In promoting his Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, Timothée Chalamet has gone on quite a few side quests. From visiting the University of Minnesota’s marching band (an ode to Bob Dylan’s hometown), going live on Instagram with no warning, and appearing on ESPN as a guest football analyst, Chalamet’s press tour has been anything but conventional. What better way for Timothée to close out this chapter of his career than hosting Saturday Night Live (SNL)? Oh wait, he was the musical guest, too?
As a longtime fan of Timothée Chalamet, I was in bed, ready to watch by the time 11:30 p.m. came around. In case you missed it, here’s everything you need to know about Timothée Chalamet’s episode of SNL, which aired on Jan. 25.
The Cold Open
This episode of SNL started with a cold open featuring the United States founding fathers signing the Declaration of Independence. The fathers begin to make lighthearted jokes about John Hancock’s large signature when guest Alexander Hamilton emerges from the shadows, and yep, you guessed it, it’s the real Lin-Manuel Miranda. As Miranda breaks into a rap about the freedom of the United States (in classic LMM fashion), another character interrupts.
Donald Trump, played by a scary good James Austin Johnson, freezes the skit and dives into a monologue about his recent presidential inauguration, “…we had a lot of surprise guests — like Melania,” and his swift executive orders, “I’m in my ‘king’ era.”
The Opening Monologue
Timothée walks down the iconic SNL stairs and begins his monologue by pointing out his “lil’ stache and goatee” and acknowledging that he is hosting SNL for the third time. Timothée recognizes A Complete Unknown’s eight Oscar nominations, including Chalamet as Best Actor in a Leading Role, and explains his frustrations about never winning awards despite his countless nominations, “I just keep losing…each time it gets harder to pretend it doesn’t sting.”
Timothée then presents a montage of his reactions to losing awards, and he doesn’t look too happy. In an attempt to finally read his winning acceptance speech, Timothée mimics an awards show and hands off a winning card to an audience member to read…except Kenan Thompson is called. Poor Timothée: will he ever win?
The Sketches
Bungee
Timothée kicks off the show in a skit poking fun at trending bungee workouts. He enters with a long, brown wig and bright green matching set, declaring himself “Nathaniel Latreen, the bungee queen.” Nathaniel is a diva, as he shuts down any questions that the boyfriend of a class member has about the quality of the workout. Timothée excitedly flies around in his bungee and whips his long hair from side to side while guiding the workout, which consists of eating Cinnabon cake and doing jumping jacks without jumping.
New Barista Training
At the Bungalow Café, the managers are training new baristas to come up with fun coffee puns related to the cold weather. When the new baristas are asked to present an idea, seemingly quiet Benny (Chalamet) suddenly stands up and makes a joke about Homer Simpson, Chris Rock style. Shocked, the baristas ask Benny to try again, where he makes another joke unrelated to coffee (again, Chris Rock style), but this time adds a dance break and a catchphrase: “Big Benny Says What?!”
AI Software
A teacher shows her class a conversational podcast that is supposed to make learning easier and more entertaining. The two podcast hosts (Timothée Chalamet and Bowen Yang) call each other “bae” and “dude” while discussing photosynthesis and talk about hooking up with a girl named “Trish” while conjugating French verbs, all in an attempt to reach their audience. The AI software is not exactly correct, as each of the hosts has six fingers. Maybe AI doesn’t know everything.
Dog Run
This skit begins with “If a bunch of dumb little dogs talked and acted like people” and opens with the cast members dressed with dog ears and prosthetic noses. The dogs lick and smell each other, discuss what food they’re eating, and run around in circles. Timothée, as a dog, acts like a “bro” and tells his friend about how he’s recently started hooking up with a shoe. He and his friend (Mikey Day) hit on poodles across the park.
Grandma’s Birthday
A 92-year-old is celebrating her birthday with her family. Her granddaughter, Kelsey, brings her new cardiologist boyfriend, played by Chalamet, to the family gathering. However, just as they arrive, Grandma has a heart attack! Do not worry; Timothée is here to save the day. He does a new form of CPR, where he farts loudly onto Grandma’s face. Grandma is immediately revived, to the family’s dismay. “Another victory for modern science,” Timothée exclaims.
God
In this animated short, Timothée plays God as he is creating the Earth. God uses phrases like, “Yo, my dogs,” and “This whole solar system thing slaps” while sketching animal ideas on a notepad. The rest of the cast voices the angels and presents God with ideas about how the Earth will function. When the angels veto one of God’s ideas, God responds similarly to that of a fragile middle school boy but is put at ease when the angels compromise with him.
The songs
“Outlaw Blues” and “Three Angels”
Adam Sandler introduced Timothée’s first musical performance of the episode. Unfortunately, Lil’ Timmy Tim did not make an appearance. However, he performed Bob Dylan’s “Outlaw Blues,” a rock song released in 1965, and “Three Angels,” a soft, poetic song from Dylan’s album New Morning.
Both of the songs are considered deep cuts, yet Timothée performs in a grounded, confident way that makes you want to listen to more Bob Dylan. I found “Three Angels” particularly moving due to Timothée’s natural way of performing: it almost sounds like he wrote it.
“Tomorrow Is a Long Time”
In his second musical performance, Timothée performs another Bob Dylan deep cut with “Tomorrow Is a Long Time.” In this song, Timothée plays acoustic guitar with small additions from the band. The song is similar to the Bob Dylan most people know, as it sounds the most “folk” out of the three songs performed.
Final Thoughts
Time and time again, Timothée Chalamet proves himself to be one of the greatest performers of our generation. He continues to showcase his dramatic range and musical talent. Chalamet is sure to join the five-timer club of SNL in the next few years. Maybe Timothée will even get that Oscar he’s always dreamed of at this year’s Academy Awards!
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