Review: Let’s Be Real “Episode 101”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The series premiere covers politics and pop culture by using topical sketches, celebrity cameos, and satirical puppets. 

Our Take:

After satirizing the 2020 election in October’s special, the politician puppets are making a comeback via a television series. This time, they’re covering the events that happened after Joe Biden trumped Donald Trump in the election. No pun intended. It’s pretty surprising given the fact that the 2020 election special was pretty mediocre in my eyes. I guess people liked it well enough for FOX to continue the series for better and for worse.

Like the series’ election-themed special, its first episode showcased several sketches that satirize political and pop culture elements. These sketches poke fun at events that involve post-COVID standards, the hit Disney+ series The Mandalorian, and survivor reality shows. Plus, it has Donald Trump selling off some private stuff at an antique shop, including the Bill of Rights and some CIA records.

I don’t mind sketch shows as long as they’re clever and funny. Sadly, this isn’t one of them. It got some neat ideas, but its execution felt either lazy or dull. The jokes in this episode didn’t hold themselves back in terms of people’s personalities, politics, and sexism. While they were pretty tasteless, none of them managed to be as hilarious as they were offensive. Some of the comedy can rub some viewers the wrong way, especially the New York Government Briefing segment, which showcased charts regarding COVID safety and sexual harassment safety. Other than that, the humor failed miserably at delivering material that’s both crude and humorous.

Possibly the worst sketch of the episode, in my opinion, was the Mandalorian skit. It involves the Mandalorian traveling across the galaxy with his two sidekicks: Chrissy Teigen and Baby Fauci. I was not a fan of this skit for one reason: Chrissy Teigen. She happened to take her puppet’s annoying personality a little bit too far when it comes to her bickering and being on her cell phone. She’s so irritating that I wished Cara Dune would appear and shove Teigen’s phone into her mouth.

If there’s one thing I should give the episode credit for, it’s that they kept puppet Trump’s puckered lips from the election special. I still find it amusing to see Trump’s puppet face look like he sucked up a ton of lemons for some reason. I would probably never look at him the same way again after watching the episode. Aside from that, the series premiere of Let’s Be Real was a political disaster in my book. Let’s hope that the later episodes can improve the show’s humor before it gets forced out of the television campaign.