Posted in: NBC, Review, TV | Tagged: bad bunny, nbc, Review, saturday night live, season 49, snl

Saturday Night Live Cast Can't Save Show from Bad Bunny, Guest Stars

NBC's Saturday Night Live had a rough Season 49 outing with host/musical guest Bad Bunny that even the SNL cast couldn't completely save.

If you read up enough on the late-night sketch comedy/music series' nearly 50-season run, you'll find a lot of folks all agreeing on one thing when it comes to hosting NBC's Saturday Night Live. Trust the SNL process. Give yourself over to the SNL process. And, if you're someone without much comedy and/or acting experience (athletes, politicians, pop culture figures, etc.), check your ego at the door. When a host does that (as we saw with Megan Thee Stallion), you end up with a show where the host seems to be enjoying themselves while working with the cast – still letting aspects of themselves show while also giving the writers the free reign to flip expectations. And then there's the following week's host, Jack Harlow – who could be seen as a "cautionary tale" of how awkward an SNL episode can get when a host is either saddled with more than they can handle sketch-wise or wants a little too much of their PR persona to show – that "wink-wink-nudge-nudge" vibe where they need to audience to know that they're in on the joke. That brings us to this weekend's S49E02 host & musical guest Bad Bunny – and a show that just did not work.

It had all of the makings of at least a solid, funny show – but we were actually expecting more. Bad Bunny is a natural performer who knows how to work a crowd – no matter how large or small. Plus, his pro-wrestling runs prove that he knows the importance of selling a character to the crowd while telling an effective story. Then there was his WWE-themed midweek sketch, where "Benito" and "Bad Bunny" trash-talked for the SNL title. Fun, self-deprecating, and unique – how could this not be a good sign, right? Then the show hit, and the next thing we knew, Bad Bunny, Mick Jagger, Pedro Pascal, Lady Gaga, and the SNL cast were taking their final bows – and we were blankly staring at our screen.

Bad Bunny isn't funny – at least not in an improv/sketch comedy way. And it wasn't a language barrier because he looked lost in the "The Age of Discovery" and "Protective Mom 2" sketches – both of which relied heavily on Spanish. What made it painfully obvious was that it was noticeable even though the cast was clearly doing a lot of the heavy lifting sketch-wise. Along with that, I thought the joke about Bad Bunny being perfect and there not being anything to criticize him about during the opening monologue with Pascal was fun. But everything after that also seemed built more around feeding into that persona than showing any new facets of him. And then there was the parade of guest stars, which felt awkward, forced, and like another attempt to distract from what wasn't working. Are we still trying to sell Jagger as a "sex machine"? It's kinda creepy at this point.

Saturday Night Live Thoughts – S49E02: Bad Bunny

Before we take a look at what worked for us, we have some quick bonus points & eyebrow-archers to drop onto the dinner table. "Rap Battle" earned Mikey Day the award for show's MVP, while "Telenovela" still gave Punkie Johnson some great moments (before Jagger sucked up all of the oxygen in the room). "Convent Meeting" was another Bad Bunny ego-stroker that at least had some of Sarah Sherman's creative madness to make it bearable – while "Protective Mom 2" should've had Pascal riding solo. "Enrique's Daughter" was kinda sweet and might've been better earlier in the show, while "The Age of Discovery" was another reminder that Fred Armisen is great in everything he's in – and that Marcello Hernández deserves more sketch time. Again, you'll notice a theme here – that what did work ended up working in spite of (and not because of) the host. But there were some sketches that stood out:

"Jim Jordan Cold Open": James Austin Johnson's Donald Trump continues getting eerily better, Day might be able to get some long-term traction from that Jim Jordan impersonation, and Chloe Fienman's Lauren Boebert was knife-twistingly spot-on. But as long as George Santos continues to remain media relevant, Bowen Yang's take will always win the day.

"Please Don't Destroy – Bad Bunny Is Shrek": Ben Marshall, John Higgins & Martin Herlihy offer us a wonderfully absurd concept, play on Bad Bunny's strengths, and then deep dive so deeply into their concept that it left me needing to see the damn movie now, too. It's nice to see PDD included in the show's opening credits – especially considering I'm hard-pressed to think of a single sketch they've done so far during their run that hasn't scored big.

"Subway Platform": As Johnson and Devon Walker engage in a "Lifetime movie-esque" conversation that ends with a man's career dreams finally being realized, we have a hysterical drama playing out in a subway car in the background with Day, Punkie Johnson, Kenan Thompson, Ego Nwodim, and others dealing with monster rats, exposed penises, and more.

"Weekend Update": Thankfully, Michael Che and Colin Jost arrived to break up the monotony – and they did it in style with some hard hits on a whole number of issues. Normally, we don't like to spoil the jokes here, but the line about Netflix opening a series of physical stores is akin to a serial killer wearing the skin of their victims was golden (and far from the only one). But Nwodim's Jada Pinkett Smith gets the title belt this week as "Weekend Update" addressed Pinkett Smith's recent revelation about her relationship with Will Smith.

Saturday Night Live Season 49 Episode 2: Bad Bunny

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Review by Ray Flook

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5/10

If you read up enough on the late-night sketch comedy/music series' nearly 50-season run, you'll find a lot of folks all agreeing on one thing when it comes to hosting NBC's Saturday Night Live. Trust the SNL process. Give yourself over to the SNL process. And, if you're someone without much comedy and/or acting experience (athletes, politicians, pop culture figures, etc.), check your ego at the door. When a host does that (as we saw with Megan Thee Stallion), you end up with a show where the host seems to be enjoying themselves while working with the cast - still letting aspects of themselves show while also giving the writers the free reign to flip expectations. And then there's the following week's host, Jack Harlow - who could be seen as a "cautionary tale" of how awkward an SNL episode can get when a host is either saddled with more than they can handle sketch-wise or wants a little too much of their PR persona to show - that "wink-wink-nudge-nudge" vibe where they need to audience to know that they're in on the joke. That brings us to this weekend's S49E02 host & musical guest Bad Bunny - and a show that just did not work.

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