Bad Bunny Song Added to Playlist for Annual Family BBQ
Calm down Uncle Rick; Rita McNeil, Blink 182 still to be featured among others.
Playlist to reflect cultural palate of man with extensive world travelling experience; including countless shopping trips to the Clarenville Mall, annual getaways to Splash and Putt, and a 2004 boys Triple A hockey tournament in Deer Lake.
^Honey, I seem to have finished my beverage. Please “hop” into the kitchen and fetch me a Miller Lite. Honey?
I nearly fell off my chair on Thursday night when a friend of mine asked what I thought about the Bad Bunny Super Bowl Halftime Show. What I thought? I hadn’t even considered it. As a 40 year old straight white man I’m not familiar with having my opinion valued by society.
I told my friend to sit tight. I would consider his question over the next few days and follow up. I can only imagine the stab of pins and needles painfully poking his rear as he awaits my reply.
What I thought
In summary: I didn’t like the show, but I liked the way it made me feel.
Obviously I didn’t like the show. Spanish rap doesn’t even register on my musical taste palate. I don’t have the slightest clue what I just watched. I’m a hockey playing accountant from Bonavista, for Christ sakes. If it’s not The Tragically Hip or AC/DC or Ron Hynes it’s pretty safe to bet I’m completely out of my element. Ron Hynes’s hat makes me uncomfortable.
Am I qualified to critique Bad Bunny? Hey, everyone’s opinion is legit and welcomed. But it doesn’t hurt to start the process of critical analysis by asking myself that very question. Maybe after answering it the process can stop completely. You know what? No further analysis required. I’ll get back to cleaning up the kitchen.
Further, Jay Z’s company Roc Nation is hired by the NFL to book Super Bowl half time entertainment. I gotta say: I’m content deferring to Jay Z on this one. It might be a stretch, but maybe - just maybe - Jay Z’s finger is more closely aligned with the pulse of worldwide international arts and entertainment than mine. Then again: I did watch the entire Vince McMahon documentary last year and learned a lot.
I believe Jay Z, Rock Nation, and the NFL wanted to challenge you as a consumer of the halftime show this year. How did you respond to their challenge? They’re the chefs in the kitchen. You’re the guest. I applied a similar tactic at my family Christmas dinner this year when I braised the turkey in a jewel-toned brine. I broke 45 years of family tradition with that one. And let me tell you: it was controversial.
American entertainment has a habit of this, don’t they? Elvis shakes his hips. The Janet Jackson nipple. The Madonna/Briteny kiss. Bunny is just the next chapter of the same story. Remember: though it may look like a Puerto Rican garden party - it was conceived in a corporate board office. They have to keep coming up with new ways to shock you. It’s only going to get weirder as you get older. If you don’t like it, look on the bright side: you’ll be dead soon.
“I hated it!”
“It sucked!”
“I couldn’t even watch it!”
These are a few sentiments I’ve been hearing here on my tiny rock in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.
For those who react that way, I conclude: You’ve failed to meet the NFL’s challenge.
Ask not “Did you like the show?”, ask instead: “How did the show make you feel?”
That’s a richer question. Great art inspires emotion. In the aftermath of the Bunny show, it’s clear people felt feelings. Whether or not they’re capable of consciously acknowledging their feelings is another story.
I felt: uncomfortable. Scared. Anxious.
The same feelings I always feel whenever I try something new.
How did you feel? Pissed off? I wonder why? Confused? I wonder why? What’s the emotion behind your dislike?
Now we’re having a meaningful conversation.
“I didn’t feel anything!”
Oh. I wonder why that is?
“It just fucking sucked!”
That sounds like anger, bro.
I believe a person in my demographic’s reaction to the Bunny show is an indication of how that person processes the feeling of discomfort. You’ve got a young man of colour in a place of power with the spotlight on him. Shaking his dick at you. Waving a flag from a country you know nothing about. Rapping a language you don’t understand. Surrounded by women with their tits and asses out.
This is vulnerable shit. It’s OK to feel things.
Did you squirm? Were you curious? Did you shut it off and turn on Kid Rock? (i.e. the “comfortable” alternative for people who look like me).
I’m talking about feeling feelings - which in itself may be a foreign concept to the average NFL fan, a demographic prone to consuming 12 hours of television every Sunday.
The halftime show was an attack on my senses. I was completely locked in from start to finish. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Hear this: in a world of desensitization, where even the horror of a mass school shooting feels normal, it was a breath of fresh air to feel something new.
I welcome discomfort in my life as a matter of principle and personal values. I want to feel uncomfortable because I know from experience this is where all the learning, depth, and growth is. I want to feel things I’ve never felt before. That’s called: being human. And: living. And not: sitting around and waiting to die.
If the NFL ever succumbs to the moans and groans of the insecure middle aged football fan and pacifies them by bringing back the likes of Guns N Roses, I will applaud it. I’ll tune in and I’ll rock out. But I won’t learn anything. I won’t be challenged. I’ve already seen that show one million times. I’ll leave that performance the same boring ass person I was at the start of the game.
How did I leave Sunday night’s game? Well. I’m still pretty boring. But at least I’m not bored. I watched a Spanish rap concert! My first one! And while the taste wasn’t familiar - it wasn’t my regular Kraft Dinner with ketchup supper special - I ate the whole meal. And I’m grateful to the NFL for adding a pinch of international culture to my otherwise bland Super Bowl Sunday.
The recipe called for a pinch but that felt more like a handful. They don’t season to taste, they season to shock.
Nice try, NFL. I’m still sitting at the table. I see your Bunny bet. And I raise you an enlightened point of view.
Namaste, sports fans.
