‘SNL’ Recap: Regé-Jean Page Kept His Pants On; Bad Bunny Kept It Bilingual

If I bet you there’d be more jokes about Andrew Cuomo and nursing homes than about the sexiness of Bridgerton star and SNL host Regé-Jean Page in this week’s Saturday Night Live, would you take that bet?

What’s The Deal With The SNL Cold Open for 2/20/21?

Reminiscent of a few weeks ago, when Kate McKinnon played herself hosting a talk show to cover multiple topical bases, this week’s cold open mixed it up a bit by having Britney Spears (Chloe Fineman) host an apology talk show from Las Vegas, called “Oops, You Did It Again.” Her guests? U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, played once again by Aidy Bryant, this time with corn rows, rolling luggage and a frozen daiquiri, trying to talk his way out of his cowardly Cancun escape from frozen Texans; New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, played by Pete Davidson, to fess up to undercounting nursing home deaths due to COVID-19; and Gina Carano (Cecily Strong), not apologizing for nothing after getting fired from The Mandalorian. for comparing persecution of Republicans to Nazi Germany. Everyone agrees however, that they don’t want to be lumped into the same segment (TV or otherwise) with Cruz. Also, how many weeks will SNL keep making jokes about Rick Moranis getting sucker-punched? This was like the third time, at least.

How Did The SNL Guest Host Regé-Jean Page Do?

“I assure you I’m just a regular guy,” said our guest host Regé-Jean Page, whom you know and wanted to see more of thanks to Netflix’s new hit series, Bridgerton. Of course, the monologue is all about how sexy he is, what with his “slow jamming” the monologue while Bryant, Fineman and Ego Nwodim all fawn all over him. Despite how they ended the monologue, they didn’t actually need to go and rewrite the rest of the show.

They toyed with Page’s British accent in a sketch only truly made funny by Kenan Thompson bluffing his way through as Coldy Squares. That’s what they call Ice Cube in the U.K.?

They had him sing not once but twice — the first time with the fellas (and Kate McKinnon as an old man) singing along to “drivers license,” which made Olivia Rodrigo a very happy birthday girl as she became a a woman of 18 on Saturday.

The second musical number was a re-enactment of an old-timey “Sea Shanty” and gave him something “totally dumb” but watchable in presiding over something called the “Mr. Chicken Legs Pageant,” plus a family-style prayer battle in “Let’s Say Grace” (which pretends the pandemic isn’t happening, unless I misheard their prayers), and a quirky short film about “The Job Interview” for an ad agency that works only on spec and produces wholly inappropriate pitches (Bowen Yang’s mostly silent movements in and out of the frame save this short from falling apart completely).

Eventually, though, you and I and everyone knew we’d see a sketch set inside the Bridgerton production, and the comedy here came courtesy of the replacement intimacy coordinators, Richie (Mikey Day) and his nephew Randy (Davidson), called in as backup when the trusted regular came down with COVID-19.

How Relevant Was The Musical Guest Bad Bunny?

Bad Bunny, the 26-year-old Puerto Rican rapper who performed at last year’s Super Bowl alongside J.Lo and Shakira, ranked as Spotify’s most streamed artist of 2020, and currently is cross-promoting with the WWE, performed two songs in Spanish. The first, “La Noche de Anoche,” featured Rosalia, and they looked even more in love by the end of it than Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Bad Bunny’s second song was “Te Deseo lo Mejor.”

Which Sketch Will We Be Sharing?

Bad Bunny showed up in one sketch and one pre-taped music video, too. His presence, along with Page, likely will help fuel bonus sharing of this song from Ego Nwodim and Pete Davidson about how a year of pandemic quarantining has left them, and probably you, more than a little “Loco.”

Who Stopped By Weekend Update?

Pete Davidson returned to the Update desk for some commentary based on celebrating Valentine’s Day as a single man for the first time in a while. “It’s the first time being alone wasn’t my fault,” he cracked. Davidson also realized that his mother has a better case than Britney Spears’s dad for having a conservatorship, and that he needs to move out of the Staten Island home he bought for him and his mother, although leaving her leaves him finding even more parallels to the state of SNL. Zing!

As Jessie Raunch (don’t ask me why it’s spelled differently in the YouTube header), Heidi Gardner wants to talk about the importance of mutual aid groups during the pandemic, while Michael Che just wants to point out how her outfit and everything else suggests something more sinister, in the vein of Freddy Krueger. I remember hearing years ago how commonly, most of the audience watches until Update, then goes to sleep. Not this night!

What Sketch Filled The “10-to-1” Slot?

At 12:58 a.m. Eastern, Kyle Mooney wasn’t getting “Cut For Time” status. Oh no. Oh. No. Instead, he and his cohorts Beck Bennett and Andrew Dismukes would get to show off their comedy rap video in a grocery store. Even if their characters didn’t think about how not wearing masks might get them into trouble. This gives me big yikes energy, especially or even as an homage to “Lazy Sunday.”

Who Was The Episode’s MVP?

Without a doubt, Pete Davidson stole the show. Whether he was on air as the governor or as himself, Davidson brought fun energy to so many sketches. Seven sketches? He certainly got Olivia Rodrigo’s attention, and that was before he deservedly won “Mr. Chicken Legs” with his Jack Skellington dance. Grab yourself another trophy, Pete. You deserved it as this week’s MVP.

Next week? It’s Nick Jonas pulling double duty as both guest host and musical guest!

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch SNL Season 46 Episode 13 on YouTube