Timothée Chalamet Asked Us To Be Kind After An ‘SNL’ Debut That Begged Otherwise

Bah, humbug. Even Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band couldn’t salvage this episode of Saturday Night Live. But guest host Timothée Chalamet, with 30 seconds of free time to spare at the end of the show, asked us to be kind to one another, so I’ll try to review this as nicely as possible?

What’s The Deal With The SNL Cold Open for 12/12/20?

Without Alec Baldwin or Jim Carrey prancing about as one of our would-be presidents, you’d think that could open up all sorts of possibilities for how to open an episode of SNL. Somehow they landed on this premise, having CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer (Beck Bennett) interviewing Dr. Anthony Fauci (Kate McKinnon, because Brad Pitt was a one-time wish-fulfillment decision, apparently) and Dr. Deborah Birx (Heidi Gardner) about the first COVID-19 vaccine approved late Friday night by the FDA. McKinnon does deliver a good line about how “We’re delivering this vaccine WWII-style: We made England go in first.” Otherwise, though, there’s not much fodder here for funny. They try for Birx as the overshadowed second fiddle to Fauci, who has women throwing bras at him. They even try showing a clip of the real Fauci flailing at a first pitch from the past Major League Baseball Season. But this open was so cold it keeps the vaccine safe. So it has that going for it. Which is nice.

How Did The SNL Guest Host Timothée Chalamet Do?

In his monologue, Chalamet, who’s just a couple weeks shy of turning 25, reminded us he’s a native New Yorker, having grown up just minutes away from 30 Rock in Hells Kitchen. He also reminded us his mom used to appear as a background extra in SNL sketches in the 1990s, showing us a clip of her next to Dana Carvey and Chris Farley. This all sets up a bit behind a piano where Chalamet, later joined by Pete Davidson, mockingly pay tribute to holidays gone by in Manhattan versus Staten Island. It’s sweet and bitter, but not bittersweet.

He’d join up with Davidson two more times later, as a rap duo clearly out of their element on a rap roundtable with the real Questlove, and as insane Jets fans.

He’d also play son to Bennett and Gardner in three separate and distinct sketches, one live as part of A Rona Family Christmas (which clearly came from people who also green-lighted the Star Wars Holiday Special of 1978), and two pre-taped short films (one of which serves as great product placement for Lexus, even if their “December to Remember” isn’t for the right reasons, the other in which Chalamet sings about losing his tiny horse when his family has to give up “The Farm,” and no, I don’t think Julio Torres wrote it).

Chalamet got in one celebrity impersonation, as Harry Styles, and also one physical bit that required him to get messy in another installment of SNL‘s mockery of baking championships gone awry (this was their third iteration of that premise since February 2019).

The episode certainly didn’t suffer from a lack of effort on his part.

How Relevant Was The Musical Guest?

Seventy-one-year-old Bruce Springsteen and most of The E Street Band brought some life to 30 Rock, even if both of their song choices were about paying tribute to ghosts, and neither song was “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town.”

But Bruce has a new album out, Letter To You, and both “Ghosts” and “I’ll See You In My Dreams” are tracks from it.

Good to see Max Weinberg back in the building, as the drummer was the original band leader for “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” Hey. This might be the first and only SNL episode to feature two “Late Night” drummers! Questlove also appeared in a sketch as himself. Fun trivia. Silver linings everywhere in this here playbook.

Which Sketch Will We Be Sharing?

Probably “The Dionne Warwick Talk Show” since the legendary singer made a memorable splash on Twitter this past week and turned 80 on Saturday. Even if the sketch somehow failed to mention her birthday, it did offer a fine impersonation from Ego Nwodim as Warwick and a bunch of brief celeb impersonation cameos from her various guests. Funniest? Chloe Fineman as Chalamet. Most notable? Chalamet as Harry Styles, explaining “Watermelon Sugar” to Warwick. Also featured: Melissa Villaseñor as Billie Eilish, Davidson as his friend Machine Gun Kelly, and new cast members Punkie Johnson as Warwick’s niece, Andrew Dismukes as the chef in a cooking segment, and Lauren Holt as an audience member looking under her seat to find nothing. To which Nwodim’s Warwick retorts: “That’s right. I don’t owe you anything.”

This week’s episode gave the trio of new cast members plenty of opportunities in multiple sketches, which is great experience for them, even if the episode itself on the whole was remarkably unremarkable.

Who Stopped By Weekend Update?

McKinnon returned for a second time to the Update desk as Dr. Wayne Wenowdis, this time to talk about America’s COVID-19 response: “I don’t know how we do this, but we blow this.” But McKinnon really only lit up at the opportunity to spray Colin Jost with needle fluid, as if she were going to administer the vaccine to him herself, all while singing “Come On Vaccine” to that Dexys Midnight Runners megahit from 1982, “Come On Eileen.”

Speaking of musical greats, Villaseñor shone by finally getting her Dolly Parton impersonation into the mix, by remixing Christmas classics with lyrics from Parton hits. “Newsflash: I want to be Dolly. Who doesn’t?!” We hear you, Melissa!

What Sketch Filled The “10-to-1” Slot?

At 12:55 a.m. Eastern, SNL imagined the newly insurgent right-wing cable channel Newsmax taking advantage of its newfound viewership tuning in for Trump conspiracies, and spinning off a new Sportsmax for “real Jets fans” of the 0-12 NFL team from New York that plays in New Jersey. On Sportsmax, however, the Jets remain undefeated and the greatest team in the league, according to anchor Robert King (Alex Moffat), analyst Drew Matarazo (Bennett), and experts Deluca and DelVechio (Chalamet and Davidson) who have 500 sworn affidavits from fans who saw the team beat the Dolphins. The sketch also featured two more spin-offs, with Kyle Mooney as Weathermax forecaster boasting “sunny and 68” outside the stadium during a snowstorm, while Rico and Chicky Stix (Dismukes and Johnson) lived in a world where the New York Knicks continued to enjoy Linsanity.

Who Was The Episode’s MVP?

With all due respect to Beck Bennett and Heidi Gardner, who shouldered so much of the load in this episode, the most valuable player sure seemed to be Pete Davidson, since he spent the monologue and two other sketches by the guest host’s side as Chalamet’s wingman. Who knows how the episode might have turned out otherwise?

At least next week is the final show of 2020, with Kristen Wiig bringing some reliable bits to the table read and Dua Lipa bringing the Billboard heat.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch SNL Season 46 Episode 8 on YouTube