded versions do include explicit sexual lyrics — he skipped the most controversial lines during the halftime set.
Ogles added, “these flagrant, indecent acts are illegal to be displayed on public airways. American culture will not be mocked or corrupted without consequence.”
In addition, a fellow Republican congressman, Florida Rep. Randy Fine, wrote on X on Monday that Benito’s “disgusting halftime show was illegal.” He also mused that “had he said these lyrics,” in reference to the original, NSFW lyrics to both in their recorded versions that were not sung, “and all of the other disgusting and pornographic filth in English on live TV, the broadcast would have been pulled down and the fines would have been enormous.”
Given the tremendous pushback from some in the MAGAverse who attempted to other Bad Bunny by claiming he was not American — despite Puerto Rico being a U.S. territory and its citizens being American citizens — Fine wrote “Puerto Ricans are Americans and we all live by the same rules,” ending his note with a familiar MAGA refrain: “lock them up.”
Conversely, at the MAGA-approved conservative Christian organization Turning Point USA counterprogramming livestream featuring friend of Trump Kid Rock found the rapper-turned-rocker-turned country crooner singing about “topless dancers,” crackheads, his “heroes in the Methadone clinics,” the “bastards at the IRS” and “crooked cops,” in addition to lines about taking shots of Jack and “caps of meth,” as well as “hookers all trickin’ out in Hollywood” during his performance of his breakthrough 1999 single “Bawitdaba.”
