In his third outing as “Saturday Night Live” host, Timothée Chalamet proved once more he’s sport for something that “SNL” throws at him … typically to his detriment.
Chalamet, who was simply nominated for a lead actor Oscar this week for portraying Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” carried out just a few Dylan songs in his double capability as musical visitor for the episode as nicely. The songs chosen, “Outlaw Blues,” “Three Angels” and “Tomorrow is a Long Time,” have been ones the host mentioned in his monologue have been a few of his favorites and he was accompanied on keyboard by James Blake.
However have been they good musical performances? “SNL” is notoriously tough, sound-wise, even for essentially the most polished musicians, so it was onerous to not root for Chalamet to tug it off. However the musical showcases felt like karaoke evening in Studio 8H, with Chalamet’s voice sounding skinny and nervous at instances. However, what? They don’t take again Oscar nominations (nicely, not typically, at the very least).
Lin Manuel-Miranda made a shock look as Alexander Hamilton as a part of this week’s chilly open (extra on that beneath). Elsewhere on the present, Chalamet introduced his typically giddy power to a collection of largely stable sketches, a pleasant rebound from final week’s light-on-sketches episode.
Chalamet performed an aggressive teacher in a calorie-unfriendly bungie exercise sketch, a synthetic intelligence bot in a sketch a few classroom watching AI-generated movies, a health care provider who revives a dying lady with a strong fart, God in an animated brief, and a canine in a crowded canine park. A sketch not that includes Chalamet, a mock industrial for “Oedipal Arrangements,” made the case for taking one’s relationship with their mom to, uh … the following stage.
Additionally, a T-Cell tie-in industrial that would have been confused for a sketch featured Kenan Thompson and Marcello Hernández singing the virtues of quick cellular web.
This week’s chilly open started with a setup that promised a founding fathers rap battle as Lin-Manuel Miranda appeared to nice fanfare as Hamilton. However simply because the songwriting famous person began 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 workplace, which he mentioned he’s doing “very whitely,” together with eliminating DEI packages 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 strengthen gender roles (“Two genders, one to work and one to cook.”) and praised his cupboard: “They are all very good except most of them.” However Trump took essentially the most pleasure teasing Miranda, who couldn’t transfer or communicate. “Look at Lin, look at how bad he wants to do a rap… Lindy, Lindy, Lindy, Lindy… Lin-Manuel Miranda Cosgrove.” Miranda tried onerous to not break, however lastly reacted when Trump mentioned the “Hamilton” star secretly donated one million {dollars} to his marketing campaign.
For his monologue, Chalamet let the viewers know he’s turning 30 quickly and might nonetheless barely develop a mustache or goatee. Chalamet eased right into a bit in regards to the instances he’s been nominated for awards and misplaced within the final 4 years, with video clips of his reactions, and a setup to provide the speech he’s all the time been denied. However when it was time to ship, it was forged member Kenan Thompson whose title was introduced, permitting Chalamet to seethe. Chalamet did take time to thank “SNL” for indulging him with the evening’s musical performances. “They’re either really nice for letting me do this or incredibly mean and this is a big prank.” May it have been a little bit of each?
Finest sketch of the evening: This medical go to has been dropped at you by Stamps.com 
In an episode with a number of intelligent sketch concepts, “Medcast” stood out for not solely being an excellent thought however for its pitch-perfect execution. The premise: a clinic the place all of the appointments for males aged 20 to 45 are structured like a chill podcast the place the affected person is a visitor who reveals his medical historical past in the middle of a podcast chat. Sufferers reveal how their stools are doing and what number of sexual companions they’ve had and get their blood strain taken, however it seems like they’re simply hanging out with their podcast-hosting bros. The small print, just like the cheesy, neon-lit set, have been spot-on.
Additionally good: When espresso store chalkboard jokes go too far 
The sketch that allowed Chalamet to bust free essentially the most was in all probability this one, about an aspiring stand-up comedian who’s at a barista coaching that opens as much as latte puns for the chalkboard they’ll place exterior. Chalamet delivers a collection of very dumb, very offensive stand-up bits earlier than the espresso store comes round and decides to simply let him take over. Thompson jumps in as a visitor comedian for one more so-bad-it’s-funny joke run.
‘Weekend Update’ winner: Tariffs imply a hair-extension disaster 
Andrew Dismukes amusingly portrayed his dad as a loving puppet in an “Update” phase, however Ego Nwodim scored as involved businesswoman Giselle, who advises Black girls to behave: “Buy all the hair and extensions you need before those tariffs kick in.” Why not simply go pure? Gisele insists her head is lumpy and with out her bought hair, she seems like Michael Che. “We about to be in a pickle,” she warned, “a bald-headed pickle.”
