Saturday Night Live: Timothée Chalamet / boygenius

November 12, 2023 1:21 AM - Season 49, Episode 4

Back from the strikes.

• Cold Open - Republican Debate & Trump: Kenan Thompson, Ego Nwodim, Devon Walker, Molly Kearney, Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, James Austin Johnson
• Monologue: Timothée Chalamet, Marcello Hernandez, Punkie Johnson, Kenan Thompson
• 50 Years of Hip Hop: Ego Nwodim, Punkie Johnson, James Austin Johnson, Kenan Thompson, Timothée Chalamet
• Britney Spears Audiobook Auditions: Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Mikey Day, Sarah Sherman, Molly Kearney, Bowen Yang, Ego Nwodim, Kenan Thompson, James Austin Johnson, Punkie Johnson, Michael Longfellow
• Shred Zone Gym: Heidi Gardner, Mikey Day, Timothée Chalamet
• Giant Horse: Heidi Gardner, Marcello Hernandez, Sarah Sherman, Mikey Day, Bowen Yang, Timothée Chalamet
• boygenius - Not Strong Enough
• Weekend Update: Michael Che, Colin Jost
  • Busy Coworker: Heidi Gardner
• Troye Sivan: Sarah Sherman, Bowen Yang, Timothée Chalamet, boygenius
• Hamas: PDD, Timothée Chalamet
• boygenius - Satanist
• Orphans: Molly Kearney, Chloe Fineman, Chloe Troast, Timothée Chalamet, Mikey Day
• Calm App: Punkie Johnson, Andrew Dismukes, Timothée Chalamet, Alec Baldwin

posted by rhizome (27 comments total)

GIANT HORSE!
posted by mochapickle at 9:46 AM on November 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best SNL in ages. Chalamet is a natural as a host, willing and able and up for anything. The orphans skit was pretty amazing as a late-in-the-show gem.
posted by mcstayinskool at 9:54 AM on November 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Enjoyed 'Orphans' a lot.

I did look it up and Mikey Day is 43.
posted by porpoise at 11:17 AM on November 12, 2023

I was thinking that it was off to a better start than recent efforts. When Hip Hop at 50 started, I thought "ha, they're going to have to host as someone who doesn't know the history of hip hop at all, that should be a good gag." And then I realized I'd written the whole sketch in my head based on the introduction of a couple of characters. And the joke didn't change. Most of them were like that. So predictable. The PDD was meanspirited and unfunny. Giant Horse was good.
posted by transient at 11:56 AM on November 12, 2023

Yeah, the Please Don't Destroy video was about... suicide? Really guys? There was also a prison rape joke in WU, which I kind of thought we'd collectively moved on from. Also WU was very quick this week.

Boygenius was pretty good. It's nice to see musicians looking like they're having a good time on stage. It was also nice to see them show up in a sketch.

I thought the monologue was pretty weak. Something just felt off in the first half and then they completed switched gears. It was like they had two different ideas and couldn't decide so they just did them both.

Weird 10 to 1 cameo by Baldwin.

I wasn't really familiar with Chalamet outside of a couple of films I've seen him in, had no idea about his personality or what he was capable of but he seemed to be up for anything and can certainly sing and rap pretty well.

I liked the audio book auditions but manly because I enjoy that whole lightning round of impressions thing.
posted by bondcliff at 12:36 PM on November 12, 2023

It was like they had two different ideas and couldn't decide so they just did them both.

The actors strike got resolved two days before the show so they likely added his Wonka promo.

This week was epic! Tiny Horse, $mokeCheddaThaAssGetta in the 50 years of hiphop, and Troye Sivan sleep paralysis demon were favourites, and I love boygenius!
posted by ellieBOA at 1:40 PM on November 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

And rapping (the excellent Baby Face rap) in the monologue was a throwback to Lil Timmy Tim, his teen rap persona! (Archive link)
posted by ellieBOA at 1:50 PM on November 12, 2023

I’ll be the minority opinion here and say that I did not find this episode to be all that funny. High point for me was the Orphans sketch—Chloe Troast was channeling major Will Forte energy.

I don’t know if I’m too old to know who Troye Sivan is or just too straight, but either way it’s a funny feeling to not get a cultural reference on SNL. At least I already listen to boygenius!

(Speaking of boygenius: In the Troye Sivan sketch I saw a mark on Phoebe’s neck, and during the second song, one on Julien’s. Were those birthmarks, or hickeys? Did Lucy have one too??)
posted by ejs at 2:16 PM on November 12, 2023

I was really excited to see boygenius and I think they did a great job, but the sound mixing did them no favors at all. So much of their power is in their vocals/harmonies, which were a bit lost. That’s just to say, if you liked them and their energy, definitely check out more of their music.

“He’s gay famous, it’s different!!!” was so funny. They were smart to do that sketch on a week when there’d be a lot of Gen Z and millennial queers in the audience (due to boygenius and Timothée.)
posted by lunasol at 2:18 PM on November 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

(Speaking of boygenius: In the Troye Sivan sketch I saw a mark on Phoebe’s neck, and during the second song, one on Julien’s. Were those birthmarks, or hickeys? Did Lucy have one too??)

Since it’s boygenius, it really could be either. They were all in roughly the same place which is odd. I think Lucy had one too. I wonder if there was a deleted skit where they made fun of their tendency to make out with each other on stage and they had those put on with makeup . (Knowing what imps they are, it could have also just been an in-joke for their fans)
posted by lunasol at 2:56 PM on November 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

The thing where the host is one of the characters in the sketch, but it's actually a cast member doing an impression will always be funny to me.

I did like having the cameo be just a quick punchline out of nowhere right at the end of the episode, instead of basically stuntcasting like so many cameos in recent seasons.
posted by ckape at 6:02 PM on November 12, 2023

I’ll be the minority opinion here and say that I did not find this episode to be all that funny.

I'm kind of leaning your way, which is telling since I'm a serious fan of Chalamet. He's just an absolutely phenomenal talent - but it felt like he really wasn't given as much good stuff this time around.

I thought the monologue was pretty weak. Something just felt off in the first half and then they completed switched gears.

The monologue from his first appearance was odd as well - I think you can chalk it up to "he's so uneasy talking about himself that even when it's scripted he feels weird about it". The poor kid is trying to navigate his 20s with the entire damn world watching, and he's even in a new relationship to boot and so even HINTING about his actual life wigs him out I think.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:41 PM on November 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

I agree it was fairly weak despite Chalamet being seemingly game and extremely charismatic. Orphans and Troye Sivan were the highlights for me. My only touchpoint for Troy was that he was one of the few good aspects of the terrible HBO show, The Idol.
posted by mmascolino at 8:34 PM on November 12, 2023

The cold open was at least slightly different framing of a typical political opening. I also like the meta commentary on the SNL actors playing the GOP debaters. The sleep sketch also had Chalamet meta commentating on his inability to do Troye's native Australian accent.
posted by mmascolino at 8:39 PM on November 12, 2023

I thought it was a solid outing, while I wasn't blown away by anything. I do love a good impressions showcase like the Britney Spears audiobook -- one after the other, bam bam bam. And a quick, last second cameo like Baldwin's is always fun, too. Blink and you missed it.

I must have slept through the orphans thing. Zero recall of it whatsoever.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:39 AM on November 13, 2023

Ooh, go back and watch Orphan again, then! It took me halfway through to realize Chloe T was actually the one singing so I ended up watching it 1.5 times.
posted by mochapickle at 1:53 PM on November 13, 2023

All the digs at Ego during the cold open skit was really weird. Like there was some serious drama/politics going on in the background? Ego didn’t seem to react in any way, though.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:06 PM on November 13, 2023

This was an ok, but not great, episode for me. I didn't like the PDD video piece at all. I didn't understand Giant Horse. If it was just absurdism it didn't work for me. If it was a reference to something I don't get the reference.

boygenius was fantastic and I'm going to look up more of their stuff. The Beatles-on-Sullivan set and wardrobe was also very cool - they really nailed that.

Orphans was easily the highlight for me. Chloe Troast earned her spot on the show in one sketch with that one for me.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 2:11 PM on November 13, 2023

Giant Horse makes more sense if you’ve seen this bit from a couple of years ago.
posted by mochapickle at 2:15 PM on November 13, 2023

I read that more as Ego would be relieved she doesn't have to play Tim Scott more than once.
posted by Marticus at 4:45 PM on November 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Timothée Chalamet was right on schedule to promote Dune: Part Two's November 17th release date - - I can't wait to see it this weekend! Oh, wait. :(
posted by fairmettle at 10:58 PM on November 13, 2023

I read that more as Ego would be relieved she doesn't have to play Tim Scott more than once.

Wasn’t Ego playing Ramaswami, though?
posted by Thorzdad at 4:59 AM on November 14, 2023

Giant Horse makes more sense if you’ve seen this bit from a couple of years ago

Thanks. That does explain it. Giant Horse doesn't work well for me without the Tiny Horse backstory. I like absurd stuff like Giant Horse but there was just something missing, which I guess was Tiny Horse. Now we can all look forward to Medium Horse in 2 years.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 5:44 AM on November 14, 2023

Wasn’t Ego playing Ramaswami, though?

She was.

Clinging to the Wreckage, if you missed the episode with Tiny Horse, maybe you also haven’t seen Rap Roundtable, which was the ‘prequel’ for 50 Years of Hip Hop.
posted by ellieBOA at 6:05 AM on November 14, 2023

Oh my bad, I can't keep all the people competing for second place straight.
posted by Marticus at 2:16 PM on November 14, 2023

the sound mixing did them no favors at all. So much of their power is in their vocals/harmonies, which were a bit lost

I feel insane because it seems like SNL has this problem way more often than it should. Like, they've had this specific problem for years. I don't know anything about audio but it seems like it should be fixable and it just seems like they... don't?
posted by BungaDunga at 4:11 PM on November 14, 2023

Haven't watched the full episode yet, but I did watch the boygenius segment because I think they're awesome. Had to go and look up who was drumming because the final segment of Not Strong Enough was blazing - Madden Klass.

Also they looked like they were having a blast and that's always great.
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:17 PM on November 15, 2023