After opening with a pointless sketch about COVID-19, the attitude for this week’s episode of Saturday Night Live was pretty much threw everything at the wall too see what would stick. Given that the election is over and SNL can’t milk the cow of Trump-related comedy any longer, the writers have started to branch into traditionally ridiculous, rarely enjoyable sketches. The epitome of this was host Timothée Chalamet’s spoken-word songish monologue about NYC. As he sat down at a grand piano and rambled about the joy of New York, nothing really clicked. By the time Pete Davidson showed up to drop a few Staten Island jokes, the episode’s menial energy was clear.
This mediocrity continued with several sketches about the holiday season. from a fake December to Remember car commercial that warns you to ask your family before making major purchases (“Are you f****** kidding me, Nathan? Did you buy a car without asking me?” asks Heidi Gardner’s character) to a Christmas special about a family of coronavirus particles arguing with their deadbeat son who plans on getting the vaccine. Seemingly out of ideas, the writers served up a classic cooking show parody–one of the most consistently unfunny sketches SNL does. Even if the sketch provided us with the memeish joy of Chalamet’s arm getting sucked in a cake, it isn’t worth the five minutes. They should have let Bruce Springsteen, this week’s musical guest, play “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” and called it a wrap on the Christmas material.
Speaking of Springsteen, he performed two songs off of his recent album Letter to You with his infamous E Street Band. While the album is one of his best in ages and it’s joyus to hear him playing this material, the E-Street Band seemed a little unorganized last night. It’s no mystery to fans of Springsteen that it takes a while for a tour to kick together. Without the night-after-night practice of these new songs live, they feel a little undercooked. Still, the emotional “I’ll See You in My Dreams” was a great ending to the show, and the anthemic “Ghosts” feel absolutely thrilling to hear live.
Weekend Update carried on with the “meh” attitude, as both Colin Jost and Michael Che had very little to add to the topics of the week. While Jost had a few solid points about Trump’s never ending grifting (“Nothing is ever over if Donald Trump can make money off of it”), both of the featured characters on Update didn’t have any spark. Kate McKinnon’s Dr. Wayne Weknowdis is one of the most headsmackingly stupid bits SNL has forced upon us as of late, and while Melissa Villaseñor dressed up as Dolly Parton was chuckle-worthy, this was one of the flattest Update’s of the season.
If you have to give the episode anything, it occasionally perked up for some amusing sketches. Ego Nwodim as Dionne Warwick on the Dionne Warwick talkshow was one of the most online bits SNL has done in ages. The sketch’s best part featured Timothée Chalamet as Harry Styles and Chloe Fineman as Timothée Chalamet, a hilarious switch-up. Still, the majority of the evening didn’t utilize Chalamet very well, although the Rap Roundtable sketch where he played a crunk-esque rapper was also one of the better scenes.
Next week we’ll see SNL-alum Kristen Wiig as the host alongside Dua Lipa as musical guest. See you then.
Find me on Twitter at @selfseriousness.
If you liked this, please read our other reviews here and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram or like us on Facebook.
