The halfway mark of Saturday Night Live’s 50th season comes five days after the inauguration of Donald Trump. To mark this occasion, the show kicks its latest episode off by traveling back in time 250 years to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Founding Father Alexander Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda) starts in with a celebratory song and dance number, only to be interrupted by our current president Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) – or king, as he likes to refer to himself.
Trump brags about killing off DEI (“workplaces must go back to looking like the TV show The Office – mostly white people, but one funny black guy who’s having a really bad time”), his new favorite son Baron (“he’s smacking his head on every doorframe, it’s bad”), and his nerdy team of “broligarchs”: “Zuck, Bezos, Tim Apple, and, of course, Elon … we love Elon, but to quote some of his own children, I do not want him in my life.”
Regarding the latter’s very clear Nazi salute during the inauguration, Trump doesn’t even attempt to deny it, casually remarking, “I think he did it a little bit.”
Trump takes a good shot at SNL for how unprepared it is for this new administration – “Who’s gonna play Hegseth? I mean, look at these guys back here. None of them got the build, nobody has the jaw. Got plenty of Zuckerberg options though”– before needling Miranda (“He wrote a whole rap and he doesn’t get to do it”) and admitting that he can’t get grocery prices down.
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who groaned when Miranda first popped up, but thankfully the show swerved from its worst impulses and leaned into the cynicism of the day.
It’s foolish to think that Saturday Night Live can or will have any effect on the political landscape of this second Trump term, but one thing it could do to avoid simply repeating the mistakes of 2016-2020 (one of the show’s low points) is to expand their focus and fury beyond Trump. The aforementioned cabal of oligarchs deserve just as much attention and ridicule.
Given how prolific Bob Dylan has been over the past 62 years, it’s downright shocking that he has only ever made one appearance on Saturday Night Live (performing three songs from his album Slow Train Coming on a 1979 episode hosted by Eric Idle). Tonight’s show, which sees actor Timothée Chalamet return for his third hosting gig as well as musical performer, is probably the closest thing we’ll get to the Nobel laureate’s return.
Chalamet, who just received an Oscar nomination for his excellent portrayal of Dylan in the drama A Complete Unknown, is excited as to be back in the awards race, although he admits that his previous losses have weighed on him. He decides that now is the time to read the acceptance speech he has been carrying around for four years, but even his charade doesn’t work, as Kenan Thompson is announced the winner of the fake award, with Chalamet forced to scowl from the front row.
It’s good, funny stuff, and, as Chalamet himself notes, its great that SNL is committing to the weird, silly idea of his performing a few of his personal favorite Dylan tunes. However, the fact that he has to warn the Gen Z viewers at home that they may not know the songs definitely smarts.
In his first sketch, Chalamet plays Nathaniel Latrine (“the Bungie Queen”), the instructor of a bungee cord fitness class that involves almost no fitness. The energy is top-to-bottom zany, and though there are little laughs to be had, a visual gag at the expense of the recently departed Jimmy Carter earns a huge guffaw.
An ad for One Medical targets a group often left behind in healthcare: men ages 20 – 45. Seeking to reach this audience, they’ve rolled out a new program: Medcast, “the doctor’s appointment that feels like a podcast”. The pod doctors act like Joe Rogan to trick insecure bros into talking openly about their bodies and lifestyles. A clever idea, but that’s about all it is.
A barista training session at a local café sees Chalamet’s new hire/would-be comic get way too excited at the chance to write a pun for the shop’s outdoor chalkboard. When his turn comes around, he immediately launches into a loud, Chris Rock-like routine about large women, replete with dance break, catchphrase, crowd work, and a follow up act. If you have fond memories of Def Jam-era comedy – and who doesn’t? – this will have you rolling. Kudos to the funny running side bit about Jane Wickline’s barista continually being brutally shot down for innocuous ideas.
And advertisement for Oedipal Arrangements promises a new, sexy Valentine’s/Mother’s Day gift for incestual moms and their offspring. The twisted conceit is made even darker by a quick peek inside one son’s disturbed mind, wherein he imagines drowning his father in a toilet bowl. Unfortunately, this doesn’t go nearly as far as it could, ending right before it gets legitimately unsettling.
The next sketch sees a beleaguered public-school teacher share a new AI program that turns lessons into podcasts. This attempt to reach her students backfires when the artificially created hosts (Chalamet and Yang) fumble facts, language and basic humanity (they have six fingers, for example). The teacher shuts the program off right as it begins to gain sentience. Credit to the show for attempting to tackle the scourge of AI, but this sketch is as janky as the machine learning model at its center.
Adam Sandler pops in to introduce Chalamet for his first performance. Backed by a full band, he performs an eclectic medley of Dylan’s rocking Outlaw Blues (off Bringing It All back Home) and the spoken-word ballad Three Angels (from New Morning). Chalamet can only barely sing, but this is exactly the type of weird, goofy, and ultimately fun stunt that more actors should embrace. Killer song choices too.
On Weekend Update, Michael Che invites concerned businesswoman Giselle (Ego Nwodim) to discuss the dangers faced by both Black women and small business owners now that Trump is in office. Her advice is simple: “It is time to act…and buy all the hair and extensions you need before those tariffs kick in.” Che tries to brush aside her concerns as petty, but when pressed as to whether he would go out with her if she were bald, he quickly shuts down the interview. As ever, Nwodim is at her best playing flustered and in over her head.
Later, Colin Jost brings on Andrew Dismukes to do a standup routine with his new puppet dad. The routine starts out by-the-numbers, with the gruff, old-school puppet telling corny jokes and complaining about modern sports and music, before taking an emotional turn as Dismukes has the puppet lovingly tell him how proud he is. Jost chides the whole thing for being “deeply sad and insecure”, but changes his tune with the puppet showers fatherly love and praise on him. Despite how prevalent he is in sketches, Dismukes is constantly underused. This is a good reminder that he should be given more of a spotlight.
“If a bunch of dumb little dogs talked and acted like people” is exactly what it sounds like. The cast don canine prosthetics and engage in a lot of humping, scooting, puking, running and yelling. This could have and should have been cut for time.
Chalamet returns to the stage, picking up an acoustic guitar for Tomorrow is a Long Time (off Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II). While not doing an impersonation, he sounds much closer to how he does in the film. This time its just him out there on stage. He’s unpolished, but soulful. And once again, he picks a surprising choice that should delight all the Dylan heads (assuming they’re on board with this whole thing to begin with).
The 90th birthday party for a beloved grandmother takes a shocking turn when the old woman suffers a heart attack and keels over. Luckily, one of the grandchildren’s new boyfriend is a doctor who arrives just in time to fart in the old woman’s face and revive her, much to the shock and confusion of the rest of the family. There’s not much to this, but a good fart joke is always welcome.
Surprisingly, the show ends with an animated short about angels designing existence, only to be interrupted by their demanding, overly sensitive boss God, who constantly berates their bad ideas (kangaroos) while pitching his own (volcanos, giant sun-swallowing frogs). The animation has a noticeable John K (Ren & Stimpy) quality to it.
Thus ends one of the more interesting episodes of SNL in a while. Not all the sketches were winners, but a handful were. If there was one thing missing, it was an appearance from James Austin Johnson as Bob Dylan (his best impersonation), but it’s hard to complain about that considering we got three deep cut Dylan tracks. Combined with the star-studded cameos and Chalamet’s game hosting, this made for a solid episode to go out on before the big 50th anniversary special in three weeks.
English (US)