Mon. Jan 27th, 2025
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In his third outing as “Saturday Night Live” host, Timothée Chalamet proved again he’s game for anything that “SNL” throws at him … sometimes to his detriment.

Chalamet, who was just nominated for a lead actor Oscar this week for portraying Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” performed a few Dylan songs in his double capacity as musical guest for the episode as well. The songs chosen, “Outlaw Blues,” “Three Angels” and “Tomorrow is a Long Time,” were ones the host said in his monologue were some of his favorites and he was accompanied on keyboard by James Blake.

But were they good musical performances? “SNL” is notoriously rough, sound-wise, even for the most polished musicians, so it was hard not to root for Chalamet to pull it off. But the musical showcases felt like karaoke night in Studio 8H, with Chalamet’s voice sounding thin and nervous at times. But, you know what? They don’t take back Oscar nominations (well, not often, at least).

Lin Manuel-Miranda made a surprise appearance as Alexander Hamilton as part of this week’s cold open (more on that below). Elsewhere on the show, Chalamet brought his often giddy energy to a series of mostly solid sketches, a nice rebound from last week’s light-on-sketches episode.

Chalamet played an aggressive instructor in a calorie-unfriendly bungie workout sketch, an artificial intelligence bot in a sketch about a classroom watching AI-generated videos, a doctor who revives a dying woman with a powerful fart, God in an animated short, and a dog in a crowded dog park. A sketch not featuring Chalamet, a mock commercial for “Oedipal Arrangements,” made the case for taking one’s relationship with their mother to, uh … the next level.

Also, a T-Mobile tie-in commercial that could have been confused for a sketch featured Kenan Thompson and Marcello Hernández singing the virtues of fast mobile internet.

This week’s cold open began with a setup that promised a founding fathers rap battle as Lin-Manuel Miranda appeared to great fanfare as Hamilton. But just as the songwriting superstar started winding up with, “In America we will never have a king,” he was interrupted and frozen by President Trump (James Austin Johnson), who retorted, “Never say never… I’m in my king era.” Trump recounted some highlights from his first week in office, which he said he’s doing “very whitely,” including eliminating DEI programs and hobnobbing with tech titans, “Zuck, Bezos, Tim Apple and of course, Elon. We love Elon, but to quote some of his own children, I do not want him in my life.” Trump recounted his efforts to reinforce gender roles (“Two genders, one to work and one to cook.”) and praised his cabinet: “They are all very good except most of them.” But Trump took the most pleasure teasing Miranda, who couldn’t move or speak. “Look at Lin, look at how bad he wants to do a rap… Lindy, Lindy, Lindy, Lindy… Lin-Manuel Miranda Cosgrove.” Miranda tried hard not to break, but finally reacted when Trump said the “Hamilton” star secretly donated a million dollars to his campaign.

For his monologue, Chalamet let the audience know he’s turning 30 soon and can still barely grow a mustache or goatee. Chalamet eased into a bit about the times he’s been nominated for awards and lost in the last four years, with video clips of his reactions, and a setup to give the speech he’s always been denied. But when it was time to deliver, it was cast member Kenan Thompson whose name was announced, allowing Chalamet to seethe. Chalamet did take time to thank “SNL” for indulging him with the night’s musical performances. “They’re either really nice for letting me do this or incredibly mean and this is a big prank.” Could it have been a little of both?

Best sketch of the night: This medical visit has been brought to you by Stamps.com

In an episode with lots of clever sketch ideas, “Medcast” stood out for not only being a great idea but for its pitch-perfect execution. The premise: a clinic where all the appointments for men aged 20 to 45 are structured like a chill podcast where the patient is a guest who reveals his medical history in the course of a podcast chat. Patients reveal how their stools are doing and how many sexual partners they’ve had and get their blood pressure taken, but it feels like they’re just hanging out with their podcast-hosting bros. The details, like the tacky, neon-lit set, were spot-on.

Also good: When coffee shop chalkboard jokes go too far

The sketch that allowed Chalamet to bust loose the most was probably this one, about an aspiring stand-up comic who is at a barista training that opens up to latte puns for the chalkboard they’ll place outside. Chalamet delivers a series of very dumb, very offensive stand-up bits before the coffee shop comes around and decides to just let him take over. Thompson jumps in as a guest comic for another so-bad-it’s-funny joke run.

‘Weekend Update’ winner: Tariffs mean a hair-extension crisis

Andrew Dismukes amusingly portrayed his dad as a loving puppet in an “Update” segment, but Ego Nwodim scored as concerned businesswoman Giselle, who advises Black women to act: “Buy all the hair and extensions you need before those tariffs kick in.” Why not just go natural? Gisele insists her head is lumpy and without her purchased hair, she looks like Michael Che. “We about to be in a pickle,” she warned, “a bald-headed pickle.”

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