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

Cold Opening – The Situation Room

• OH GOD, the debut of Kate’s Dr. Fauci. And it sounds just like her Giuliani and her Ross “impressions.” As I mentioned before when she returned for the Billie Eilish episode. Ah, such a powerhouse performance from our designated forever star.
• That vaccine line is way too lame & not as clever as the writers think.
• A big laugh from Chloe, a testament to her talents as a performer (see that Lorne? She’s the future of SNL if you used her talents).
• Beck’s reactions are providing some good chuckles, as Kate’s takeover of this open is insufferable.
• Good that this open is over now. It was not the 10 minutes hellscape that I dreaded nor it was the usual laughless dreck. So, that’s the reason that it will get a higher rating than the previous others.

Rating: **

Monologue

• Already, I’m enjoying Timothée’s energy and presence, and knowing this episode’s quality in hindsight, that makes me very happy.
• This monologue seems to be going through the Ryan Gosling and Harry Styles route with the host heading toward a piano and delivering a monologue to the camera.
• Some good laughs from Timothée getting some facts about New York wrong. Yet again much like Ryan Gosling’s monologue when speaking about New Orleans, the charm helps elevate the material in both cases.
• A good involvement of Pete, and this is the first of several fun collaborations between the two of them in this episode, including a very famous sketch near the episode’s end.
• A good monologue overall, handled with charm and had feel-good and fun vibes all around.

Rating: ***1/2

A Rona Family Christmas

• Already, I’m sold on this creative, absurdist, unique premise.
• A solid laugh from Bowen & Chloe’s entrance. I’m telling you guys, these two can give me laugh by just being themselves.
• Timothée is very solid in his role as the son.
• I’m enjoying this sketch, and its turn into being a family drama is decent, even when I would’ve enjoyed it FAR more if it leaned into the absurdist elements much more and abandoned having a reality subtext.
• A pretty good sketch, and a nice way to start tonight’s episode.

Rating: ***1/2

Lexus

• A famous piece from this season.
• Very believable look on Beck as the dad, and weirdly enough, he looks just like my English professor in that wig & mustache combo.
• Oh, I’m loving that is turning into a parody of these types of ads.
• Great turn with Heidi’s  “Are you f**king kidding me, Nathan?” when Beck reveals that he bought her a Lexus.
• Beck & Heidi are absolutely fantastic in their back-and-forth throughout this short.
• Hilarious reveal that Beck has been fired before the pandemic even started.
• Heidi is phenomenal in this short, and this short with several other pieces throughout the second half (including a very famous short in KMK’s episode) made her my official favorite female cast member on the show, still to this day. I’ve LOVED her work since her first season, and she already was one of my favorites since her debut, but with each passing season she proves herself to be an even better performer than we think of her.
• Big laughs from Mikey’s part in this short.
• A truly great ending to such a great & memorable short.
• Add this as ANOTHER segment in the ”Standout Beck Bennet showcase from his final season” folder.

Rating: ****1/2

The Dionne Warwick Talk Show

• The debut of Ego’s Dionne Warwick’s impression and her short-lived talk show sketch.
• Spot-on and funny impression by Ego, and I’m happy that she’s continuing her solid season (which only gets better as the season continues), but this talk show format is way too lazy & tired. But, I’m going to give this debut installment an open mind.
• (*sigh*) Punkie stuck in a dull, non-comedic role.
• An ok Harry Styles impression from Timothée, reminding of how much I loved Harry’s hosting stint, and yes, I want him back as a double duty host as soon as possible.
• An ok laugh from Ego’s Dionne confusing Timothée’s Harry Styles with other celebrities. I recall SNL beating this bit to death in future installments.
• Not caring for Pete’s MGK, but it reminds me me of how much I enjoyed his musical performances in a certain upcoming episode (possibly the only good thing in that said miserable episode).
• A surprisingly mediocre Billie Eilish impression from Melissa. Between her subpar Ana Navarro & Rachel Maddow, the upcoming horrid Anya Taylor-Joy, and this impression, Melissa is proving to be not the perfect impressionist I always thought of her as. She’ll be doing, a very famous & strong commentary later tonight, that will make me turn into her side.
• An alright first installment overall, and for Ego’s standards, it felt too average. Not too bad for a debut though.

Rating: ***

The Farm

• An all-time favorite of mine.
• As always, great cinematography in this short like all others.
• I’m loving how this short is being played too straight so far, until we get our big reveal & its main comedic conceit.
• And here we are, Timothée’s secret “friend” being tiny horse in the farm, freaking priceless.
• Timothée’s performance when telling the horse to leave is great, and his commitment to the material is fantastic.
• Ah, I’m loving other the full-on committed absurdist premise that’s being perfectly executed, the subtle melancholic feel in this short is actually getting me choked up right now (yes, I cry easily).
• Great montage with Tiny Horse becoming this great achiever, getting an interview in Fallon’s Tonight Show, Marrying AOC of all people, and being named the secretary of horse affairs.
• Fantastic ending to bonafide SNL classic, one of my absolute favorite filmed pieces that aired during this season, and considering the quality of the filmed pieces in general this year that’s saying something.

Rating: *****

Weekend Update

• LOVED the botox joke & it’s always been one of my favorites from this season.
• Very funny analogy from Michael in regards to William Barr & Eric Cartman.
• No… just NO! I won’t waste my time writing about the return of this fucking character from Kate, I said what I had to say in my review of his first commentary, thank you very much.
• Ah, and here comes the aforementioned Melissa commentary that I recall killing it and a return to form to her after her surprisingly subpar commentary earlier in the season.
• A freaking FANTASTIC Dolly Parton impression from Melissa to a shockingly good degree. I recall being floored when I first watched this commentary when this episode originally aired.
• By the way, great makeup job on Melissa and she surprisingly looks convincing as Dolly.
• Melissa immediately has the audience on her side after she starts singing, and her natural happy attitude and fun personality is coming off particularly endearing in this commentary.
• A great & memorable season-highlight ending with Melissa-as-Dolly singing ”9-to-5” and the SNL audience joining her, a fantastic way to end tonight’s Update.
• To know that after Kristen Wiig’s upcoming episode, how much Melissa will struggle in the second half, how in the WORLD did this commentary and her many strong, memorable ones from past seasons did not help her breakthrough the rigid and caste-based female cast dominance?

Rating: ***1/2 (the latter for Melissa)

Holiday Baking Championship

• The first edition of this sketch is huge favorite of mine & many others, and is regarded as a modern absurdist SNL classic. But was it really necessary to make it into a recurring sketch?
• Didn’t care for Lauren’s part. She performed fine enough, but it’s not as funny as her replacement Sarah Sherman’s part, an even more evidence that Sarah is a FAR stronger cast member than Lauren, or for that matter Melissa and Aidy when it comes to energetic, sketch-stealing, and big laugh-getting moments.
• Yeah, this going the EXACT SAME route as all of the others.
• Cheap laugh from Timothée cake having a butthole & spewing chocolate.
• Okaaay, that part where Timothée has his hand up the cake’s anus made me laugh more than it should. I feel kinda ashamed right now.
• The usual sketch-stealing line delivery from Kyle, with his “it’s penis and balls, of course”.
• Overall, for a rehash, this was not that bad.

Rating: **1/2

XXX Rap Roundtable

• Needless to say, an iconic SNL sketch & the centerpiece of tonight’s episode. I’ve always heard that some think of this sketch as overrated due to its massive popularity, but I’m on the side that always absolutely loved it since it first aired.
• Already, Pete & Timothée are PERFECT as their rapper characters.
• Questlove is coming off as a natural in this sketch, and his line deliveries are solid & with an air of confidence and likability.
• I’m getting so many laughs from Pete & Timothée’s ramblings throughout this sketch.
• Ah, here comes Pete’s immortal & hilarious ”Skrrt! Skrrt!”. I recall with this bit, I knew I’m in for a blast of a sketch.
• Funny bit about Timothée getting into rap through TikTok.
• Ah, and here comes a season-highlight bit and a very famous modern SNL moment in general, the Yeet rap.
• OH. MY. GOD. This is freaking priceless. I’m getting so many big laughs & kinda weirdly finding this intentionally-terrible rap to be very catchy.
• Great part with Questlove slapping both Pete & Timothée, and a great line deliver from the always-reliable Ego.
• A great, great ending to such a fun, silly, hilarious SNL sketch. A true classic & another iconic piece from this era. Even when I love The Farm more, I still see how impactful & iconic this sketch is & it’s great impact on the internet.

Rating: *****

Sportsmax

• Timothée and Pete are proving to be a fun duo throughout tonight’s episode.
• Great to see a sports-related sketch for a change, even though I’m not a sports person.
• Beck is absolutely hilarious in his role.
• Great commitment from both Timothée and Pete in their roles, elevating by that the material itself.
• Surprised this is over already, at least it was short and sweet enough and a good way to end tonight’s episode.

Rating: ***1/2

Segments Ranked From Best to Worst

The Farm

XXX Rap Roundtable

Lexus

Sportsmax

A Rona Family Christmas

Monologue

Weekend Update

The Dionne Warwick Show

Holiday Baking Championship

The Situation Room

Final Thoughts:-

• A great, near-flawless episode, and one of my four favorite episodes of this season, this one was had such feel-good, fun, silly vibes with a good number of great sketches. Also, Timothée was a solid & game host throughout tonight’s episode. I recall being impressed by how funny he was, which I shouldn’t be that surprised by as he is a classically-trained actor and they generally kill on SNL, the likes of Peter Dinklage & David Harbour in recent seasons, and Ariana DeBose in season 47.

Up Next:-

• Kristen Wiig hosts the Christmas episode with Dua Lipa as the musical guest.