SNL Recap: Rege-Jean Page/Bad Bunny
I am pleased to report that Saturday Night Live is finally getting weird again, and I love it.
Freed from the necessity to make of-the-moment jokes about the pandemic, the election, the holiday season, or football games, the SNL writers are able to make sketches about whatever the hell they want, and it shows! Of course there’s still zeitgeist-y political and cultural satire- this week most notably in the Britney Spears Cold Open, where Britney (played by impression queen Chloe Fineman) has celebrities and politicians on a talk show to make public apologies. Aside from that sketch, featuring Aidy Bryant as Ted Cruz, Pete Davidson as Andrew Cuomo, and Cecily Strong as Gina Carano, the only other political sketch was Weekend Update. As it should be!
The remaining sketches of the night truly ran the gamut. After Page’s opening monologue, the first sketch featured Ego Nwodim clearly playing a version of me writing this blog being surprised that the actors she was interviewing, including Page as Kingsley Ben-Adir and Chris Redd as Daniel Kaluuya, were in fact, British. She simply could not handle it. The real bit of the scene, though was that the third actor in the sketch, Kenan Thompson as Ice Cube, was British as well.
The night continued with the first of TWO MUSIC VIDEOS, featuring Nwodim and Pete Davidson going “Loco” in quarantine. The second music video of the night came later in the episode, and featured Beck Bennett, Kyle Mooney, and Andrew Dismukes attempting to film a parody rap video in a grocery store, in spite of COVID-19 precautions. I thought both were fun!
Music was a dominant theme of the evening, and in addition to the two music videos there were THREE, count ‘em, THREE sketches where music played a central role. The first, and, if I had to chose, the best, featured almost if not all of the male cast members (and Kate McKinnon dressed as an old man, because, why not?) playing pool in a bar. Before Page stepped up to the table for his turn, he turned to the jukebox and started playing “drivers license” by Olivia Rodrigo. The scene that followed was simply beautiful. I was also a fan of the two other musical sketches, “Sea Shanty,” which is exactly what it sounds like and also featured most if not all of the male cast plus McKinnon, because, once again, why not, and “Let’s Say Grace,” in which a family invites over their new neighbors for dinner, leading to a jocular, friendly, prayer-rap-dance battle situation. I loved it.
Speaking of music, you’re probably wondering what I thought of the musical guest, Bad Bunny. I literally do not care at all about his performances, but I thought he was great as Reggie, the talking plant in “Loco,” and as the navigator in “Sea Shanty.”
Aside from the many, many musical moments of the night, the other sketches of the evening were also really fun and weird! Of course, homage had to be paid to Page’s star turn in Bridgerton through the sketch “Bridgerton Intimacy Coordinator,” in which Pete Davidson and Mikey Day play substitute intimacy coordinators sent to help with Page and Phoebe Dynevor’s (played by Fineman) sex scenes. It does not go well.
My favorite weird sketch of the night had to be “Mr. Chicken Legs Pageant,” which once again, is exactly what it sounds like. I feel like this sketch came to be because someone in the writer’s room looked around and was like, “You know what? We have a lot of skinny white guys in the cast right now. Let’s use that.” And they did. And it worked.
Before I sign off I’ll leave you with my favorite Weekend Update moment, which came from Pete Davidson’s personal monologue. After lamenting spending Valentine’s Day watching the new Britney Spears documentary with his mom, he said, “My mom is a lot like this show. No matter what I do, I’m never asked to leave. Also, they’re both really old and noticeably fatigued.”