Timothee Chalamet’s SNL debut deserves endless applause

Courtesy of NBC

Timothee Chalamet poses for Saturday Night Live cover art

Claudia Scherer, Editor

Last Saturday actor and teen heartthrob Timotheé Chalamet made his Saturday Night Live debut. With his flawless Harry Styles impersonation, tiny-horse-inspired musical number, and hauntingly accurate SoundCloud rapper impersonation with Pete Davidson, Chalamet had a very successful episode in what will hopefully be the first of many Saturdays he will host.

The show started out with a satirical vaccine promo and a somewhat-forced skit about a Coronavirus returning home for the holidays. The night didn’t pick up until Timmy gifted us all with an immaculate portrayal of Harry Styles, followed by a song about his tiny horse and best friend that he must let go so it can accomplish great things; they even made a White Fang reference.

His last true piece of art was when he and Pete Davidson were on a skit talk show to discuss hip-hop culture. After many arguments with Questlove (and a couple of yo-gabba-gabba jokes), Pete and Tomoteé sample their hit song – a bass-heavy and intense beat with Davidson and Chalamet making absurd screaming noises. The worst (best?) part is that I have definitely heard songs that sound exactly like it before. Multiple times.

Despite Chalamet’s amazing performance, SNL would be nothing without long-time cast member Kate McKinnon and her various characters. While her Fauci was disturbingly accurate and quite entertaining, Kate’s true success last Saturday can be attributed to her guest appearance on the weekend update with Colin Jost and Michael Che as one of her returning characters, Dr. Wenowdis. As Wenowdis Kate relates to the audience by addressing the anxiety and fear we all have right now and successfully makes the audience laugh. Between squirting fake syringes of fake vaccine on beefcake Colin and making an iconic ‘we-blow-dis’ joke regarding how the U.S. has handled COVID, McKinnon made one of her best weekend update appearances yet.