Jeovany Tzilin Gomez
Staff Writer
Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny kicked off Saturday Night Live’s (SNL) 51st season as the host for the first episode and paid tribute to the famous Mexican sitcom “El Chavo Del Ocho,” with a skit and portrayal of an iconic character from the sitcom.
The first episode of SNL’s 51st season aired Oct. 4, featuring satirical news coverage of current events presented by SNL cast members, such as the U.S. government shutdown and Bad Bunny’s announcement as the main act of the Super Bowl halftime show.
Speaking of the announcement, Bad Bunny spoke to the Latiné community in his monologue, saying positive things about Latiné immigrants in Spanish and telling the English speakers that they have “four months to learn” what he said before the Super Bowl, emphasizing that his halftime show will be in Spanish.
The skits featured in this episode had Bad Bunny play a confused player who’s trying to recover his lost money in a game of Jeopardy, an obsessed fan of “KPop Demon Hunters” who believes that he’s protected from demons, and an Iberian king who invented Spanish.
Besides those humorous skits, one skit that stood out from the rest was the “El Chavo Del Ocho” skit which had SNL cast members and the Puerto Rican star play some of the most memorable characters in Latin American television.
“El Chavo Del Ocho,” which translates to “The Boy From Number Eight,” was a 1970s sitcom created by Roberto Gómez Bolaños, also known as Chespirito, about a homeless boy named El Chavo, originally played by Bolaños, who lives in a barrel and faces humorous dilemmas with his neighbors in each episode.
SNL’s rendition of “El Chavo Del Ocho” tried their best to be faithful to the original material, even making the stage and props in the skit match the original set.
The skit started by having an introduction that matched with the original, introducing the cast members and the characters they played like Marcelo Hernández as El Chavo, Bad Bunny as spoiled kid Quico, Andrew Dismukes as mean neighbor Don Ramon (Mr. Ramon), Chloe Fineman as Doña Florinda (Ms. Florinda), Sarah Sherman as La Chilindrina (The Crying Girl), and Kenan Thompson as landlord Señor Barriga (Mr. Stomach).
The skit proceeded with Quico bouncing the ball while Don Ramon was hammering a table, which annoyed Don Ramon. Don Ramon threatened to hit Quico with a hammer, making El Chavo and La Chilindrina nervous. El Chavo defended Quico, but later hit Quico after lying that he was his friend. The rest of the skit followed a consecutive comedic flow of charming jokes reminiscent of the original.
Compared to an episode of “El Chavo Del Ocho,” a fan of the sitcom can tell that SNL wanted to pay homage to the comedic characters when it comes to their personalities, which was an above-average performance. Bad Bunny did well in playing the role of Quico, from the way he puffed his cheeks like how the original actor did, the way he talks, and even his rendition of Quico’s childish cry.
Overall, the skit didn’t feel forced and it was mostly true to the original sitcom. However, since SNL had a lot of material to work with with a limited amount of time, they could possibly do another “El Chavo Del Ocho” skit in the future as the original sitcom tends to have random moments of humor. The skit was well-received and it will be a treat to see what other Latin American TV shows SNL imitates next.