Why Are Sabrina Carpenter and Bad Bunny in Multiple Sketches on ‘SNL50’?
On a night when Saturday Night Live was celebrating its 50-year legacy in a room full of some of the biggest celebrities on the planet, why did Lorne Michaels insist on proving to his kids that he’s still a hep cat?
In an audience question-and-answer segment of the show, Seth Meyers called out Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for the bit’s underlying conceit: It’s a simple way to shoehorn in huge stars — Keith Richards! Cher! — that didn’t fit anywhere else in the show. Nothing wrong with that, but because there are so many accomplished funny people in the room, it was infuriating to see the comedically clumsy Sabrina Carpenter and Bad Bunny in multiple sketches.
Fine, Carpenter’s first appearance was a musical one, performing a sleepy “Homeward Bound” with one of Michaels’ favorite Pauls, Mr. Simon. (McCartney is due up later in the show.) But there she was again in a Domingo sketch, taking Ariana Grande’s place as a bridesmaid and doing a decidedly worse job of it.
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That sketch also featured terrible SNL host Bad Bunny, fumbling lines as Domingo’s sexier brother. Whatever, but then the show brought him back a second time to ask a question in Poehler and Fey’s audience participation bit. Meanwhile, former cast members who know how to deliver a punchline (and who won’t get in the show at all) are sitting all around him.
Why Carpenter and Bad Bunny?
The answer is as obvious as it is unnecessary — Michaels believes he needs to make the show relevant for his 20-something kids and their peers. But neither of the young musicians are comedians, by profession or inclination. Other contemporary musical artists — Grande, Charli XCX, Chance the Rapper — have proven that they’re actually funny when they hosted the show. Couldn’t we have recruited some of them instead?