In an interview with Real America's Voice, Missouri Republican Representative Mark Alford said House Republicans are now "investigating" rapper Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show, claiming it "could be much worse than the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction" for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, which was broadcast live on February 1, 2004, featured singers Justin Timberlake and Jackson. The show is infamous for the moment Timberlake exposed Jackson's breast for a moment.
During a duet of Timberlake's hit song "Rock Your Body"—specifically when Timberlake sang the line "Gonna have you naked by the end of this song"—he pulled off Jackson's costume top, briefly revealing her right breast.
The incident, sometimes referred to as "Nipplegate," was widely considered a publicity stunt and started a national conversation about perceived indecency in broadcasting.
According to Alford (who failed to provide any examples of alleged indecency):
“On the Bad Bunny bad performance at the Super Bowl halftime — we’re still investigating this. There’s a lot of information that has come out about the lyrics. I saw the halftime show — we were switching back and forth with the TPUSA halftime show. The lyrics from what we’ve seen from Bad Bunny are very disturbing.”
“And if it holds true, I don’t speak fluent Spanish, okay, I know how to ask where the bathroom is, but these lyrics, if it is true what was said on national television, we have a lot of questions for the entities that broadcast this, and we’ll be talking with Brendan Carr from the FCC about this."
"This could be much worse than the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction, let’s put it that way. ... The NFL purposely wanted a Hispanic star basically to perform at halftime because they're trying to attract a more Latin America[n] audience and this is what they deliver."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
People were quick to call this outrage the waste of resources that it is—especially when the GOP seems far less concerned about the ongoing Epstein files scandal.
Alford's remarks came after his colleague, Tennessee Representative Andy Ogles, declared the halftime show was "pure smut" that depicted "gay pornography"—even going so far as to write a letter to the Energy and Commerce Committee demanding "a formal congressional inquiry" into the "indecent broadcast."
The letter notes that though Bad Bunny primarily performed in Spanish, his songs included "sexual content" that was "readily apparent across any language barrier." Ogles stressed broadcasters bear a "heightened responsibility to ensure programming aired during this uniquely national event complies with longstanding broadcast decency expectations and serves the public interest."
Ogles was mocked for claiming "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" and saying that "American culture will not be mocked or corrupted without consequence."
@lpeterp/Bluesky
@FPWellman/X
@bobsbeatgmail.com5/Threads