10/4/25: Bad Bunny
Military Meeting
Nice to see newbie Jeremy Culhane right out the gate. It reminds me of JAJ appearing as Biden in the cold open of his first episode.
Interesting seeing Colin appear as Pete Hegseth again.
Ha, I’m already LOVING Colin’s frat boy energy as Hegseth.
Colin as Hegseth: Our military is gay as hell! And I’m not just talking about the navy!
I never watched the actual speech this cold open is spoofing, but based on what I’ve read about it, all the crazy things that Colin is saying right now isn’t actually far off what the real Hegseth actually said during his speech.
The cut to footage of silent troopers was decent.
Colin calling Portland one of the bloodiest places on Earth was really funny.
I’m not sure if Colin’s stiff arm movements are on purpose, since he did the same thing for his Pete Buttigieg impression, but they are making me laugh.
“If you’re a fat dude, goddammit you better be FUNNY AS HELL!”
Ha, the JAJ’s entrances as Trump never fail to make me laugh.
JAJ: 17 new cast members, and they got the UPDATE GUY doing the opening.
JAJ telling Colin to leave is funny, and his line about how those “Spirit Airlines jokes aren’t gonna write themselves” was hilarious.
Funny walk-on from Mikey. I’ll ignore the fact he didn’t need to come back this season, though.
I loved the subtle line about how Trump may or may not have had a stroke, and that “we’ll never know”
JAJ as Trump thanking the SNL crew for their votes was pretty funny.
Rating: ***½
Monologue
The clip of “complicated choreography” at Benito’s concerts is really funny.
The clip of Jon Hamm jamming at one of his concerts is really funny, and we get a live cutaway of him in the same outfit! I’d love to see Jon join the Five-Timers Club this season.
I loved the sentimental ending to this, with Benito speaking in his native tongue.
Typical Charmologue to start off the season, and I always enjoy these.
Rating: ***
Jeopardy!
Interesting seeing a regular Jeopardy parody on the show, since it’s only either done Celebrity Jeopardy, or Black Jeopardy.
Don’t know what the point of the “Luck-ass” joke was.
The main joke of this sketch being that Benito isn’t answering in the form of a question, just isn’t funny enough to withstand a full sketch, let alone the lead-off sketch of the season. Dismukes and Benito are giving solid performances though, so that’s keeping this from being a flop.
Dismukes’ increasing frustration is working for me, though.
Dismukes’ delivery of “How did we get there?” after Benito gave a long-winded wrong answer was really funny.
For some reason, after the sketch ends, it takes a LONG time for the show to fade to black for the next segment. You can see everyone walking off set before it finally does.
Rating: **
ChatGPTio
Decent concept with ChatGPT that feels like you're talking to a latino uncle.
A very typical Marcello yelling showcase here, but it’s working for me.
Very funny costume on Benito, and I love the detail of the big forehead.
Veronika: How do I make vegan banana bread? Marcello: YOU DON’T!
Marcello’s singing of Smash Mouth is really funny.
Good ending, with Benito and Marcello and Chloe catcalling her during her ending line.
Rating: ***
The Donor
Another very funny costume, and wig on Benito, and his opening line about offering to be the donor was delivered really well by him.
Benito is giving a very good performance here, but it doesn’t feel like this sketch is living up to its full potential. I feel like there’s a LOT more you can do with this concept, than just having Benito trying again and again to offer Sarah and Chloe his “stuff”. It doesn’t help that the audience is noticeably quiet for this.
Ha, great cutaway to Kenan saying he’ll take Benito’s “stuff”. My biggest laugh so far.
Benito saying he could mix his and Dismukes’ “stuff” together is pretty funny.
Rating: **½
KPop Demon Hunters
Weird decision on the show’s part to have back-to-back sketches in a restaurant, with Sarah and Chloe sitting in the exact same places as the previous sketch.
Yikes, Benito’s delivery in this is rough so far. It seems like he’s trying not to rely on the cue cards, when he really should be. It’s also hurting the comedic potential this has, which is unfortunate. This is also another sketch with a noticeably quiet audience, I can’t say I blame them this time around though.
Yeah, this sketch is just not working for me. This feels like it’s not going ANYWHERE interesting.
Benito’s delivery to Mikey of “You silly, stupid man.” was pretty funny though, and my first laugh of the whole sketch so far.
I didn’t care for Sarah casually talking about how she’s on the Epstein List, because that has literally NOTHING to do with the main concept of this.
I have no idea who Bowen is playing in his walk-on. I’m guessing it’s a character from the movie?
Maybe the right host could’ve made this decent, but this was just rough, and very dull.
Rating: *½
Weekend Update
None of the jokes have been noteworthy so far. The closest being the completely random, and unnecessary “Trump would make sense if he sounded like Jennifer Coolidge” joke.
Colin, after saying Elon Musk is the first person to be worth $500 billion “Wow, shout out to Tylenol!”.
Funny ad-lib from Colin, saying how he’s still thinking about the image of Che with breasts.
Newbie Kam Patterson gets an Update commentary in his first episode.
The main joke of Kam trying to get the show to let him say the N-word is pretty funny. I especially loved the line with Kam saying “This is what Jimmy Kimmel fought for!”
Very funny cutaway to Che, after Kam points out Che has said the word on the show “Yeah but I’m grown.”
Kam’s coming off affable here, despite some occasional pauses during his delivery.
Very funny reveal that the “characters” that Kam has are just white celebrities who said the N-word.
Ha, Kam revealing he had a rock in his jacket pocket is very funny, but you would have to know Kam’s work to understand why that’s funny.
The audience is pretty quiet for the second run of jokes here.
Colin: Isn’t all of Long Island a zoo for abused animals?
This is the 4th season premiere in a row with Bowen doing an Update commentary.
I haven’t been a fan of Bowen’s work on the show for the past few seasons, but I’ll try to keep an open mind for this.
I’m honestly groaning at the moment of Bowen as Dobby punishing themself. It continues the issue of a lot of Bowen’s more recent Update commentaries, where they have a very desperate physical comedy moment that isn’t funny in the slightest.
I guess Bowen’s costume accidentally coming off halfway is noteworthy, but nothing else in this has been.
Che: I don’t get that because I never read those corny ass books. Me neither, Che. That line from Che is also the only laugh I’ve gotten from this so far.
Bowen running up to the camera and punishing himself while yelling “Bad, Dobby!” just feels so unnecessary. It’s stuff like this that makes him seem so self-indulgent as a performer for me.
Why is this taking a sentimental turn for NO REASON?
Another segment where the show takes a LONG time to fade to black.
There were some good jokes, and Kam’s commentary was fun, but the rest of the jokes were forgettable, and Bowen’s commentary was just bad.
Rating: **½
Inventing Spanish
This seems like a variation of the 2nd Washington’s Dream sketch, but this time, it’s picking apart the Spanish language.
Marcello’s explanation of why certain words are a boy or girl is decent enough.
Marcello trying to put Mikey’s tongue back in his mouth was pretty funny.
This is another sketch in this episode with a decent concept, but isn’t living up to it’s full potential. This is also another sketch with a quiet audience.
We get a cameo from Benicio del Toro. I’m not familiar with his work, but he’s performing fine here.
Rating: **½
Parent-Teacher Conference
Man, Marcello has been EVERYWHERE in this episode. He’s not working for me as this emo teenager.
It’s nice to FINALLY see Ashley, and it’s thankfully not a background role.
Ha, not even a minute into the sketch and I’m LOVING Ashley’s love-struck performance in this.
I’m not really saying much about this, but Ashley’s performance is CARRYING this for me. The actual material is average, but this is a perfect example of a fantastic performance enhancing a sketch.
The drawing that Ashley shows is pretty funny, and I love the detail of the word “happen” being spelled wrong.
Ashley, after Benito talks to Marcello in Spanish: I just- I love your language.
HILARIOUS reveal that Benito’s wife passed away, right after Ashley called her a bitch.
I really hope that this is the first of MANY showcases Ashley gets this season, because this was great.
Rating: ****
The Kid From Number 8
I’m not familiar with the show this is spoofing, but I’m loving the very goofy vibe to this so far.
Benito is giving a very funny performance as Quico. Considering he actually helped write this sketch, I wonder if he wrote his own lines.
I like the detail of the obvious laugh tracks being played throughout.
I love the goofy performances here, which are perfect for a 10-to-1.
The cuts to each character crying are really funny, Benito’s cry in particular.
Fun inclusion of Jon Hamm at the end.
Rating: ***½
Thoughts
A very shaky season premiere, which was honestly what I was expecting. This episode had a very dull, and off vibe throughout, that stopped certain pieces from taking off like they could’ve. There was also only ONE sketch that stood out to me as strong (Parent-Teacher Conference). Bad Bunny was unfortunately pretty forgettable as host this time around, with the last sketch of the night being the only one he really shined in. There was also an issue with cast usage. Marcello, Sarah, and Chloe appeared a LOT throughout, while cast members like Ashley, and JAJ get very little. I’m hoping Amy’s episode is an improvement. One positive I will say is that this was better than last year’s season premiere.
Segments ranked Best to Worst
Parent-Teacher Conference
The Kid From Number 8
Military Meeting
ChatGPTio
Monologue
Inventing Spanish
The Donor
Weekend Update
Jeopardy!
KPop Demon Hunters
5.6/10
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