SNL After Party (S49 E4- Air Date 11/11/23) - "I'm Going to Win the Award for Best Gay Doctor"

 Host: Timothee Chalamet
Musical Guest: Boygenius

The SNL crew took a week off after the Nate Bargatze show, which was one of the best in recent memory. Would the week off throw up a speed bump to a potential winning streak, or would host Timothee Chalamet prove to be the comedy Muad’Dib.

So bring your golden ticket and find out in this week’s After Party!

Cold Open

Political season is on us, so the current events driven cold opens are going to have plenty to work with for a while. This week it’s a Republican presidential debate (or as Kenan says as Lester Holt “The Republican kids’ table debate") which is smartly played. The candidates say very little (if anything) before James Austin Johnson takes the stage as Trump and does his thing. It seems like it’s been a while since JAJ has dominated a sketch with his Trump, and it’s good to see him doing it again.

Some very pointed jokes this time around, skewering the GOP candidates, Trump supporters, and the debate itself.

We’re off to a solid start.

Monologue

Actor Timothy Chalamet (Dune, Call Me by Your Name, and the upcoming Wonka) takes to the Studio 8H stage as host for the second time. He takes the opportunity to celebrate the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike by singing a song promoting his upcoming projects (in the style of Pure Imagination from the original Willy Wonka film.

He then is, somewhat inexplicably, joined by various cast members in a rap about being baby-faced.

It’s not bad, really. But it feels like a misfire.

Museum of Hip Hop

Ego Nwodim hosts a 50th anniversary panel discussion on Hip Hop (as Nunya Bizness….how did it take this long for someone to have that name?). Guests include Mary J. Blige (Punkie Johnson), Rick Rubin (JAJ), Dr. Cornell West (Kenan) and viral sensation SmokeChedda…(Chalamat)(I won’t finish the name because I run a family safe review of a non-family safe show. It’s in the clip).

The joke is that Chalamat’s character has an enormous online following with the most hip hop streams of all time. But he has no sense of history or real talent. He also is fairly coherent, which plays well for laughs.

It’s not the funnies sketch (though Kenan’s West is pretty funny), but it does have some bite to it.

Britney Spears Audiobook

Chloe Fineman brings out her Britney in the tried and true audition bit. Here, various celebrities are shown auditioning to read Spears’ memoir. The format has been done many times, but it always seems to work, and it gives the cast a chance to show off their mimic chops.

Highlights include impersonations of Allison Janey, Natasha Lyonne, Bill Hader, Werner Hertzog, B-52’s singer Fred Schneider, and host Chalamet. These pre-taped bits alway seem to work, possibly because the individual bits are so rapid-fire, and often right on the money.

Shred Zone

Heidi Gardner calls a gym to recover her missing bag. And everyone there is dumb. Feels a little like the writers’ room were having a Revenge of the Nerds moment.

Giant Horse

This pre-taped segment is an overproduced mess. A sci-fi dystopian film evolves into a music video where Chalamet sings about facing “The Destroyer”, which is actually a giant version of a tiny horse he had as a child. This is all set against a backdrop of lasers, a villain with electric powers, and elaborate costumes.

This one just baffled me. My wife, Christiana, summed it up really well. “I feel like we are missing a joke.”

If there is one, it missed us indeed.

Boygenius 1

The indie supergroup paid homage to The Beatles in their look, if not their style. The sound mix seemed a little off on this song, but I don’t claim any expertise in this area.
Bonus points to the group because Julien Baker of Memphis is a prominent part of the band.

Weekend Update

The usual assortment of great current event jokes and groaners (usually in the good way!). Good political stuff, including a joke about how Trump’s trials are taking so long because whenever they try to swear him in “The Bibles kept bursting into flames.”

Heidi Gardner visits the desk as your “extremely busy co-worker”. She’s done this character before, but it is really one of the best realized desk character bits. Heidi’s physicality and acting skills make this harried character sing. I applaud the show for not trying to create a sketch out of this. There are days when Lorne might have even tried to get a movie made about this character. We are all glad that hasn’t happened, as she is a welcome two-minute visitor.

Sleep Clinic

Sarah Sherman is a patient at a sleep clinic under the care of Bowen Yang’s physician character. The contrivance is that Yang induces Sherman’s nightmares while she’s awake. Turns out, her nightmare is a recurring one of - and apparently this is a real guy - Troye Sivan (Chalamat), who appears and dances, occassionally showing his red underwear. As described in the sketch, Sivan is “gay famous”, and is “an Australian being played by an American actor who can’t do an Australian accent.”

Boygenius pops in to play multiple versions of Sivan.

Yang and Sherman seem to be having fun, so that’s probably good enough for this one.

Please Don’t Destroy - “Jumper”

The guys are walking down the streets of New York, when they spot someone (Chalamet) about to jump from a building. Turns out he is an aspiring musician, who the gang encourages to play some songs for them.

He does, and the results are really funny, even if not entirely unexpected (though there are some pretty good surprises)..

Boygenius 2

The mix is great this time around, and Boygenius rocks out on this one.

Little Orphan Cassidy

Chloe Troast gets her big break in this sketch in which an orphan sings to the moon (Chalamet) asking why she hasn’t been adopted.

Troast scores huge points with her somehow hilarious and good singing, and the sketch is genuinely funny as the reasons for Cassidy’s inability to find an adoptive family becomes more and more clear.

Troast knocks it out of the park in her first real at-bat, aided by some strong writing and a great performance by Chalamet.

Calm Story

Chalamet records a calm sleeping story that is anything but calm. The best part of this sketch is really Andrew Dismukes as the deadpan producer who doesn’t like what he’s hearing. It’s not the best sketch, but it shouldn’t put you to sleep.

The Goodbye Wave

Best Sketch: I’m going with Little Orphan Cassidy this week. The combination of sharp writing and solid performances work. And, it’s a great starburst moment for Troast. We’ll be seeing more of her work in the weeks to come.

Worst Sketch: Giant Horse trots into last place. I may well be accused of being overcritical simply because of the inane production time and energy that went into this thing. But, I stand by it. This felt like too much work for too little payoff.

But, again, maybe I just don’t get it.

Random Notes:

- The cavalcade of guest cameos appears to have slowed down. Yes, Alec Baldwin dropped in during the Calm Story sketch (at least he didn’t try to do Trump again!). But that was it. So, maybe the celebrity cameo arms race is cooling off.

- This was an impression heavy week. Granted, a lot of the impressions were in one sketch, but they spilled over into a couple of others. This is not a complaint. Just an observation.

This week was a let down after Nate Bargatze’s turn a couple of week’s ago. But, let’s be honest, that was almost inevitable. Had this show aired as Episode 3, it probably would have been hailed as a welcome change. Now, it’s a fine, middling episode.

But, man, that Giant Horse thing……

Grade: B-

If you enjoy our content, please consider supporting us on Patreon.