Late-night hosts Jon Stewart and Jimmy Kimmel have criticised the rightwing backlash to Bad Bunny's all-Spanish Super Bowl half-time performance, calling it performative and hypocritical. During Monday's episode of The Daily Show, Stewart played clips of Fox News hosts and conservative pundits complaining that they could not understand the Spanish lyrics, before cutting to a clip of Kid Rock's gibberish-laden performance at the 'All-American Halftime Show' organised by Turning Point USA.
Stewart questioned why the Super Bowl half-time entertainer should be expected to unify the country, pointing instead to former President Donald Trump, who over the weekend posted a racist video depicting the Obama family as apes. 'Another unifying tip might be to tell your guy to stop tweeting out racist slop during Black History Month,' Stewart joked.
The host also addressed the rightwing meltdown over Olympian freestyle skier Hunter Hess, who said representing the US brought up 'mixed emotions'. Trump called Hess 'a real loser'. Stewart said the reaction demonstrated that for all of Maga's triumphalism, it is a movement lacking confidence. 'It's actually fucking pathetic,' he said. 'The gap between the power you all wield and the victimhood you all claim is the real offence.'
Over in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel likewise mocked Trump's claim that he was offended by the half-time show, which Kimmel described as 'a tribute to the Spanish-speaking world and to culture'. He contrasted that with Turning Point USA's alternative show, which suffered technical glitches and Kid Rock missing his lip-sync cues. 'This is what they do: they complain about how bad everything is, and then they do it worse,' Kimmel said.
Kimmel concluded that if Bad Bunny had made a show of supporting Trump, like other celebrities, Maga would have no problem with him. 'But since Bad Bunny isn't a fan of Trump, since they knew that... It's all so performative,' he said.
