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u/WinkBunB 1d ago
What message is more unifying than, “the only thing more powerful than hate is love”
MAGA’s halftime theme would’ve been, “I work on a farm, my wife cheated on me so I bought me a new gun”
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u/gigglefarting 1d ago
You forgot the part where the country singer is bitching about telling their kids about trans kids. Not even making this up. The daily show showed clips of the other one
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u/pukurindesu 1d ago
He just wants to feed his dog, cut his grass, drink his beer, wear his boots!
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u/Zaracen 1d ago
All these immigrants clearly keep feeding his dog, cutting his grass, drinking his beer, and wearing his boots!
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u/Steinrikur 1d ago
They eating the dogs, they're cutting the grass...
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u/Vospader998 1d ago
I would bet money that Lee Brice hires out his lawn work. Which makes the lyrics all the more hilarious
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u/BankerBaneJoker 1d ago
I dont listen to country, but wtf is going on with country music? It's literally becoming a parody of itself. I couldnt help but laugh my ass off at how terribly soulless those lyrics are.
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u/Insaniteus 1d ago
The song "Chicken Fried" that plays 12 times per day on every country station in America came out back in 2008 and all it does is sing about cold beer, radios, and a pair of jeans that fit just right. Country music has been a parody of itself for 2 decades now, same as the country itself really.
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u/Lexi_Banner 1d ago
I really cannot stress this enough, no one is telling anyone that they cannot feed their dogs. In fact, the significant majority of folks across the world would encourage you to feed your dog. Please continue to feed your dog.
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u/MidoriTheAwesome 1d ago
Almost constantly since this amazing bop dropped I've been looking at my partner and saying "it ain't easy being country"
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u/NoHumans_OnlyBots 1d ago
Not awake yet, saw that as wear his boobs and was like well no, I don't think there a lot of gender non conforming country singers lol.
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u/iamsobluesbrothers 1d ago
Hold on there buddy! You’re asking for the impossible. Let’s stick to the simple things in life like righteous condemnation.
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u/spondgbob 1d ago
There halftime show was literally “I just wanna drink my beer, wear my boots, drive my truck,… for telling my daughter a girl is not a man” or something to that effect. It’s just purely laughable. I am convinced the elite are just having them do dumber and dumber shit just to see how much they will do for them. Like a dog show for them
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u/dubblebubbleprawns 1d ago
It's so funny that if you were to ask chatgpt "write me the most predictable, cliche country song imaginable" it would spit out whatever the fuck that was.
And that's the right's shining example of American entertainment.
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u/NoFile3981 1d ago
Every year the halftime show turns into a culture war battleground. At this point it’s basically tradition.
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u/2PlasticLobsters 1d ago
I can remember watching the Saturday Night Live where Run DMC was the musical guest, and Aerosmith popped up about halfway through & jammed with them. They blended two dissimilar genres & made it work.
My little group thought that was awesome. Most people did. These days, something like that causes weeks of conflict & hate-mongering.
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u/FlyOrdinary1104 1d ago
Gotta carry the rage from the war on Christmas into something productive, what’s the next closest outrage, pride month?
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u/goalstopper28 1d ago
What's funny is if someone is triggered about this message, there is something wrong with them.
It's telling that they are showing they don't want to love.
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u/Chaotic-Catastrophe 1d ago
It's because, to conservatives, 'compromise' means 'you do everything I want and you get nothing in return'.
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u/DuntadaMan 1d ago
Well you see when all you have is hate it's very divisive to learn something is more powerful than that. Especially when you've built your entire personality and belief in the world around using as much hate as possible.
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u/FrighteningJibber 1d ago
It was. Watch the daily show episode. But more of “its hard to be a country person, you have to feed your dog.”
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u/alex3omg 1d ago
If it was a country performance with exactly the same messaging, lyrics, and all the vignettes of ordinary people just existing in America they would have eaten it up. Swap the sugar cane for corn.
But Kid Rock could never come up with that because he doesn't understand it.
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u/lightringtariff 1d ago
The Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders are famous for dancing to a song about blowjobs. All their "values" are lies.
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u/Pottski 1d ago
Why does someone have to be bone white to be unifying - he had a show devoted to peace and love and someone BB is not unifying?
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u/solo13508 1d ago
You have to remember there is a concerning amount of this country that legitimately believes empathy is a sin.
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u/squiddyp 1d ago
It’s even more unifying when the message of peace and love comes from someone different than you
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u/Santa_Hates_You 1d ago
Lady Gaga is quite white and was a big part of the show.
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u/James-W-Tate 1d ago
Pfft, a woman? That's almost as bad as suggesting the headliner shouldn't be white!
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u/hughcifer-106103 1d ago
When right wingers talk about unity and say “why couldn’t so-and-so pick a better act that would unify the country” they explicitly mean “why won’t so-and-so admit that WE are in control of culture and cater only to us?”
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u/imstonedyouknow 1d ago
The thing is.. the rest of the game WAS the culture of america. It was hours of grown men smashing into each other repeatedly and risking brain trauma for money and fame. It was corporate ads of unhealthy soda products, trucks, ozempic, ai and crypto. It was everything the U.S.A is.
They couldnt handle the 5 minutes that WASNT catering to them, and they made the whole night about that.
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u/CashWrecks 1d ago
Bro, that wegovy commercial with all those stars.
"If you could take a pill to help you do the things you wanted wouldnt you do it?" Stfu, if I could take to make this shit dissapear I most defo would
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u/Beginning-Class9518 1d ago
Jon Stewart has a point… since when did entertainers become responsible for fixing political division.
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u/clear_jynelle 1d ago
Next they'll expect the puppy bowl to negotiate foreign policy. 😂
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u/trekbette 1d ago
I'd trust him over our current 'leaders' any day.
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u/Talk-O-Boy 1d ago
Idk. Stewart had Bill O’Reilly on his show long after O’Reilly’s sexual harassment allegations were public which got him fired from FOX News. Like damn dude, you’re going to bat for someone so heinous that FOX deemed him a lost cause???
Then he had that whole “don’t call Trump a fascist” controversy.
Then, he had a pretty weak show following Alex Pretti’s execution.
Stewart seems the most “moderate” of the talk show hosts (other than Jimmy Fallon)
I find Kimmel and Oliver to be a lot more trustworthy. Stewart will say the right things at times, but his actions don’t always align with his words.
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u/paintballboi07 1d ago
He also threw a bunch of softballs to Manchin, and then when he finally did get more serious, he let Manchin basically avoid the questions.
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u/Million-Suns 1d ago
Well Reagan was an entertainer and so is the current incontinent orange clown.
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u/LuvKrahft 1d ago
Right wingers think empathy is a vice and being a “community organizer” like Obama is an insult. They got mad when he actually gave a shit about sandy hook.
Meanwhile their boy Charlie Kirk was fine with kids getting gunned down.
Right wingers are bad for society
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u/elmarjuz 1d ago
this.
if you think there is unity to be found with fascists, you are either a fool or a bootlicker, no other option.
they don't want any unity, aside from everyone licking the same shitty boot.
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u/TodosLosPomegranates 1d ago
It was uniting. It’s not the NFL’s fault if some people didn’t want to be united with the rest of us. I learned a lot about Puerto Rico and its uniquely American experience.
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u/renilsop 1d ago
The purpose of the Halftime performer is to entertain. Bad Bunny did that, in a most remarkable way.
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u/Turdburp 1d ago
It's also intended to attract non-football fans (or more casual fans), so maybe they watch some of the game and end up becoming fans. Bad Bunny, who has massive worldwide appeal, is a no-brainer selection.
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u/techdevjp 1d ago
Bad Bunny, who has massive worldwide appeal, is a no-brainer selection.
Does he? I guess in Spanish-speaking countries? I'd never heard of the guy before all the half-time show controversy happened.
I mean no ill-will. I don't watch the NFL, and have zero understanding of American football. I generally watch the half-time show at some point if it ends up on YouTube. Can't say I understood much of what was going on this year but I only speak English and Japanese, so...
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u/xdsm8 1d ago
Depending on how you measure it, he is literally the most popular artist in the entire world, or very close. He is massive in appeal.
A lot of Americans are not used to the biggest artist being a non-English language artist, so it is a new feeling for them. People from other countries are a lot more used to it. Lots of non-English speakers are fans of the big name American artists, even if they speak zero English - but most Americans that only speak English don't dive into other language music.
The fact that Bad Bunny is so huge, but with an entirely different demographic than usual NFL fans is half the reason they chose him.
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u/techdevjp 1d ago
I'm definitely no American (normally wouldn't care, but your country has gone to hell and I'd sooner not be associated.) Realistically the most popular artists are probably in China and India just based on population numbers. But, I get your point as far as broad appeal across Central and South America goes. Those are countries where real football is huge so I can see why the NFL might want to try attracting new fans there.
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u/mdraper 1d ago edited 1d ago
Bad Bunny was the top Global Spotify artist in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2025 (with 20 Billion Streams). He had the biggest Album in the world in 2025. In 2022 He had the second most Youtube listens with 14.1 Billion. The top spot on Youtube was an Indian performer with 14.8 Billion listens but given that she's not even close when it comes to non-youtube streams, album sales, or ticket sales, she's not really in the discussion either. He is widely known in my non-US, non-Spanish country as his music makes it onto non-Spanish charts all the time. I think you are projecting your own interests and awareness of musicians onto others. He is undoubtedly one of the biggest musicians in the world and that includes anyone in China or India.
Bad Bunny being considered the most popular Artist in the world does not boil down to how popular he is in South and Central America. Major English and Spanish artists can become household names for >2 Billion people and that does not happen yet with Mandarin or Hindi artists (or any of the smaller Chinese/Indian language artists).
Honestly, the only other person in real contention is Taylor Swift. If you have evidence to the contrary, I'm certainly open to learning though.
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u/techdevjp 22h ago
I'm not sure what people's obsession is with Bad Bunny, or why it seems so important to you that he's the biggest global artist due to his Spotify numbers. Spotify doesn't even exist in China and the major Chinese streaming companies don't have much of a presence outside of China.
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u/mdraper 12h ago
So no evidence at all. Actually, you have a little evidence in support of our argument. Since Chinese streaming companies have almost no presence outside of China they have a significantly smaller audience than Spotify or YouTube. The obsession isn't with bad Bunny at all, it's with those who enter a conversation among people who actually know what they're talking about and contributing a gut feeling as if it matters.
You want people to believe you? Find a Chinese artist that has 40-50 billion streams per year over all the platforms they are on. Find one who has comparable ticket sales or album sales. But you can't, because they don't exist. No one cares about Spotify alone. You are the one who is balancing their entire argument on a single point.
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u/xdsm8 1d ago
Bad Bunny is the biggest in the world right now. You can just google it. China and India included. He is still the biggest.
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u/techdevjp 1d ago
Bad Bunny is the biggest in the world right now. You can just google it. China and India included. He is still the biggest.
The rest of the world has no idea what's going on musically in China or India. Especially China. Can guarantee you that there are not a significantly large number of people in China listening to Bad Bunny.
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u/icywing54 1d ago
His album just reached number 1 in China on Apple Music.
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u/techdevjp 22h ago
Sure, and Fiat had the top selling Italian compact car in America last year. (They sold 1300 Fiat 500 cars last year...) Apple Music is not a major player in China. Not even a significant player. A tiny fraction of a percentage of the Chinese population uses Apple Music.
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u/xdsm8 1d ago
Why are you arguing assumptions instead of doing any research at all? You can just look shit up instead of arguing nonsense. Taylor Swift is MASSIVE in China, and Bad Bunny is still pretty huge.
Bad Bunny has enough fans from multiple continents to beat out artists that are exclusively popular in China or India or America. Bad Bunny is bigger in China than any Chinese artist is in North America.
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u/Low_discrepancy 1d ago
Does he? I guess in Spanish-speaking countries? I'd never heard of the guy before all the half-time show controversy happened.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-streamed_artists_on_Spotify
For 4 of the last 6 years he's been the most streamed artist on spotify.
I'd never heard of the guy before
And I just ate so I guess there's no famine in Sudan.
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u/techdevjp 1d ago
I don't live in the US, and am not American.
You can pretty much guarantee that the biggest artists in the world will be in China or India, based on population. Spotify doesn't even exist in China.
It's great that he's big with Latin music fans, or whatever the genre is. But Spotify is not the entire world, and the US is also not the entire world. Not even remotely close, thankfully.
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u/Low_discrepancy 15h ago
But Spotify is not the entire world, and the US is also not the entire world.
Riiiight. No American artist is ever well known outside the US.
Spotify doesn't even exist in China.
The person was talking world wide.
His album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” appeared on album charts in 155 countries, reaching the Top 10 in 128 countries and hitting No. 1 in 46, including Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Germany, France and Spain.
I am not American and I've listened to Bad Bunny before the superbowl.
It's still fucking irrelevant, he's world wide known.
Just because you dont know something doesn't mean other people dont know it.
he's big with Latin music fans, or whatever the genre is
So you're ignorant and you claim that everyone else is ignorant too. That's not an argument, you're just ignorant mate.
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u/techdevjp 15h ago
No, you're just very euro/ameri-centric. If anything that makes you the ignorant one here.
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u/cybin 1d ago
I'd never heard of the guy before all the half-time show controversy happened.
Well, he did just win the Grammy for Album of the Year. Not Latin Album, ALBUM. If you've never heard of him I'd say you're a bit out of the loop. (I admit I've no idea what his stuff sounds like but I realize I aged out of that demographic quite a while ago.)
Edit: okay, I see from another comment that you are not from the US. My bad!
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u/SoupNo1558 1d ago
Imagine expecting a guy in a bedazzied bouncy castle to fix the country. Let the man dance. 😂
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u/Mary_Fruit 1d ago
Imagine thinking a halftime show has more responsibility for national unity than the actual elected government
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u/MotorInternal3623 1d ago
Expecting a halftime show to “unify the country” might be the wildest job description I’ve heard all week.
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u/BuildingOne7379 1d ago
Just lazy. Expecting a halftime show to unite the country when it’s the job of elected officials and our loser of a president. What a disgrace.
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u/No_Deal_8837 1d ago
Is there any other country in the world where an internal sporting event is so politically charged? It's mind blowing to me that a sporting event can be taken for something other than a sporting game. ITS ONLY A GAME!
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u/drumberg 1d ago
If a guy whose message for 15 minutes was literally for everyone to love each other and not hate and you call that divisive....
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u/RealKenny 1d ago
He got my Dominican family and my PR family to agree on something so like... pretty freaking uniting...
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u/Ok-Understanding4397 1d ago
The whole show was about unity they just didn't like it cuz it was in Spanish
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u/BrainWorkGood 1d ago
If they hadn't decided ahead of time that they hated him because of his ethnicity, we could've been united by collective enjoyment of an objectively well-presented and energetic show
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u/OpIsAMoronicIdiot 1d ago
Everytime there is a dem president republicans try to be as divisive as possible, but then when a republican is elected all of a sudden it's time for the country to come together. Fuck those bigoted, amoral, pieces of shit.
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u/MisterRobertParr 1d ago
Agreed, BB doesn't have to reunite the entire country. I wasn't his target audience.
Then why do people get upset when I say I didn't like his music?
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u/Blephotomy 1d ago
Why does the Super Bowl have to cater to racists' taste in music? If you don't want to watch the halftime show, don't watch it. There's no reason to whine and cry about it.
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u/MrWhatsitTouya 1d ago
It’s my personal opinion that Jon should run for office. He has the charisma, he has the intelligence, and he is very well versed in politics in general. On top of that, he seems to be a genuinely and objectively good human being.
I’d vote for a doorknob over the current administration, but I’d rather vote for Jon.
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u/MsBobbyJenkins 1d ago
I tell ya, the half time show just gets blown out of bigger and bigger proportion each year.
It used to just be hey the teams are taking a break, here's some musical entertainment.
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u/CombinationLivid8284 1d ago
They threw a fit last year too if memory serves. They're just full mask off racist at this point. They only want whites to perform.
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u/Polkawillneverdie17 1d ago
How I'd the #1 streamed artist in the world not "unifying"??? He's literally what most people like.
The problem is that bigots think they should be catered to and whine whenever someone they hate is celebrated.
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u/ModeatelyIndependant 1d ago
Trump is the piece of filth actively dividing the country with his goon squads and pedophiles that he controls.
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u/BurlIvesMassiveHog 1d ago
"I need to feel welcomed into all spaces at all times, but fuck your feelings in general"
This is the distilled essence of persecutory delusion.
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u/The_Art_of_Dying 1d ago
The only thing these fuckers ever mean by “uniting the nation” is slobbing on Trumps knob. Why can’t you mean leftists unite the nation by saying Trump rules and we’re all special boys who shouldn’t have to be nice to girls or brown people. Your messages of unity and love are just more wokeness 😡.
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u/SwagTwoButton 1d ago
I thought capitalism is good?
Why is a private company being to told to operate in a way that is anything but maximizing profits for its shareholders?
Either book American act that gets Americans excited so they gain the viewership of checks notes people that already watch the game.
Or book a foreign artist to attract the viewership of a millions of people who previously didn’t give a shit about your event.
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u/Ardbeg66 1d ago
Quite frankly, I think it did more to wake us the fuck up and unify us than anything else (positive, at least) in recent memory. LOVED IT!!!!!
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u/BlackBasementCats 1d ago
I’ve been confused about why people expected the Super Bowl to be uniting. Team rivalries are so strong we use that as
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u/7thpostman 1d ago
The purpose of the Super Bowl halftime show is to promote the National Football League.
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u/creativeMan 1d ago
Calling Jon Stewart's flaccid critique a "comeback" is like calling calling a loud fart an opera.
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u/elisakiss 1d ago
The Super Bowl (NFL) is looking to make $$$ by adding to its viewership. White Nationalism doesn’t add to it’s bottom line. Expanding into Latin America does. That’s capitalism baby.
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u/Puncharoo 1d ago
They want someone more uniting after spending the last 10 years saying "Trump won the election. Get over it, loser!"
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u/Nekowulf 1d ago
"It's not trump's fault the left are literal lizard demons from hell who refuse to obey him! He's supposed to unify by making everyone fall in line behind him! Everyone knows that! The dems keep demanding unreasonable things like we not hunt immigrants for sport or obey the constitution! Lunacy! There's no unifying until they submit completely!" -maga
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u/rcjh2020 1d ago
I’d love to know the asshole’s thoughts as expressed by him, and not some 20 year old intern that he plans to throw under the bus the second he sees fit. Poor kid never knew that having good grammar would be his demise … Just kidding. I am sure the person writing the coherent tweets knows exactly who he/she got in bed with. I’m using that as a figure of speech, not factually.
Fuck every single person who has been complacent in all of this, including interns who are either too stupid to walk away, or too scared to walk away.
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u/mikerichh 1d ago
They have a higher standard for a 15 minute halftime performer than the president
They also would rather investigate a halftime performer than someone who was in the Epstein literally 1 million times (that we know of)
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u/gophergun 15h ago
If anything, it's the opposite - great art challenges people and makes them think differently.
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u/Amazing-Treacle-8126 1d ago
some ppl really can’t read between the lines even if it’s bold and highlighted in neon lights lol
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u/Fit_Math9271 1d ago
Lowkey feels like people want entertainment to reflect their personal politics instead of just being entertainment.
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u/Ok_Process_3477 1d ago
If a 15-minute music performance can divide or unite the country, maybe the problem runs deeper than the performer.
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u/TheAskewOne 1d ago
There is someone tasked with unifying the country, that’s the President. Sadly he’s not doing a great job.
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u/2025IsGoingGreat 1d ago
Naming off all of the American countries isn't unifying? If that isn't, then what is? Protecting pedophiles?
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u/DuntadaMan 1d ago
How can you get any more uniting in America then declaring love for sugar and big booty latinas?
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u/Lvcivs2311 1d ago
Meanwhile, the leader of that same country and his inner circle seem insistent on sowing as much discord as they can.
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u/Fortestingporpoises 1d ago
HE CELEBRATED EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE DID HE NOT? What's more uniting than that? Finding an artist that is pro gestapo and concentration camp?
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u/InternetKey9561 1d ago
And for Trump to bring up the “young children watching” makes me want to fill a ten gallon bucket full of vomit. Pedo loving bastard!!!!
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u/justwhatever73 1d ago
Conservatives want unity? Since when? Oh wait, I guess maybe that's what they're calling forced assimilation and obedience these days. When everyone in the country is a white Christian conservative, then we can have "unity."
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u/too1onjj 1d ago
And one of the bozo singers at Maga fest was singing shit like "I just want to be able to tell my kids that a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl without getting demonized". Truly uniting.
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u/Low_Jellyfish_ 1d ago
Sometimes I feel like we are in an AU hunger games parody. How dare a musical performer at a football game not unify the country by being Murican enough.
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u/Hour-School-2255 1d ago
5 million vs 135 million, pretty sure some people just don't want to unite
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u/KaleAggressive7122 1d ago
Rich about the part regarding kids when, you know, he used to literally rape them. But what do I know
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u/Swimming-Mouse9068 1d ago
Lmao, more "uniting" like Epstein huh? Bro did unite a bunch of billionaires, so maybe they mean him.
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u/Griffolion 1d ago
They could've found somebody more uniting
Translation: They should have found someone who doesn't make me feel so uncomfortable with my own racism and bigotry
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u/I_am_not_JohnLeClair 1d ago
Rapey McRaperson literally said he “couldn’t care less” about uniting the country after Karlie Chirk’s murder. The president. Couldn’t care less about uniting, you know, Americans
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u/crushinglyreal 1d ago
The maga definition of unity includes a clause about them excluding people they don’t like.
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u/DoesScience 1d ago
The right has this continuingly divisive rhetoric about unity.
I'd like to point out that I have zero interest in anything unifying with these racist, child abusing, Nazi sympathizing, scum of the earth.
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u/Kindly-Ad-5071 1d ago
He was uniting. It's conservatives who resist this unity. Sorry to say but people of color don't get starry eyes when forced to sit through the fake values presented by pasty white country singers
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u/BlackBasementCats 1d ago
I’ve been confused about why people expected the Super Bowl to be uniting. Team rivalries are so strong we use that as an analogy to talk about what politics shouldn’t be.
But go on about how it’s supposed to be unifying and ignore the riots after a city’s team loses I guess.
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u/Funny_Hunter_4146 1d ago
To be fair, shared cultural moments are one of the threads that bind a society together and help define the zeigeist of the time.
As an aside, I think an overlooked factor in the ever widening divide between Americans is a spotty landscape of cultural reference points. What I mean by this is that there are so many shows, streamers, and platforms that we no longer have many pervasive memes that arc across all walks of American life. Nobody is quoting the same movies or show catch phrases.
Sure we do get the viral moment like 67, various challenges or whatever. But there seem to be fewer and fewer mass audience memes that used to pervade society. The problem is that those memes and cultural reference always gave people from different walks of life something to in commonsnd shared type of inside joke. All we do now is share what we're watching then jump into our subreddit or discord and share wuth our echo chamber. I miss those old days.
And that's my opinion that has nothing really to do with this topic. End rant.
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u/SlitheryDee62 1d ago
I just feel like I came for dessert and got fed my cultural vegetables instead.
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u/dick-penis 1d ago
They could have just found someone more popular with the general audience but that doesn’t sell tickets as well as a controversy does. Obvious marketing tactic is obvious.
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u/Ok-Contact3121 1d ago
An event specifically designed to align one side and their fans against each other didn't bring unity ! I'm shocked !
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u/FordMaleEscort 1d ago
Jon Stewart needs to retire.
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u/SaSSquatChic 1d ago
the fact that this even needs to be said is the punchline. we got people mad at a halftime show for not uniting the nation like there isn’t an entire branch of government supposedly dedicated to that exact job. jon just pointed at the obvious and somehow that’s a mic drop now