TN Republican demands official probe after calling Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show 'gay pornography'

U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, is calling for a congressional investigation into the Apple Music Super Bowl LX halftime show headlined by Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny, falsely accusing the National Football League and broadcaster NBC of airing what he said was “gay pornography” and other explicit content during one of the most-watched television events in the country.

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In a series of Facebook posts on Monday, Ogles, who has repeatedly supported anti-LGBTQ+ laws, wrote that “last night’s halftime show was a disgrace” and claimed it “mocked American families,” adding, “Depicting gay pornography on prime time has no place in our culture.” He went further in the same post, arguing that “the Bad Bunny performance is conclusive proof that Puerto Rico should never be a state,” a remark that drew immediate backlash online.

In a longer statement, Ogles said the show was “pure smut, brazenly aired on national television for every American family to witness,” and claimed that “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.” He added that the performance’s lyrics “openly glorified sodomy and countless other unspeakable depravities” and asserted that such content is “illegal to be displayed on public airways.”

Ogles followed those posts with a formal letter dated February 9 to Alabama Republican U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, requesting a congressional inquiry into the NFL and NBCUniversal. In the letter, he argued that the Super Bowl’s scale makes it “highly implausible” that the league and the broadcaster lacked advance knowledge of the performance’s content, noting that rehearsals are conducted, production elements are submitted in advance, and networks maintain broadcast delays specifically to prevent indecent material from reaching live audiences. He asked the committee to examine what executives and standards staff knew in advance, which review and approval processes were used, whether delay protocols were applied, and what the broader implications were for broadcaster accountability.

Nothing in the performance resembled pornography. What it did include was queer visibility — enough, it seems, to be recast by critics as obscenity.

The Advocate contacted Ogles’ office for comment, asking which moments he considers pornographic, whether he watched the halftime show itself or alternative coverage, and how he distinguishes between same-sex and opposite-sex couples dancing on screen. Nobody responded.

The letter cites songs including “Safaera” and “Yo Perreo Sola,” which Ogles described as widely known for explicit sexual references, and complains that the choreography featured “overtly sexualized movements,” including twerking, grinding, and pelvic thrusts. He also argued that although the set was performed predominantly in Spanish, the language barrier did not mitigate what he characterized as the content's explicit nature and instead heightened the broadcaster’s responsibility to review and translate it before airing.

What viewers saw, however, looked nothing like pornography. The halftime show featured Bad Bunny alongside dancers and guest performers, including Ricky Martin, who is gay. At least one same-sex couple appeared among the dancers, moving in the same stylized, choreographed way as opposite-sex pairs elsewhere on stage. There was no nudity and no depiction of sex. The set was built around dance, spectacle, and the visual language of contemporary pop performance.

LGBTQ+ advocates pushed back sharply against Ogles’ framing.

In a statement to The Advocate, Laurel Powell, communications director for the Human Rights Campaign, said, “Queer people exist, and we’re part of the American fabric — a message that Bad Bunny sent loud and clear. We’re all American, together. And if our existence makes you uncomfortable, you’re not suited to be representing people in Congress.”

The backlash did not begin Sunday night. Republicans and conservative commentators have been scandalized by Bad Bunny’s involvement since September, when the NFL announced he would headline the halftime show. Some critics objected to his politics; others focused on the fact that the set would be performed in Spanish. That outrage hardened into parallel programming when Turning Point USA promoted an “All-American Halftime Show” to run against the broadcast.

The official halftime show drew an estimated 135 million viewers on NBC. Turning Point USA said its alternative stream drew about 6 million concurrent viewers at its peak and has generated nearly 20 million total views across platforms, according to People.

The Turning Point USA counterprogramming revived criticism of Kid Rock’s own catalog. One frequently cited example is his 1998 song “Cool, Daddy Cool,” which includes sexualized references to girls described as being under 18 and has long drawn criticism for trivializing or glamorizing underage sexuality. Those lyrics were not part of the counter-event, but critics online pointed to the song as evidence that branding the alternative broadcast as “family-friendly” was selective.

The Advocate contacted the NFL and NBC for comment. As of publication, neither had responded. Representatives for Bad Bunny could not be reached.