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The Michael Knowles Show

Bad Bunny. Bad Culture.

12 Feb 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 5.039 Ben Shapiro

It may be just this angle, but I feel like Walsh's beard is somehow even more beardy than usual.

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5.179 - 10.147 Matt Walsh

It's taken over. He looks like that guy you turn him upside down and it becomes his hair.

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10.267 - 15.315 Ben Shapiro

He's got the full Michael Shannon as James Garfield in Death by Lightning beard going now.

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15.715 - 25.551 Andrew Klavan

It's so dark on my screen that it looks like someone just took out the pixels of Matt's face into like a black abyss. I've been trying to do that for years.

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25.571 - 27.974 Matt Walsh

It's cold here, man.

27.994 - 28.435 Michael Knowles

It's cold.

32.836 - 35.499 Matt Walsh

Oh, we're live. Oh, we're live? Cool.

35.699 - 37.181 Ben Shapiro

That's exciting.

37.201 - 44.429 Matt Walsh

I just hope Ali Beth isn't hearing us curse like this. There's still gentlemen enough. She is. Look, she's not here. This is terrible.

Chapter 2: What controversies surround Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show?

192.366 - 212.95 Matt Walsh

No, you know, I'm not I'm not absconding from my duty. The reason that is my commentary. I don't watch it because I feel it's a setup. It's a setup where they put on some stupid left-wing thing, dissing the audience of white males, basically, who watch football like me. And then we come out and we complain about it. We sound like a bunch of cranks. So I just don't watch it. I turn it off.

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213.211 - 231.209 Matt Walsh

I usually have dinner with my wife. This time I was pounding on my grandson, beating up my grandson. while that went on, and then I turned the game back on, which is what I came there to see. On top of which, I really believe that the arts belong to people who love them, and I don't love popular music, so I don't comment on it that much.

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231.97 - 240.118 Matt Walsh

Ever since the Beatles replaced Frank Sinatra singing Cole Porter songs, I was out, and I just continue to remain. I like the game of football.

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Chapter 3: How do the hosts react to the recent school shooting in Canada?

240.218 - 245.983 Matt Walsh

I boycotted it when they knelt at the flag. I'm not boycotting it over crappy music, because it's not crappy.

0

246.163 - 257.56 Ben Shapiro

That was the best take? That right there was the best take. You insisted on going first so you could explain that you don't like pop music and that you're old. That was the best of all the takes.

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258.161 - 261.185 Matt Walsh

Everybody sounds old when they talk about this on the conservative side.

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261.546 - 271.698 Michael Knowles

I have the best take on this. Can I go? I have the actual best take on this. Because I am mad about it. I am grumpy about it. No. Shock me, Matt.

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Chapter 4: What is the significance of Savannah Guthrie's mother's kidnapping story?

271.778 - 288.854 Michael Knowles

I know. I know. No one expects it. Listen, I do. It's this weird thing that's happened with the halftime show this time around, which is that the thing happened. Some conservatives complained about it, I think rightly so. So there's backlash. And then there's backlash from other conservatives against those conservatives saying, well, what are you doing complaining about it? It doesn't matter.

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289.235 - 313.302 Michael Knowles

Well, I kind of think, like, if that doesn't matter, then what are any... Why are we talking about anything? Like... This is one of our preeminent cultural events. This is an iconic cultural event. It's an American event, the Super Bowl. I do watch the Super Bowl, and I like the NFL because I like football. It's an American pastime, and I don't want to give that up.

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313.282 - 332.691 Michael Knowles

when they turn that into this celebration of not just any foreign culture, but by the way, a foreign culture that has nothing to do with football at all, okay? Hispanic culture has not contributed to the NFL, to American football at all. I mean, right now there are more Hispanics in the NFL than there have ever been.

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332.731 - 347.302 Michael Knowles

And there's like one per active roster and there's 32 on the active rosters in the entire league. And that's at the peak. So you might as well have a halftime show that's devoted to celebrating Norway or Vietnam or something.

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347.382 - 349.668 Ben Shapiro

Women who represent 0% of the rosters.

350.27 - 356.046 Matt Walsh

Does anybody remember those magnet toys where you moved filings to make a beard on a guy?

356.026 - 381.04 Michael Knowles

I'm just having a flashback there. I like football to have a beard. It all comes together. So my point is that what they did with the halftime show, I think, is more deliberately offensive. Not in the sense of like, I'm not crying about it. I mean, deliberately, it's meant to be offensive to the actual fans of the game. because it's inaccessible.

381.121 - 393.177 Michael Knowles

It's in a language that we don't speak, and then on top of it, and this is the part that I think, like, if you're a conservative trying to take the contrarian view, it's actually, it was good. You know, that's absurd, especially when you get to the end of it.

393.197 - 411.182 Andrew Klavan

The actual worst take is the one you're describing, and it was John Kasich, and there were other squishy types who were backing it, and it was all these kind of, like, wannabe cool, you know, boomer establishment Republicans. Unbelievable. You know, actually, what Kasich said was, actually, that was great, Bad Bunny. A home run grand slam.

Chapter 5: What are the cultural implications of the term 'Clavicular'?

456.025 - 470.813 Michael Knowles

Absolutely. And then on top of that, we're going to flip around and criticize the TPUSA halftime show. By the way, the TPUSA halftime show was a huge gamble that they took. If they had asked me and gotten my opinion ahead of time, I would have told them, don't do it because you're –

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Chapter 6: How do the hosts perceive the impact of social media on youth culture?

470.793 - 486.537 Michael Knowles

You're counter-programming the NFL, the Super Bowl. It's going to be a huge failure. I was wrong. It was a huge success. And even if you don't like Kid Rock, even if Kid Rock is not your jam, well, guess what? The point is they've established this. They've got tens of millions of viewers.

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486.957 - 500.318 Michael Knowles

So next year, well, now it's actually going to be appealing, potentially, to some bigger stars because they know they'll get a big audience. So they've set something up for the future, I think, in a really smart way. Can I say something, too? That is as conservative as I know what we're doing.

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500.358 - 520.849 Ben Shapiro

I have to say, both those takes were mediocre. And now here comes the best take. Thank heavens. I thought we were dying here. We were all waiting. So I'll get to the TPUSA event in a little bit because I think that the TPUSA thing is really, really fascinating because on a cultural level, I totally agree with Matt that it was a huge success. Obviously, the numbers were gigantic.

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520.869 - 536.911 Ben Shapiro

There was a hunger for something that wasn't what was being shown on the Super Bowl. And TPUSA proved it on a sort of aesthetic level. Obviously, you hope that the future is better than Kid Rock, who has not been musically relevant, in my opinion, ever, but certainly for the last 20 years. And so that kind of is what it is.

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537.192 - 556.317 Ben Shapiro

But as far as the Bad Bunny show, so I think, first of all, that I want to say a couple of things since it's been unmitigated, just bashing of the Super Bowl halftime show. And I'm happy to join in on that because I also despise music that is this music. I will say this one. Everybody was upset it was all in Spanish.

556.517 - 572.158 Ben Shapiro

This is like the third time I haven't understood a word somebody said during the Super Bowl halftime show. I mean, I will freely admit that Kendrick Lamar rapping, I had no idea what the hell he was saying the entire halftime show. So the fact that it was in Spanish or whether it's in Ebonics makes no difference to me. If I don't know what you're saying, I don't know what you're saying.

572.178 - 590.889 Ben Shapiro

As far as the actual production value, just from like a pure production value standpoint. It is pretty incredible what they were able to build on the field, like just from in terms of they built like an entire sugar cane field. And then apparently one of the glories of Puerto Rico, failing telephone lines. And then they built an entire casita like like that stuff.

591.249 - 602.81 Ben Shapiro

Honestly, like on an aesthetic level, that that was kind of cool. I did appreciate that they actually held a straight wedding on the field. Right. I mean, I mean, like that's I like the little marriages are good. Exactly. I'll take the little win. I'll take that.

603.07 - 620.882 Ben Shapiro

I thought it was kind of cute when there was the kid who was falling asleep on the, on the chairs and, and grandpa comes over and like picks him up. I like that. That's a fine, but the part of it that really ticked me off and it's not even that it's, it's all in, in Spanish. Although again, I would appreciate if you did something in English because we should all speak English. It's America.

Chapter 7: What insights do the hosts share about the current state of journalism?

889.631 - 907.075 Andrew Klavan

I love our friends at TPUSA. They do great stuff. They put on great shows. But I kind of thought it was gonna be a huge cringe fest. So I'm watching it with, you know, white-knuckling it, and I thought, I don't know, and maybe Kid Rock is gonna be a little over the top or whatever. So Kid Rock comes out, and he does the thing that we were all expecting. Flag, pyrotechnics.

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907.595 - 921.895 Andrew Klavan

One, it was impressive that a guy who was, I think, 57 years old was moving around like that. I don't move around like that at 35, and I didn't move around like that at 25. So that was physically impressive. But I thought, okay, here's a song from 1999. We've all heard it. I don't even really like the song.

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921.915 - 923.237 Ben Shapiro

He's social security rock now.

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923.277 - 939.859 Andrew Klavan

He's no longer kid rock. But you know, he actually leaned into that. And I thought this was the point where, and conservatives are kind of dissing some of this stuff, but I thought there was actually real artistry. I thought there was actually some real beauty in that show. Because he comes out, they say, introducing kid rock. and he does the Kid Rock bit.

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940.24 - 942.823 Andrew Klavan

And then it shifted to a cello and a violin.

Chapter 8: How does the discussion explore the concept of masculinity and purpose?

943.104 - 945.547 Andrew Klavan

And I thought, okay, man, we're in it now.

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945.647 - 946.829 Allie Beth Stuckey

They're really catering to me.

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947.31 - 962.235 Andrew Klavan

Because the right is split up between, you know, the like, I want to go fishing kind of guys and the more like rocky, edgy face tattoo guys and people like us who like classical music and Cole Porter and whatever. And so it's actually kind of hard to cater to all of them. TPUSA did that.

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962.476 - 978.514 Andrew Klavan

You had this transition with the cello and the violin, and then they reintroduced Kid Rock by his Christian name, by, I think it's Rob Ritchie. I actually didn't even know what his real name was. And they introduced him and he did this song until you can't. It was this song about how you plan to go see your dad, but you get a rain check.

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979.135 - 1000.044 Andrew Klavan

You can always get a rain check until you can't, until he dies. You plan to play with your kids or whatever until you can't. They're out of the house. He added this verse that Kid Rock himself wrote. It was about Jesus. Even there, I thought, okay, this could be kind of cringy, like just Bible thumping, low hymnody. I thought it was actually much tougher than that.

1000.144 - 1017.706 Andrew Klavan

It was more thoughtful than that. He said, you can give your life to Jesus until you can't. You know, there are actually eternal consequences of our actions. And there was a little bit of hellfire in there. There was a little bit of reality that crept in. And it had this beautiful tie in with Charlie, of course, you know, until you can't.

1017.746 - 1037.073 Andrew Klavan

We all thought we had so much more time with Charlie and he struck down in the prime of his life. We all think we have a big shot in our political order. Everything's going to go hunky dory until you can't. And it even showed his evolution as an artist from this guy who's like rapping and bopping around as a kid to this older, more mature feeling. It actually really struck a chord with me.

1037.214 - 1057.019 Andrew Klavan

I don't love modern music either, but I thought this was a moment where, yeah, conservatives had the guts to offer an alternative and they succeeded in getting tens of millions of views. but they did something conservatives never do. They did it at the very least a little bit, which is they offered something that was artistically interesting and kind of bold. Maybe I'm too glass half full here.

1057.66 - 1061.824 Andrew Klavan

By the end of it, I thought that was actually a really beautiful choice and a fitting way to end the show.

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