The Congressman Who Saw Gay Porn in a Pop Concert: A Case Study in Performative Hysteria

The Fever Dream of Andy Ogles

Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee has achieved what few elected officials manage in their entire careers: he has become a perfect distillation of everything broken in American political theater. In a tweet that reads like it was composed during a particularly vivid fever dream, Ogles claimed that Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show featured "explicit displays of gay sexual acts" — which would be news to anyone who actually watched it, including the 123 million people who saw a Puerto Rican pop star dance energetically in sequined pants.

There was no gay pornography. There were no "explicit sexual acts." What there was is a congressman with apparently unlimited time to invent scandals that don't exist, while demanding congressional investigations into his own hallucinations.

The Anatomy of Manufactured Outrage

Ogles' screed hits every note in the right-wing moral panic songbook: "pure smut," "children were forced to endure," "American culture will not be mocked." It's the greatest hits album of pearl-clutching, performed by a man whose district has actual problems — poverty, opioid addiction, crumbling infrastructure — that apparently don't warrant the same breathless urgency as a Latin pop star's dance moves.

The tell is in the specificity: "women gyrating provocatively, and Bad Bunny shamelessly grabbing his crotch while dry-humping the air." This is a man who watched very carefully. Who took notes. Who perhaps rewound certain sections to ensure he had the details right for his righteous denunciation. The lady doth protest too much, congressman.

The Pornography That Wasn't There

Let's be clear about what Ogles is actually doing here. He's not confused. He's not mistaken. He's deliberately lying about easily verifiable facts to manufacture a culture war moment. The performance is archived. Millions witnessed it. There is no ambiguity here — and that's what makes this particularly grotesque.

When a member of Congress demands an investigation into something that provably did not happen, we've crossed from political theater into something darker: the assertion that objective reality is negotiable, that truth is whatever generates the most outrage among the base, that governing is just content creation for the perpetually aggrieved.

The Real Obscenity

What Ogles is actually scandalized by isn't pornography — it's visibility. A queer-friendly Latin superstar commanding the biggest stage in American culture, performing in Spanish, celebrating a culture that isn't his, expressing a sexuality that isn't heteronormative. That's what constitutes "unspeakable depravities" in his worldview.

The obscenity isn't Bad Bunny's performance. The obscenity is a congressman with a salary paid by taxpayers, with staff and resources and the power to shape legislation, spending his time inventing gay porn where none exists and demanding investigations into his own bigotry.

The Grift Laid Bare

This is what governing looks like in 2025: a representative from Tennessee, where actual constituents have actual needs, posting unhinged rants about a halftime show to rack up engagement metrics and fundraising emails. "I STOOD UP TO THE GAY AGENDA AT THE SUPER BOWL — DONATE NOW TO FIGHT WOKENESS."

The medium is the message, and the message is that nothing matters except the performance of outrage. Policy is passé. Legislation is for losers. What matters is the viral moment, the screenshot, the soundbite that gets you on the right podcasts and the right donor lists.

A Modest Proposal

Perhaps we should take Congressman Ogles at his word and investigate. Not the halftime show — that's been thoroughly documented by millions of witnesses and hundreds of cameras. No, let's investigate what exactly the congressman saw that no one else did. Let's subpoena his browser history. Let's examine his viewing habits. Let's put his "research" under oath.

Because when a man sees explicit gay pornography where none exists, that's not a scandal about Bad Bunny. That's a Rorschach test, and the congressman just told us everything we need to know about what occupies his imagination.

The Verdict

Andy Ogles has earned his place on the Shitlist not for being homophobic — that's disappointingly common — but for the sheer lazy cynicism of his grift. He couldn't even be bothered to invent a plausible lie. He just bet that his audience wouldn't fact-check, wouldn't care, and would eagerly swallow whatever culture war slop he served up.

And he's probably right. Which is the most depressing part of this entire sordid farce.

The congressman who cried pornography. A fable for our times, where the moral is that there is no moral anymore — just engagement metrics and the endless, exhausting performance of fake outrage over fake problems while the real world burns.

American culture will not be mocked, says the man who has become its perfect mockery.