Bulwark Takes - Kid Rock was Laughably Bad

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

JVL, Sarah Longwell, and Adrian Carrasquillo give their takes on the record-breaking Super Bowl halftime show by Bad Bunny. The Puerto Rican superstar delivered a joyful, confident, massively popular performance and MAGA promptly lost its mind. The trio break down why Bad Bunny’s show worked, why Kid Rock’s conservative counter-programming flopped, and what it all says about Trump losing his grip on American culture.Posting a job is now easier than ever with UpWork at https://UpWork.com.

Hello, everyone. I'm JVL here with my best friend, Sarah Longwell, and my fairly good equations. Adrian Kuroskio from the Bullwork. Guys, it is post-Super Bowl Monday, and so we have to do Super Bowl halftime discourse. This is the world we live in right now. Last night, Bad Bunny took to the stage, and I have to say, I don't know about you, Sarah. How early were you on Bad Bunny? I was so early that last night, when he started singing, he was halfway through. And I said, does he only sing in Spanish?

At which point, everyone was like, yeah, that's the whole thing. And I was like, oh, I didn't know. Because the first time I ever heard about Bad Bunny was when Trump dissed Puerto Rico at Madison Square Garden and Bad Bunny got mad about it. And I was like, apparently this is a big deal. I understand that. That's all I know. And so this was the first time actually of me seeing Bad Bunny do his thing. So, Adrian, I'm assuming from your shirt that you were quite early to Bad Money.

Also, you are younger than Sarah is. Are you a longtime Bad Bunny fan? Yeah, since 2017. I've been on this train. I was trying to get people on. I was trying to tell people that he was a huge deal. I have my Bad Bunny shirt that I got at the residency in Puerto Rico in August. So I've been in and I thought he was a really original artist with a lot to say.

But as we've seen over the last few months, we've seen not just how much he has to say, but like how much he has like gotten in the crawl of MAGA and Trump and everything. Yeah. So I got to be honest, I came to Bad Bunny about three years ago through wrestling. Oh. Because he did a guest musical spot in one of the big pay-per-views and then got worked into the storylines. And so he did a like an actual run through WWE and as a wrestling aficionado, I was deeply skeptical because we, we wrestling lovers do not like it when

celebrities come into the thing. But he acquitted himself really well and was very popular in the locker room, like really threw himself into it and did it with a lot of respect for the sport. The sport. Anyway, and so Bad Bunny is. is beloved in WWE land, which made it weird for me to see MAGA cracking back against him, which is why I think he's actually kind of dangerous for them, because like the type of people who are your normal MAGA types, like at least your broculture types, are going to like bad money. Anyway, let's get right to the show.

Sarah, do you have a considered opinion on the halftime? show. I mean, you should really go to Adrian for this. Look, I'm not a big half-time show person. I like never care that much. In part, like the last halftime show that I was like, oh, that was really fun was the one where they catered specifically to me. Because they were like, here's Eminem and 50 Cent and like Dr. Dre. And everything you've ever loved since the 90s.

And I was like, oh, okay. Now I remember when they used to play like, Mick Jagger or whatever for our parents. And I was like, this is me now. Now they're doing it for us. And like I've always just understood Bad Bunny as like, this is a person who is too cool for the 45 year old, like middle aged white lesbian who lives in the suburbs.

And also just, I'm sorry, but like basically only listens to country music. And so I knew that this was like not going to be exactly for me. But here's what I will say the one thing I was struck by. after I confirmed that he would only be singing in Spanish, was a, he's like a, he's a riveting performer, right? He is handsome and big and stylish. And then whoever built the sets, so like the one thing I do love is musical theater. And so like the theatricality of what they did, I was like laughing my head off this morning

as they were playing the videos of people, the brush. that they were using or the bamboo or the whatever they were that were pushes that he was kind of walking through. Yeah. Well, they all got up and walked. Like, they all got up and walked because it was like a living maid. Yeah, they were able to reset the things. And like, here's the thing.

I, the only thing to really love about music is like, does it bring you joy, right? Like, is it filled with the kind of joyous, not, it's not the only thing to think about music, but I would say like for a halftime show where what you're doing is like, we're all just like celebrating. together this fun thing that we do culturally. To have it be like a big celebration and really fun, I just thought was like a good vibe. And so I enjoyed it.

And so Adrian could talk. And then I want to tell you because I did go watch the kid rock one. I'd like to tell you about that. But go ahead. Adrian, I would like to dispute Sarah's claim that the only thing music can give you is joy because you can also give you grievance, which is what the kid rock thing did when they, you know, like the country guy like talking about.

about only little boys are little boys and little girls are little girls. And so you can get grievance. And I have to admit, I got a great deal of joy watching the bad bunny performance because I knew the minute it opened that we would be getting a string of truth tweets from the president. And I thought it's going to give MAGA people a stroke. Like he's singing in Spanish. There was a shot of a couple dudes grinding on each other. there are all these brown people.

I just thought if only they could put a drag queen in the corner reading a book to some little kids, then we'd have the trifecta. And maybe this is what calls Donald Trump home to his lord. So I got a great deal of joy just knowing how many conservative tears were going to be shed because of that show. But I also, then again, look, I am not a. not a native Spanish speaker. I took like, you know, six years of high school Spanish. And so, you know, I'm operating at like, I'm a full minute and a half behind, like, whatever is being said is in my brain as I'm trying to, like, figure out what's going on. But it did seem to be, like, a very, like, literary deconstruction of all sorts of very interesting things going on in the world

and Latin American history and the history of America. And, like, a very thought-provoking half to I'm wrong on this? Like it was both like super fun and a bop, but also. Yeah. You know, interesting. So I think one thing that I hate about this administration in MAGA is that they've taken away that I can just watch Bad Bunny without thinking about politics. The entire time, in the back of my mind, I'm like, oh, Maga's going to hate this.

Oh, they're going to hate this. Oh, they're, you know, like that was just, I had this huge smile on my face, but the entire time, I'm like, oh, thinking about it through a lens of politics. There were a couple moments that I found like particularly powerful and people. beautiful. And I would start with like they do this wedding. And that just reminded me like I think it was meant to evoke a lot of just like, yes, we all go to weddings, but sort of like this like Latino family wedding where there's the kid asleep and the music's really loud. There's always memes about this. And just like the party and the dancing. Right. So like that was so cool. He could he could have

had anyone for this wedding. He has like a lot of friends as we saw with Pedro Pascal was there. Jessica Alba. Right. A lot of people. Jessica Alba. I mean, he can pull who, but like the lady of it all being like, all right, this is, this is for the people. And then I think Ricky Martin was kind of like, he never got something like that. He only crossed over because he got to be, he had to speak in English to cross over. And they're very close. They did a lot of Puerto Rico advocacy years ago to oust the governor who was corrupt. So I think that like that was like really a sort of like a powerful thing that he did, their olive branch. But then the one that stuck out to me is when he says America and then he lists all the countries in Latin America and all these islands. And then

then he ends with the United States and Canada because America, we, we just think that America's us, you know, and so that I thought was like pretty cool and, you know, the flags and everything. So yeah, that was awesome. And I don't like the whole, the whole thing with the sugar cane, like, you know, nods to colonialism. Like, it's, this was, this was not like the stones or just like, yeah, we'll have a little power of techniques. You know, like this was, again, there's a lot of thought going on. That thing was packed full of Easter eggs for anybody who wanted to go through and deconstruct all sorts of stuff, which I imagine like somebody and the Claremont Institute is going to write 15,000 words about that half-time show at some point where they go through frame by frame. But don't you see what they're saying here? And I love that. I love that so hard. I want to throw in just a couple of the Easter eggs.

that were fun. So I don't know about you guys. So like, In The Heights is, is, is the musical before Hamilton that our boy did. And I,

I love In The Heights. Second act kind of falls apart a little bit, but you can like see his genius gaining steam in that show. They made a movie about it not that long ago. I actually thought the movie was pretty good. And I thought as I was watching it. Do you remember that?

Did we? You and I did back when it came out. I can't even remember what all my feelings were about it. I think I probably, I'm so, I love an original stage production. We fought about that thing. Oh, you hated it? Ew. It has that like Puerto Rican American blend in New York where like it lapses in

Spanish and that makes it and it has that energy, right? But so I was watching the set, especially when they're kind of in the town, that felt very much like that. show, the dancing, um, and the energy, but also like they're outside the barbershop, which is a pretty, it's like kind of a staple in the show, but like there's a kid in there getting his hair actually cut. It's not like they just have a set piece where it's a barber shop. There's like a kid in there getting his fade done, uh, while, you know, uh, the people

dance around. I did only, I actually thought that maybe the two guys grinding was an accident of numbers, but now that you say it, I guess you're right, it was probably intentional. Yeah. Well, also with the city one, the streets, that's a video that a song he does called Nueva Yor, so it's New York with like Puerto Rican sort of accent. And that's really interesting because in that video, he has a Puerto Rican flag on the Statue of Liberty. And at the end, he does a Donald Trump AI voice that's like, I want to apologize to all the immigrants. I actually want you.

You guys are all great. So anyway, it's just sort of hilarious. I mean, it's always, the political stuff is just always on the part of not just all of our culture, but a lot of. of the stuff that bad buddy's doing. And I just thought like the Grammys was him saying like, here's my explicit statement. Would you like my explicit statement? Here it is. I want you to be clear on where I stand. And then he was allowed to actually like enjoy the show and be like, this is kind of like my thing. And it's like a Puerto Rico thing. And it's a Latin America thing. And it's like, you can be for this. And if you are against us for all the reasons that we've

heard all these wackos are against it, like that's your thing. But so like I sort of thought that was cool that he didn't have to like, because I was like he's going to wear the Liam. bunny hat and I'm going to fucking cry. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I just thought there was going to be some such an overt message. So, anyway, I thought it was cool. It wasn't. Yeah.

It was all subject. It was all subject. So there was like a thing that I saw, like, when it happened as I was watching it, I saw him give the Grammy to the little kid. And I was like, wait, is that Liam Rob? Like, it happened kind of fast. And by the time. And like, everyone I was watching it with was like, yeah, wait, was it.

And then, of course, in the internet said it was for a period of time. And then it's not actually, because it would have been kind of cool if it was. But symbolically, the fact that we were confused enough, it felt like it was pretty clear what he was getting at there. Yeah, they said it was meant to evoke him as a kid. Like, he's giving a Grammy to him as a kid. But we all thought of Liam in that moment, like, oh, my God, this is so powerful. And it just tells us, like, what was literally happening to this kid a week ago? And, like, the fact that we thought that on the biggest stage is pretty insane.

Can we just say a couple words, or I would like to say a couple words about the NFL is not always. who we look to to be like, boy, the NFL is really just like standing its ground, doing the right thing. But like, they announced Bad Bunny and my girl Brandy Carlow, by the way. But they announced Bad Bunny. And then like everyone, you know, everyone on the right had a connoption fit, like a little snowflake meltdown. And the NFL like never even blinked. Like you could tell. And this is, again, every time someone does this, I just want to go over to Paul Weiss and, you know,

every other capitulating institution and kind of grabbed them by lapels and say, like, see, the NFL just said, uh-huh, okay, so what? And, uh, and then turned in like the highest rated, uh, Super Bowl halftime ever. And like, I don't know, I kind of like that energy. I like to bring more of that energy to America here. I fully agree. I actually thought there was a chance they were going to, going to blink. Did you guys think they? Oh, really? Did you, Adrian? Do you think they might blink after they Only because Jay-Z has been in charge of the show for a few years now, and I think part of it is a little bit of that controversy. Like last year was Kendrick. Yeah, I just, I felt like they're kind of stand on that, you know.

Yeah. That's great. Last thing about Bad Bunny. And then we'll talk about the alternative halftime show. He's also super funny. I don't know if you, I mean, I'm assuming you've seen him, Adrian on like Saturday Night Live. And he's, he's in the Adam's. Sandler or Happy Gilmore sequel, which is like way funnier than it has any right to be.

And he's sensational in it. Like he's just so funny. And I don't know. Like, again, my Spider Sense tingles whenever I hear people talking about like, oh, multidisciplinary crossover stars because it almost never works out. You know, you get somebody who's like good in one thing and they're not actually very good in the other things. But he seems like he's genuinely talented across a whole bunch of different things.

I kind of love him. Is this right, Adrian? Is he? Yeah, I always try to control my like bad money love. But at this point, when I saw that every Instagram story was about him, I was like, I have arrived. This is my moment. You know, he is, he is that guy in terms of bringing the talent. Look, I have this whole thing where I've talked to my sister as a therapist about like, why is this guy?

Why him? You know, talent, but there's something else. He's just like authentically himself and he really doesn't give a shit. He literally has an album called I Do What I Want. And so yeah, in these moments, I'm just like always, I had no problem, like, doing fun prediction on TikTok of what's he going to do. Because I always know his show is always going to be better than any prediction I could come up with. Yeah, and I just think he was having a blast, being himself. And, you know, there's stuff like the guys were hanging off of like power lines that are down.

What was that? What's the point? Because the power always, the power always goes out in Puerto Rico. So for Puerto Ricans, that image is like very, like, close to home. like after Hurricane Maria, a lot of people lost her lives and like power took forever. And so that it just goes back to the colonial stuff. And, you know, no one's more into being a colonizer than Trump. He wants to take Greenland and all this other stuff. Right.

So, I mean, I just feel like you're just triple underlining the reality for some folks. And he's just real. And I think that that really serves him in moments like this. Bullwork takes is sponsored by Upwork. Scaling a business takes the right expertise at the right time. Upwork helps growing teams. quickly bring in specialized freelancers so you can move faster and take the business to the next level. And believe me, I know how much of a hassle it can be to find the right candidate.

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And I got to say, part of what's been interesting in this moment is that I think it's fair to say that I've always liked the adage or maybe it was Ezra Klein who said it, but I've always felt like this was, interesting and an astute observation, which is that Trump won the culture by more than he won the vote, that there's been this real sense of people sort of feel like maybe the culture of the left is not so, not so winning broadly. And there's been like a real hard pivot or retreat from things that I guess code woke into a big, I don't know if you like watch CBS or ABC or anything. But if you're watching those channels. It's all like, you know, NYPD 76, law and order, the 12,000th season. And, you know, it's all new, just like, or, or it's like all kind of landman derivative, you know, very Western now. And so there's been this, like, kind of hard pivot in the culture. Yeah, but

they're like, they're Yellowstone derivative. It's like if Yellowstone was the top of it, it's all like things that are Tyler Sheridan light things. Some good, some bad, from what I've seen. But like you can just tell. It's in the either, it's in the commercials. Like you can see it all over the culture where people were like, we got a, even there was a commercial last night. We haven't even talked that much about the commercials.

But there was one from the American Beverage Association that was like brand heavy around Dr. Prepperweber. But it was practically make America great. again. It was like, let's make our drinks great. It's like something ridiculous where I was sort of like, I think you guys are,

you guys are playing, like you're catching up now. And what was interesting about the bad bunny, like there were a lot of views on the, I think it was there was a little over 5 million concurrent on YouTube, which is quite a bit

for a YouTube live show. Although, I got to say, We don't hit quite those numbers, but like, you know, a good, a good Tim Miller banger with, you know, we can get to a million when we're going live and stuff. But the thing, it was like such a half ass. There's just two things about one. It was like such a half-ass show. They pre-recorded it. Dude was lip syncing so bad. Like, you know how when someone lip sinks? Like, remember when Millie Vanilli happened and it was such a big scandal? Like, this is, I love that I picked this up as a mic. I have an hour. actual microphone right here, so I'm going to use it. But like, kid rocks doing that thing where, uh, la la la, like moves the microphone and like the voice is still coming. Like he drops the microphone

down, but like the song still. You're like, oh, he's like lip syncing super poorly. He's like a 55 year old man in jorts. Uh, he was wearing these like jean shorts. That was a choice wasn't it? A very bad pirate super super choice. I, like a 55 year old man with stringy hair. I was like, Kid Rock is it never nude? What? Yeah. It was just, and then,

but here's the second point. So the first point is it was objectively bad. And like points for trying to counter program. Okay, you don't like the culture over here. You go make your own. That's good. But it was terrible. And I like country music.

Like I was kind of trying to watch being like, oh, who do they have? And I was like, well, I've never heard of these people either, except for Kid Rock. Kid Rock is phoning in this garbuning in this garter music. performance. They've got the turning point USA pyrotechnical scheme going on. So the whole thing looks very amateurish. And like no, in no way connecting with the spectacle that you get from the Super Bowl. Like when you just compare the two. So it's like laughably bad. And then it's just like with Alex Prattie. Like I don't mean to compare these things exactly. But there is a set of influencers who are so desperate to bend the will. Like, like,

Like, they're just like, I'm going to bend reality to what I do. And they're like, that was the best most American halftime show and that bad bunny garbage. And I was like, so interesting how uniformly these right-wing influencers didn't like the bad bunny show. I wonder what that is about that. And it's like they're all trying to make kid rock happen. Guys, that is not owning the culture is the roundabout way of me getting to my point about there is this this way in which I think there was an over-indexing away from an aesthetic and storylines that I think were really appealing to like a broad swath of Americans.

But like Bad Bunny is also appealing to a broad swath of Americans. And I think people really emphasize the Latino part or, you know, but like, and yes, but also this is how America works. I'm not cool enough to be into Bad Bunny, but I recognize. just like when we were young, like he's a huge star. Kid Rock looks like a washed up old man in shorts. And Bad Bunny was a handsome, like, radiating charisma. I couldn't, like, and I was a little mad because at some point he stares at the camera

and he whispers and he's saying something. And I'm like, what's he saying? What's he saying? And I'm grabbing my friends. I'm trying to pause it. And I'm like, translate that, you know, people in the room who might know it. And they're all badly trying to be like, I think he's saying this. But like, it was a vibe in a way.

Yeah, right. Don't there's style of bibliotheca? That's all I got it. That's all I got. But the kid rock thing was also a vibe. And they are taking what was a moment of cultural supremacy. They are sacrificing it on the altar of kid rock and other things that like, it was relentlessly embarrassing. It was embarrassing.

It was like if this was the 19. 88 Super Bowl and Madonna was the halftime. And there were a bunch of people who thought that like, oh, see, she's blasphemous. We're going to count a program with Perry Como. That'll show people what real entertainment is. Well, I love Sarah saying that it was embarrassing because that's what I said the other day on MS, which I was just like I had to like meditate to get through this. Bad Bunny has 87.5 million monthly listeners.

Kid Rock has five million. And, you know, there's just like artists like Gloria Stefan and Lil Kim and Cypress Hill who have five million at, you know, so it's like all artists who had their time, but no one's saying they should be the center of like a Super Bowl performance. And can I just say, if someone hears me say authentic, they're like, what the hell does that even mean? Here's what that means. And I'm going to traumatize both of you.

Remember Hillary's 2016 love Trump's hate? And we were all like, this is not working for her. And bad money is basically saying like the only thing more powerful than hate is love, but it's the branding. It's the package that comes with that message. And then you're like, oh, yeah, actually, I've seen some pretty terrible shit over the last year. So I do think that I'm down for that message now, you know. It's like when someone can pull something off. Like, I don't know.

I can't pull off. What is that an all white outfit where it's like vaguely meant to resemble football players pads underneath it? It's like a number. He can pull that off. We're going to get out of here in a minute. I want you both to think because I'm going to put you on the spot and you're going to have to name your two greatest Super Bowl halftime shows ever. Not three, just two. Before we go, I want to ask you two questions about spots paid for by the United States government last night. The first was the Maha spot with Mike Tyson talking about how food is poisoning people and whatnot. Did that strike either of you as what the hell is going on? why is Mike Tyson the guy we're going to for science and nutrition? Yeah, I mean, you do, he's right, though.

You have to go, you have to, like, go down to the fundamentals when it comes to nutrition. Like, we should only eat ears. Ears are good food. Of corn. She means of corn. No, imagine making Mike Tyson, you're a spokesperson. person. Again, weird throwbacks who also has what he like sexual assault and battery and like, oh yeah, well, he fits the mold. He fits the mold for what RFK would want. Yeah. And I'm going to dodge this

question by telling you that I do a Super Bowl party every year. This was my first Benito Bowl, obviously. And I had three buddies who used to come to all of my Super Bowl party. So they were watching the game intently. And then I had 20 friends that I've met over the last year from salsa of dancing and they were not watching the game. And this was the first year that I didn't watch any of the commercials. I was just, we were just locked in ready for bad money. So the other thing I saw it, I want to say if anybody picked this up, so there are a bunch of, as there are, I think most years, U.S. Army spots, be all you can be.

I do not believe I saw a single person featured in any of those spots who wasn't white. Did I have you noticed that? Is that true? I don't know if it's true or not. I was looking and maybe we got a brown face flashed to once. But again, it just, like, understanding the racial makeup of the armed forces, it was shocking. Just shocking. I had a different reaction to the commercials, which was it really tipped over this year into primarily commercials by AI, crypto,

the government. And like, it's a sign that it's a bubble at all. Yeah, I know. But what's interesting is it's, we all, people we sort of say like, big businesses and corporations, but actually you're going to miss, like the Mr. Peanut of it all and the Clydesdales and the normal sort of humanizing corporate America stuff that is linked to things we engage with in our day-to-day lives when all you have are the crypto AI whatever guys selling you robots.

I just, I could really feel that this time. We were watching the karaoke one where they're like playing Backstreet Boys and we're like singing along, we're enjoying it. And then they're like coin-based crypto and we're like, oh, we're all just like, oh, we're all just like, damn it sucks, you know. All right, each of you who wants to go first, two best Super Bowl halftime shows ever. I can go first because I thought about it when you mentioned it. Making it too definitely made it hard.

I'm going to go with Michael Jackson, early 90s. I think it was the Buffalo Bills watching it with my dad. And just like, it's just like one of those special memories, you know, they're just like, that's so cool. And of course, I'm going to go with Bad Bunny as my number two because that was so fun last night. Sarah? I did like the one that we got a couple years ago with 50 cent and Marshall Mathers and all of the... That hit me in all of the feels. And I was like, oh, this is why they do this for the parents.

Do you remember the one where Bruce Springsteen slid on his knees into the camera and was like yelling at people to put down their chicken finger. That, I like that one. That one sits with me too. Or at least I remember it. It's in my head. And I've recently gone back. Maybe it's because of Nebraska.

You know, there's like some new biopics around Springsteen. He just released this Minneapolis song. And so like he's in the discourse. But I've been listening to old Bruce Springsteen lately. I don't know if you guys know this, but he's quite good. Like a great singer. People should, people should check him out. I think he's going places.

All right, the correct answer is Prince. Guys, thank you for playing. There are a handful of tickets left for the Minneapolis show, the second Minneapolis show. By handful, I mean there's like a few dozen left. Hop on them now if you can. And if you are in Tejas, we now have tickets on sale for shows in Dallas and Austin. Yeah, go to the events page to get the... So go to the bulwark.com slash events.

so you can find tickets to all of our live shows. Come and hang out with us because once a quarter we get to talk about fun nice things because we don't have to talk about all the terrible shit that's happening in the world. We'll be back soon. Good luck, America.