Pedro Pascal's Protective Mom Returns To SNL To Torment Another Girlfriend
When Pedro Pascal hosted "Saturday Night Live earlier this year it was one of the highlights of the season, giving us memorable sketches where "Mario Kart" got the "Last of Us" treatment, or they made fun of the absurd over-abundance of TV shows in the modern streaming era. Pascal made for the ideal host, willing to throw himself into even the weirdest of sketches with complete confidence. It was his first time hosting, and it immediately raised the question of when he'd be back. Sometimes "SNL" just clicks with a host and tries to bring them back as much as possible, and it's hard to imagine that not being the case with Pascal.
Indeed, just eight months later Pascal has made his surprise return, showing up to help out this week's host Bad Bunny with his monologue. Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican rapper with Spanish as his native language, so in his monologue he decides to invite Pascal on stage to translate what he says to his English-speaking audience. Admittedly Pascal doesn't do a great job as a translator, but he tries his best.
But that wasn't all Pascal did last night: He also made a return to one of his most memorable characters: the Protective Mom, a Hispanic woman who loves her son (Marcello Hernandez) a little too much, to the point where she's jealous and hostile towards every new girlfriend he brings home to meet her. There's a lot to love about this sketch, perhaps the biggest being the way half of it is in untranslated Spanish while still managing to being funny and understandable to a mostly-English-speaking audience. Some behaviors are understandable in all languages, and Protective Mom's petty jealously shines through without the need for subtitles.
Twice the trouble
"Protective Mom 2" ups the ante by introducing Bad Bunny as Hernandez's Protective Aunt, who spends most of the sketch talking back and forth with Protective Mom about how much they don't like Hernandez's new girlfriend, played by new cast member Chloe Troast. It takes the Spanish-heavy dialogue of the original sketch and dials it up even further, as Pascal and Bad Bunny bounce off each other in a language Troast's character can't follow, except for the occasional English term that's clearly referring to her. Once again the humor still works; even if you don't know Spanish well enough to follow their fast dialogue, you can still likely relate to the girlfriend's experience of having to stay polite in a conversation with people who clearly don't like her.
In the "Saturday Night Live" subreddit, this sketch is currently ranked near the top of their weekly "Sorting Sketch Sunday" threads. Although "SNL" fans are often hesitant to embrace sequel sketches, they've been praising this one as improving the jokes from the first Protective Mom sketch and once again throwing in some sharp observational humor. Although Pascal and Bad Bunny's characters may seem like they're just poking fun at Hispanic grandmothers, the little details of them storing paper bags and using cookie tins for sewing supplies are something grandmothers of all ethnicities are often guilty of doing.
The big question that remains is whether or not we'll get to see a third version of this sketch. If Pascal returns to play Protective Mom again, will another new actor in drag perform alongside him, or will he go solo again? Either way, we'll be praying on behalf of the next girlfriend who'll have to deal with Mrs. Flores.
"Saturday Night Live" season 49 returns next week with host Nate Bargatze and musical guest Foo Fighters.