Bad Bunny did on Saturday night what he does best: he turned the stage into a pulpit for pride, for comedy, and for Latino power. Headlining Saturday Night Live, the Puerto Rican superstar finished his monologue when he addressed the backlash of outrage that followed when he was announced for the Super Bowl Halftime Show on Super Bowl LX on February 8, 2026.
Conservative commentators, such as Megyn Kelly, had even labeled the NFL’s decision a “middle finger to America.” Bad Bunny, never one to refrain, made the criticism laughable. “Anyways, you might not know this, but I’m doing the Super Bowl Halftime Show,” he said, sporting that characteristic smirk of his. “I’m very happy, and I think everyone is happy about it. Even Fox News.”
Cue montage. The SNL screens flashed with a lineup of Fox News commentators, but the clips had been jokingly spliced together to state: “Bad Bunny is my favorite artist, and he would be the best president.” The crowd laughed.
The MAGA Meltdown
His joke was not only witty, it was a sarcastic attack on the outrage brewing in conservative circles all week. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem publicly promised that ICE would be “all over” the Super Bowl, their statement loaded with threats. Conservative podcaster Benny Johnson took it up another notch, labeling Bad Bunny a “massive Trump hater” and slamming him for being an “anti-ICE activist” who just happens to sing songs in Spanish, somehow suggesting that he is speaking in tongues and that doing so is illegal.
This is par for the course for the artist. He recently publicly addressed steering clear of the continental U.S. during tour due to concerns of interference from ICE. Bad Bunny has continued to use his platform to denounce systemic issues affecting immigrants and Latinos, particularly Puerto Ricans who remain stuck in the island’s colonial limbo.
More Than One Achievement Of Mine, It Is Of All Of Us
But his sharpest moment wasn’t a punchline, it was when he switched to Spanish. With the kind of emotion that doesn’t need subtitles, he told the SNL crowd: “Especialmente todos los Latinos.” The audience erupted as he continued: “All Latinos and Latinas all over the world, and here in the United States, all the people who have worked to open doors. More than an achievement of mine, it’s an achievement of everyone, showing that our footprint and contribution to this country, no one will ever be able to take it away or erase it.”
To the millions who tuned in from home, that wasn’t only a shoutout. It was an announcement. Bad Bunny didn’t just rise up to the stage as one artist, he did it as the representation of an entire community that has struggled to be noticed, appreciated, and revered.
A Joke With Bite
Still, Bad Bunny never leaves without leaving a laugh in its wake. Returning in English, he finished up his monologue in an amused challenge: “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn!” It was a moment laced with the same irreverent sense of humor that has made him an international superstar. But beneath the joke was another reality: Bad Bunny isn’t catering to anyone. Least of all, he isn’t catering to ICE, to Fox News, to outrage from the MAGA crowd. He is openly Latino, openly Puerto Rican, and openly himself.
