The right-wing meltdown over Bad Bunny‘s Super Bowl Halftime Show performance had Jon Stewart fired up more than usual on Monday’s episode of The Daily Show.
On a particularly ridiculous weekend in America’s ongoing culture wars, that took in the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics and the disgustingly racist social media post by Donald Trump about the Obamas, Stewart jumped in with gusto in his opening monologue. The host began the segment with a compilation of the usual right-wing talking heads, including Megyn Kelly, Benny Johnson and Fox News’ finest, performatively complaining about the Super Bowl Halftime Show being performed in Spanish. Stewart then jump cut to Kid Rock performing his song “Bawitdaba” which boasts a chorus of pure gibberish.
Focusing in on Kid Rock, and the TPUSA alternative, and very anti-woke, halftime show that was staged at the same time as Bad Bunny was performing on Sunday, Stewart also highlighted the performance of Lee Brice and his new song, “It Ain’t Easy Being Country” taking great delight in the unintentional absurdity of the lyrics (choice snippets include “I just wanna catch my fish/drive my truck/drink my beer” and “I just wanna cut my grass/feed my dog/wear my boots”). Stewart questioned if Brice was being sincere in the oppression he faced, given he was wearing boots while singing.
Later in Brice’s song he touches on trans issues and being cancelled for his gender critical views, which provoked an eye-roll and “here we go” from Stewart. “You’re so brave. People throw the word ‘hero’ around, but this is a bold opinion to hold in your genre. You’re really risking it all going up against country music’s trans cartel.”
Stewart then expertly picked apart the right wing talking point that Bad Bunny’s all-Spanish performance was not “unifying.” “Why the fuck is it the Super Bowl Halftime entertainer’s job to unify the country? Is that their job? Isn’t there another person whose job description is much more along those lines?”
The segment then segued into Trump’s attempts at unifying the country this weekend with his virulently racist social media post that included a video clip depicting the Obamas as apes, as well as the unedifying aftermath when the president refused to back down, apologize or even acknowledge the post was horrifically offensive. “Another unifying tip might be to tell your guy to stop tweeting out racist slop during Black History Month,” Stewart added helpfully.
Next Stewart moved on to the Winter Olympics, and the right wing meltdown over freestyle skier Hunter Hess’ incredibly mild comments during a press conference (For reference here are Hess’ actual words: “It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now I think. It’s a little hard. There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of and I think a lot of people aren’t. I think for me, it’s more I’m representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented before me, all the things that I believe are good about the U.S.”)
Bookending the right’s unhinged reaction to Bad Bunny and Hess, Stewart ending the segment with a rant. “When did the right become such fucking pussies? Remember 2017? Remember what you hated about liberals? Perpetually offended, safe spaces, censoring free speech, culture of victimhood. Remind you of anyone? ‘Oh, I can’t go 15 minutes without listening to country music. I need a separate show.’ ‘Oh, that skier triggered me. I can’t sleep.’ Not the best imitation, but you know what I’m going for.
“This whole culture war this weekend has really demonstrated one thing. It’s that for all of MAGA’s triumphalism, it’s not a movement that seems confident in its position. These people who control every branch of government are so triggered by someone singing in Spanish for 20 minutes, they need to create their own safe space alternative halftime show, where Trad Bunny over here is singing songs about how he can’t even enjoy sitting in a truck and drinking beer because he knows that somewhere out there, there’s a trans person.
“It’s actually fucking pathetic. The gap between the power you all wield and the victimhood you all claim is the real offense. If you didn’t actually have the power to do so much damage in our country, I think we all dismiss it as a weak and pathetic pity party.”
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