Bill Maher spoke out in defense of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, claiming the singer’s MAGA critics were simply “pretending” to be outraged over his allegedly explicit performance.
The comedian addressed the controversial halftime show during Friday’s monologue for “Real Time With Bill Maher,” where he ripped into Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters for their “butt hurt” reaction to Bad Bunny’s set.
“A lot of conservative America is very butt hurt these days, they’re recovering from the halftime show,” Maher started off. “They hated it because it was in Spanish, but now they’re pretending to hate because it was ‘smutty.’ And it was sexual, overtly sexual, with dirty lyrics. What did you expect? He’s not called, ‘Good Bunny.’”
He continued: “Trump said, ‘Nobody could understand a word the guy said.’ I never understood a word Mick Jagger said either, but I still enjoyed his show.”
Maher, who has never been afraid to share his honest opinion, noted that he took no issue with Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show, despite not knowing what was being said during the performance.
“I looked at it like Olympic curling,” Maher said. “I had no idea what the f–k was happening, but I was like, ‘Everyone is looking like they’re having fun. F–k it, I’m in.”
Maher’s comments came as several Republican lawmakers called for a formal inquiry into Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl act, suggesting the NFL and NBCUniversal helped facilitate an “indecent broadcast.”
“The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show was pure smut, brazenly aired on national television for every American family to witness,” Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) wrote on X Monday evening. “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.”
He added: “And if that weren’t outrageous enough, the performance’s lyrics openly glorified sodomy and countless other unspeakable depravities. These flagrant, indecent acts are illegal to be displayed on public airways.”
Rep. Mark Alford (R-Missouri) also denounced the set, saying Tuesday that the “disturbing” nature of the Grammy winner’s nearly all-Spanish performance “could be much worse than the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction” in 2004.
In contrast, Democratic politicians, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Jim McGovern and Governor Gavin Newsom, lauded Bad Bunny’s halftime show as an inspiring act.
New episodes of “Real Time With Bill Maher” air Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on HBO.
