There are lots of moments like that in Baywatch, where a hint at deeper analysis turns out to be a mirage. Sort of like when The Rock’s character calls Zac Efron’s character “High School Musical.” Get it? It’s funny because Zac Efron was in High School Musical. It feels at first like this might be some kind of comment on how preposterously heroic Mitch was in the original - it was a better show if you imagined Mitch Buchannon as David Hasselhoff’s distorted self regard come to life - but eventually you come to realize that it isn’t a joke about Baywatch at all, just a joke about The Rock and how great he is. He waves to all the kids, greets a guy making a heroic sand sculpture of him - “Thanks for saving my sister, Mitch!” - and swats a dunk during a pick-up basketball game starring NFL players Arian Foster and Vernon Davis. He opens the film heroically saving a kite surfer from a dangerous bonking (his head against the jetty rocks) and then takes an expository tracking walk through his fiefdom.
In this incarnation, directed by Seth Gordon ( Horrible Bosses) and written by six people, Duane Johnson plays Mitch (possibly just Mitch, I can’t remember if they ever said his last name), the head of the Baywatch lifeguards.