Every year, thousands of Americans send angry emails to the Federal Communications Commission to complain about something they found objectionable during the Super Bowl halftime show. The big game at Levi’s Stadium, with Bad Bunny as the musical headliner, was certainly no different.With these complaints comes an additional tradition: the FCC’s annual release of these messages, often courtesy of reporters who ask for them through public information requests. Many of the upset Americans whose words will appear in this article come from a link, and variations of it, first shared by sports reporter Matt Brown, who publishes the Extra Points newsletter.Those who have spent any amount of time on social media leading up to, during and after Bad Bunny’s performance could probably guess what some of these complaints harped on. The basic ones ranged from the songs being in a language the viewer couldn’t understand to the sexual nature of the dancing and even the clothing, or perceived lack thereof, the dancers wore. Others complained about what the lyrics were about after they, or someone online, translated them into English from Spanish. A fair number of the complaints seemed generated by artificial intelligence, as they followed a stilted template. For those who wrote their angry emails themselves, the main sticking point was about the “vulgar” and “explicit” nature of some of the dance moves and song lyrics — each word was mentioned over 600 times — like one complainant from Scotts Valley exemplified. “During the halftime show of the Super Bowl, Bad Bunny’s performance displayed explicit sexual acts, including him grabbing his crotch, dry-humping the air, and men and women gyrating provocatively in sexual positions. His Spanish lyrics included: ‘your panties get wet,’ ‘Get horny,’ ‘P**** with d***, d*** with a**. Push it in.’ (repeated), ‘Your t*** rubbing my nipples,’ ‘Let’s go to bed to f*** you.’ The song also stated, ‘I want to grind on you’ and ‘the a** deserves it all,’ with explicit dancers grinding on each other. Both fleeting and explicit references to sex acts and expletives wereAnother viewer from Greenfield wrote: “I did not appreciate the superbowl halft time show. I speak spanish fluently and did not understand a word of what bad bunny said. Also the sex acts between two males my kids were watching do better. Can we keep everything PG. im very dissapointed.”Since all of these messages were labeled by region, SFGATE tallied how many of them came from the Golden State itself. In total, 156 emails came from Californians, with a majority focusing on Bad Bunny; other residents complained about the lack of closed captioning during commercials and the airing of the “Scream 7” trailer. The Central Coast had limited representation among the complaints. With three coming from Monterey County and one from Scotts Valley. These emails also weren’t as viscerally angry as some of the complaints from other parts of the state.“The halftime show on Sunday was rife with savagely pornographic lyrics,” wrote an angry Californian from Carmel Valley. “The fact that they were delivered in Spanish is irrelevant. Most Americans don’t understand Spanish, so millions looked up the lyrics online. Even if some were left out of the performance, almost no Americans knew. Instead, they read them. Kids read those indecent lyrics! … America tunes in because this is the best that network TV has to offer. NBC & the NFL broke that covenant and they must be held to account.”This was the last complaint we could find coming from Monterey County, coming from Carmel. “When you have a person that produces with lyrics and albums containing an explicit warning and they are allowed to perform those songs without displaying the explicit badge on the bottom. What is the matter with this nation that we have to put up with this abosolute filth and trash on TV. The NFL is a dumpster fire of an organization to allow these long lineage of disgusting (non) performers. They have turned this event into a circus full of body sexualization of provocative and sexual body movements. The FCC should hold children in their highest regard of protection. When something wholesome, non-sexual, non-provocative, non-explicit has to be platformed on another platform like the Charlie Kirk show that is nothing short of censorship. I expect the FCC to take this matter seriously and to eliminate this kind of human degradation of filling our airways.”If you’d like to see the full scope of the complaints, you can look through the more than 2,000 emails the FCC published in five separate parts.
Every year, thousands of Americans send angry emails to the Federal Communications Commission to complain about something they found objectionable during the Super Bowl halftime show. The big game at Levi’s Stadium, with Bad Bunny as the musical headliner, was certainly no different.
With these complaints comes an additional tradition: the FCC’s annual release of these messages, often courtesy of reporters who ask for them through public information requests. Many of the upset Americans whose words will appear in this article come from a link, and variations of it, first shared by sports reporter Matt Brown, who publishes the Extra Points newsletter.
Those who have spent any amount of time on social media leading up to, during and after Bad Bunny’s performance could probably guess what some of these complaints harped on. The basic ones ranged from the songs being in a language the viewer couldn’t understand to the sexual nature of the dancing and even the clothing, or perceived lack thereof, the dancers wore. Others complained about what the lyrics were about after they, or someone online, translated them into English from Spanish.
A fair number of the complaints seemed generated by artificial intelligence, as they followed a stilted template. For those who wrote their angry emails themselves, the main sticking point was about the “vulgar” and “explicit” nature of some of the dance moves and song lyrics — each word was mentioned over 600 times — like one complainant from Scotts Valley exemplified.
“During the halftime show of the Super Bowl, Bad Bunny’s performance displayed explicit sexual acts, including him grabbing his crotch, dry-humping the air, and men and women gyrating provocatively in sexual positions. His Spanish lyrics included: ‘your panties get wet,’ ‘Get horny,’ ‘P**** with d***, d*** with a**. Push it in.’ (repeated), ‘Your t*** rubbing my nipples,’ ‘Let’s go to bed to f*** you.’ The song also stated, ‘I want to grind on you’ and ‘the a** deserves it all,’ with explicit dancers grinding on each other. Both fleeting and explicit references to sex acts and expletives were
Another viewer from Greenfield wrote:
“I did not appreciate the superbowl halft time show. I speak spanish fluently and did not understand a word of what bad bunny said. Also the sex acts between two males my kids were watching do better. Can we keep everything PG. im very dissapointed.”
Since all of these messages were labeled by region, SFGATE tallied how many of them came from the Golden State itself.
In total, 156 emails came from Californians, with a majority focusing on Bad Bunny; other residents complained about the lack of closed captioning during commercials and the airing of the “Scream 7” trailer.
The Central Coast had limited representation among the complaints. With three coming from Monterey County and one from Scotts Valley.
These emails also weren’t as viscerally angry as some of the complaints from other parts of the state.
“The halftime show on Sunday was rife with savagely pornographic lyrics,” wrote an angry Californian from Carmel Valley. “The fact that they were delivered in Spanish is irrelevant. Most Americans don’t understand Spanish, so millions looked up the lyrics online. Even if some were left out of the performance, almost no Americans knew. Instead, they read them. Kids read those indecent lyrics! … America tunes in because this is the best that network TV has to offer. NBC & the NFL broke that covenant and they must be held to account.”
This was the last complaint we could find coming from Monterey County, coming from Carmel.
“When you have a person that produces with lyrics and albums containing an explicit warning and they are allowed to perform those songs without displaying the explicit badge on the bottom. What is the matter with this nation that we have to put up with this abosolute filth and trash on TV. The NFL is a dumpster fire of an organization to allow these long lineage of disgusting (non) performers. They have turned this event into a circus full of body sexualization of provocative and sexual body movements. The FCC should hold children in their highest regard of protection. When something wholesome, non-sexual, non-provocative, non-explicit has to be platformed on another platform like the Charlie Kirk show that is nothing short of censorship. I expect the FCC to take this matter seriously and to eliminate this kind of human degradation of filling our airways.”
If you’d like to see the full scope of the complaints, you can look through the more than 2,000 emails the FCC published in five separate parts.