Jimmy Kimmel roasted Kid Rock for his Turning Point USA halftime show after the singer had noticeable audio glitches during the controversial performance.
During Monday’s monologue for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the comedian addressed the alternative halftime show, which was put on by Turning Point USA in protest to Bad Bunny being named the Super Bowl’s performer. Specifically, Kimmel called out Kid Rock’s obvious audio issues, that seemed to confirm the musician was lip-syncing during his performance. (Though, Kid Rock has denied the lip-syncing allegations, saying he was simply “out of sync” with his DJ.)
“Unfortunately, [Donald Trump] and [Lindsey Graham] missed out on a Kid Rock lip-sync battle with himself,” Kimmel said. “I guess they had some trouble with the pre-taped audio track because Kid’s lips were not exactly in step with Kid’s music.”
After showing a clip from Kid Rock’s unfortunate act, Kimmel added: “It’s magical how he does that. It’s really incredible. But this is it in a nutshell. They complain about how bad everything is and then they do it worse. And not only do they do it worse, they do it in jorts.”
However, as Kimmel highlighted, Turning Point USA was happy with the final result, confirming they planned to do another alternative halftime show next year.
“Next year it’ll be Lara Trump with a Ted Nugent cover band,” Kimmel joked. “They’ve got to do it for the country. Why deprive the country of another chance to see this? The bursts of fire were to remind everyone that we’re still living in hell.”
As Kimmel went on, he called the outrage over Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show “performative,” comparing it to the “trans Budweiser and gay M&Ms” controversies.
“They decided to make their own halftime show and, of course, like everything they do, it was a disaster,” Kimmel added. “They couldn’t stream it. They didn’t get the rights. Kid Rock’s lips-sync was screwed up. And that’s the other thing. Almost all the complaints about Bad Bunny were you can’t understand what he’s saying. So, who do they go to? Kid Rock. An artist whose most popular song is literally gibberish.”
Despite the digs at Kid Rock, Kimmel clarified that he wasn’t trying to bash the singer. “He’s talented. I’ve seen him perform. He puts on a fun show,” he noted. “You can like one of them, you can like the other. You can like neither. You can like both. This is about the fact that everything has to be something“
Per Kimmel, even the left is guilty of jumping on the Bad Bunny bandwagon, noting that most people can’t name a song by the Puerto Rican performer.
“Here’s the thing about me. Did I know any of the songs Bad Bunny was singing? Absolutely not,” Kimmel said. “Never heard even one second of one of them. Did I understand any of what he was singing? Yes. The word ‘nunca.’ That was it. But since when do we need to know what the singers were saying? Michael Jackson, maybe the greatest Super Bowl performance of all time, was like, ‘Shamone, Shamone, you know it.’ I didn’t know it. Nobody knew it.”
Watch Kimmel’s full monologue above.
