Bad Bunny hosts 'Saturday Night Live' on Oct. 4, 2025
Bad Bunny hosts 'Saturday Night Live' on Oct. 4, 2025.
Bad Bunny took a jab at those critical of his selection as the next Super Bowl halftime show performer during his host monologue on Saturday Night Live.
"I'm doing the Super Bowl halftime show. I'm very happy and I think everyone is happy about it. Even Fox News," he said, while hosting the season 51 premiere.
The show then played a series of edited clips from various network discussions about him that made it seem like they were declaring, "Bad Bunny is my favorite musician and he should be the next president."
He continued, "But really, I'm very excited to be doing the Super Bowl. I know that people all around the world love my music. I'm so happy and..."
The Puerto Rican music superstar then continued the rest of his speech in Spanish, concluding with, "And if you didn't understand what I just said, you have four months to learn."
The remark was a jab at the commentary that's taken place since the Grammy winner was announced as the headliner for the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show on Monday. After the announcement, he faced racist criticism over his catalogue of Spanish songs.
Former race car driver and Trump campaigner Danica Patrick slammed the NFL for the selection, writing, "No songs in English should not be allowed at one of America’s highest rated television events of the year… not just for sports."
The Happy Gilmore 2 actor — and many of his fans — also fielded hate based on his origin, despite Puerto Rico being a U.S. territory, which means Bad Bunny, like all Puerto Ricans, is a U.S. citizen.
The Trump administration has threatened to send ICE agents to the Super Bowl during Bad Bunny's halftime show.
"There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else," Corey Lewandowski, Trump's former campaign manager, said on a conservative YouTube show. "We will find you and apprehend you and put you in a detention facility and deport you."
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will monitor the big game, which will take place at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8, 2026.
"Yeah, we'll be all over that place, Noem said on The Benny Show. "I think people should not be coming to the Super Bowl unless they're law-abiding Americans who love this country."
To give a sense of the musician's popularity, the rapper and reggaeton artist boasted the third-most streams globally on Spotify last year, without releasing an album in 2024.
Bad Bunny performs during his "Most Wanted" tour at Barclays Center on April 11, 2024 in New York City.
Bad Bunny performs during his "Most Wanted" tour at Barclays Center on April 11, 2024 in New York City.
Prior to the Super Bowl news, Bad Bunny, the stage name of Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, announced he would not be touring in the U.S. on his current Debí Tirar Más Fotos tour due to ICE raid concerns for his fans.
"There were many reasons why I didn't show up in the U.S., and none of them were out of hate — I've performed there many times," he previously explained. "But there was the issue of — like, f---ing ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it's something that we were talking about and very concerned about."
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.
Tonight's premiere also introduced five new cast members, Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson, and Veronika Slowikowska. Their introduction follows a bit of a cast shakeup that saw the exits of Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Ego Nwodim, Emil Wakim, and Devon Walker.
Watch Bad Bunny's full monologue above.
Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.