Riding the high of a half-century run, an anniversary special, and a narrative film, Saturday Night Live’s new season was ready to be as relevant and exciting as ever. The first episode of Season 51 premiered this past Saturday at its trusty start time of 11:30 p.m. Before the show aired, the buzz surrounding the episode had already begun, due in large part to the highly advertised fact that the show had landed quite an exciting host, Bad Bunny.
Before the rapper starred in his first skit, the cold open started us right off the bat with a classic first-episode twist: Colin Jost as Pete Hegseth. Jost, known mainly for the “Weekend Update” segment — the show’s longest-running recurring sketch — rarely ventures outside of the newsroom as he presents the latest on international politics and pop culture moments with co-host Michael Che. Beloved for his anchor persona in particular, it was a welcome, if unexpected, treat to see Jost show off his acting prowess through a political impression that charmed the audience.
For his second time hosting, Bad Bunny did surprisingly well with what he was given. It was up in the air just how catastrophic the episode might be with a non-actor leading man. But sketches like “ChatGPTío” and “Jeopardy with Bad Bunny” showed the audience that he definitely has the capacity for comedy. Relying on the talents and comfortability exuded by established cast members, he did just what a good host needs to do: go all-in on letting go of the ego.
Some of the conversation surrounding this new season has been sparked by the newest cast recruits. New cast members always cause spirited discussion, especially among fans who are excited to see some of their favorite lesser-known stand-up comedians make it on air. When Oberlin College’s own Jane Wickline, OC ’21, joined the cast, alumni and current students were rooting for the former Editor-in-Chief of The Grape.
Perhaps the most contentious addition to the cast this time around is Kam Patterson, a comedian who amassed a following after his recurring feature on the Kill Tony podcast. The stand-up show has hosted a variety of controversial figures, some even as high profile as Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson. But what Patterson brings to SNL is perhaps going to be a bit easier to stomach for a New York audience: tongue-in-cheek restraint. His main contribution to this week’s episode was a guest appearance as himself on “Weekend Update,” where he discussed the ways in which he has to rein himself in as a comedian whose material is not always known for being live-television-friendly.
Throughout the five decades that SNL has managed to keep its late-night spot on NBC, the constant question surrounding its cultural relevance has always (and often rightfully so) been, “Is it still funny?” Other than the wild-card nature of guest hosts, the answer ultimately always boils down to the current cast and writers. Season 1 took audiences by storm, making history with figures like Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, and John Belushi. Comedians like John Mulaney and Conan O’Brien, both now well-known outside of the show, got their starts at the writers’ desk, and without them some of our favorite sketches wouldn’t have come into existence. But not every sketch, or even every season, is created equal.
One such flop of this week was “El Chavo Del Ocho (English Version),” a sketch depicting a made-up scene from a ’70s Mexican children’s show. While some nostalgic viewers of the original show appreciated such a specific reference, the main concept of the sketch didn’t come across very well. It seemed as though the sketch was meant to be exaggerating the awkward catastrophe that would occur if the show had been done in English instead of Spanish, with cast members Marcello Hernández and Chloe Fineman doing what was meant to be exaggerated overdubbed voices. Ultimately, the sketch relied too much on the physical comedy of a children’s program, which didn’t play to an adult audience nearly as well, especially one largely unfamiliar with the original show.
That’s not to say that the episode didn’t have its good moments. One of the strongest assets of the night was a constant theme of self-awareness, where the legitimacy of the show itself was overtly questioned. When James Austin Johnson came out at the end of the cold open with his reliable impression of President Trump, he immediately called attention to the elephant in the room: “17 new cast members, and they got the ‘Update Guy’ doing the Open!”
At the end of the night, when the credits started rolling and the hugs between cast members began, SNL had proved that it’s ready to be back at it. Amid the rumors of changing leadership and shifting casts, and the generations-long questioning of its pop culture relevancy, SNL has clearly established that it has no intention of slowing down.
