American, Enough!

In this episode, we discuss how the controversy surround Bad Bunny's upcoming half-time show performance has caused racism and languagism to peak throughout the nation.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Valerie Gorham

WKNC Podcast Content Creator

What is More Than You Think!?

“More Than You Think!" is a podcast that explores the deeper layers of pop culture, uncovering how today’s trends connect with the political, economic, and social climate shaping our world. Each episode dives into the ways music, media, and cultural moments reflect — and influence — the society we live in. "More Than You Think!" is a podcast produced by WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2 at NC State University.

Valerie: Good morning, Krusty Krew.
Valerie: It's me, Valerie, the host of More Than youn Think.
Valerie: Back with another episode of.
Valerie: Well, you guessed it.
Valerie: More than you think.
Valerie: Let's have a round of applause by the sound effect that I am about to put in.
Valerie: Yes, that's it.
Valerie: Okay, if you are new to this podcast, this is a podcast about pop culture and how it influences and is influenced by political, social and economic events in our world.
Valerie: Social.
Valerie: So let's get into it.
Valerie: This episode is about Bad Bunny headlining the 2026 Super bowl halftime show, which is super exciting, but not to everyone.
Valerie: A group of people.
Valerie: A group of people have decided that Bad Bunny is just not qualified nor good enough to perform at the super bowl halftime show.
Valerie: That he's just not famous enough and he's just not American enough.
Valerie: What?
Valerie: Like, can you explain that to me?
Valerie: Actually, I'm gonna explain it to you and I'm going to explain why that's quite hypocritical from the people who are making these claims.
Valerie: But we're gonna start off with a little bit of background on Bad Bunny.
Valerie: So, number one, his name is.
Valerie: And not actually Bad Bunny, if you haven't guessed that yet.
Valerie: His name is just Benito.
Valerie: He's Puerto Rican.
Valerie: Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio.
Valerie: That is his name.
Valerie: He.
Valerie: He is 31 and he makes a type of Latino music genre known as reggaeton.
Valerie: Well, yes, which is basically like Hispanic people's version of like hip hop.
Valerie: It's slightly different.
Valerie: You can tell it's not like American hip hop, right?
Valerie: When you listen to it's like, first of all, it's in Spanish.
Valerie: And then the beats that they use are a little different than American beats.
Valerie: Now as for the argument that he isn't famous enough, I will say this.
Valerie: He is the 11th most listen to artist currently on Spotify with over 81 million monthly listeners.
Valerie: He has three Grammys and 10 Grammy nominations.
Valerie: He was recently in two movies, Caught Stealing and Happy Gilmore 2 with Adam Sandler, America's sweetheart, I believe.
Valerie: He has hosted SNL now three times.
Valerie: And let's just say the ladies love him.
Valerie: Yeah.
Valerie: Have you seen his Calvin Klein ad?
Valerie: Like an underwear ad where he was just there in his underwear.
Valerie: And women love that.
Valerie: Me personally, I'm not into him like that.
Valerie: But that's just because I'm loyal to my man, Jacob Elord.
Valerie: But anyways, back to Bad Bunny.
Valerie: Earlier this year, Bad Bunny released an album called Debitid Armas Photos.
Valerie: Yeah.
Valerie: And he toured the album everywhere except the United States, which he later revealed that he did that because he was afraid that if he had concerts here in the States, that ICE would get all of the immigrants at his shows.
Valerie: Recently, the ICE officers have had a bit of a violent moment recently.
Valerie: There was a murder of an illegal Mexican immigrant in Dallas.
Valerie: He was a cook and he was shot and killed by an officer of ice.
Valerie: There was also a pastor a few weeks ago who was shot in the head, not with a regular bullet, but with a pepper ball, which still very violent.
Valerie: And he was in the middle of praying.
Valerie: He was a pastor near an ICE department in Chicago, I believe.
Valerie: And finally, there is a rumor that I've been seeing.
Valerie: I've seen some of, like those, like, low budget news sites, the ones that you like.
Valerie: Don't know if anything on them are true or not, as well as pop base on Twitter, which usually is accurate.
Valerie: Actually, I've seen these reports that ICE shot and killed a dog, an immigrant family's pet dog.
Valerie: So between all this violence, it makes sense that Bad Bunny would want to keep ICE away from his fans.
Valerie: And so now he feels safe doing the super bowl halftime show, obviously.
Valerie: Because if we're honest, like, let's just be honest, Hispanic people do not care as much about American football as white people.
Valerie: Because I'm gonna say we, because I am half Hispanic.
Valerie: We have soccer, which is a lot better.
Valerie: No offense to anybody who loves football.
Valerie: Soccer is just more popular, famous, and entertaining and awesome.
Valerie: Still, it's still going to be majority.
Valerie: Just a bunch of white men.
Valerie: You know, it's like.
Valerie: And that's fine.
Valerie: Like, they need something to do too, right?
Valerie: Like that's okay.
Valerie: But yeah, Bad Bunny is playing the super bowl Halftime Show 2026.
Valerie: My personal favorite first introduction to Bad Bunny was when I saw him playing in the NBA All Star Game 2019.
Valerie: Because that All Star Game was in Charlotte.
Valerie: So since it was here in North Carolina, I watched it with my family.
Valerie: And he was there.
Valerie: I don't think he was very good at basketball, but he was there.
Valerie: He was playing in the celebrity game before the actual All Star game.
Valerie: I also am half Hispanic, so I have some Hispanic relatives that love his music.
Valerie: And at first when I listened to it, I was like, he doesn't sound very good.
Valerie: He sounds like this, you know?
Valerie: But then I was like, okay, the beat's kind of funky.
Valerie: Like, I wouldn't listen to this in my free time, but if I heard it at the party, if I heard it at the function, yeah, I'd get down to it.
Valerie: Of course.
Valerie: Yes.
Valerie: Well, yes.
Valerie: And I'm gonna enjoy it at the halftime show, as should everyone.
Valerie: However, a certain president of the United States named Donald Trump said, I don't know who he is.
Valerie: I don't know why they're doing it.
Valerie: It's like, crazy.
Valerie: And that's an exact direct quote, mind you.
Valerie: But along with Donald Trump, several Republican government officials have expressed their disdain for this choice.
Valerie: And first of all, number one, give his music a dang chance for once in your life.
Valerie: Come on, can we just get down to a funky beat for once in our lives?
Valerie: I am half white also, but it's like, we're never beating the allegations of, like, that we have no rhythm because.
Valerie: What do you mean?
Valerie: What do you mean you don't know who Bad Bunny is?
Valerie: You don't listen to any music other than what Morgan Wallen and Benson Boone, bro, put Spotify on shuffle for once in your life.
Valerie: Come on, now.
Valerie: This isn't even, like, a political thing.
Valerie: Just broaden your musical horizons.
Valerie: But second of all, this is going to be a little political.
Valerie: This is also racism.
Valerie: Like, can we just say that?
Valerie: Because the main argument here is that nobody knows who he is, and that's so not true.
Valerie: He just hosted the season premiere of SNL Season 51 a few weeks ago.
Valerie: And in case we've forgotten, not everyone in this country is white.
Valerie: There are a lot of immigrants, particularly from Latin America, because it's quite close.
Valerie: There are a lot of people in this country who are not white.
Valerie: Well, yes, and certain political leaders have kind of forgotten about that.
Valerie: They've been like, oh, well, what about us?
Valerie: What about the whites?
Valerie: Girl, I'm white and I'm doing fine.
Valerie: I'm doing fine.
Valerie: I do not feel oppressed by this.
Valerie: Nor did I feel oppressed last year when Kendrick Lamar did his halftime show, unlike a lot of other people who allegedly complained to the FCC about the lack of white people in Kendrick Lamar's halftime show.
Valerie: Okay, There was also, like, a lack of, like, Chinese people.
Valerie: Why didn't you complain about that?
Valerie: See, what's something that, like, other than being white, is something that I would want to see represented on St.
Valerie: I feel victimized, personally victimized by Kendrick Lamar because he did not put on that stage enough representation for people with recurring diarrhea.
Valerie: I feel so oppressed.
Valerie: Yeah, that's ridiculous.
Valerie: But the other main argument is that none of his songs are in English, which is true.
Valerie: His songs are entirely in Spanish, apart from, like, the occasional English phrase that he throws in there to rhyme.
Valerie: And one particular critic of this halftime show is the Turning Point USA organization.
Valerie: If you're not familiar with Turning Point usa, it was founded by the late Charlie Kirk, who, as we all saw recently, a few weeks ago, several weeks ago, got assassinated.
Valerie: Turning Point USA is a non profit organization with the mission to advocate for conservative politics, particularly at high schools and college campuses.
Valerie: So he was at a college campus trying to start debating with the kids on the campus.
Valerie: And then, yeah.
Valerie: Turning Point USA has announced that it is going to be hosting its very own all American alternate Super bowl halftime show.
Valerie: They've also announced that performances will include anything in English, like cupcake, as well as worship music, which.
Valerie: Can we just stop for a second and talk about how people use Christianity to be racist?
Valerie: Well, well, well.
Valerie: Now, Bad Bunny does speak English.
Valerie: It's not the greatest English, but you can understand what he's saying most of the time.
Valerie: But I digress.
Valerie: So this organization, along with many other people who agree with the values of this organization, don't like Bad Bunny because they don't resonate with his music.
Valerie: They don't understand why other people like it.
Valerie: And of course it's not in English.
Valerie: But I'm also a Christian, and I can very easily tell you that there are several verses in the Bible, several passages, in fact, that go over how people should treat foreigners, immigrants, and nowhere does it say to shame immigrants or treat them with disgust.
Valerie: And that's what it is.
Valerie: It's disgust.
Valerie: They're disgusted by Bad Bunny because he's Hispanic.
Valerie: Boom shakalaka.
Valerie: That's it.
Valerie: As we know, the super bowl is probably one of the most American things that exists.
Valerie: Definitely, like the most American yearly event that exists, right?
Valerie: And watching the super bowl, seeing them sing the national anthem, seeing them wave the flag, seeing everyone gathered there to support their teams, it makes you feel kind of patriotic.
Valerie: It makes you like, dang, I love this country.
Valerie: I love the usa.
Valerie: I love it here.
Valerie: And we have these groups of people trying to exclude different cultures out of this event because they don't want to make it to culturally diverse.
Valerie: And that's so sad.
Valerie: Don't gatekeep the freaking super bowl for, like, that's not Christian.
Valerie: She's not a Christian.
Valerie: I saw a tweet that was like, this is.
Valerie: This is like Morgan Wallen going to do like a halftime show at like a Mexican soccer game.
Valerie: And what if he did?
Valerie: Like, what if he did?
Valerie: If he did, would that be the end of the world?
Valerie: No, I'm sure the Mexicans would love to have him as well.
Valerie: Like, but that's just A theory.
Valerie: A game theory.
Valerie: Okay?
Valerie: And by the way, I just want to say this as well.
Valerie: I did not hear anybody complaining that freaking Shakira's halftime show, which Bad Bunny joined her on stage for.
Valerie: I didn't hear anybody saying that it was too Latina.
Valerie: They said that it was inappropriate, that they were showing too much cheek, too much leg.
Valerie: But I did not hear the men who love and enjoy football complaining about these beautiful, gorgeous women on the stage saying that they didn't like that these women were Hispanic.
Valerie: And I don't remember that happening.
Valerie: Correct me if I'm wrong, they're just complaining that this one's a guy because now they can't look at the cheeks.
Valerie: Perverts.
Valerie: So maybe they want Bad Bunny to show his cheeks.
Valerie: I don't really know.
Valerie: But anyways, much like Turning Point usa, there are many American citizens who are concerned about the family friendliness of Bad Bunny's super bowl halftime show performance.
Valerie: They're afraid that he is going to do things that are not family friendly.
Valerie: And I just want to say that there are guidelines for the halftime show that all the performers have to abide by because it's on tv.
Valerie: You cannot swear.
Valerie: There cannot be any nudity or anything crazy in that department.
Valerie: You can't actually make any politically controversial statements.
Valerie: You can't do it because it's just meant to be entertaining and fun.
Valerie: And obviously no violence, no dangerous stunts that would like, accidentally go wrong and then someone would die on screen and traumatize the entire nation.
Valerie: We don't want that.
Valerie: So I don't really understand why anybody's concerned about that.
Valerie: I mean, even if he does say something abnormal, these people who are concerned about it are the ones who are not going to understand what he's saying because they don't speak Spanish.
Valerie: So, like, it's like, get over it.
Valerie: Hello?
Valerie: But anyways, there is a petition out there with over 10,000 signatures and growing to replace this man, Bad Bunny, with the beautiful, the talented.
Valerie: You know him, you love him.
Valerie: It's George Strait.
Valerie: And if you've never heard of George freaking Strait, you might as well just leave right now.
Valerie: George strait is a 73 year old country music artist.
Valerie: Yeah, he's white.
Valerie: So he has that going for him as well.
Valerie: And there's nothing wrong with being 73.
Valerie: That's actually awesome.
Valerie: And there's also nothing wrong with having 8.2 million listeners.
Valerie: That's a lot of listeners.
Valerie: Definitely more than I'm getting, that's for sure.
Valerie: But they're criticizing Bad Bunny for not being famous enough.
Valerie: This guy's not famous enough to do the halftime show.
Valerie: Like, come on now.
Valerie: It's embarrassing.
Valerie: It's embarrassing that they're this obsessed with getting rid of a person of color and a person of.
Valerie: Of a different culture because they say that their concern is that this culture isn't American.
Valerie: Right, but wait, can we just backpedal for a second?
Valerie: Can we rewind?
Valerie: Because, remember when I said he's Puerto Rican?
Valerie: This man is a US Citizen from birth.
Valerie: And it's so sad that they take a great pop culture event like this and they make it into something really racist and just bottom line, let you all know you.
Valerie: Yeah.
Valerie: To summarize, the super bowl halftime show this year.
Valerie: Usually, the super bowl halftime show is such a wonderful cultural moment for Americans, and it's.
Valerie: It's viewed across the world because the super bowl halftime shows are known to be spectacular every single year.
Valerie: However, since this year, we have someone who is considered by many to be not American enough, true colors are being shown, and instead of welcoming him and instead of sharing this moment with people of other cultures, other races, other languages, people are trying to gatekeep the super bowl halftime show.
Valerie: What do you mean you're trying to gatekeep the super bowl halftime show?
Valerie: Are you kidding me?
Valerie: It doesn't help that we have the precedent that we have right now.
Valerie: And in this podcast episode, I'm talking about specifically Latin culture, Latin America.
Valerie: But, I mean, it goes for.
Valerie: It goes for every other culture that isn't white people, white culture.
Valerie: But Bad Bunny's coming to save us because all of the racists will see his show, and it will be so cool and the beat will be so good that the racism will leave their bodies and everyone will love and respect each other for the rest of time.
Valerie: Actually, can't wait to see his halftime show.
Valerie: And I've heard a lot of great things about his more recent tour.
Valerie: And that is how that aspect of pop culture, the super bowl Halftime Show 2026, is related to the political and social climate of the US Of A.
Valerie: But until next time, I will see you all in Valhalla.
Valerie: I will see you all.
Valerie: Thank you for listening to More than you think.
Valerie: Once again, this has been Valerie.
Valerie: And I love you, and I love you, and you love me.
Valerie: All right, see you next time.
Valerie: Bye, Sam.
Valerie: It.