There was a strong conceit at the heart of it: the idea of other time-traveling characters crossing paths with Bill and Ted, and the old school references. They just mired it with a rather tired idea of "Kayne West changes time", which may have worked if it wasn't Kayne West. But then they forced it more by having him killing celebs and working in Kim Kardashian, almost as if they felt like they just had to.
If this wasn't an event in Central Florida, the same plot could've worked with Trump since he seems like a stronger character who is currently actually saying the scary crap on his mind that he would supposedly do if he were to be elected... which obviously is never going to happen, but it makes for a strong idea for B&T. But instead they chose to play it safe by putting him alongside the "Filibusters" bit with Bill and Hillary in an admittedly bewildering joke where it seems to say, "Yeah, Bill, Hillary and Trump ARE bad presidential options, but we all know Kayne is worse!" Not to get too political, but that's a very weird joke when history has proven that sexual misconduct aside, Bill Clinton actually served a valuable eight years in the White House. Seemed like a line written 20 years ago... maybe that was the point, or maybe it was playing it safe as humanly possible with the old "all politicans are bad" trope. When you have Donald Trump in that mix, doing that is already odd, but to put him on the same level as Bill Clinton? Really?
I didn't find it offensive or anything, it's all in good fun I understand... it's just disappointing that they wasted some potential in making the "plot" work. B&T plots work best when you have a shoestring to hang references on. I mentioned the 2012 USH B&T especially because whoever thought of the Hunger Games idea deserves a medal. Bill and Ted are entered into the games and the other tributes are pop culture icons. Already brillant. Then throw in the Grim Reaper, who rigs the game to have everyone try to kill B&T. The entire rest of the show is the duo trying to survive (established) pop culture icons trying to kill them until they face the Reaper himself. The "macguffin" is not dying and you can not get more simpler of a plot to hang jokes upon than that. They tried repeating this the next year, which was the infamous show with gay Superman that got them cancelled. The idea was that Bill and Ted were whisked to Oz, and followed the traditional plot of the 1939 film which is a road trip. Naturally they'll come across characters, which were pop culture icons. Yet it didn't work, because the villian was Kim Jong Un (pre-Interview) and was so enormously weak and unfunny that they tried a twist at the end (much like the 1939 movie) where it was revealed that there was another villain behind the curtain... Stewie and Brian. From Family Guy.
Clearly the Reaper was hilarious and great and helped give the already smart plot the heft it needed to carry thru to the end. Last year's Orlando B&T had duo villains with Efron and LeBouf, and that was okay, but let's be totally honest: the key to it working was the fact that the real villain in the piece was Disney's MagicBand. That hit the spot so perfectly and just after coming off of a vacation to WDW, the joke is even funnier now. Those things are the devil's creation.
I know this is anaylzing a very silly pop culture show that most years had plots that generally didn't make a lot of sense, but it says a lot that you can have a year with a strong outing that everybody remembers, or you can have a mishmash that is easily forgotten. I think sometimes they struggle to find reasons for pop culture/celebs to exist in the time/world B&T currently inhabit, but the real trick is that you don't. Nobody cares that Kayne West is changing time and killing celebrities to make vapes for Kim Kardashian (...what's even the joke here?!), it's just really not that funny and too muddled. Magic Bands killing everyone and B&T go undercover to solve the mystery? I get it! B&T entered into the Hunger Games with pop culture icons? I get it!
All they had to do is remove the dumb celeb killing stuff and make it simple: somebody is attempting to change time and pop culture, whether it be Trump or even Kayne... that leads to lots of meta jokes, crossovers and much of what we saw in the main show. It's less baggage and is simple. They have to stop overwriting the main plot. KISS: keep it simple, stupid.
I didn't even hate B&T! I thought it was good and fun. I was dying laughing at "they have sex with their tails!" (more because he was directly behind me in the audience), and at other parts. I just didn't come out wanting to see it again badly. The really great ones have that repeat factor, this one didn't.
