Bad Bunny kicks off ‘SNL’ 51st season with new faces, jabs at Super Bowl critics

NEW YORK (AP):

Bad Bunny kicked off the 51st season of Saturday Night Live with a few timely jokes about his next high-profile gig: the Super Bowl.

“I think everybody is happy about it – even Fox News,” the music superstar quipped in his monologue, referring to opposition in some quarters to his being named headliner of the Super Bowl halftime show.

He segued into a few sentences in Spanish, expressing Latino pride and joy over the achievement, after which he noted: “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn!”

Bad Bunny will be making history by performing entirely in Spanish, a landmark moment for Latino culture.

Launching a season that introduces some new faces in the cast, the show’s cold open featured a sketch mocking Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s presentation to generals earlier this week. Weekend Update host Colin Jost played Hegseth, highlighting the defence secretary’s remarks in which he said it’s “tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops” and said it was unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals at the Pentagon.

“No fatties, no facial hair, no body hair,” Jost’s Hegseth said. “Just hot, shredded hairless men who are definitely not gay ... Because this is serious, we are facing the greatest threat to freedom and democracy the world has ever known. And we all know what that threat is.”

Late Night TV! replied with James Austin Johnson as President Donald Trump, bursting in. “‘SNL’ 51 off to a rough start,” Johnson’s Trump added. “Seventeen new cast members and they got the ‘Update’ guy doing the open.”

Looking to the future

After a fanfare-filled 50th season celebrating the past, Saturday Night Live is looking to the future with a cast that includes five new featured players. Ben Marshall, already an SNL writer, becomes a featured player, along with newcomers Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska.

Bad Bunny is having what can only be described as an enormous week: in addition to hosting SNL, he’s coming off a historic residency in Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rican artiste has said one of the reasons his residency bypassed the continental US was a concern that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials could target immigrants for deportation outside his shows.

Asked Friday by a podcaster whether ICE officials would be conducting enforcement at the Super Bowl, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said they would, because DHS “is responsible for keeping it safe”.

The issue made for a key joke in the Weekend Update segment. “A Trump adviser said ICE agents will attend the Super Bowl after Bad Bunny was announced as the halftime performer,” noted co-host Michael Che, then quipping: “You know, to catch all those farmworkers who can afford Super Bowl tickets.”

In his second SNL hosting gig, Bad Bunny was joined by musical guest Doja Cat, making her début in that role.