Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)

Okay, here's my review. This was an episode that took some wild swings that may not have paid off and relied a bit too much on old sketch premises (some not even from this particular hosts last episode). Still, the highs were higher this season than they've ever been and the lowest were just shocking blows coming out of nowhere. It's still a wildly uneven episode, though. Certain things were holding this show back from being the best of the season. I'd say it was second best behind the comfortably consistent Nate Bargatze episode and just ahead of the slightly avant guard Bad Bunny episode. Timothee was still a likable presence as host, but he didn’t seem to be giving it his all like he was three years ago. Unsurprisingly, Heidi had a great night. More surprisingly was how Ego and Punkie managed to have great nights this week. JAJ and Squirm dropped in with some assists. Longfellow was barely present but he managed to make the most out of what little screentime he did get (much like everyone else even if they weren't given the best roles). Anyway, let's just get right to it because there's a lot we gotta break down this week.

Republican Debate 2024 - Jesus Christ, old habits really DO die hard on SNL, huh? Well, good on Kenan and Devon for trying the hardest right out if the gate (even if Devon ended up accidentally doing the hackiest Bill Clinton impression 1993 had to offer...geez, I sure hope he isn't recovering from a bout if laryngitis or something), but Ego, Heidi...why? I mean, I hope it wasn't you guys' INTENT to send a cold chill through my very soul like that. You know, things aren't going great when one of your first thoughts on trying to process this cold open is "Hmm, okay... maybe out of all of these new political impressions I MIGHT not mind getting to see Molly Kearney as Chris Christie some more?" Oh, thank God for JAJs' scene/focus stealing abilities. I mean, I don't like how SNL is basically using his Trump to give it's audience Stockholm syndrome at this point but I was holding out hope that this would be some kind of low-level fakeout that would turn out to be worth not completely tuning out of and letting my brain turn into unpleasant white noise at some point. At least Ego as Vivek and John Higgins as Michael Longfellow as Arturo Castro as Ron DeSantis were only there to set up a meta moment. I just wish it wasn't the type of meta moment we used to get in either season 20, 43 or 48 just to shake off the cobwebs and dead weight and work through their baggage of 47 (although I will admit to chuckling at that Paul Rudd line as well as the slams at Vivek as a candidate and the jokes about Trump going after his judge). D+

Monologue - Well, already Chalamet isn't quite bringing that season 46 energy to the monologue. It's all right, bro. That cold open really drained me, too. Anyway, I wasn't expecting him to reference the SAG-AFTRA strike ending THAT directly, but go off, I guess. I appreciate the attempt at a "pure imagination" parody as clumsily and sweatily written as it seemed. This was one of several moments where Timothee was visibly on the verge of breaking (although this actually was the only one where the entire audience was right there with him). The only way I can process it is that everyone was just as taken aback by that one guy just voluntarily giving up his seat so easily for Timothee to sit down in or he thought the CGI bleachers crowd was as funny as I did or just the Wonka portion of this monologue was heavily rewritten between dress and air Stefon-style so Timothee was reading a lot of those jokes for the first time. This wasn't quite the meta moment I wanted either, but compared to that cold open, it's the kind of meta moment I can live with. Thankfully, Marcello, Punkie Minaj and Kenan Thompson were there to liven this up for me. Sadly, none of this was enough to distract me from wondering "why the hell did they just smash two different monologues together instead of just doing the baby face rap as a pretape? I mean, I realize that the Wonka song was probably written after the SAG strike ended and the rap was written before, but just pick ONE monologue concept and stick with it! Did they just not have it in their budget for one extra pretape?" B-

50 Years Of Hip Hop - Frankly, I was hoping they would leave this a one off and not try to recapture lightning in a bottle for the sake of YouTube views and TikTok hits but shockingly this worked better for me without Pete. It does help that they also switched around pretty much all of the impressions starting with Punkie J. Blige. Chalamets' character in these is somehow funnier when he is playing off of someone who is not trying to match his wild energy. JAJs' Rick Rubin in particular was really the yin to Chalamets dialed back yang here. Plus, Timothee had several actual lines here that were funnier alone than the entire last sketch such as the one about hip hop being discovered in 2014, his dad making him get braces instead of Invisalign, his explanation of the absence of Pete's character, listing Jason Derulo and Dixie D'amelio as "GOATs" and him only knowing Kenans' Cornell West from a Matrix sequel and, last but not least, him dissing Biggie Smalls just to drumroll his new Soundcloud single. The ending with Kenan spanking him was a bit too similar to the last one for me but it would've worked more if Timothee would have sold it a bit better. B+

Auditions For Britneys' Audiobook - Um, I...thought we were PAST the era of "impression parades," but I do have to give the 2023 cast credit for finding a new angle that keeps these fresh. All right, let’s just get through these as quickly as we can. First of all, I'd like to thank Chloe Fineman for limiting her presence in this to her few impressions thst worked for me (Britney, Natasha, her Julia Fox even if it seemed a little aimless and pointless in this and her Chalamet even though I still think that the real Timothee may have aged out of whatever early era of his career she based that impression on...but at least they got the hair and the over all current look right?) and I'd also like to thank Chloe Troast for debuting a Maggie Smith that was silly enough to work for me. Speaking of the real Timothee, his Scorcese was a little run of the mill for me. I've seen plenty of other Scorceses that were just like his but shockingly he msy be one of the few to impersonate him who also worked with him. It's always nice to see Heidi's Allison Janney and Kenans' Neil Degrasse Tyson again (although in the context of this sketch Kenan sound more like he was chanelling his Virginica character and his Deep House Dish host at the same time with a dash of Rick Ross thrown in to taste). I wasn’t expecting Sarah to have a Mulaney in her back pocket but that may have been my second favorite moment of this sketch. She really nails Mulaneys' stand up style. Vocally, it worked better than Melissa Villaseñors' impression whereas Melissa's worked mainly based on a slight facial resemblance between her and Mulaney. My absolute favorite moment of this sketch may have been JAJ as Werner Hertzog just for the "entranced by this Floridian vernacular" line they gave him. As much as I like seeing Molly Kearney used on the show, their Kevin James meme impression is something that should've been cut entirely. I feel like the show actually is starting to lean on Molly playing heavyset men as a crutch too often lately and it may be diminishing their presence in the cast. The same goes for Egos' Jada Pinkett Smith as that impression (and moreso the material it is based on, really) have both more than run their course. Bowen as The B-52s' Fred Schneider and Punkie as Ice Spice were two impressions that worked better than they had any right to in this. Hell, I might have laughed a bit harder than I should have at Bowens part. The age and height differences alone between Punkie & Ice Spice made me doubt she could pull that off until I actually saw it but then again, Punkie just has a certain knack for playing female rappers in general. Speaking of parts of this sketch I laughed at more than I should've, I got a kick out of Mikey as Steve-O stapling his nutsack to his leg. The voice was a little less nasal and a little more Tiny Tooms Buster Bunny than it should've been and with that wig he looked a little more like Knoxville than Steve-O but it was just dumb and goofy enough and I could see where he was pulling from. I appreciate that they gave us Michael Longfellow as Bill Hader even if it only seemed to exist as the shows' mere acknowledgement that yes, there is a slight resemblance between these two gentlemen. C+

Lost Bag At Shred Gym - Hmm...DID PDD write this? I mean, it does seriously lack their signature pacing, but it DOES seem like someone HEAVILY diluted their Spectrum sketch with Kieran Culkin. Either way, this worked for me just for containing the exact right amount of dumbness and not iverstayimg it's welcome. As soon as I said to myself, "Ok, Sarah's gonna come out," it ended. C+

Tiny Horse II: Giant Horse - Hey, I gotta give 'em credit for the way they decided to Trojan ho...nope, not going there. Uh, uh. It's not worth it. Anyway, I wouldn't prefer they kept this a one off too but at least this worked well enough as a well plotted sequel. I also got a kick out of the visual gag of Bowens' severed Alien-like robotic head singing along to the "tiny horse" song. Also, did anyone else get strong David Mitchell vibes from JAJs' Palpatine Malfoy character? B-

Update was thankfully short considering how all over the place the jokes were and what the sole commentary was. I liked Che's Eric Adams/Trump bibles/couples therapy/Instagram app jokes. Josts' elephant/Jared Leto jokes were solid but his Bankman-Freid/Streisand jokes were so heavily telegraphed I could see the punchlines coming from two towns over. Che's "Israel School" joke was only notable for how shockingly hesitant he was to even tell it. All the rest were just pure white noise to me. I wasn’t crazy about Heidi's performatively busy coworker the first time. I certainly didn’t need to see it again, but with more phone throwing and Peepers-esque burrito consumption. I will say that having her occupation be "Britney Spears' Instagram coreographer" was an easier joke to get than having her be Che's assistant (which again, felt too "inside baseball" even for me). On a personal note, I will add that this commentary gave me some pause and left me more time and space to look inside myself and examine how much Heidi's work/life habits might have mirrored my own these past few months (especially as I try to get these blogs finished and posted on time) as I prepare to swtich jobs for the second time this year, but I won't to too much into those details of my personal life on this here blog. C-

Troy "Sleep Demon" Sivan - Hmm...well, they knew exactly who their audience would be for this episode. This wasn't exactly what I was hoping a sketch that opens with the visual of Sarah Squirm with electrodes hooked up to her temples would be. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Bowen had a hand in writing this. Thankfully, he made it seem more like a vanity piece for Timothee than for him (well, at first. Hell, given how out of step he seemed with Timothees' already inconsistent and seemingly under-rehearsed choreography I'm not sure calling this a "vanity piece" for either one of them would be entirely accurate...heyoooooooo!). I'm not quite sure the Boygenius girls needed to make cameos in this, though (though I find it oddly funny how the one who clearly has the most tattoos was the most seemingly hesitant to show her underwear). Don't you just love it when modern-day SNL writes an entire sketch devoted to just simply explaining some current pop culture ephemera to you? Now, I do remember about five (almost six now, really) years ago now when Mr. Sivan himself was an actual musical guest on this show. Since I'm already vaguely familiar enough with him just to know the name but not whatever HBO show he was on (I wanna say "The Idol" which I never bothered watching but, I mean...that SOUNDS right, doesn't it?), it honestly makes it all the more confounding as to why they would do this sketch now and not six years ago. Either way, I can't imagine ol' Troy having an enthusiastically positive reaction to this if he even is made aware of it (unless he and Timothee are friends which I can't imagine as easily as him being friends with Boygenius). Oh yeah, and before I forget, I will admit to having seen one interview with him in the past so I do really appreciate Timothee just straight up calling himself out on his own inability to do an Australian accent because if he didn’t, that would’ve gotten under my skin for the entire sketch. C+

Also, quick side tangent, those "Prime" water drinks are made by fucking Logan Paul? Yeah, I tried those and they weren't that great. (Hey, that had ones flavored like Rocket Pops! I'm not completely made of stone!) I think I'll stop buying those and just stick with those "Hoist" drinks. They're not made by anyone that bad, right?

PDD: Frank & His "Music" - Goddammit, PDD. Thank you for coming in clutch once again and giving me my longest, most sustained laughter in this episode. I've said this to you guys before, and I'll say it again; Never EVER stop being you! B+

Lil Orphan Cassidy - Hey, a Chloe Troast led sketch! It's also a very writerly character piece with a lot of absurd escalating little details! She even makes Maya Rudolph in Dreamgirls-esque singing work pretty well. The assists from Mikey & Timothee didn’t hurt this sketch either. I think I have an idea who wrote this too. Don't ever stop being YOU either, Chloe T! B+

Calm App Sleep Story Recording Session - I'm not too crazy about these types of "already strange recording session gone gradually more and more wrong" sketches we first got with J.J. Watt and Owen Wilson either but Mikey Days' absence makes me think this isn't exactly one of those. Whatever the hell this was, at least it gave us a fairly short burst of Timothee and Andy Dismukes matching each others' passive agression with aggressive aggression. I didn’t like how this ended with a cameo that felt like just as much a slap to the face as that cold open was. Man, I hate to sound like a broken record but old habits really DO. DIE. HARD. on this show, don't they? C-

Now, for my updated ranking of season 49...

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)
2. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
3. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
4. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

Well, that was certainly a wild ass ride. Next week, Jason Momoa returns for his second time hosting. Again, I am cautiously optimistic about this one as well for different reasons. While Momoas first episode from December 2018 wasn’t that strong, his social media posts in the weeks leading up to his episode showed him to be almost as big and as an enthusiastic of an SNL nerd as you or I (emphasis on "you" if you are still reading this far). Unfortunately, that energy didn't translate as well onscreen as it should have. Still, he hosted in the middle of a slightly troubled, mostly D.O.A. season so I'm sure that had someone to do with it. He seemed like a fun guy to work with even if the writers may not have figured out how best to use him. Fortunately, the show has shed all its dead weight from season 44 and we have a new, more dynamic cast that I can already tell may be able to play to his strengths better so we should be in good shape. See you then!