SNL Scorecard: Regé-Jean Page / Bad Bunny

In my experience watching Saturday Night Live, I've found that when the host for a show is one that I have no familiarity with or no concept of how their talents will translate to the Studio 8H stage, it usually results in one of two extremes: as mediocre or forgettable as I feared it might be, or actually really good, to my pleasant surprise. This past weekend's episode fit the criteria: I am culturally aware of Bridgerton but have never watched a second of any episode, and until using The Google, had no clue who Regé-Jean Page was nor that his work in Bridgerton was what had spurred his rise in popularity. Considering the host's fairly niche fame, the fact this was going to be the fourth consecutive live episode without a break, and the fact that last week's episode was just okay, I came in with fairly low expectations.

Boy, was I off. Not only did this host exceed my expectations with his serious versatility and comedic chops, but the episode as a whole was arguably the funniest of the entire season. It wasn't terrific in the manner of past Tom Hanks or Adam Driver episodes, where there are multiple instant classic sketches, but it was in the sense that start to finish, every single sketch was at least mildly funny, and the vast majority were really funny. And to be wholly fair, I partially blamed the dead studio audience for last week's episode not being better, so using the same logic, the audience deserves a ton of credit. I don't know if it was just packed to the brim with Bridgerton and Bad Bunny stans, or this just happened to be a particularly lively bunch hellbent on overcorrecting from last week, but this was the most engaged and electric live audience Season 46 has seen, and that touched everything throughout the episode.

Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 13th episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

“The Job Interview”: 7.5/10

Wow. SNL has had great pre-taped sketches this season, obviously, and some bona fide weird ones (“Tiny Horse,” anyone?). But none were as successfully weird as this one. This felt like a throwback to Beck Bennett’s “Good Neighbor” days, where every time you thought you knew the direction a sketch was going, it went elsewhere. Beck and Page were both great, but Bowen Yang stole this one for me; the constant interjections with the handwritten notes, and then his last line… just hilarious.

The Good

“Britney Spears Cold Open": 7.5/10

Much like Kate McKinnon’s talk show a few weeks ago, this was a brilliant way of incorporating politics and current events in a new format. Chloe Fineman’s Britney Spears impression is so good, and the audience fed off her energy from the very start. I enjoyed Aidy Bryant’s Ted Cruz much more this time around than I did in last week’s Cold Open— maybe just because I’m even more inclined to enjoy shitting on Ted Cruz after his antics this week —and Pete Davidson’s Cuomo and Cecily Strong’s Gina Carano were also immensely enjoyable. This lost steam a little bit as it went on, but the running joke of Ted Cruz being the hated of the hated kept it funny to the end.

“Bridgerton Intimacy Coordinator": 7/10

I knew there would be a Bridgerton sketch at some point in the night, and I dreaded it coming because, as mentioned before, I have absolutely no knowledge of this show whatsoever. Fortunately, this went in a direction that anybody, regardless of Bridgerton exposure, could have kept up with. Maybe I’m reading too much into this but it felt like the audience’s disappointment that this wasn’t a straightforward Bridgerton parody was palpable; but I sure loved it. Mikey Day and Pete Davidson, who had one of his strongest episodes in recent memory, copped the perfect voices for this sketch, and I burst out laughing at their suggestion for an alternative ‘position.’

"Actors Spotlight": 7/10

I know you’ve already heard me mention it a couple times, but it makes such a difference when the audience is engaged like this one was. I think Ego Nwodim is terrific and could have anchored this sketch anyhow, but she was clearly playing off the audience expertly and it set this up for success. And as for Kenan…well, I shouldn’t still be surprised at his versatility, but playing ‘Ice Cube who’s trying to convince people he’s British’ has to be among his greatest acting accomplishments.

"Monologue": 7/10

Knowing nothing about Regé-Jean Page, I had no idea what sort of charisma he would bring to the stage. The answer came right away: a lot! The joke of the female SNL cast members walking on to the monologue to declare their love for the host was predictable, but still was executed delightfully, and the evidently multitalented Page played it up and engaged the audience terrifically.

“Weekend Update": 7/10

It was a decent outing for Michael Che and Colin Jost, who unsurprisingly opened fire on Ted Cruz. It wasn’t their most memorable set of punchlines, but definitely solid on the whole. Pete Davidson, who appears to be back to his blonde hair days, and Heidi Gardner also made appearances in classic roles: Pete as a self-referential comedian, and Heidi is a bizarre oft-kilter character. It wasn’t either of their most memorable appearances, but definitely solid on the whole. All in all, this Weekend Update wasn’t the most memorable installment, but definitely solid on the whole.

“Loco": 7/10

That you have had to scroll this far down to get to this sketch speaks to how great last night's episode was. Ego Nwodim is coming into her own on this show, and had perhaps her biggest episode of her SNL career this weekend, this being the pinnacle. She had some solid from Blonde Pete and Bad Bunny, for sure, but this is a true banger that also functions as a hilarious, all-too-real peek into the #quarantineminds of many of us.

“Drivers License": 6.5/10

I loved so many of the individual pieces of this sketch: the premise of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” being the go-to song at a pool hall, a bunch of tough Bronx guys getting in a heated debate about female pop songwriters, and Kate McKinnon randomly popping in as an old foreign man prone to nostalgia. It was all enough for me to thoroughly enjoy this, but I do feel like for whatever reason the end result wasn’t actually quite as good as I expected it would be. (Also, “Drivers License” is overrated. Don’t @ me.)

“Sea Shanty”: 6.5/10

In a night full of them, this was yet another example of at least someone in the cast and/or writing staff being up to date on the latest trends, as this took root in a popular TikTok craze. The reveal of a totally incompetent sea crew was fairly obvious, but this was a lot of fun. Bad Bunny’s cameo was great; the proud little smile he flashed after pointing to his “map” cracked me up.

“Let's Say Grace”: 6.5/10

This featured several random, bizarre technical glitches but they didn’t really detract from the sketch as a whole. Having grown up in the Bible Belt and gone to a Christian school for college, I would LOVE to know how this one came to be. Regardless, it wasn’t necessarily hilarious, but was energetic and fun, and man, Beck can dance!

“The Grocery Rap”: 6/10

I expected more out of this just because of how much I love Beck and Kyle’s pre-taped content. Still, this was a funny premise and it was just so nice to see them actually get a sketch like this on the air rather than have it cut for time.

“Mr. Chicken Legs Pageant”: 5/10

This sketch clearly originated with a discussion between Pete, Mikey and Andrew Dismukes about their skinny adult legs, and while it was a hilarious premise, it seemed like they didn’t really figure out how to make a cohesive sketch out of it. Still more funny than unfunny, though. Also, I don’t know why Chloe’s character wasn’t getting more laughs; she killed me, and Page did such a great job playing off of her.

Musical Performances

Bad Bunny (featuring Rosalía): 6/10

I know only a little bit of Bad Bunny's stuff, which is more down to me than it is to him. The Puerto Rican rapper and singer has carved out a massive worldwide following, and is probably among the most recognizable entertainers in the Western world at the moment. I was interested to see how his performances would play out on the famously tricky SNL stage.

The answer was, somewhat unfortunately, good but not great. His first performance, of "La Noche de Anoche," featured the wickedly talented Rosalía. She is always a welcome sight, and unsurprisingly, killed her cameo. As for Bad Bunny himself, though, the sound mixing on both performances was clearly off, and he felt a little swallowed up vocally, particularly when he didn't have Rosalía to revive the mojo on the 2nd performance. I will say, to his credit, while I definitely have enjoyed the various levels of production from the musical guests this year, it was a nice change of pace to just see the artist on stage performing his song.

OVERALL SCORE: 6.65 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.71)