Bad Bunny responded to homeland security secretary Kristi Noem’s threats to send federal immigration enforcement agents to the Super Bowl next year, joking during Saturday Night Live that everyone was happy about his planned half-time performance, “even Fox News”.
The 31-year-old Puerto Rican singer who has criticized the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies hosted the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, using his opening monologue to address controversy around his 2026 Super Bowl performance.
“It’s good to be back. This is my second time hosting and my fourth time being here,” he said as he took the stage. “I’m doing the Super Bowl half-time show. I’m very happy and I think everyone is happy about it.”
The line was followed by a quick montage of Fox news contributors, each saying one word that was clipped together to say, “He should be the next President.”
During the opening, the artist included some words in Spanish that he devoted to “all the Latinos and Latinas in the entire world and here in the United States”.
“More than being an accomplishment of mine, it’s an accomplishment for everybody, demonstrating that our mark and our contribution to this country will never be able to be removed or erased by anybody,” he said in Spanish. Afterwards, he said in English, “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn.”
The announcement that Bad Bunny would headline the Super Bowl half-time show sparked a wave of conservative outrage including from Noem.
Trump’s homeland security secretary said on a rightwing podcast on Friday that only Americans should attend next year’s Super Bowl and warned that Ice agents “will be all over” the event. She also said the NFL will “not be able to sleep at night” over its decision to choose Bad Bunny as the half-time performer.
Bad Bunny has said that fears that his fans would be subjected to immigration raids prompted him to exclude the US from his forthcoming world tour. The musician just wrapped a three-month concert series in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which drew in an estimated 600,000 attendees.
“My residence was beautiful, everyone loved it,” he said during his monologue, acknowledging the success of the recent tour.
In other sketches during the 51st season opener, Colin Jost stepped in as Pete Hegseth. “You will now be yelled at by a former Fox News host,” a colleague announced as Jost entered, before the sketch turned to an angry tirade on the US military.
“Our military will now have the same rules as any good frat party: No fat chicks. And if you’re a fat dude, goddam it, you better be funny as hell,” Jost said, a clear reference to Hegeth’s recent call out against diversity and fat shaming of troops as he directed generals to fall in line or quit.
Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, also made a brief appearance, not as the sketch’s target but as its self-appointed monitor. “I’m just here keeping my eye on SNL, making sure they don’t say anything too mean about me.”
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