Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)

Okay, here's my review. To start off, this episode truly felt the most "different" from a lot of recent SNL as circumstances this week (not just the ones that may have been induced by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike) essentially forced them to take some more risks and try different things. Some risks paid off, some risks didn’t but it felt like the show truly found a way to work with the host rather than around him. As a host, Bad Bunny didn't seem like he was difficult to work with. He seemed like he got along with everybody on a personal level. Still, there was a very noticable language barrier present but the upside is that this forced the writers to dig a bit deeper and come up with some fresher sketch premises and sharper writing (or at least bring back a couple of things that worked well last season to fill in the gaps). A lot of the humor in this episode came from the host's culture so it relied a bit less on dialogue and more on some slightly broad visuals but thankfully this staff was more than adept at making sure nothing got completely lost in translation. With this episode, it felt like they actually successfully pulled off what they were trying to do with Megan Thee Stallions' episode from last year. This is probably because Bad Bunny seems to have a more easily accessible brand/image than MTS did. Plus, the show has people on staff that better understand his cultural heritage, what his audience would want to see, and how to better play that to viewers outside of the host's audience. Also, as long as I am making previous host comparisons' Bad Bunny as a host felt like an exact cross between Regé-Jean Page (an non-white male host from another country with an audience of thakfully less distractingly shreiky fans lends his talents to a number of sketches revolving around his sex appeal to women) and Nick Jonas (a previous male musical guest who is used to making the odd sketch cameo now and then is billed as host but somehow still manages to make so little impact that it truly feels like a hostless episode punctuated with musical guest cameos) with a little dash of Jackie Chan thrown in for good measure (do I really need to explain that one to you?) With all that being said, this was definitely a better episode than last week. After a season premiere that was as rote and by the numbers as ever culturally (as SNL season premieres often tend to be) it's nice to see an episode that may have started off a bit rocky but thought outside of the box enough to be as rewarding as it could the more it went on. There were a lot of cameos this week but fortunately they came off less distracting than they were necessary in a way that made some sense once they sunk in. Thankfully, no cast members got completely shut out. Marcello may have had the strongest night of them all with Devon, JAJ and most of the women (especially Troast) coming in second. However, Longfellow, Dismukes and Squirm saw a noticable drop this week. Anyway, let's break this down further.

Jim Jordan And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Vote For House Speaker - I guess the main difference between this and literally any randomly selected season 42 cold open is that the Trump impersonation is weirdly the STRONGEST thing it has going for it? It was a safe choice for a political cold open right now, at least. Perhaps it was a little TOO safe and expected, but that's not the main thing I'm holding against this sketch. What I AM holding against this sketch were the choice to center it around Mikey as Jim Jordan (him breaking the phone was basically my reaction to the whole "oh, so I see we're going back to just opening the show with a completely unearned applause break again? Fine, whatever" thing) and the Santos jokes that were low hanging fruit (no pun intended). As a Coloradan, I appreciated the idea of taking jabs at Lauren Bobert again until I saw they were just going for more tired ass theater groping jokes. C-

Monologue - It's nice to see Bad Bunny address the possible language barrier right off the bat. I wasn’t expecting him to make that the ENTIRE monologue, though... but at least he bought Pedro Pascal out on stage for a bit. Sadly, that didn’t quite solve this monologues' pacing issues. I liked the nice meta moment where Pedro deconstructed modern-day SNL monologue tropes. Unfortunately, that didn’t distract me from the fact that Bad Bunny seemingly forgot how to not come off too cocky by that point. Oh well, at least HE did a decent job of hiding any visible nervousness in this, and he expressed some sincere appreciation for the show and eagerness to host. C-

Rap Battle - Wow, nice to see Benito stretch as an actor and break out of his comfort zone right out of the gate. This sketch just left me wondering if it was Mikey and Streeter Seidell who wrote those WWE promo sketches from the last two Dwayne Johnson episodes (or if not, did whoever actually write this sketch happen to watch Scary Movie 3 recently?) At least it was short and had an unexpectedly heartwarming ending. I admit that the lines about Mikeys' character having four testicles got me. Also, it just dawned on me that they had a rapper play a fictional rapper in a sketch and didn’t have the actual rapper rap once. Both this and the lack of a Kendall Jenner cameo (hell, they even inexplicably got Lady Gaga to introduce his first musical performance instead of her for some reason) just goes to show you that this show will somehow find a way to consistently subvert even the most base level expectations you could make based on even the smallest bit of information you gleam from any host. You gotta love SNL for that! C+

Age Of Discovery - Well, doing a sketch entirely in subtitled Spanish may have been a risk, but it was certainly worth the risk. Normally, I run a bit cold on Fred Armisen cameos, but he worked just fine for me here. This did remind me of a sketch he led about ancient Mayans discovering chocolate for the first time from the 2006 Matthew Fox episode for whatever that was worth (and a certain early Monty Python sketch when the llama was bought out). This sketch felt a little unfocused at first and a little derivative near the end, but it all came together, and again, it was the most "different" thing the show has tried in recent memory. It is definitely the type of thing that grows on you more upon a rewatch or two. C+

Telenovela Shoot - Wow, so pretty much all of the live sketches in this episode were designed to give our host as little English dialogue as possible, huh? I mean, aside from pacing issues this caused here, in the monologue and in one other cameo laden sketch later on, I don't really have a problem with that. I guess I should've expected this to be a strong night for Marcello. He does naturally play off Bad Bunny well. I wasn't expecting Bowen to turn in a heavily padded performance reminiscent of Scott Thompson in the Kids In The Halls' "Shitty Soup" sketch. I certainly wasn’t expecting Punkie to pretty much steal this sketch, but hey, I'll take it! I'm really starting to notice how much Punkie can really add to a sketch she's in given the chance. I most definitely wasn’t expecting a random ass Mick Jagger cameo where he shows us he can handle dialogue in Spanish just as well as Marcello and Bad Bunny but I can appreciate that and wonder why (beyond just old age and other commitments of the week) he could've been as big a part of this episode as he was the season 37 finale. B-

PDD: Shrek Screenplay - Ok, suddenly the best sketch of the night and the thing that gets me fully on board with this episode is Ben, Martin and Johns' sheer bewilderment trying to figure out why Bad Bunny just wandered into their office unannounced in a full on Shrek costume? And he makes them read a whole ass screenplay he barely has any faith in? And these moments are punctuated with some of the cheapest Rapsittie ass CGI ever? Goddammit, PDD. Don't ever stop being you! B+

Update was a bit strange tonight. It was so short all I can really say about it was that Che had the only jokes that landed with me (Desantis, Coney-Barett/Thomas, WNBA, alcoholism) and Egos' Jada Pinkett Smith commentary (questionable wig and topicality issues aside) was the real highlight for me. I especially liked the "brutiful/Tupinkett/publicly cucking/never go to bed happy" lines. This is the type of more focused, pointed character work I'd like to see more of from Ego on the show. C+

Protective Mom (Now With Aunt!) - With Pedro being in the building along with this basically being a bilingual episode and Marcello being used to pick up the slack a bit this week, I should've expected a reprise of this sketch tonight. I'm glad that we got to see this again because it was one of the true highlights of Pedro's episode back in February. This sketch still has sharp writing and should probably have been placed earlier in the show. The fact that the wordless scene where Pedro casually dumps Chloes' cookies in the trash and then filled the empty tin with her sewing thread was met with more roaring applause than laughter from the audience (mostly the same screaming Bad Bunny fans from the monologue) really signaled that the entire show was playing to a very different audience than usual (and succeeding largely by playing on the charisma of it's guest performers who know THEIR audience and how to play this type of material to their own culture very well). That seemed like a joke pulled from a Black Jeopardy sketch but played out visually for a different audience).The ending was very sweet and the entire Spanglish conversation between Pedro, Marcello and Benito that kicked off with the "septum piercing" joke was funny to me. Plus, it's nice to see that by her second episode Ms. Troast can easily ingratiate herself with this cast. Anyone else get strong Arden Myrin vibes from her in that blonde wig? B+

The Right Track - Speaking if things SNL did earlier this year with hispanic hosts, I was glad to see this pretape template from Jenna Ortegas' episode return. Unfortunately, I have to say I still liked the Waffle House version of this better. Sadly, the craziness happening on the subway didn't quite steal focus from the solid dramatic acting chops that Devon and JAJ were showing (again, talk about ingratiating yourself into thr cast, huh?) Plus, that CGI rat was distractingly bad. C+

Sisters - Wow, either Kearney and Fineman are the only ones who DON'T secretly have the hots for Bad Bunny & Mick Jagger or they just dusted off and resubmitted an old script from either Regé-Jean Pages' episode (or pretty much any episode from season 24?) Either way, I'm glad to see that SNL in season 49 has a strong enough female cast to be able to fully put over such a threadbare premise. I also liked seeing that Punkie, Ego and (especially) Sarah have now gained this Chris Redd like ability to steal a whole sketch with a single line delivery (but Sarah only do this in the horniest of sketches for some reason. Wait, did she cowrite this with PDD and Ke$ha?). B-

Burts' Bees - This may have been the most ten-to-one ass ten-to-one sketch the show has done in quite a while, but it really started to pick up for me once Ego just sassed Mikey about his six year old daughter out of nowhere. That's literally all I have to say about it. C-

Now, for my first official best-to-worst ranking of season 49...

1. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
2. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

Well, that was a mostly successful experiment. Next week, stand up comic Nate Bargatze makes his hosting debut. I'm not too terribly familiar with Nates' act, but I've seen bits and pieces before and I know he's friends with Fallon so he has connections to the show there. I also heard he has a rather PG-13 Jim Gaffigan-like, "safe for the whole family" style act (which must be true since I can't immediately recall any jokes of his I have heard). Still, I like thst their going for another comedian host with little exposure. I do hope the SAG strike gets resolved but until then I'll enjoy seeing SNL having to make itself take risks and make more different out-of-the-box type hosting choices. It was nice to get an episode like this but it'll still be nicer to see another traditionally comedic host help the show find it's footing again this season (and this episode may now be the best of the season by default but hopefully if the rest of the season goes right, it will be somewhere in the lower middle of my rankings). See you then!

Oh, and by the way, in case you haven't seen it, here is my latest appearance on the Saturday Night Network Patron Podcast as part of their ongoing countdown of the 50 greatest cast members of all time. I'm particularly proud of this one and I really feel that it's my best podcast appearance yet. You might be surprised by some of the names we discuss in depth here!