A viral clip of Diplo in costume as one of the bushes from Bad Bunny‘s Super Bowl performance seems to be AI-generated.
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The reggaeton icon’s set was a celebration of Latin music and saw him perform with dozens of dancers while moving through a complex sequence of staged set pieces. Following the historic performance, it was revealed that the grass bushes featured on stage were not props, but actually people in costumes.
A few days later, Diplo shared a video of himself in one of the famous costumes, alongside the caption “surprise”.
The clip quickly went viral, with fans making “industry plant” jokes in the comments, but now it’s been revealed that it’s actually AI-generated, and the producer did not, in fact, appear in the performance.
As Billboard points out, the costume he’s wearing doesn’t match the taller, spikier costumes worn during the show. His clip also doesn’t feature other elements of Bad Bunny’s elaborate staging, and shows a stadium with a roof, while the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California does not have one.
Diplo may not have been present, but the set did include many other celebrity cameos, with Pedro Pascal, Cardi B, Jessica Alba and Karol G all spotted among the dancers.
Lady Gaga made a surprise appearance to deliver a Latin version of her Bruno Mars collaboration ‘Die With A Smile’, and was joined by Bad Bunny’s backing band Los Pleneros de la Cresta. Ricky Martin, meanwhile, was on hand to introduce ‘El apagón’ with an excerpt of ‘LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii’.
Bad Bunny also appeared to deliver one of the three Grammys he won last week to a young boy during the performance.
The halftime show has been ranked as the fourth biggest in Super Bowl history, with the musician pulling in 128.2million viewers.
The Super Bowl show for this year was marred in controversy ever since it was first announced in September. When Bad Bunny was confirmed, he came under personal attack from the MAGA movement, and Donald Trump called the decision to have him headline “crazy”, claiming that he had “never heard” of him.
One of the President’s advisors confirmed that ICE would be present at the performance– which carried added poignancy as Bad Bunny previously announced that he would not be touring the US due to fears over ICE agents raiding the concerts – and Turning Point USA held an ‘All American Halftime Show’ at the same time with Kid Rock headlining.