Bad Bunny on SNL: From ‘El Chavo del Ocho’ to Clapping Back at Halftime Haters

Throughout his career, Bad Bunny has made several guest appearances on Saturday Night Live, giving us iconic skits about Latinx culture. The Boricua icon’s judgmental tía and Latina mom sketch with Chilean actor Pedro Pascal went viral for poking fun at Latinx family dynamics, and his appearance with Pascal as the “hot” older brothers of Marcello Hernandez’s Domingo made waves on social media. Now, the 31-year-old reggaetonero just made his return to SNL paying homage to “El Chavo del Ocho” and finally speaking on his Super Bowl announcement and its subsequent backlash.

Benito was the guest host of Saturday Night Live’s Season 51 premiere on Saturday, October 4. In his opening monologue, El Conejo Malo spoke about his historic residency at El Choli, which he recently wrapped up with his final “Una Más” show on Saturday, September 20 that became the most-watched single artist performance on Amazon Music to date. He also finally touched on his upcoming Super Bowl halftime performance in February and the controversy that followed the announcement. After Benito joked that “everybody is happy about it, even Fox News,” a montage was then shown stitching together several Fox News anchors and guests to say “Bad Bunny is my favorite musician and he should be the next president.”

The Boricua icon then addressed the Latinx community and acknowledged our impact on the world throughout history. Switching to Spanish, Bad Bunny shouted out “all the Latinos and Latinas across the world” and in the US who have “worked to open doors,” saying:

“It’s more than an achievement for myself, it’s an achievement for all of us… It shows our footprint, and our contribution to this country, that no one will ever be able to take away or erase,” he said before adding in English “if you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn.”

Bad Bunny then teamed up with Marcello Hernández for a sketch recreating the legendary and nostalgic Mexican sitcom “El Chavo del Ocho,” which is beloved in Latin American households around the world. Benito played Quico and imitated his puffy-cheek scowl while Marcello appeared as El Chavo, Sarah Sherman played La Chilindrina, Chloe Fineman appeared as Doña Florinda, Kenan Thompson played Señor Barriga, Andrew Dismukes played Don Ramón, and Jon Hamm made an appearance as el Profesor Jirafales. Marcello and Benito kept the show’s classic slapstick cues and adapted the dialogue to English, translating Spanish-language phrases like “vas a romper el piso” to “you’re going to break the floor.”

El Conejo Malo and Marcello then appeared as the Iberian king and his squire in a sketch poking fun at the Spanish-language and its gendered terms. The duo lists off words including “morning” (la mañana), “night” (la noche), and “dress” (el vestido) and whether they’re “a boy or a girl,” with the Bible (la Biblia) being a girl because, in the words of Marcello’s squire “everything you want to do, it says no!” Boricua icon Benicio del Toro then makes a surprise appearance, joking about the difference between the formal and informal “you,” proposing that the letter R lasts “a long time,” and suggesting that everyone takes a nap at noon, referencing the idea of a siesta that is prevalent across Latinx culture.

Bad Bunny additionally appeared in sketches including “Chat GPTío,” which reimagined an AI chatbot as a bold Latino uncle, and a “KPop Demon Hunters” skit, where he appeared as a superfan of the Netflix hit film. Throughout the Season 51 premiere, El Conejo Malo not only paid homage to our cultura but also brought it to the forefront of the show, highlighting the comedy that comes in embracing our roots.