SNL Scorecard: Bad Bunny / Doja Cat

October is an favorite month of mine for many reasons: it usually marks the peak of Fall season, with colors turning, air cooling, and the excitement of holiday season in the air. It's when college football season starts really ramping up. It's when warm drinks and long chilly walks sound delightful. And it's also when Saturday Night Live comes back.

Yes, this past weekend, SNL returned after an abnormally turbulent summer. Last year, of course, was its famed and much-anticipated 50th season, which many expected might mark the end of founder Lorne Michaels' tenure as producer of the show-- or perhaps even the end of the show itself. Neither turned out to be true, but but much speculation remains about how much longer Michaels will do this, and his show did experience one of the most significant cast turnovers the show has had in a decade, with no less than 5 major cast members leaving, 4 newbies being brought in as featured players, and many changes in the writing room as well. One thing that struck me right at the opening credits of this premiere episode was how few women are in the main cast now, with the surprising summer departures of veterans Heidi Gardener and Ego Nwodim. It was noteworthy to me that Chloe Fineman, now the longest-tenured woman in the cast, seemed to be in just about every single sketch last night after a couple years now of seeing her appearances significantly dwindle.

Bad Bunny was an unexpected choice for the season-opening host, as well, in part because he technically appeared in the last episode of SNL (as musical guest for the finale of SNL50). It proved to be a prescient choice soon after announcement, though, as he was quickly also announced as the performer for the Super Bowl LX Halftime Show, and after a summer in which the global superstar publicly discussed keeping his worldwide tour out of the U.S. for fear of ICE raids, he does feel like the artist for the times right now.

That said, while is also very funny and naturally charismatic, he is not a comedian by trade, nor an English speaker primarily. Both those things were evident in a night in which he was always a willing and gamely host, but not a very effective one, often times missing the comedic timing, or getting off pace with the rest of the sketch. To paraphrase a take I saw online after the episode, his various cameos in SNL episodes and specials have always been funny, but being the actual host feels like slightly too tall of an order. The season premiere of SNL is often sloppy, as cast and crew all try to shake off the summer rust (genuinely, I struggle to think when the last great premiere episode was), and that's especially going to be the case with a lot of new faces onstage and in the writers' room, so I feel no need to read too much into it as a harbinger of this season's quality. That said, I'd be lying if I said this was anything but an extremely unremarkable episode.

One note in case you forgot, since it's been a minute- I know my rankings can seem a little arbitrary, and truthfully there have been times where even I will look back at scorecards and think "Now, why did I rate (x) an 8.5, if (x) from this other episode was only a 7...?". So, both to hopefully clear up my scoring system for any curious readers, but also really to help keep myself consistent, here is the rubric to reference:

10/10: Perfect, no notes

8-9.5/10: Very funny-to-hilarious, definite rewatch

6-7.5/10: Pretty funny-to-funny, but won't necessarily be a rewatch

4-5.5/10: Not BAD, but not particularly funny or memorable

1-3.5/10: Terrible/poor taste, to simply bad/unfunny

Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 1st episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

"El Chavo Del Ocho": 7/10

I'll confess, I didn't know what was going on the entire time, and this didn’t really have any laugh out loud moments. But both the comment section and Twitter informed me that this is a near-flawless recreation of a famous and beloved Latin American show and the Spanish-speaking world LOVED it. So, while it may not make any best of lists for me personally, simply being memorable on a night otherwise devoid of memorable sketches is good enough for me.

The Good

“Weekend Update": 8/10

A not-insignificant portion of the online SNL fanbase was unhappy with Michael Che and Colin Jost being back for a record-extending 12th season, but I wasn’t necessarily among them- neither one humors me much individually, but they’re great in tandem, and their Update has been one of the only near-consistent things about the show in the last several years. It has often been the case that Weekend Update feels especially strong when the episode around it is pretty weak, and that was certainly the case this time. Neither co-anchor batted 1.000 with their jokes, but in general the punchlines were very sharp and clever. And this eidtion was certainly buoyed by two very good and very fun walk-on guests; first, a hilarious debut by newbie Kam Patterson, who seemed pretty unfazed by the moment, and a typically hysterical and biting performance from Bowen Yang in a wild getup, this time as Dobby who (sarcastically) sticks up for raging transphobe J.K. Rowling.

“Pete Hegseth Cold Open": 7/10

A big moment for new featured player Jeremy Culhane to officially get the first lines of Season 51! The writers sort of had their pick of the litter for which insane political development from the last couple months to parody in the opener, but "Secretary of War" Pete Hegseth's insane PR stunt was easy fodder. As has often been the case in the post-Trump timeline, the sketch struggled to make the humor any more absurd than the reality is, and the fourth-wall breaks just don’t hit as much as they did the first couple times they were employed. That said, there were plenty of funny and surprisingly cutting moments in here. I missed James Austin Johnson getting to riff as Trump, and it was fun to see Colin Jost actually play a part in a sketch (and do a pretty sound job)!

"ChatGPTío": 7/10

A simple premise but a great bit for a mock ad- this was probably the best chemistry in the various collaborations between Marcello Hernández and Benito all night long.

"Monologue": 6/10

A perfectly fine monologue from the second-time host. Not too many funny moments, per se, (although the Fox News mashup was delightfully tongue-in-cheek). but plenty of fun. Doing an entire monologue is daunting anyhow, let alone doing it in your second language, so Benito deserves all the credit in the world-- and the brief foray into his first language was the perfect closer.

“Inventing Spanish": 5.5/10

This was pretty one-note, and one of several in which any momentum got knocked off-kilter by some pacing issues. It was funny to see what was essentially a Spanish-language version of Nate Bargatze’s George Washington sketches, and I'd guess how funny you thought this one was probably somewhat boiled down to how funny you tend to find those sketches. But fun cameo from Benicio del Toro as well, and I always enjoy how much Marcello shines with Hispanic guests.

The... Less-Good

“Parent Teacher Conference": 5/10

Ah yes, the obligatory “the host is a hottie!!!” sketch. I find these so tiresome, so I'm glad it was pretty much limited to this one sketch. Unlike most of them, this actually had the potential to be a funny premise, and Ashley Padilla sold the hell out of it- I'm very excited to see her hopefully get more air time this season. But ultimately, the writing was just too weak for it to be a winner.

"Jeopardy with Bad Bunny": 4.5/10

The concept at the center of this one— the host’s character doesn’t understand how to frame answers in question form —was decently funny, but just didn’t go anywhere. Also! I'm big fan of Veronica Slowikowska and am extremely excited she joined the cast! So I was a little disappointed her first role on the show was 100% a straight man character with zero funny lines... not exactly the best way to introduce yourself to the audience for the first time :(

“KPop Demon Hunters": 4/10

I’m sure this was fun for people who watched the show, and it is a sensation. But it always irks me when SNL tries to do sketches in the premiere that encapsulate every big storyline from the summer months, because it hardly ever feels like they’re doing it in an organic way, and that’s very much the case here. The energy was good, at least, but laughs were few and far between, especially for people (like me) who haven’t seen the show. Also— I mentioned at the outset the strangeness of only two women as full-time cast members, and nothing highlighted that strangeness more than this, a second consecutive sketch featuring the same two women at a restaurant. 

“The Donor": 3/10

I want to believe there was a funny sketch in here- Benito’s and Kenan’s getups alone were worth a few laughs. But after the initial reveal of “weird guy at the table over offers to be sperm donor!” which itself is only mildly funny, it just didn’t develop at all. As one review I read stated, "this one was forgotten as soon as it ended."

Musical Performances

Doja Cat: 8/10

I had been vaguely aware of the rollout for Doja Cat's new album Vie, but not only have I not listened, I also haven’t heard much buzz about it at all, so I was coming into her first ever SNL appearance fairly blind as to what songs she would perform. That said, I have all kinds of praise I can give to Doja as a performer, but probably the best thing I can say about this appearance is that her performances alone made me interested in checking out this album.

I wouldn’t call myself a fan of Doja, both for the problematic skeletons in her personal life, and also because her discography has not yielded much for me beyond a couple true bangers per album cycle. But there is no denying her immense talent, both in musicianship and especially as a performer, which had me excited to see her set. There truly are few doing it like her, and the first performance, of the psychedelic “AAAHH MEN!”, made that clear from the start; really, who could give us that level of zaniness, energy and vocal control besides perhaps Lady Gaga? The second song, “Gorgeous,” was more of a conventional R&B pop hit, but still served as a way for her to flex her range, as she seemed right at home singing the entire track while sitting in a large rose float. Overall, a tremendously impressive outing from an artist who probably doesn't get nearly as much credit she deserves, and one that certainly provided an energy and originality high in an episode largely lacking both. 

OVERALL SCORE: 5.91 ('Comedy Only' score: 5.70)