SNL Scorecard: Timothee Chalamet / boygenius

Saturday Night Live returned from its first 'bye week' last Saturday night, and did so with the first repeat host of Season 49.

When young Timothée Chalamet, actor, heartthrob, and one-time aspiring rapper first hosted SNL in December 2020, it was still under pretty... *weird* circumstances, a fact he touched on in his monologue. In the midst of the COVID pandemic, that episode (like most of Season 46) had a few real highlights, but never really got off the ground, in large part due to the 25% capacity crowd, but also in part due to a surprising amount of evident nerves and discomfort from the host.

Fast forward three years, and Chalamet seemed a completely different man on stage. Maybe he truly needed the audience to feed off of, or maybe it was just getting the first-time jitters out of the way, but whatever it was, he looked immensely more comfortable and confident this past weekend. He helmed the proceedings with aplomb, starred in multiple sketches, and was, by some margin, the most natural host this young season has had. And yet, in terms of the quality of the episode itself, it mirrored that 2020 Christmas episode pretty closely. An uneven show, with some undeniable highlights, but lacking the consistency of the last couple episodes before it.

One note in case you forgot- I know my rankings can seem a little arbitrary, and truthfully there have been times where even I will look back at scorecards and think "Now, why did I rate (x) an 8.5, if (x) from this other episode was only a 7...?". So, both to hopefully clear up my scoring system for any curious readers, but also really to help keep myself consistent, here is the rubric to reference:

10/10: Perfect, no notes

8-9.5/10: Very funny-to-hilarious, definite rewatch

6-7.5/10: Pretty funny-to-funny, but won't necessarily be a rewatch

4-5.5/10: Not BAD, but not particularly funny or memorable

1-3.5/10: Terrible/poor taste, to simply bad/unfunny

Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 1st episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

"Little Orphan Cassidy": 8/10

What an absolute gem, right at the tail-end of the show, and what a debut for Chloe Troast! In the new cast member’s first starring role, she proved equal parts hilarious and talented, with a legitimately great baritone singing voice. This was a simple idea at its heart, sure, but such a funny idea for a sketch, and very well-executed.

The Good

“Please Don't Destroy - Jumper": 8/10

One episode after one of their more forgettable outputs, the PDD trio were back with a banger this week. The initial joke was obvious— that Timothée’s depressed character’s music was going to be bad. But they did such a good job at making the music a specifically hilarious brand of “bad,” and fleshed it out with some very clever writing across the board, per usual.

“Troye Sivan Sleep Demon": 7.5/10

It’s hilarious that they made this sketch, because literally just this week I noticed Troye Sivan popping up more and more in my Spotify playlists, and I’ve been thinking to myself ‘should I check out more of his music?!’ (Actually though, “Rush” is a banger- it’s been stuck in my head for about a week straight.) If you don’t know Troye, you were probably wildly confused this whole sketch, but this was loads of fun, especially with the boygenius cameo at the end. You know what wasn’t fun? The fact that this was OUR ONLY SARAH SIGHTING.

"Museum of Hip-Hop Panel": 7.5/10

I guess I shouldn’t have been shocked this sketch would make a comeback given how popular its initial appearance was, but I was skeptical they could replicate the hilarity from the first installment. I was wrong; $mokeCheddahDaAssGettah’s track this time is less likely to go TikTok-viral than 2020’s “Yeet,” but the sketch as a whole was probably even better. Where Chalamet took a backseat to Pete Davidson last time, he was unquestionably the star this time around. His comfort in his role must be that experience as “Timmy Tim.”

"Calm Sleep Story": 7/10

Solid 10-to-1 sketch. The story Timothee was reading was already funny enough, but Andrew Dismukes’ and Punkie Johnson’s growing anger in the sound booth was hilarious. There were a couple botched timing things, and Alec Baldwin’s cameo felt completely unnecessary, otherwise this would have been slightly more memorable.

“Monologue": 7/10

When Chalamet first hosted, I remarked how surprisingly nervous and wooden he seemed. As noted at the top, he appeared much more at ease this go ‘round, helming one of the longest non-standup monologues we’ve had in a while. Honestly, I was already feeling the Wonka song and dance, shouting out the end of the SAG strike, but there’s no question things picked up a notch when Marcello, Kenan and Punkie came out for a fire rap track. This went on slightly too long, but was loads of fun.

“Weekend Update": 6.5/10

In the episodes leading up to this one, Michael Che and Colin Jost had their weakest outing in a while, followed by one of their strongest. This one fell pretty comfortably in the middle; plenty of solid punchlines, much more good than bad, but short on the truly memorably or punchy jokes. At least it ended on a high-energy note, from Heidi Gardner’s hilarious “overworked coworker."

"Gym Call": 6/10

I was kind of surprised this was a first-half-of-the-episode sketch, as it definitely had major 10-to-1 energy. Maybe that’s why I seemed to enjoy it a lot more than the audience? This was definitely not the most memorable, but the absurdity of it tickled me.

The... Less-Good

“Republican Debate Cold Open": 5.5/10

I’m going to contradict myself here- since he joined the show, I have always said there’s not a political sketch that isn’t improved with James Austin Johnson’s Trump. But in this case, I actually could have done without him. I was excited to see a debate parody again, and though, yes, Trump will likely be the nominee, it felt like an opportunity to get to see some of the other impressions of the candidates that were actually in the debate. This still had its fun and funny moments, especially the 4th wall breaking, but I actually thought JAJ’s more scripted delivery wasn’t nearly as humorous as when he just riffs about nothing in particular. I guess Trump impressions getting less funny is my sign that it’s almost election year 🥴

“The Woman In Me: Auditions": 5/10

Quick-hitter impression sketches are rarely bad, but they’re almost always either hilarious or fully “meh.” This was the latter; Chloe Fineman shines as usual, but the concept felt very half-baked and frankly, not many of the impressions were even that good.

“Giant Horse": 4/10

If the return of $mokeCheddahDaAssGettah was a mild surprise at best, the return of “Tiny Horse” from Chalamet’s first hosting gig was stunning. That sketch when it aired in 2020 felt like a one-off, a throwaway bit in the middle of an episode inspired by some late-night edible consumption or something. I guess it had a cult following, though, based on the audience reaction? I really want to like this bit, because I love ridiculous humor, and the sheer lunacy did make me chuckle a few times…but, I don’t know, man. This one just doesn’t do it for me.

Musical Performances

boygenius: 6.5/10

I have a confession. I like boygenius in theory a lot more than I do in actuality. I really like and appreciate the music of each of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus individually, and do think their musical strengths complement each other very nicely. But I just…can’t get into their most recent album. It’s good! I can recognize it as good! But few of the songs stick with me, musically or even lyrically. Thus, I was very excited to see them as musical guest because of how much I like them as artists, but once they took the stage for the first time, I remembered I don’t actually know that there’s any one of their songs they could have played that would have made me particularly excited.

All that being said, their first performance, of “Not Strong Enough,” was… fine! And no better than fine. The band sounded great, and the trio all looked like they were having fun, but vocally, each of them sounded pretty rough, and it wasn’t the most energetic performance. Their second performance, “Satanist,” began on a similar note with vocals a little scattershot, and the trio taking a little bit to find their footing. Midway through, though, they found that footing and never looked back, culminating in an electric performance that reached a beautiful denouement.

OVERALL SCORE: 6.54 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.55)