Saturday Night Live opens with the third “Republican kids presidential debate”, where the field of future also-rans make poor cases for themselves before being interrupted by Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson).
He takes potshots at the pitiful competition, including Tim Scott (“We like Skim Scott and his girlfriend … not a lot of chemistry between those two. They make me and Melania look like Taylor and Travis …”) and Vivek Ramaswamy (“He’s a lot like me except for one thing that matters a lot to my horrible, horrible base: white!”); rags on the show’s casting of Ego Nwodim as Ramaswamy (“Poor Ego, you don’t like it, she doesn’t like it”) and John Higgins as “Meatball” Ron DeSantis (“Even SNL doesn’t think he has a chance. If they did it’d be someone like Paul Rudd in there”); and rambles about his own declining mental health (“I say things like: I’m beating Obama! That’s not right, but I say it, it’s fun”) and legal troubles (“They’re saying I committed fraud – not true, not true. I’ve committed a lot of other things – adultery, treason, a lot of fraud, perhaps.”)
It’s a great showing from Johnson – especially his continual breaking of the fourth wall – even if it does have the effect of making Trump come off as cooler then he really is.
Timothée Chalamet hosts for the second time. Celebrating the end of the actors’ strike, the Wonka star moves into “a world of shameless self-promotion” to the tune of Pure Imagination, before being interrupted by Marcello Hernández to rap about being a grown man with a babyface. It’s (intentionally) cringey, but Chalamet shows off surprisingly decent mic skills.
The hip-hop theme continues into the next sketch, which sees Chalamet bring back his SoundCloud rapper, SmokedCheddatheAssGetta from the last time he hosted. He joins luminaries Mary J Blige (Punkie Johnson), Rick Rubin (Johnson), and Cornel West (Kenan Thompson) onstage at the Museum of Hip-Hop for a panel discussion. Shallow and entitled, SmokedChadda displays his ignorance of the genre and makes a fool of himself, forcing West to put him in his place by doling out a spanking. A welcome return from Chalamet’s most memorable character from his last go.
Promoting her new memoir, The Woman in Me, Britney Spears (Chloe Fineman) rolls tape of the celebrities who auditioned to read the audiobook version, including Martin Scorsese (Chalamet), Steve-O (Mikey Day), John Mulaney (Sarah Sherman), Jada Pinkett Smith (Nwodim), and others. A few are spot on – Johnson’s Werner Herzog and Michael Longfellow’s Bill Hader – but most aren’t. Fineman plays a number of celebrities on top of Spears, including Julia Fox and Chalamet. The latter is the only one she succeeds at.
Next up is a phone call between Heidi Gardner’s gym member and a couple of muscled-up lunkheads at Shred Zone. She just wants to know if she left her bag at the gym, but the employees are too stupid to follow even the most basic parts of the conversation. Entirely forgettable and filled with dead air.
A post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller sees Chalamet’s young warrior singing a sad ballad about his formerly tiny horse, which is now a world-destroying giant horse. Another sequel to a sketch from his last time hosting, this one isn’t as successful, simply because without that context it makes zero sense, with the show overestimating how memorable that one was.
Following the first performance from musical guests boygenius, it’s time for another noticeably truncated Weekend Update. The sole guest is Krystal (Gardner), “your co-worker who’s extremely busy doing seemingly nothing”. Walking the razor’s edge of a nervous breakdown she makes a complete mess of the desk by throwing around paperwork, electronics and cold Chipotle, before revealing her job is running Spears’ Instagram account.
At a sleep clinic, a patient named Kayla (Sherman) suffering from sleep paralysis undergoes a new computer-enhanced therapy that induces her night terrors while she’s awake. The sleep demon that haunts her dreams is “Australian YouTube twink-turned indie pop star” Troy Sivan. Kayla is as confused about the “gay famous” star as everyone who’s not part of gen Z, but the show does a good job of explaining things, while also successfully sending up our rapidly changing notions of celebrity. The boygenius women get in on the fun, playing Sivan clones and flashing their tiny red underpants.
A new Please Don’t Destroy sees Ben, John and Martin attempting to talk Chalamet’s failed musician would-be window jumper from committing suicide by encouraging him to play them some of his “super gurgly” songs, which he records with his unfortunately named band Hamas. More focused than most of PDD’s shorts, it feels a little rushed, but there are some solid laughs throughout.
At a home for unwanted girls, a sad young orphan (newcomer Chloe Troast) bares her soul in song to the moon (Chalamet), revealing that she’s actually a violent, 27-year-old flat earther who started the Covid-19 pandemic. Chalamet is great as the increasingly horrified moon, while Troast makes a huge impression with her surprisingly Michael McDonald-like vocals.
The show wraps up with Chalamet playing himself as he records a sleep story for the Calm app about the splendor of nature. It starts out as a calming tale about a young gardener, before turning into an angry screed about her hatred for a local dog that keeps pooping in her yard. Chalamet’s incredulity about the material leads to bickering with the sound engineers. This one is a little too unfocused, but it earns a big pop at the end when Alec Baldwin makes his return to the show as Chalamet’s replacement. Chalamet then signs off by again celebrating the end of the actors’ strike, honoring the craftspeople who can now also return to work, and wishing Leonardo DiCaprio a happy birthday.
While there were a few stinkers throughout, this makes the second strong episode in a row. Chalamet’s performance and energy was a little more restrained this time around, much to its benefit, and he was given some fun material to work with. Baldwin showing up suggests that SNL sees Chalamet as a regular host for years to come, and this episode proved he has what it takes.
