Bad Bunny Brings the Iconic Mexican Show ‘El Chavo Del Ocho’ to ‘SNL’
Credit: NBC
Bad Bunny paid homage to El Chavo del Ocho on Saturday Night Live. The Puerto Rican superstar and Marcello Hernández played iconic characters from the beloved Mexican series.
El Chavo del Ocho is a TV series from the seventies that was created by Roberto Gómez Bolaños, who was known by his nickname Chespirito. Bolaños also starred in the show as the title character El Chavo. He was joined by Quico, who was played by Carlos Villagrán, and María Antonieta de las Nieves’ La Chilindrina.
The Mexican show recently experienced a revival in popularity thanks to the HBO Max series Chespirito: Not Really on Purpose, which was released in June.
In a skit on SNL, Bad Bunny and Hernández cashed-in on the nostalgia around El Chavo del Ocho. Bad Bunny played Quico with the character’s signature puffy cheeks. While portraying El Chavo, Hernández donned the iconic earflap hat and orange suspenders. Sarah Sherman took on the role of La Chilindrina. After their characters got bopped on the heads by Don Ramón, Hernández nailed El Chavo’s crying inside of a barrel routine.
Bad Bunny, Hernández, and the rest of the cast beautifully translated the Mexican humor of El Chavo del Ocho into English.
During the opening monologue, Bad Bunny opened about the backlash around headlining the Super Bowl halftime show next year. He also collided with the real singing voices behind the hit Netflix movie KPop Demon Hunters and Benicio del Toro in other standout sketches.