Bad Bunny threw down at Super Bowl LX. (Photo credit NBC / YouTube)

What’s not to like?

The Seattle Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots 29-13 in the 60th Super Bowl. More on the game later.

The biggest pre-game buzz surrounded Latin artist Bad Bunny. Buzz crystallized into reality during halftime and continued unabated post-game. Defying MAGA critics, the good bad man showcased positive American culture that is denied only by those who look away. Looking away allows MAGA not to acknowledge the glorious culture Bad Bunny revealed on Sunday evening. This culture has always been there, for anyone who chooses to joyfully experience it (or allow it to exist without griping about it).

Whether you think he is bad, as in “he’s a troublemaker,” or bad, as in “he’s a bad dude,” 6-time Grammy champion Bad Bunny brung it at the Super Bowl. Bunny celebrated both American continents, closing his electric performance shouting, “God Bless America!” Strutting out of the stadium, Bunny was backed by a bevy of performers waving the flags of every country in North and South America as Bunny called out each country’s name.

In a masterful, fearless tribute to Latin culture, Bad Bunny performed his songs in Spanish. (Lady Gaga made a brief appearance and sang in English.) For me, being unable to understand what Bunny was singing heightened the visual appeal of the wide variety of stage props. The creativity was astounding.

Bad Bunny was surrounded by stirring physical imagery that showcased the heart, soul and diverse energy of people unfairly maligned and criminally brutalized by the United States’ malignant, 34x felon, likely pedophile president. Far from controversial, Bad Bunny’s show exuberantly tried to bring us together.

Over yonder

I fess up to taking a couple peeks at Turning Point USA’s competing halftime concert, falsely dubbed “America’s Halftime Show.” Will conservatives never learn that just because you say it doesn’t make it true? (Mike Johnson says he is a Christian; everyone can see he’s a fake. Fox Sports says the Daytona Speedway is America’s most famous racetrack; race fans know that honor belongs to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.)

Bad Bunny delivered a master class by including all of the Americas. (Photo credit NBC / YouTube)

On Sunday, the real America’s halftime show was on NBC, which, if nothing else, was proven by audience size. Preliminary reporting says 128 million viewers watched Bad Bunny crush it on NBC while 6.1 million viewers watched Turning Point’s snooze fest on Trinity Broadcast Network and TP’s YouTube channel.

Conservatives admitted to participating in the kind of cheating Trump complains about at the polls. Attempting to boost ratings, conservatives were instructed to tune two or more TVs at home to Turning Point’s concert on TBN. (That kind of sleight-of-hand is being used to prop up Jeff Bezo’s failing documentary about Melania Trump.) In Sunday’s aftermath, social media users are calling the Turning Point/TBN concert “Hee Haw” and “Klanchella.”

The Turning Point/TBN headliner was a terrible choice, for so-called Christian organizations. Kid Rock, apparently lip-syncing during Sunday’s concert, is nothing short of trash. Trump’s go-to music artist long ago exhibited creepy Epstein tendencies.

A Kid Rock song from 2001 contained lyrics about underage girls. “I like ‘em underage. See, some say that’s statutory. But I say it’s mandatory,” said Kid Rock. That’s material worthy of the Trump-Epstein Files. So is Kid Rock’s comment about the Olsen twins. In a 2001 appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” Kid Rock said about the 14-year-old girls, “Why is every guy in America waiting for these chicks to turn 18? I mean, you know what I’m saying? If there’s grass on the field play ball.” You’ve got to be a deadbeat fake-Christian to embrace a scumbag like Kid Rock.

He Big and Bad

While Bad Bunny was outstanding, musically, there have been better Super Bowl halftime performances. A few Super Bowls ago, the all-star gathering of Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, 50-Cent and Eminem gave us the Super Bowl’s finest music moment. They cemented that rap music is to the 2010s and 2020s what rock music was to the 1960s and 1970s.

However, culturally, Bad Bunny was absolutely the right artist for the turbulent chaos we are living through. The music was excellent. But even more powerful were his cultural presence and message of inclusivity. Naysayers will still be naysayers. And naysayers will be left behind in the dust, forever laggards staring ahead at the footprints of a world that has passed by.

Sunday night, I laughed out loud thinking of Trump’s 19-year-old boy Barron, and his 18-year-old granddaughter Kai hiding in their rooms, changing the channel out of curiosity to watch Bad Bunny’s young-adult appealing hip, cool halftime show.

Seattle’s placekicker Jason Myers set a record for made field goals in the Super Bowl. (Photo credit NBC / YouTube)

The game, the game

Super Bowl LX, won by Seattle 29-13, was boring for three quarters. Yes, Seattle’s defense played great. And Seattle’s placekicker Jason Myers was brilliant. But the two quarterbacks, Seattle’s Sam Darnold and New England’s Drake Mayes, combined for arguably the most pedestrian display of quarterbacking in 60 years of Super Bowls.

Somehow, Myers was robbed of the MVP trophy. Myers kicked five field goals and two extra points, accounting for 17 of Seattle’s 29 points. His field goals staked Seattle to an insurmountable 15-0 lead. Jason Myers was the MVP in my opinion. Seattle coach Mike Macdonald is to be commended for keeping his cool and ignoring the NFL trend of eschewing field goals in favor of going for it on 4th down. Macdonald’s “take the three points” mentality put his team in position to win the game.

Not being a passionate fan of either team, I had a pregame notion that the highlight of the Super Bowl would be the halftime show. Bad Bunny’s star power, the unsettling state of America, and the MAGA-manufactured controversy over the NFL’s choice of performer created a level of anticipation that would make Carly Simon proud.

In the end, Bad wasn’t good. He was great.

SUPER BUNNY