December 12, 2020 – Timothée Chalamet / Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (S46 E8)

by Matt

THE SITUATION ROOM
Anthony Fauci (KAM) & Deborah Birx (HEG) detail Covid-19 vaccination plan

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— Ah yes, the fun of turning pandemic news into comedy! I barely remember this sketch so we’ll see how it trudges along. I will say, though, that cold opens like this… they’re certainly not made for durability. They burn out like a match—having served their purpose, arguably, when the episode aired, there’s now not a ton of splendor to examining the debris.
— Comparing the Pfizer vaccine to a PS5 is reeeealll 2020.
— The debut of Kate’s Anthony Fauci impression, presumably because Brad Pitt couldn’t get the wig back on after he ripped it off. It confuses me, really; I assumed part of the “point” of Kate playing crusty conservative politicians in male drag was to make fun of them and their values with the intrinsic idea of a young, openly-gay woman playing them (a slight idea, but one that has maybe some potency). But Fauci… we like Fauci. Why is Kate playing Fauci? The unwritten rule that Kate just needs to play every single person in politics is absolute poison.
— Also, she’s basically just doing the Giuliani voice. Couldn’t even try at a new angle, huh?
— Heidi is also here as Deborah Birx, and SNL at least has the common courtesy to wink at her relative obscurity: “And I am also the reason for the cheers.” I think she only does the impression this one time? It’s not super memorable, as with the rest of this, though I do like seeing Heidi be a focal point in a cold open on the level of Kate, as she certainly deserves it.
— Cutting to a real clip of Fauci making a terrible opening pitch at a baseball game in comparison to the underwhelming vaccine roll-out (incredibly funny clip, by the way—no credit to SNL for that) feels strangely like a joke more fitting for Weekend Update.
— I like some of the little jokes throughout here, like the regional variations of the vaccine and Fauci saying that his ultimate goal is just for everyone to forget who he is, because that’s a sign that he did his job. Really, the writing isn’t too atrocious, and there’s enough of a quick pace that it never feels too cumbersome. We’ve had some awful cold opens so far this season, so I suppose I’ll be relatively generous to this one as a step up.
STARS: ** 

MONOLOGUE
NYC natives host & PED share memories of growing up in the big city

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— I think I’ll be the first and last person to ever say this: Timothée kinda sounds like Mike O’Brien.
— A surprising and cool little fact about how Timothée’s mother was a background extra in the classic “Massive Head Wound Harry” sketch. (“Yup! That’s my mom. She almost got spit on by Chris Farley.”) I always love when hosts share little, personal SNL connections in their monologues.
— I’ve never thought that Chloe’s impression sounds a lot like Timothée—something I’ll hit on a bit more later—but you can get little glimpses of accuracy whenever Timothée titters away from the cue cards or laughs.
— Suddenly, this becomes a surprise Drezen monologue as Timothée slinks behind the piano and rattles off some absurd little one-liners, something of a spiritual sequel to Harry Styles’ last season. It feels a bit less effective than Harry’s monologue, but he’s selling his strange childhood memories of a New York Christmastime/childhood to surprisingly sweet effect. (“Nothing like eating Cheetos on the F-train on Christmas Eve, mmm. You eat a handful, then you hold a pole, then you lick your fingers! I miss that!”)
— “Aaahhhhh, New York! The city so nice… they named it New York!”
— Pete walks in on Timothée’s monologue, making the first of many team-ups tonight. He does some good work here; it lets Pete rely on his stand-up instincts, and Drezen’s writing is surprisingly well-channeled through his voice.
— Overall, pretty charming.
STARS: ***½

A RONA FAMILY CHRISTMAS
uninfectious son (host) is the rebel in a family of coronaviruses

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— I don’t remember being super hot on this sketch when it first aired, though knowing quite a few people enjoyed it I’ll try to keep an open mind.
— Nice to see the newbies getting a moment in the spotlight! It honestly feels sort of shocking to see Lauren getting any lines at all, even if they’re the sort of soft pandemic jokes that this sketch so far has been entirely predicated upon. Andrew also gets a nice moment where he reveals, somewhat bashfully, that he’s the covid that took down Tom Hanks. Isn’t it funny to look back on the early days where Andrew never got anything to do?
— Funny little pop-up cameo from Bowen and Chloe as two herpes neighbors: “I’m Oral and this is my wife, Genital.” “Please, call me Jen!”
— I like this turn with Timothée as a rebellious, ne’er-do-well son who scornfully drinks disinfectant and refuses to further the spread of the disease. It makes for a nice showcase of his acting ability, and like the “Marrying Ketchups” sketch from Adam Driver’s episode, there’s something that just pops about putting a strong dramatic actor into the most preposterous scenario possible and making them sell it. Cecily and Beck, too, are the perfect scene partners. 
— Melissa’s short appearance as Timothée’s grandmother, Spanish Influenza, offers a nice little jolt even if she doesn’t quite succeed in stealing the sketch.
— The turn with Beck saying, “WE WOULDN’T BE HERE WITHOUT TRUMP!” is adding some surprising bite to this mostly stupid (if in a self-aware way) sketch. Stuff like that definitely leaps out at me more than “Dancing With The SARS.”
— Also, Lauren has continued to be an active presence in this sketch?? I’m aghast. Good for her.
— As a whole, I think I’ve warmed up to this one a bit, if not a HUGE amount. Part of that is just how goddamn timely it is; it feels like it was designed for this moment in history only, and while there were still laughs to be had, it’s less of an evergreen comedy piece than an intriguing time capsule. 
STARS: ***½

LEXUS
on Christmas, jobless (BEB) impetuously surprises his family with a Lexus

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— A great, swift reveal after the usual saccharine Lexus commercial setup of Heidi immediately reacting in bewilderment at the idea of her husband (Beck, SNL’s perpetual meathead middle-aged dad) buying her a new car without asking.
— I love Beck weakly trying to defend his purchase by spewing the sort of Lexus “December to Remember” language that these commercials always use, only for Heidi to shut him down immediately.
— The thing about a sketch like this is that it’s so overstuffed with priceless reveals and absurd turns that simply listing all of them in order would not just be excruciatingly boring, but a disservice to how briskly this sketch is paced with every new piece of information. There’s not a single move that falters, and I love how every little detail only serves to create more of a fracture in the family. Having Timothée there as their innocent son, too, is a masterstroke; watching his heart shatter at all of his father’s depressing truths lends it a strange, captivating realism which sells the insanity even more and keeps us invested.
— All of Beck’s little unsure looks as the people in his life call him out for his hidden problems are another subtle, ace little touch. I’ll admit that I don’t usually think the most highly of Beck’s tenure—he was an everyman that sort of emerged at the right time and seldom got to flaunt his absurdist, pre-SNL style once assigned that mold—but this is the sort of sketch that shows just how exceptional he could be.
— I know some people feel the beat with Mikey as Beck’s neighbor isn’t necessary, but I like it. It’s always nice seeing Mikey get roles that aren’t just as the audience surrogate, and him informing Beck’s family of all of the things he’s vented to him about (wanting to look cool in front of his son, being anxious about his wife cheating on him with everybody) is offering a strong surge of cringe comedy to end things on.
STARS: *****

THE DIONNE WARWICK TALK SHOW
The Dionne Warwick (EGN) Talk Show- Timothee Chalamet (CLF) stops by

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— Ah, the first installment of this very fun recurring sketch and a great showcase for Ego!
— Right off the bat, Ego is killing it, even if all she’s done so far is laying the groundwork by reading real Dionne Warwick tweets. It’s one of those lazy tricks SNL keeps up its sleeves sometimes when it can’t figure out how to write in a character’s voice, but I think it’s fair game here; it catches the audience up on where this sketch came from (Dionne had just joined Twitter and was posting all sorts of gloriously flippant things) and the sketch is quick to move into crafting some snappy, original dialogue.
— Punkie appears as Dionne’s daughter and social media manager Brittani. She’s not given too much, but she sells her very sunny and patient demeanor in a legitimately charming sort of way.
— Timothée kicks off the wheel of impressions by playing Harry Styles, which I’m sure made a certain contingent of the Internet absolutely lose their shit. 
— Heh, the random Wendy Willams slams. Well-deserved.
— Andrew gets another of his trademark, early S46 “not really doing anything at all” roles here, playing a chef whose cooking segment gets completely overrun by Dionne singing. Soon, buddy… they’ll all know soon…
— I don’t want this review to be me just hitting up every single impression as it comes, but it’s fun watching how all of them give something new for Dionne to play off of; her asking Melissa’s “William Eyelash” (Billie Eilish) if she can place a hex on Wendy Williams, as well as immediately shooing away Pete’s Machine Gun Kelly (cathartic) are probably my favorite beats.
— Okay, yeah, so Chloe’s Timothée… I never really saw it. I always tend to have a hard time with Chloe’s impressions, to be honest. The best SNL impressionists have imbued their impressions with a unique sensibility that brings the people they’re impersonating to life as a comic character—think about Bill Hader or Phil Hartman. Chloe’s impressions tend to feel very mechanical and overacted without a ton of her personality shining through, if they feel accurate at all. At the very least, she has energy, and I’m glad the show restrained from doing one of those sketches where they cast her opposite of the real Timothée, and then he has to act different to make the impression look better.
— Dionne announcing for everyone to look under their seats, only for there to be absolutely nothing—“That’s right! I don’t owe y’all anything!”—is a perfect capper, balancing the irreverence of Ego’s impression with the legitimate love she has for Dionne’s acerbic social media presence.
— I’ve always felt that S46 was when Ego really came into full power as a shining light of hope for the future of the show, and landing these recurring sketches is one of the greatest reflections of that. Even though the future installments repeat the same basic beats, to perhaps not the greatest effect (until the real Dionne Warwick shows up, which is… adorable), it’s exciting to see the show’s newer talent given this sort of chance to become a part of the machine and define SNL. That’s how SNL should be, even if the power struggle persists.
STARS: ****

TINY HORSE
farmboy (host) serenades & frees his tiny horse; JIF cameo

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— Our second pretape tonight casting Beck, Heidi, and Timothée as father, mother, and child. I guess it’s fair enough considering that Beck and Heidi probably have the best dramatic acting chops of the cast, but it still feels weirdly repetitive… fortunately, the sketch moves into different territory pretty quickly.
— It’s a very subtle choice, but I like the decision to have the set be obviously fake, with the starry sky being made of little LEDs. It makes the staging feel very dreamy and theatrical.
— Hilarious, bizarre reveal after the very serious set-up of Timothée’s claymation-animated tiny horse, whom he proceeds to lovingly serenade.
— Like the “Rona Family” sketch from earlier, we also get good use out of Timothée’s intensity; him tearfully screaming at Tiny Horse to “Git! Git out of here! Git!”, followed by a cut to a wide shot of Tiny Horse making very little distance because of his microscopic size, is probably the most memorable little beat of this whole sketch.
— The escalation of this sketch is a bit strange, but I do think it works well, unfolding into a quick dream sequence-y montage of Tiny Horse’s post-farm life (graduating top of his class, being on Fallon, marrying AOC). Things are loose, plot-wise, but loose in a very fun way that allows the premise to run down several strange little avenues… and really, I think that’s what Tiny Horse deserves. It’s a very pure, silly sort of piece, free of cynicism, and I think that plays to its strengths.
— To that point, the sketch actually has a very sweet ending, with Timothée deciding to let Tiny Horse go, because “he belongs to the world.” (Naturally, he rides away on a normal-sized horse.) Per writer Steven Castillo, Lorne advised him to “make it sweet at the end” rather than take a dark turn. It’s a great note, and it gives the sketch as a whole a nice, wholesome aura that feels rare in these modern years. It’s always easy to do something subversive and earn a shock laugh, but I dare SNL to relish in its moments of sweetness sometimes instead. Look at how well it works!
STARS: ****½

COMMERCIAL BUMPER

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— Heh, I can see a little Tiny Horse standing there! Nice touch.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ghosts”

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— Blue:  Right from the start, this sounds like a Bruce Springsteen song.
— So far, Bruce has sung flat every time he reaches the melodic peak of each line (“coming in FROM the mystic far,” “stone and the GRAVEL in your voice,” etc.).
— Bruce’s backing vocalists aren’t blending very well.
— Bruce’s sense of pitch has improved a bit on the second verse, but it’s still not perfect.
— I’m glad that the third verse makes a slight change by having the band drop out while the vocalists sing the last line. I was starting to get bored by how similar all the verses were.
— Enjoying the fourth verse’s stripped back approach, especially the pretty piano part, but I’m also starting to long for a bridge– anything that changes up the melody.
— Saxophone solo! This is exactly what I expect from a Bruce Springsteen song. Unfortunately, I’m annoyed that the solo is just repeating the melody of the verse. It also sounds like Jake Clemons forgot to tune his instrument beforehand… 
— Bruce Springsteen’s music has never done much for me, and this song is more of the same.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE
KAM again uses her Dr. Wayne Wenowdis persona as a means of self-therapy

MEV does her Dolly Parton impression instead of singing Christmas songs

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— Politics, politics, politics! So topical! So little to say! I like Colin and Michael, I really do. They’re not always perfect, but as I’ve worked my way through some of the earlier seasons of the show (Chevy… Charles… Brian… Brad… Christopher…) I’ve reached the conclusion that they’re some of my favorite anchors to ever helm Update. It’s still inconsistent, but when was Update ever that good? They provide the laughs and relief you need in the given week, and if you’re lucky, their jokes might work all the years later. It’s all very comfy, if not the most exciting to break down.
— Why did they bring Dr. Wenodis back? Who wants to see Dr. Wenodis back? I mean hell, I liked the first installment when I saw it live, and it had the exact effect on me that it intended to: it surprised me. The entire bit is built on that surprise of Kate breaking, and ruminating on her mental health in a somewhat-personal, somewhat-cathartic way. Doing it again doesn’t even allow for any potential fun in swapped variables; it’s just the same damn thing except Kate is looser and more wild, which is definitely not a plus. Maybe the prop is funnier, I dunno, but it’s not enough to carry this. All this does is retroactively make the first one feel disingenuous and insincere as Kate and Colin “stifle” “laughter” and things “go off the rails.”
— Also, two snafus: for some reason, one of Kate’s “vaccines” doesn’t have water in it to squirt Colin which is real awkward, and then another one hits Colin’s mic and completely fucks up his audio for the rest of Update. I swear, they’ve destroyed so many mics with water over the past few seasons that it’s gotta be some weird side-mission for the writers.
— Mm, this second run of less political jokes isn’t that great either. Update’s not doing so hot this episode…
— “A new study by astronomers finds that the galaxy is ‘not as black as previously thought’ after it was seen dating a white lady.” Alright, we got a fun Che joke at least.
— Heh, Melissa gets a correspondent piece to talk about Christmas music and randomly comes out dressed like Dolly Parton, complete with her “regular, big ol’ things.”
— This premise is basically a redo of Melissa’s amazing Lady Gaga bit from S44, though with the addition of the great, condescending little one-liners to Colin that littered her “white male rage” piece last season. I know we just talked about repetitive recurring bits, but I can never be angry at Melissa getting a chance to show off more of her uncanny impressions (that Dolly is incredible), and she sells it so gleefully.
— Love that her rendition of “Jingle Bells” slowly turns into “Jolene.”
— Always love to hear “9 to 5,” too, which Melissa gets really into. It’s a good, cheerful note for this Update to end on, and it gives things a festive boost.
STARS: ***

HOLIDAY BAKING CHAMPIONSHIP
seasonal cakes are disgusting failures

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— The third installment of this sketch. This is where the diminishing returns start to set in.
— It’s so strange to see Lauren playing one of the contestant roles, though I think that’s more because it feels strange to see the show giving her anything. She can’t sell this as well as someone like Leslie or Cecily is able to, which is fair enough because those are big shoes to fill. (I believe Sarah plays that interchangeable non-host contestant role next time, and it’s… a little better.)
— Uh-oh, her cake looks AWFUL!! Whoopsie!
— Yikes, Timothée’s anecdote about getting hit by a car (he got in a drunken fight with Lightning McQueen at Disneyworld) absolutely died with the audience.
— Oh nooo, Timothée’s cake looks bad too!! What has befallen this poor baking show??
— Serious sidenote: I do like the constant story beat of the host’s cakes coming to life, but it’s definitely a sign of how labored that beat is that after we’ve had cakes that begged to be killed or were possessed by Satan, this installment’s is… a puckering, wildly-shitting asshole. Not much of a pop to that one. Just kinda gross and politely “boundary-pushing.”
— Wowww, Heidi’s cake looks so beautiful! But… but what’s this?? The judges don’t care about it?? That’s so cruel and unexpected! What an outrage!!
— Okay, I do like Alex throwing to Kyle by saying, “I think this one’s yours to lose, pal!” The audience doesn’t pick it up, but it’s a fun one-liner.
— OMG, why is Kyle’s piece so randomly sexual?? And he just says that it is in a very nonchalant way?? This sketch is crazy!!
— Sarcastic comments aside, these sketches are too templated for their own good, and the show seems like it’s reached an impasse trying to figure out ways to top previous iterations. (Heck, the only reason the last one really worked was because Eddie Murphy was involved.) There’s too much of a sterile, assembly-line feel to this sketch, and it’s frustrating that it beat out more original ideas simply because there will always be some guaranteed audience reaction. It’s not offensive, but it’s just not interesting anymore. SNL needs to learn to quit when it’s ahead with its recurring pieces.
— Anyway, they do another one of these next season.
STARS: *½

RAP ROUNDTABLE
Questlove [real] can’t abide rappers (host) & (PED)

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— A very popular sketch from this episode. I liked it at the time, though I can also see where other people’s complaints could come into play, so we’ll see what I think of it this go-around.
— Hey, it’s Questlove! I love how incredibly obvious it is that SNL’s just getting cameos from one floor down because you gotta adapt to pandemic times.
— I’m sure, as soon as Pete learned about Timothée’s history of dumb comedy raps (Dumb in a complimentary way or not? You decide), that their entire friendship was preordained. Fortunately, it feels like Timothée brings out a level of commitment within Pete that lets all of their team-ups in this episode flourish. The characterizations he and Timothée have aren’t especially nuanced, but they don’t have to be, and their chemistry as they moronically shout “yeet” and “skrrt” makes for some good, dumb fun.
— Sidenote: Guaplord and $mokeCheddaThaAssGetta are disconcertingly good SoundCloud rapper names, by which I mean so atrocious that they are perfect. Pete and Timothée nail the look, too—I hate these two already!
— Ego: “The two confident white boys raise an interesting point.”
— The main thing that holds this sketch back is simply that the format is so… staid. I get that this is a vaguely satirical venture, but I feel like there’s a better way to make a point out of Pete and Timothée’s failure to pay due diligence to the culture that created their precious rap music than having Questlove and Punkie’s Queen Latifah talk reverently about the genre and then react with very patient befuddlement at the yeeting and skrrting. Pete and Timothée do a lot to overcome the format and energize it (as does Ego’s expertly-played disapproval), though, so I’ll award them the credit as performers for pushing this sketch over.
— Funny detail that Timothée recognizes Questlove from appearing in a single episode of Yo Gabba Gabba! On a similar note, I like that their biggest inspirations were Fall Out Boy and the Kia Gerbils.
— Fairly memorable, awful performance of “Yeet” from Pete and Timothée, with a nice cathartic button of Questlove getting up and slapping both of them across the face. It’s a good place for this sketch to end.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I’ll See You In My Dreams”

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— Blue: Very touching lyrics on the opening verse.
— I like that the verse ended a line earlier than I was expecting it to. That’s a good trick.
— I’m enjoying Bruce’s singing more on this song than on “Ghosts.”
— I also appreciate that there’s an actual guitar solo in this song. Though I don’t care much for Bruce’s music, I’ve always thought he was a great guitarist.
— Ha, I always get a kick out of unnecessary mic-sharing.
— Love Bruce’s unaccompanied “I’ll see you in my dreams” at the end of the song. Something about that is giving me the warm & fuzzy feelings.
STARS: ***

SPORTSMAX
Newsmax spin-off Sportsmax claims the Jets & Knicks are actually winners

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— Political satire in this era of SNL—and I’m sure I’m gonna shock some people in saying this—is not one of the show’s strongsuits. So often it feels like SNL struggles to find any interesting angles, preferring to run down the checklist of news items in the given week if not just write a few different lines into an actual thing that happened. It’s exciting, then, that this episode has a surprisingly fun satirical piece that actually works by addressing something we’re all too familiar with—fucking Newsmax (brilliantly-named by real people)—and taking shots at its pathetic nature in a more imaginative way—advertising a new off-shoot channel called Sportsmax that espouses the greatness of the New York Jets.
— Beck is very good at playing a blowhard goober, so he folds into this sketch particularly well even if his portion feels a bit on-the-nose.
— Pete and Timothée make their third team-up of the night as two panelists who blab away while scarfing a big ol’ plate of cheese fries. It’s a great opportunity for Timothée to scream at the top of his lungs about the Jets as if channeling the spirit of Tim Robinson, which is the sort of energy I’ll always be down for in the 10-to-1 slot. 
— Not sure I understand the random photo edit of one of the non-kneeling football players having goat legs but… sure, it’s almost 1 AM.
— I could do without Kyle’s bit at Weathermax; Andrew and Punkie as two Knicks fans espousing the greatness of Jeremy Lin feels similarly expendable, though it’s always nice seeing them get some airtime. This sketch definitely could’ve ended sooner, but for all of its bloat, there’s still something to appreciate about the endeavor.
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS

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— Timothée fills an allotted 30 seconds of the goodnights with a message about being kind which… okay, fine, I can see some of the validity of Chloe’s impression, lol.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid episode for this inconsistent season. Timothée lends the night a solid energy with his amiability and commitment, and it gives even the most uninteresting material a nice push. It’s also nice to see Ego and Melissa have some nice highlights, as well as offering more opportunities to the perpetually-underused Andrew and Punkie; it’s every time the show clings to its exhausting conventions (Kate’s two pieces, the tired baking championship sketch) that things lurch back.

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

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RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Lexus
Tiny Horse
The Dionne Warwick Talk Show
Rap Roundtable
Monologue
Sportsmax
A Rona Family Christmas
Weekend Update
The Situation Room
Holiday Baking Championship

TOMORROW
Kristen Wiig returns for the third or fourth time (depending on who you ask) for the Christmas episode, as covered by Anthony