“You can call me Joey Chestnut with how fast I gobble it down”
Cold Open: House Of Representatives
2 Stars
Jim Jordan didn’t win speaker of the house and is upset about it. Man, this episode is from less than a year ago but feels like it’s been 20. I completely checked out from all politics a few years ago and it’s been a refreshing load off my mind. So I have no idea who Lauren Boebert is or why someone was grabbing her boob, I vaguely recall that George Santos was a meme for a few months, and as for Trump I haven’t heard a word that man’s said for 4 years and I like to keep it that way. This turns into white noise for me real quick. James Austin Johnson starts droning on and my eyes start glazing over. I feel the SNL cold open does a disservice to those of us who don’t watch cable news, hide all political videos when they pop up online, and have even stopped watching late night TV as it’s turned into the all Trump comedy hours. I don’t care about any of this, I don’t find humor in it, and it’s instantly dated. Nothing here is worth talking about on Sunday much less in a year. Also, stop with the big applause for every single entrance. It’s Mikey Day and Bowen Yang, save your enthusiasm until they do something fun.
Bad Bunny Monologue
I shield myself from Trump and the entire political circus and I also have no idea who Bad Bunny is. This show may not be for me anymore. I don’t feel old watching SNL, I feel like an outsider, I don’t understand any of this and it has nothing to do with his monologue being mostly in Spanish. What was the joke about the subtitles? Why is Pedro Pascal here? Are they friends or is it just because they both speak Spanish? Also, who is this guy? He seems nice but I have no interest in watching him perform sketch comedy. I can tell you that my wife loved it.
Edit: I looked it up and Bad Bunny was the musical guest in the Rege-Jean Page episode which I have seen and remember enjoying so I have seen Bad Bunny before but he left no impression on me. That’s coming from a guy who hasn’t listened to new music since around 2009 so it means absolutely nothing.
Rap Battle
Walter White Boy takes on El Fuego in a rap battle and decides to go the self deprecating route. He raps about living with his mom, getting catfished by his dad, and dating his cousin. I appreciate how this sketch told you the joke right up front and then just did that joke.
“Hey, you should rap about your shortcomings”
“That’s a great idea”
Sometimes it’s nice to just tell me what the joke’s gonna be so I don’t have to think that hard. But Mikey’s flow left something to be desired. We’ve seen plenty of rap (and white boy rap) on SNL that the bar’s been set a little higher. I suppose he’s supposed to be a bad rapper, but if he’s so bad then why do he seem to be established in rap battles? Good use of Bad Bunny.
La Era Del Descrubimiento
Another good use of Bad Bunny, have him speak all in Spanish. But is Fred Armisen the only guy you know with an accent? Seeing him put me off initially but he’s fine, but why is the audience hooting? And what are they hooting for? Fred and Mikey are telling their kings about the new world and all the treasures they found like a turkey (a chicken with testicles on its face), a llama (a horse but worse), and a pumpkin (a herpes melon). They like the cigars though, or as they call them the dookies you light on fire and inhale. Very fun and fast paced and I didn’t mind at all that it was completely subtitled, in fact that helped a little as I could read all the jokes.
Telenovela
Well, they really seem to be catering to the host, which is good. Bad Bunny and Marcello star in a telenovela when Punkie enters to say some broken Spanish. And this may be the first time in 4 seasons that I’ve laughed at Punkie. That intro was hilarious but I unfortunately the sketch just repeats after that.
“I don’t speak Spanish but I only got one line. I’ll figure it out. Let’s do it again.”
Gee, I wonder what’s gonna happen on the second take, the same thing? You betcha. Punkie’s Latina Jefferson keeps screwing up takes. I cringed pretty hard at the gag of her confusing the Spanish word ‘negro’ with something else. Then after the sketch repeats three times Mick Jagger walks out to slap everyone.
Please Don’t Destroy
Bad Bunny Is Shrek
We start with a very fun reveal of Bad Bunny dressed as Shrek saying “Hi” in a very monosyllabic fashion. He’s written a new Shrek movie and wants the PDD guys to act it out. Donkey, Puss In Boots, and Michael Jackson save the swamp and the world by jettisoning Shrek into the sun. Another frenetic and fun short from PDD this season.
Bad Bunny
“Un Preview”
As I said last episode, if you’re looking for my hot takes on the musical guests of Season 49, I don’t really have any. I’m only familiar with about half of them (mostly because they performed on the show before or, in the case of one, because they were on a Boy Meets World spin-off before they were a pop star). This wasn’t bad. It’s not anything I would listen to in any other context than passively on SNL though.
Weekend Update
Protective Mom
Well as soon as Marcello enters and we see Bad Bunny in a dress I kinda figured we’d be seeing Pedro Pascal’s mother character so all surprise is gone. But you know what, this still worked for me. Granted it’s been a while since I’ve seen the first one so it’s kinda fresh for me. I loved Pedro throwing the cookies directly in the trash and got an even bigger laugh when he used the tin for sewing stuff. We’re still keeping with having Bad Bunny speak mostly in Spanish which was probably a good idea. I was against this sketch when it started just because it was a repeat but it still packed a punch.
The Right Track
Devon and James act out a Pursuit Of Happyness style scene while antics happen on the subway train behind them. I seem to recall a similar sketch from the previous season or possibly later this season but the benefit of being a casual watcher is that these retreads are new to me. Mikey and Heidi get in a fight, a bunch of balloons are popped, Kenan is flashing people, and a big ass rat all cause chaos on the train but weirdly I found myself enjoying the scene in the foreground more. Devon and James both deliver sincere performances which make the loud outbursts behind them all the crazier.
Bad Bunny returns with “Monaco”
Convent Meeting
There seems to be an imposter in a group of nuns. One of them is actually a man disguising himself as a nun to make dirty sex with all the rest. The nuns (including Bad Bunny) are all horrified before getting horny thoughts but then Mick Jagger comes out and says he was the imposter. This is the first non-Spanish role for Bad Bunny and he handles himself well enough although they should have kept his lines to a minimum. But he has heaps more comedic timing than Mick Jagger, who as far as I know is a native English speaker. This had a promising start but quickly began tanking then lost all steam with Mick’s second cameo of the night. It’s a shame as I was enjoying it, especially Sarah’s R-rated comment involving a competitive eater and a man’s dong. Mick downright ruins this and I once again have to ask what the hell he’s doing here. This also brings the season’s tally to 2 sketches that end as fake advertisements, this one being for Sister Act 3. Will we get one per episode?
Enrique’s Daughter
Another one with an interesting premise that just slowly falls apart. During a work meeting which may involve massive lay-offs Bad Bunny only wants to talk about his daughter’s engagement. Mr. Bunny’s loose grasp of English gives him an awkward delivery that strangely works for this character but once we establish the premise we just start circling the drain.
FINAL ANALYSIS
“Also, I found a herpes melon”
Average
2.9 Stars
MVP
Marcello Hernandez
La Era Del Descrubimiento, Telenovela, Protective Mom, The Right Track
Best Sketch
The Right Track
Worst Sketch
Telenovela
How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It
Cut Pedro from the monologue. How much fun would it be to see him show up as Marcello’s mother after Update if we had no idea he was in the building. I’d also rework it so we see Pedro first then get the reveal of Bad Bunny as the aunt. Speaking of cameos, get Mick Jagger out of here. That was fun for absolutely nobody. If you have to put him in the show because you lost a bet or something limit him to one. Have him play the nun but put Lady Gaga, who introduced Bad Bunny, in the Telenovela sketch. Or don’t have random pointless cameos.
Host Analysis
Having absolutely no expectations certainly helped. Actually negative expectations is probably more accurate. I had no clue who Bad Bunny was going into this and once I learned that English was his second language I lost all hope for a fun episode. But he was pretty good, mostly because they used him appropriately, giving him mostly Spanish speaking roles. He was better in the filmed bits but his awkward delivery worked well for his later in the night characters. He was a decent musical guest as well. But all this praise doesn’t mean I want a second outing. I’m pretty much always opposed to these double duty hosts, especially when we get 2 per season now.
Final Thoughts
A fairly consistent episode with more highs than lows. The filmed pieces were all good and the show had a nice energy. Everything without Mick Jagger or Donald Trump worked for me. I liked this a whole lot better than I remembered. I watched this one live with my wife who was familiar with Bad Bunny and was hooting and hollering almost as much as the studio audience. I’m glad they did so many Spanish-centric sketches. It kept the host in his comfort zone which is something I don’t always appreciate. I was gearing up for a bad one. Not that I wanted Bad Bunny to fail but sometimes a cringy MC Hammer style episode can be fun but I was laughing with Bad Bunny instead of at him. I guess it’s weird to complain about liking an episode too much but that’s where I’m at.
Up Next
Nate Bargatze and Foo Fighters. Finally, an episode that seems like it was booked for me.
Re: The Right Track...I think you're thinking of the Jenna Ortega bit in front of the Waffle House. That's a good one, too.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your review of the Washington's Dream sketch. It's a really good sketch but I don't quite get how it's seen as an all-time classic. It's not nearly as overrated as the Beavis & Butthead sketch but I see it as more "really good" than legendary.