Professional charming person Timothée Chalamet lived up to his reputation as a charming, likable young actor during his Saturday Night Live debut this weekend with musical guest Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. Unlike some hosts this season (ahem Dave Chappelle), Chalamet appeared in every sketch—and while he didn't have one specific standout moment, he had lots of good material to work with. He impersonated Harry Styles, got sucked into a cake butt, sang an ode to a tiny horse, channeled his inner TikTok rapper, and even got to play a rebellious coronavirus particle.
As you already likely know, we're suckers for a celebrity who loves the city, so Chalamet's Monologue was particularly welcome. He talked about his love for celebrating Christmas in NYC, revealed that his mother was once an extra on the show in the early '90s, and did one of those "fake piano playing" bits that almost always kills. He brought out Pete Davidson for the bit as well, which turned out to be a preview of the rest of the night, when they teamed up in three sketches. Is Chalamet/Davidson the new Mulaney/Davidson?
A lot of the sketches this season have felt sluggish, but there have been lots of signs of things moving in the right direction: there were no celebrity cameos this week (unless you count Questlove), some of the new castmembers got some actual screentime, and there was an actually clever Trump-related sketch—albeit one buried at the very end of the episode. The 10-to-1 was Sportsmax, an incredibly effective sketch targeting the incomprehensible and ludicrous fake news channel Newsmax, with the Jets standing in for Trump.
Another sign things are turning around: the Dr. Fauci & Dr. Birx Cold Open, which was a blissfully short cold open (under six minutes!), and therefore better than every other cold open this season. Kate McKinnon's Fauci impression was pretty solid as well, and I am shocked that she has not pulled that out before now.
Then there was Tiny Horse, a love-it-or-hate-it sketch about...well...a tiny horse. It veered a little more to the sweet and surreal rather than hilarious, but the utter randomness and sincerity won me over hard.
I also enjoyed Coronavirus Holiday, in which a family of coronavirus particles (Chalamet, Cecily Strong, Beck Bennett, Lauren Holt) celebrate Christmas together. Special shoutout to Melissa Villaseñor as "your poor grandmother, Spanish Influenza," knitting in her rocking chair and getting two quick scene-stealing lines in.
Thanks to its great production values, SNL has always been really, really good at commercial parodies like December To Remember Car Commercial, in which it quickly becomes clear that Beck Bennett's clueless, unemployed dad doesn’t know what a down payment is, to the horror of his family and neighbors.
Check out the rest of the sketches below: Ego Nwodim got another much-deserved star turn in Dionne Warwick Talk Show, which also featured Chloe Fineman as Chalamet; Rap Roundtable, in which Questlove slapped Chalamet and Davidson's ridiculous TikTok rappers Guaplord and $mokecheddathaassgetta; and Holiday Baking Championship 2020, another one of the recurring sketches about baking challenge shows-gone-wrong, this time featuring the aforementioned cake butt.
Weekend Update continue to be a bright spot this week, with two good guests: McKinnon brought back Dr. Wenowdis on the COVID-19 Vaccine, her fantastic character from the Bill Burr episode earlier this season. Once again, McKinnon got to indulge in some sublime wordplay, then break character to relate a refreshing frankness about the terror of the moment. The other guest was Melissa Villaseñor on Christmas and Dolly Parton, the premise of which is spelled out pretty concisely right there. It feels like the show often doesn't know how best to use Villaseñor, who is an exceptional impressionist and a hell of a singer, in regular sketches, so I'm always happy to see her just go for it with things like this.
Few things have given me as much joy recently as getting to see Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band having a great time onstage performing new tunes "Ghosts" and "I'll See You In My Dreams." They are one of the greatest live bands in popular music history, and they didn't miss a beat despite the pandemic hiatus—"Ghosts" in particular sounded like a future live staple. Here's hoping they get to back on the road before too long.
Next week, SNL closes out 2020 with its last show of the year, featuring host Kristen Wiig and musical guest Dua Lipa.
