Timothée Chalamet hosted SNL for a third time and starred in six sketches that made it to air Saturday night (Jan. 25) in an episode that also had him on the bill as musical guest.
Pulling double duty as host and music act, Chalamet seamlessly shifted between being himself in his monologue and embracing his Bob Dylan side in his music performances — and portraying SNL sketch characters including a bungee class icon, a barista who thinks he’s a stand-up comedian, an AI creation, a small dog, an animated version of God and a gassy cardiologist. (Fans in the live rehearsal audience report there were sketches cut for time, like a Grammys roundtable skit that had Chalamet bringing back his SNL personality SmokeCheddaDaAssGetta. Fingers crossed it surfaces on SNL‘s YouTube channel later.)
“I’m so grateful Saturday Night Live is still doing weird stuff like this 50 years in,” Chalamet, who stars as Dylan in the biopic A Complete Unknown, joked to the audience during his monologue. “They’re either really nice for letting me do this or incredibly mean, and this is all a big prank. I sincerely can’t tell. We’ll find out.”
Chalamet seemed to overcome any nerves that accompany leading and performing on the SNL, which tapes in front of a live audience in New York. There are pre-taped sketches, as well, but all of the actor’s parts broadcast this weekend were live, other than his voiceover role as God. Perhaps Chalamet has his performing arts high school alter ego, the show-stealing rapper Timmy Tim, to thank for preparing him for this very moment.
One highlight of Saturday night’s episode not listed here is the cold open, which unfortunately didn’t feature Chalamet. It did have a surprise cameo by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who reprised his Hamilton role in a post-Trump inauguration sketch about America’s founding fathers.
Here’s a ranking of every sketch Chalamet was in Saturday night, when SNL‘s Jan. 25 episode aired. Watch all six sketches below.
This sketch, which has Chalamet and Mikey Day having a typical day at the park as “dumb little dogs” who happen to talk like people, starts off slow with a little too much talk. Topics include peeing on mailboxes and humping shoes. The laughs come with the physical comedy — especially Bowen Yang’s dog, who runs in circles with a case of the “zoomies.” Watch out, Cats.
Move over, McDreamy and McSteamy. We’ll call this handsome, promising young heart doctor played by Chalamet … “McGassy.” You’ll have to watch his groundbreaking new CPR technique to see why “the youngest head of cardiology in the history of Johns Hopkins” deserves an early-era Grey’s Anatomy nickname. “Just doing my job. Someone get this woman a glass of water and an Altoid,” he says with a cocky gaze after saving Grandma in this ensemble sketch.
Add Bowen Yang into a sketch, and hopes are high that it’ll be hilarious. Chalamet and Yang star as AI podcasters who state random educational facts, but call each other “bae” and drop in relationship drama, for students too distracted by their phones to pay attention to their human teacher in class. As with all things AI, the voices sound suspiciously robotic and glitches follow. Keep an eye out for Chalamet’s extra finger and watch all the way through the dance break.
With neon yellow and luscious locks, Chalamet transforms into a fitness instructor ladies love. The self-professed “Bungee Queen” hypes his class up, literally, as they’re lifted with bungee cords and do whatever movements he calls out: fly, swim, froggy, troll walk, jumping jacks, Jimmy Carter. “This workout is not for the faint of heart,” he warns a newbie (Michael Longfellow), the only male to join the bungee class. Chalamet hurls a couple zingers Longfellow’s way about his sexual performance to keep the women entertained, and rewards them with a frosted Cinnabon cake after burning a collective five calories.
Props to the creators of this animated short about the “Creator,” voiced by Chalamet. The cartoon parodies a group of angels (Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline) tasked with helping God create the world. Chalamet’s God assigns them to tasks like making “exploding mountains,” aka volcanoes — “It’s gonna be like, fire and s—. It’s sick,” he says — and kicks them out in reaction to the first kangaroo. Chalamet gets the comedic timing just right as he orders humans “straight to Hell, forever” after making their bodies capable of self-pleasure, and is in tears when the angels’ carefully constructed model of the solar system isn’t as weird as he wanted it to be. Leigh McG and Studio Showoff get onscreen credit as animators, and Streeter Seidell and Mikey Day as writers.
Chalamet gets to put his impressionist and comedic skills to work in this sketch about training new hires that might leave you hoping your employees never quit — because who knows what you’ll be dealing with when you try to fill the role. Looking for a new barista? You just might wind up with this guy, who impersonates Chris Rock’s delivery and turns the café into his own personal comedy club. See what happens, and how quickly things escalate, when his supervisors (Mikey Day and Heidi Gardner) encourage him to come up with a “quippy joke” for the chalkboard out front.
0 comments