Episode 84 - Timothée Chalamet (Season 50)

[00:00:06] It's the Ten to One Podcast with your host Brad Oman, featuring Ben Conowitz and Nate Lauxx. And here's the podcast! I've got a surprise for you. Oh no, he's gonna get it out. It's not that kind of surprise. We got a co-host back this week. Welcome back. Hey! Hey Ben, it's great to have you back.

[00:00:34] Hey, Timothy Chalamet reintroduce myself. My name is Ben Conowitz. Classic! He's on fire. He's back. He's back. Big Ben. How was it missing me? Big Ben brought his big round clock face back. Big round clock face? Because of the London clock? Is that what you're doing? Yup. Okay, fair enough. And you know what time it is? Time to party. Time to party. Time to get down on some Chalamet action. Yeah, and you know what? Before we get into this new episode of I Sonot, Ben,

[00:01:01] I want to thank you so much for sending that impassioned and honest letter that you did so that we could read on the air last week. I didn't listen to this podcast, so what did I miss? Well, I just appreciated the thought that you went into how much you care and believe in Brad and I. How drunk was I? Did I send a letter? I didn't sound drunk at all. It sounded like it was coming straight from your broken heart. It sounded like it was a real come to Jesus moment, honestly.

[00:01:29] And I think most of our listeners... This is all news to me. Most of our listeners agreed with you that Brad and I are the heart and the soul of this podcast. Oh, I gotta stop drinking. Yeah. But I just appreciated that. And that you knew it was gonna be better in your stead. I really, really hope that the numbers went down. No, our numbers are great. Damn it. Our numbers are great. Top notch. Top notch. Yeah. And we had a lot of fun, you know? Well, you know people love Dave Chappelle, so they probably just tuned in for that. Do you have... Okay, seriously.

[00:01:59] Did you have any... Did you watch the Dave Chappelle? Oh, of course, yeah. What did you think real quick? I just thought... Because you didn't give your thoughts. No, I just thought, wow, that's a 45-minute monologue. It was the longest monologue ever. That was crazy. And I just thought... Second only to Dave Chappelle. I was gonna say, there were basically no time for any sketches whatsoever in that show. It was crazy. But did you like the episode? I did enjoy the episode overall, actually. And I want to say almost in spite of how I feel about Dave Chappelle as a comedian.

[00:02:27] We were both commenting how surprised we were that... We thought the monologue was actually pretty fantastic. It was. Yeah. It was. Yeah. You know, and of course, you guys already did this, but I will just say, Dave Chappelle, obviously, a very, very funny person, a very talented, very smart... Yeah, he's got a future. A very smart, genius-level talent when it comes to comedy. Mm-hmm. Uh, when he directs his focus on some weird shit, the question for me is just why? Yeah. Like, what's the point there? Are you really a passionate person?

[00:02:56] Are you really super anti-trans for real? Or are you pushing buttons because you can and you're bored? Yeah. And I think he's a multi-millionaire who's bored out of his mind in Ohio, and so he wants to be relevant a little bit. Maybe he was finding a way to do that. I still don't respect him for any of that shit. Yeah. I think it's horseshit, and I think it's punching down and he can go fuck himself, honestly. Um, but when he does his job correctly and punches up and gives a monologue like that, it was very well done. I laughed a lot. Yeah.

[00:03:22] And I'm not gonna separate art from artists too much by saying I'll never watch his standup ever again. I'm a fan of comedy in general. I want to watch funny things. Yeah. And so stuff like that. And I listened to Louis CK's most recent album, Just to See. Yeah. You keep watching every Woody Allen movie. Oh, all of them. Yeah. I write him fan letters. Yeah. Uh, I'm like, you've done nothing wrong. Mm-hmm. Uh, I was like, me also. You know? You've been in contact with Kevin Spacey too, right? Twice. Yeah. Twice. He wrote me back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and he was clear of all charges, so I don't know what you're talking about. Well, he still needs the money, I'll bet. Yeah. That I'm sending him? Yeah.

[00:03:52] I'm a Patreon. Kevin Spacey. Kevin Spacey's crossmassages.com. So yeah, no, I watched it, I liked the episode overall, but let's dig into the Chalamet. Timothee Chalamet! Chalamet! Yes, Timothee Chalamet hosting for his third time and doing something wild by pulling Double Duty as host and musical guest.

[00:04:20] And as I mentioned on the previous episode, this is only the third time that an actor who has hosted without a previously established musical career pulled Double Duty as host and musical guest. Lily Tomlin did it. Unfortunately, half of what she did was in blackface as a male character, a fictional musician. So just a sign of the times. Whoa. And then Gary Busey. The great Gary Busey. Was the other one. Who he mentioned in his monologue. I thought that might have been a bit. No, that's true.

[00:04:49] He played drums during a song after the Buddy Holly story was a thing when he hosted back in the 80s, I think it was. Did you guys mention Bruce Willis at all? No. Because he played harmonica with the band in his monologue. And then Rick Moranis famously came out. And the next episode was Rick Moranis hosting. And so he came out and played every single instrument he could as making fun of Bruce Willis for doing that. I think that's hilarious. Yeah, that is really funny. But he wasn't the actual musical guest. He wasn't, though.

[00:05:17] He just like vamped it up because he's like, he was a musician. And so this was particularly wild because it's the first time we've ever had an act do something like this. And very deep cuts. Super deep cuts. Bob Dylan songs here. And he mentioned that, right? He said this is the weirdest thing in the world. And he didn't really do the Bob Dylan voice either. He kind of did it on one, but it wasn't the full Dylan voice like you hear in the movie. So let's dive right in. Let's go cold open. All right. Founding fathers cold open.

[00:05:43] The founding fathers are depicted signing the Declaration of Independence when they're rudely interrupted by a time-traveling Donald Trump who is everywhere right now. What did you guys... We talked last week about thinking that the political cold open wasn't terrible. Brad, what did you think of this week's cold open? I thought it was actually pretty decent, honestly.

[00:06:07] It was a nice way to play with what you would expect from a sketch that is dealing with current events, which is Trump becoming president again. And what I really liked about it is that they took a step back and kind of did a meta thing to themselves where it seemed like they were going to do some kind of sketch that provided commentary and satire by reaching back to the days of the founding fathers and pulling back from a tyrannical king and all this stuff.

[00:06:34] And then you have Trump interrupt it and provide satire that way. Which is the third time they've done this type of cold open, right? Yes. And I saw some people complaining online saying, wow, this is just self-parity. They're just shooting themselves in the foot. And it's like, no, you don't get it. It's intentional self-parity. They're making fun of themselves for almost doing something serious and then interrupting it and then doing something on top of that. There's layers here. And not only that, we always talk about escalation being important.

[00:07:03] This is the third time they've done this. This is the best version of this that they've done because Lin-Manuel Miranda being there and purposely underutilizing him in that way was fucking wonderful. Like everybody was expecting, oh, they're going to write a rap and he's going to get to sing it and it's going to, and then when that record scratch moment happens and then James Austin Johnson as Trump gets to just lay into him over and over again and he can't do shit about it. That's fucking funny. It was so good. And then of course, right, he breaks at the end and it comes out.

[00:07:33] Again, great escalation. This wasn't good. This was great. Yeah, it was really good. Nate, what did you think? Same. I really like this. Obviously, they've done things kind of like this, but with what they do, the Republican debate, I remember when Trump wasn't doing the debate, they did that one. And then the Last Supper, right? Where same concept, everyone stops, Trump comes in. But I did like the difference in this one where it was more self-parody.

[00:08:02] James Austin Johnson trying to make Lin-Manuel Miranda break a little bit was fun. And they didn't take themselves too seriously, which is helpful at this point. But yeah, I thought it was really good. I did go to Lin-Manuel Miranda's Instagram and it's just so fascinating to me to see how this is all put together. Lin-Manuel Miranda wasn't in this sketch until Friday night. Oh, wow.

[00:08:32] Oh, I didn't know that. So he posted on Instagram, Lauren called me Friday night and I work up the street. So thanks to Paul Tazewell for getting my old threads out of storage. So that's actually the threads you wore for. Oh, that's so cool. Great job, T. Love you, NBC. Happy 50th. See, I want to see that behind the scenes where Lin-Manuel Miranda is putting them on and they don't fit anymore because he's gambling. Oh, yeah, exactly. Come on. Come on. You can do it, Hamilton.

[00:09:00] But so, yeah, really interesting to see that this actually was a very last minute edition. So I wonder what this looked like on Wednesday. I would imagine they probably just had a different founding father and one of the cast members playing them instead. And somebody's like, hey, wouldn't it be funny if we can get Lin-Manuel Miranda? I mean, it's a get, right? He's still so fucking popular for that role. And now, of course, now he's a giant superstar in other ways. But that's the thing that started it all for him.

[00:09:28] So I love, it's almost at this point, nostalgia of seeing him as Alexander Hamilton. It's been years since he's done that. And as a noted New Yorker, how much he loves SNL. I felt, actually, there was something about it that I'm like, good for him, right? Because just to get the call to be on SNL was a big deal. So I watched the Tom Green documentary that just came out on Amazon Prime. Can we talk about that on Go Flix or something? We can, but also I want to say- And we can talk about it now, but we'll- Yeah. I want to hear it in detail. I want to say that Tom Green had the same sort of, kind of like, I can't believe, pinch

[00:09:58] me moment about Saturday Night Live. And you think somebody like that, who's so wacky and off the wall, who doesn't really care about how they come across in public, still has reverence for certain things. Yeah. And SNL is one of those things. So even a person like Tom Green, who's crazy and wild and weird, still has reverence for the show. It just goes to show you that it still is, and kind of always will be, at least under Lorne Michaels, kind of the pinnacle, the thing that you want to do as a kid. All right. Moving on. Monologue by Timothee Chalamet.

[00:10:28] Tim Chalamet humorously reflects on his career, particularly his roles as Willy Wonka and Bob Dylan, and gives a mock awards acceptance speech, playfully acknowledging his lack of awards while handing a fake one to the great Kenan Thompson. What I loved about the monologue was, you know, you see, because I've got, I know some young 20-some year olds that are growing facial hair just like Timothee Chalamet. He's got 37 hairs.

[00:10:57] And I wonder if they know. You know, you wonder if they're self-aware enough to know. And his comments on his facial hair made me laugh, because I'm like, oh, okay, you know. Yeah, because you're going to ask my fiancee, Brittany, the first thing I said is, why does he have that trashy? It is. It must be for a role or something he's doing. But like, it was hilarious. It's awesome. So I really like the monologue, and I really like right at the end where Kenan is like, little bitch. Like, man, it hit hard. It was really funny.

[00:11:25] And the cut to Chalamet when Kenan hit the award, too. Like, the look on his face was just awesome. Awesome. I think it's safe to say, Chalamet gets SNL. Like, he does. He's one of those hosts that I trust now as an SNL host. He gets it. He has fun. Because he's also self-deprecating, right? The whole idea cut to him while he's losing his awards. You know, and his face is very kind of somber. It was just great. I really enjoyed this.

[00:11:55] It wasn't the funniest one, but it was just... Solid. ...is set the tone for self-deprecating Chalamet, which I enjoy. And him bringing up the fact that he's going to be the musical guest, and this is a really weird experiment. We're still doing it 50 years in, how they're letting me get away with weird shit. Like, again, it speaks to the history of the show, and they're still trying to push the envelope. Yeah. Anything else from you, Brad? No. All right. Good job, buddy. Thanks. All right. This one was a little weird. Bungie.

[00:12:21] In this fitness class parody, participants engage in a bizarre form of bungee exercise. With Timothee Chalamet as the quirky instructor, leading the class into this kind of comedic chaos. The most fun thing about this for me was... The Jimmy Carter joke? Wow, Nate. Wow. Oh, I love the Jimmy Carter joke. It was incredible. It was not bad. It was funny. It was obviously... The whole spiel would have just been fun to be in one of those bungees. Yeah.

[00:12:51] The physical comedy of it all. I admire the set design and getting everyone hooked up and everything like that. The sketch itself... It didn't work for me. Yeah, it didn't really work for me. There's some amusing physical stuff here and there, but otherwise it just felt like... It's clunky. It was just clunky. Yeah, very clunky. Clunky is the word because I kept on thinking there's something not working in this and there's obviously a lot of cuts, a lot of going from one person to another. You hear...

[00:13:19] I think Timothee Chalamet may have been doing something physical over here or trying to do something funny, but he's off camera because they're doing a close-up to this person. It just didn't feel connected as well. A lot of times what I think happens is, especially probably in the pitch, where it's like, okay, this is a very solid comedic premise where it's like, what if there's a very simple exercise thing that women take very seriously? A boyfriend comes in and he's like, this is not hard at all. And the instructor is just a very weird guy.

[00:13:48] Okay, that's a good premise. How do we go from here? And then you flesh it out and you get what you get here. It's just that premise by itself isn't good enough. There needs to be obviously more to it than that. And just the jokes weren't sharp enough and it wasn't exaggerated enough or whatever. Bringing the cake in and having a physical bit with that is fine. But again, it's not Lisa from Temecula where that really takes center stage and it's funny. So it's kind of clunky because it was just a little bit all over the place. Is it that the boyfriend and the instructor are going to get into it and get mad at each other?

[00:14:17] Or is it the physical comedy of the cake? Or is it... What's the point of the sketch? And they kind of went all over the place. Michael Longfellow was very funny, but it was still one note for him, right? There was no escalation on his part either. Right. Because he's... I don't know if he can escalate. Because he's just very calm. I mean, he knows... Listen, he's good at his thing. All right. Moving on. MedCast is a spoof commercial for a telemedicine service aimed at men featuring various cast

[00:14:45] members in humorous scenarios to encourage doctor visits. Ben is someone who doesn't go to the doctor enough, but also is a big Joe Rogan fan. What did you think of this? Come on, man. Yeah. If Joe Rogan was your doctor, would you be healthier? Yeah. No, I'd be on that in Vectormessin or whatever it is. Yeah. And I'd be healthy as a horse. Ivermectin. Yep. Oh, yeah. Sounds like you know how to pronounce it, buddy. Wow. Yeah. That's hard. A couple of cool podcasts over here.

[00:15:12] So this is becoming a very kind of a well for comedy right now where, hey, everything's a podcast and that's funny. I feel like they've done this. They've done this a couple of times now and this isn't even the last time they're going to do it in this episode. So I'm like, okay, this is just, it's fine. I don't know. It just didn't do much for me other than the premise is, oh, that's clever. Like, yeah, what if it was like that? It just, there wasn't a lot here for me.

[00:15:39] Yeah, there wasn't a lot of escalation for this one, you know, but like I liked the framework. I thought that the. I will agree like the whole like, you know, this guy likes to party and how many drinks do you think? Yeah. Like that's a fun thing. But again, it's not punchy enough. Like I didn't. Right. It doesn't hit hard enough, you know? This news definitely helped it along with his transition of like doing podcast host to asking the serious doctor question. But yeah, but aside from that, I didn't feel like there was much more to it than that. Because again, you know what's coming.

[00:16:05] And so like when they say things like, and we're going to make it easy to do a follow up. Hey man, would you like to be a recurring guest? How about six months from now? Like it just. Yeah. Okay. We get it, but it's not. Again, I wasn't hit over the head with anything really, really brilliant, you know, but it was fine. Yeah. I thought the same thing. Didn't hit it. It was fine, but it didn't. There was nothing groundbreaking about the observation about men not taking care of their health enough in men liking podcasts that connected enough to me for me to go, oh, that was brilliant. Right. Right.

[00:16:35] The commentary was brilliant. Hit you close to home for your name? Me too. No, I go to the doctor. I don't. No? I don't even know his name. It's Hogan. Dr. Hulk Hogan. No, I go to Dr. Paul Hogan and actually he died, so. Yeah. That's not a scalpel. This is a scalpel. All right. Moving on. New barista training. A comedic take on barista training where Timothee Chalamet's character makes inappropriate

[00:17:03] jokes leading to awkward, yet some funny interactions. Brad, what did you think of this one? I like Timmy C in this one for sure because I thought he did a good job transitioning into doing stand-up at the Apollo basically. Yeah. That was really funny to see. I don't think you could do that. Yeah. Are you saying we should put all of that on the chalkboard? Yeah. Him jumping into that persona was funny in itself. There was something awkward about the pacing and also, for whatever reason, like the – I

[00:17:33] don't know why they went back to the well. I know why they went back to the well three times because rule three, obviously, but it didn't feel like it was worth it when they kept judging Ashley Padilla's punch lines, which were just cheesy. Right. I did like – I didn't mind that though. Actually, I kind of liked it. I like it in theory, but it didn't feel like it was executed well enough. See, I disagree. I liked them. I kind of disagree too. Okay. I liked at the end where they're like, are you okay? Yeah.

[00:18:00] Well, especially because these – like I liked it because there's a way to do it where they are really, really terrible and then you get to call that person out. Yep. But I do love that they were almost as good as Devin Walker's. They're fine. And like Burr-Esta or whatever. And they still shit on her so hard. I really thought that was funny. I think I almost would have preferred if it was a different layer of escalation where it was like not as aggressively in your face and over the top as Timothee Chalamet's,

[00:18:29] but somewhere in the middle of being weird and not quite – Like Heidi Gardner's reaction you mean? No. Ashley Padilla's – Oh, like her pitches. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I guess unpack that a little bit more for me, Brad. Was it her pitches that you – was it the Ashley Padilla part or was it the response to Ashley Padilla that you didn't love? It was the lines that they gave to Padilla. Okay. I would have preferred like a secondary level of odd or weird as opposed to – So like if you're doing –

[00:18:56] Oh, but I kind of viewed her – sorry, Ben, but I kind of viewed her as giving the traditional what you see at most coffee shop responses. But see, Devin Walker was already doing that though. Right, exactly. So I think that if you're going to make a pun on a barista, you could do something where it's really weird and awkwardly. Like, burr, you're in my ass. It's so cold out. I'm like, what are you doing? And granted, the reaction from Heidi Gardner and stuff like – and Mikey Day was amusing and it did – Is everything okay at home? Yeah. That's a funny line. That's a good point. Yeah. I get it though. I see what you're saying. Yeah. I still thought it was – I liked watching it.

[00:19:25] I thought I was fine. Yeah. I thought it was fine. That's basically where I was at. And like you said, Timothee Chalamet was great. Oh, he's great. Yeah. And bringing Keenan on at the end as that whatever – that was just good. This kind of filled the role of, for me, some of the things he was doing with Pete, you know, in some of the – where he does the rapper kind of character. Yeah. I'm still holding out hope. Ridiculous. Maybe we get that back for the five-timers club where it's just him and Pete. He's going to be like a five-timer by the time he's like 28. Oh, I can't wait. How old is he? I think he said 30?

[00:19:55] 39. Timothee Chalamet is 65 years old. No, he said he was just about to turn 30. Yeah. In the monologue. Okay. I mean, that's got to be one of the youngest. He had 37 hairs and he's just about to turn 30. It's got to be one of the youngest three-timers, right? I mean, at 30 years old. That's pretty young. Yeah. So. All right. This one kind of reminded me of Brad a little bit. Oedipal Arrangements. A commercial. What the fuck? I've been to your house, man. I don't know what that means.

[00:20:25] Oh, by the way, Brittany is down here in the peanut gallery and she laughed here. I think that was a little audible. So I'm pretty sure Brittany's on mic laughter corroborates our story. Let me get with the description. Well, hold on. First, I want to say, Ben, I'm glad you brought this up. Just so you're aware. And I know that you're probably not aware of this. Or if you are, you just don't care. Peanut gallery actually has racist connotations and you should probably stop using it. We've been using peanut gallery for like 10 years. I know. I never do. Yeah. We never say it. You're the one who says it.

[00:20:55] Shut the hell up. You say it all the time. I don't even remember the last time I said it. On the 10 to 1 podcast, you say it all the time. No, because we rarely have that. And so I don't say it. Oh, Charlie Young, I know you don't. You need to do a deep dive for me. I know you say it a lot. I want to get a super cut of Brad saying it. Because you say it all the time. Oh, fine. I didn't know that and I'll stop using it. But I didn't know that and you know that. So fuck off. Nate? I think you should always just stop wearing blackface. Listen, Lily Tomlin and I, it was a different time.

[00:21:25] Let me say this. What is the peanut gallery from then? No, so it's actually. Are you being serious? There is no. It's not necessarily directly racist. Oh, cool. I think it's more class than anything. But there was a period when the peanut gallery would refer to people who sat in the cheapest seats at Vaudeville theaters. Well, yeah, the poorest. It was typically blacks, though. So according to Stuart Berg Flexner, the term. That's a fake name. Oh, my God. Doris Corwin. What is that?

[00:21:54] Goodwin Kearns? Doris Kearns Goodwin. Yeah. And then what's this guy's name? Stuart Bang Flexner. Stuart Berg Flexner. This is totally made up. Who was a lexicographer, editor, and author. This is a character that Roger does on American Dad. That's what this is now. All right.

[00:22:13] So according to this Stewie, the term owes its origin to the United States as segregated south as a synonym with the backseats or upper balcony where the black members of the audience sat. The racial element of the term's origin is disputed, however, and absent from the Oxford English Dictionary and others. Oh, thanks, Oxford. I think you're right, though, Brad. I'm just going to stop using it. I didn't know that. It's where the poor people in that arena could sit. Right.

[00:22:42] And oftentimes that was probably the black residents at that time. Yeah. So, Ben, double whammy, I guess. Cool. But blackface definitely is racist. And you know that. I did know that. So I am sorry. The funny thing is he's just doing it for himself. This is a podcast. This is audio only. All right. Let me read the description. This is a commercial parody where a son and a mother share a bed with the father and girlfriend reacting to disbelief.

[00:23:13] A play on Freudian themes for laughs. Now, Brad, you live with your mother, correct? That's correct. This is like a gotcha moment. Now, Brad, you live with your mother. Is this correct? On record? No, no. You testified earlier that you do live, in fact, with your mother. Preach. What is it with you and preach tonight, by the way? This is the second time you said it. Once off air, once on air. Don't do that. Well, you just said testify. So were you able to find the humor in this?

[00:23:41] This sketch was so uncomfortable. I'm not joking. I watched it alone, and I stood up. Yeah. And I was like, I don't know if I can watch it. No, I kept looking at Britney being like, oh. It's so good. Especially because I know those sketch performers. Yeah. I've seen them in plenty of things. They are clearly acting. They did such a good job, and it made me so fucking uncomfortable. So uncomfortable. Tom Felle and Heidi Gardner looking at each other. I never want to see that ever again. Yeah.

[00:24:11] It was supremely unsettling. Oh, no. I can't even believe this made it through. That's what I don't understand. A, I don't know who brought this up or who wrote this sketch, but the pitch for this, right? Can you imagine the pitch for this sketch? Brilliant. Whoever wrote this is awesome. This was fantastic. This hit the market. Who did this job? Who was the one that at the end said, all right, guys, great sketch.

[00:24:38] We do need to acknowledge that this is even weird for us. From all your- All the open minds at SNL. Yeah. They had to actually- We need to say something to acknowledge that we know this is weird. They had to put a footnote on it, honestly. Otherwise, you just put it out there, and it's like it's just too weird. Yeah. Also, it feels like maybe they should have saved it for Valentine's Day or Mother's Day. It feels like weird times. It is kind of weird. They're not going to have an episode, though, right? No, I know. But you still could have held it. I mean, there's a folder you can put it in. Yeah.

[00:25:08] But yeah, no. Have you got it flawed at me? This is the first time in a while where I have felt simultaneously like- I was impressed, uncomfortable, and I found it very funny. And laughing. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's been a while since I've had all those feelings at once. This is a great sketch. Yeah. Very good. All right. Moving on. AI Software, a classroom setting where a teacher uses videos of AI bots to educate students. And I'm going to have a conversation with Timothee Chalamet and Bo and Yang as the bots. Ben, did this work for you or not?

[00:25:37] So this was one of those where you had really, really good moments and like, okay, what's going on? Yeah. The good moments were Bo and Yang and Timothee Chalamet playing off each other. When Timothee Chalamet, especially as a host, he's not a cast member, right? We all know that. His ability to talk over when he should talk over Bo and Yang and kind of interrupt, that is very hard to do. I don't think a lot of people understand how truly hard that timing is. They crushed that. Yeah.

[00:26:04] The content of what they were saying, okay, yeah, I get it. They probably could have done a little better there, but the performances were excellent. Yeah. That's exactly what I thought. There's a very interesting concept here. They could have executed, I think, in a better way, especially because it seemed like they were trying to do something to make it look like an AI video, where the heads were a little bit wiggly, like it is when AI-created people are moving like in a video. You haven't messed with DeepSeek yet.

[00:26:33] Is that something you do for porn? It's the new AI model from China. Oh, sorry, Elon. Did you know about that, by the way? Go on. That China basically open source- China. Like China released this next level- The wrestler? Next level AI. Well, she's dead. Doesn't mean she can't come back with AI. The next level AI, and it put a hurt on all these American companies that have been relying on one that's not quite as good. It's not great. They're basically saying, oh, we're going to make money off of this,

[00:27:01] and then China just comes through and introduces a better one for free. Finally. And just undercuts all of Silicon Valley. It makes it open source. Holy shit. But no, so they did, it looked like they were doing some kind of visual thing. They tried. Yeah, to make it look a little bit warped here and there every now and then, but I didn't think it was prominent enough to make it work. You know, it's interesting since some of our comments here, I feel like this episode had a couple sketches that felt like-

[00:27:28] This episode had sketches that feel incomplete a little bit to me. Yeah. They were trying some things that did not work. I also think that- But I see what they're trying to do. It's very hard to force Uncanny Valley. Yeah. Like, these are real people, and to make them look a little off so that it does feel weird is hard. Yeah. Because it's quote unquote just SNL, so you can't do too much to do that. I did love the little play on the six fingers, because AI has a really tough time designing hands, and that's kind of infamous online. That was a very funny little thing. But again- I have a hard time drawing hands.

[00:27:58] The bay, okay, that's- Have you ever tried to draw a good hand? Okay. It is. It's very hard. Well, let's draw down corner over here. You want to keep going on that, or- I'm just saying, have you ever tried, when you're sketching things- Oh, I sketch all the time, bro. To draw a hand. It's very difficult. How much time do you have on- Do you just have time to sketch? Who and what are you sketching? Hands. Beautiful hands. Hands. Hands, and it's really hard. No, man, I'm sorry. I don't know. I don't get into the hand sketches all that much.

[00:28:30] Don't blame the AI. Okay, anyway. You're a sketchy dude, you know that? Overall, it could have been better, but the performances were great. I agree. All right, Brad, get your phone out. Oh, boy. It's time. It's time for a little bread-o-meter. We're going to talk about the weekend update here with Colin Jost and Michael Che. Okay, and obviously, weekend update- You want my favorite joke from this weekend update?

[00:28:59] I hope it's the same one as mine. Hold on. First, explain the bread-o-meter for people, and then we'll get to you. People know. Now, but for Ben's benefit, since he wasn't here- He wasn't here. How'd you do it last time? I want you to know, I recalibrated for the new year. Oh. So it was much lower. Yeah. Last week's score was- He finally agreed with us. Okay. Yeah, it was like- Was it 78? Something like that? Yeah, and it wasn't terrible, but he recalibrated it up to where he's got to have room to grow because he kept on being like 94, 98, you know- 102. Yeah, so don't bitch.

[00:29:29] Okay, well, finally you realized that you were wrong, so cool. So bread-o-meter is basically the interaction and interplay between Colin Jost and Michael Che, how well it influenced Brad's opinion of how well weekend update went overall. Now, the jokes themselves are part of this. If they're better jokes, the number is higher, but overall, it really truly is just the back and forth between Che and Jost. Oh. Camaraderie. All right. Friendship. And last week was what again? I think 78. You got a number in there already? Yeah. I'm going to say 86.

[00:30:01] 79. A little harsh over here. I didn't think it was great. Well, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. 83. That means I won because you went over. Okay, again, it's not Price is Right rules. It is. It is and always has been. And you know this. Yes, it was 83. It was. So you liked it better than last week? What did you like this week that was connecting? They just had a little more interaction. They talked to him. Especially after one of the jokes, Che literally said something to. Like you're a weird guy. Yeah. Something like that. I'm kind of under his breath.

[00:30:31] Yeah. And they had some good like glancing at each other and laughing. So it wasn't like full on interacting, but it was just a little bit more. If your favorite joke of the weekend update was not the oatmeal joke, you go fuck yourself. That's what it was. It's such a good joke. So no. People that eat oatmeal every morning live longer than those that don't. And what was the setup then? It was like, so you need to start eating oatmeal every morning? And Joe's like, no. Yeah. And the way he said it, I rewound it three times. I didn't expect it from him at all.

[00:31:00] It was a great change in energy and vibe from him. And I just. It's such a simple joke. Yeah. It was great. Yeah. I thought it was a good. I don't think they can be bad. Honestly, I just don't. They're so good at their jobs. They're very good. They're going to go down as, you know, maybe the best weekend update. I don't understand the people that hate them. I don't either. I don't either. They're just doing it to be those people. That's all. I think they're.

[00:31:28] You know, again, I'd have to go back and rewatch a lot of the weekend updates. Okay, go ahead. But I think they are more consistently funny than any other weekend update. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. I was about to say the same thing. Are probably the only ones I can think of that were as consistent. They were fucking brilliant. They brought in every single week. Jimmy Fallon was the weak point of Tina Fey and him. But he still had his boy's charm. He was good. Seth Meyers by himself was pretty great. There have been. And of course. Seth and Amy were great. Yeah. That's what I said. They're not. The really stuff was awesome with Seth and Amy. Colin Quinn.

[00:31:58] You go back to. No, but Norm MacDonald obviously has. Kevin Nealon. Kevin Nealon. I mean, everybody had their points. But as far as the co-anchor situation, in my opinion, it's Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and probably Amy and Seth and then Colin and Michael. Well, you put him third, huh? I think so. I would really have to go back and rewatch some stuff. And again, that was more of my love of. I mean, I'm an all time Seth Meyers fan. I think he's hilarious.

[00:32:27] I think I would agree with Ben. Yeah. It would be very equal for me. Right? And again, these are stone's throw away from each other. They're all just at the top of their game. Maybe. Because I can't when I think putting another one above. You know, if I think about Che and Jost above Amy, I can't do that either. Not yet. But I also don't feel like they're that below either. Yeah. Right? So. And maybe you'll have to go and do like a ranking of all the weekend update anchors sometime. Ooh, that's fun. That'll be something no one will listen to. We're really good at that.

[00:32:57] All right. Let's do the weekend update bits. Let's first talk about Ego Wodum as Giselle discussing tariffs. What did you think of this one? I sent it to my friend, Elise, who owns a salon and does extensions. And she thought it was very funny. It's a very niche thing, obviously. But it was fine. I like the comparison of being like twins with Michael Che. That was kind of fun. Yeah. No, I do think that this hits a niche of like. Is it niche or niche? It's niche. But he went with niche. It's fine. It hits a niche.

[00:33:27] A niche? Yeah. Of a certain audience. And like this definitely comes from like the black population and something that probably like a lot of people don't even think about is that probably like hair could be really expensive. And for people who constantly get extensions and all that kind of stuff, you know, like that could be a big thing. Is that why you just said eh? Because it just doesn't apply to you? It just didn't connect. It didn't connect with me. And I didn't think that there was anything that was like particularly hilarious in it as far as punchlines, you know? Because you can't afford extensions. I feel like it would have been better as a stand up bit as opposed to a weekend update bit with a character. I agree. I agree. Fair.

[00:33:57] Because conceptually it is funny. Like it's like. Don't backtrack now. It hits a good cultural touchstone. But in this form. We've kind of already canceled you. But it's okay. You can kind of come back next week. I know. Hey, talk about the peanut gallery again. All right. And it's mucs with Puppet Dad. I thought about you with this, Ben. Because I thought about. My God. I paused it when I was watching this one with Ashley. And I go, Nate and I are going to have a talk about this. I thought about us. And I thought about. This might be something we talk to our therapists about. About bringing in a puppet.

[00:34:26] A father puppet. Hey, son. I just want to let you know that I'm proud of you. And I always will be. This is so. And it has to have a dad like us. Because this humor hit me. Perfect. What was it like to have a very supportive dad? You probably didn't laugh at this at all. It was amazing. I loved it. So this sketch really didn't hit you. My dad was like a puppet. That's how much he loved me. He was saying those things organically and for real. Exactly. Yeah. It felt really good to be boosted up.

[00:34:55] You didn't need to physically craft a marionette to speak through your father and do the same voice? No. I got hugs. I got support. I got words of affirmation. Whew. So get a cool dad. Yeah. And then the Lord took him from you. So that's what happens. And now I need a puppet goose. For those of you who don't know, Brad's father has passed on. And we're still stuck with ours. Thanks for being very formal about it, Ben.

[00:35:24] For our new listeners. For those of you who don't know, Brad's father has passed. Brad's dad is dead. He's dead. Yeah. He died on 9-11. No, no. In 2021. Yeah. Not the big event. That was just awkward. Okay. Moving on. So yeah. He did die taking down other towers, though. Jesus Christ. They were big cell phone towers. I thought he was the big snow towers. Yeah. Yeah. He died shoveling snow. Got him.

[00:35:57] Well, anyway, we were about wrapped up. All right. Moving on. This one is called Dog Run. Woof. It's a sketch imagining dogs as humans at a dog park. Oh, man. I just haven't done it. What did you guys? My mom always said if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. I do think that there's a little nugget here of something that's humorous, though. Like, Chalamet, the casual tone with which he was speaking, some of the stuff that they said and did was amusing. Sorry.

[00:36:27] This is just such a missed opportunity. Yeah. It felt... This felt like an all that sketch. Almost. It was just so easy and basic. I don't know what that is. There's so much better than this. I was too old for all that. Me too, actually. It was after. I'm not sad. You guys missed out on some great Keenan Thompson years. But this is a very... Like, I get the vehicle, right? Yeah. And obviously, the production value is there. And they dressed everybody up and had them up. And then the things that they were doing, sure, Boneyings got the zoomies. And I get it. But like, man, there's just... It feels like there's so much left on the table here. Yeah.

[00:36:57] I agree with that. I agree. I agree. It was like, hey, let's write a list of silly things dogs do. But also... And then we'll have... It just felt very generic improv. So here's one thing that is nitpicky as shit. But I think that this, right off the bat, could have set the tone a little better. Do you remember the very first physical comedy bit that happened? It was the sniffing of the butt. Yeah. Right?

[00:37:24] And if you're going to go for it, you need to put your nose physically making contact. And that would have been really funny. Because like, wow, they got in there. That would have set the tone for the whole sketch, in my opinion. But he was like three feet away. And it's like, if you're doing a sketch like this, either go for it or don't. You got to go with the... It just felt... Kate McKinnon. And put a right... You really put it all out there. Yeah. Because it just felt like kind of phoned in then, you know? I agree. I do think some of the lines were funny, though.

[00:37:54] Like the... So what? You eating anything new? No, just the food that's in front of me. Just the food that's in front of me. And the one bit that I thought was particularly funny, and because it has echoes of a bit that I love in the movie They Came Together is Kenan Thompson just puking up the grass over and over again. That was honestly... That one, I laughed very hard at that. I couldn't believe they did it as often as they did for Saturday Night Live. Yes. And it was the same... Yeah. And the same... You know, they didn't cut away. So it was definitely the same thing over and over for real. Exactly. And that's... Again, that's the commitment to the bit that I'm talking about. Like, go for it. Right? Yeah.

[00:38:24] Yeah. So that's one thing that did work in that. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. But yeah, missed opportunity for something that could have been a lot more fun, I think. All right. This is... I'm going to call this the Sarah Sherman-inist of this episode, Grandma's Birthday. A birthday party turns chaotic when Timothee Chalamet's character attempts an unconventional CPR technique on the grandmother played by Sarah Sherman.

[00:38:52] This was so bizarre, and I loved it. I really thought this was funny. Did you guys not like this? So I think that I was so caught up in trying to make sense of where they were going... Watch it again. Watch it again. I couldn't really enjoy it in the moment. I think you're right. I think this is one I would have to watch again. I did. It's not that I hated it, but I was like, where are they going with this? That was exactly my process. The first one, I'm like, this is super bizarre. But I don't hate it. But the second time I watched it, I'm like, okay, this is really funny. It is really dumb.

[00:39:22] And was it Keenan was the one that was like, don't come near me. Yeah, exactly. So when you have a little bit of expectation, because this is such a bizarre sketch, right? So bizarre. When you have just this slight expectation of where it's going, and you can watch it for the little bits of humor and the lines and the facial kind of physical comedy part of it, it's actually really funny. What did you think of this, Fred? I thought it was okay. I think that it was a really funny, weird concept. I didn't think that there was a lot to it, though.

[00:39:51] I think that's where my hang-up was, is there wasn't really any evolution of the joke beyond just like, did he just fart and bring that woman back to life? And so some of the reactions and the confusion was amusing. But I wasn't like... But don't kiss me. Right. And I saw that coming. They set up the 315 kiss every year, whatever. Yeah, exactly. And so I did like Keenan Thompson being like, don't say anything, and just letting himself. But yeah, otherwise, I thought it was okay.

[00:40:20] You know what I loved about it, too, though? Because, like I said, text me after you watch it again and see if you feel this way. But I'm watching it again. Like, I'm watching so many smiles with the cast member. It just feels like a sketch they were having so much fun in. And you hear, if you listen to some of the... You hear more like little snickers from the different cast members as they're going through. That it was so dumb.

[00:40:48] And I'm sure, you know, just kind of throwing this out there, this sketch idea. I'm sure Sarah Sherman had something to do with it. Like, it just... They started laughing. This seems like a sketch comedian's sketch. That they like doing things like this. So I had fun with it. I thought it was funny enough for me. Fair enough. Decent sketch. All right, moving on. An SNL animated short. Have we done these? No? No. It felt like this was new.

[00:41:18] Right? It was. An SNL animated short. God. So this was very interesting. I liked it a lot. That premise has been done a lot on... Stand-up comics have done it. So this is a well-worn path. However, it was unique enough where I still thought it was pretty funny. And you got to remember, this is still... Even though it's edgy sketch comedy, it's still on NBC on a Saturday night.

[00:41:45] And so religion is really a pointed issue in this country. And so that does press the envelope a little bit. Especially the style of animation that made God's eyes look fucking nuts. Yeah. Sometimes. That really made me laugh. Like, how frustrated he was getting. And just the weirdness of God in this sketch set that apart from, I think, the other stuff. Because the stand-up I've seen about this and some others, I was like, oh, well, God probably sent that one out unfinished. But they don't really necessarily get into describing what kind of God this is.

[00:42:14] And they did a very good job of kind of filling in the background of who this character would be in this. I really thought this was clever. Yeah. It was interesting. It felt like an Adult Swim cartoon almost. Like, just a weird random bit you might see late at night sometime on Adult Swim. But yeah, the animation is weird. And it made it funnier, I think, than it would have been if you just did normal animation. And having Chalamet do, like, that voice for God where he's kind of just being himself in a way was funny.

[00:42:43] I also thought this was very much a very, very much cut for time type situation. Yeah. The good nights were, like, 11 minutes long. So, like, they – Yeah, the sketch was only 2.30 maybe. So they clearly ran out of time to do something. And they put this in there and then had the good nights be extra long. Because, again, that was one of the longer good nights I've seen. What do you mean? Like, when they were panning on the good nights of the cast and everything. Yeah. Like, it feels like they just – they allowed that to go on for a lot longer. So here's – You watch it recorded, right?

[00:43:14] I watched – this time I watched it – yeah, I watched The Next Day on Peacock. Oh, you watched The Next Day on Peacock. On Peacock. Because it's – the credits are always, like – On every episode. Yeah, and they're full. So you're telling me that when they go to Timothee Chalamet and he says, Hey, everybody, blah, blah, blah. Once he starts talking, that is a timed thing that is always exactly the same amount of time. Not when he speaks, but the credits rolling themselves.

[00:43:41] What I'm saying is from when they – like, if you're treating that like a sketch, right? The last sketch of the night is technically the good nights, let's say. Yeah. That sketch was longer than normal, in my opinion. I think that it was longer. So that plus this little fill-in, to me that means that they – You mean the space from when he says thank you to when the credits start rolling? No. When he gets out on stage immediately and then the show ends completely. Yeah. That entire block of time. Yeah. That was longer than it normally is. Oh, I didn't think so. But like, I don't know.

[00:44:10] But I'm also used to – I don't sit and watch the entire Goodbyes because usually – because I have it recorded from YouTube TV and it's from the NBC Chicago affiliate. Their next show will – See, I watch the whole thing all the time because I'm watching the cast interact with each other and stuff. And sometimes it's like, oh, if they're running out of time, they kind of cut that short. Yeah. The actual credits go by but then they cut it and it's done. Oh, so the credits were done and they held? I'll have to go back and watch it but I'm pretty sure the credits were done and they

[00:44:37] kind of just like slowly kept panning out. Oh. So I didn't see that. So that's interesting. Yeah. Okay. So I thought that coupled with the fact that they had an animated thing at the end meant like, okay, well, they're trying to fill some time here because maybe the last sketch there was four minutes and they only had three minutes and 30 seconds. So this is what they did instead. Okay. That's definitely what it was. Or do you think Adam Sandler wasn't even on stage anymore? He was there.

[00:45:05] No, he was like Adam Sandler and he pointed out in the audience he wasn't up on stage with him. He was hanging out. Oh my gosh. Why are you being so obtuse right now? Sandman loves hanging out. Okay. Are we done? I'm done with this. All right. Let's do MVP of the night. Kenan Thompson. Kenan. Why Kenan? He was – I think we've mentioned him like six times tonight. He was the best part of everything that he was in. The best part of everything? Yeah. Yeah. He was great. Oh, sorry. I kicked the mic. The best part of waking up. He was the dog show? Is Kenan in your cup?

[00:45:34] He was the best part of everything? I agree. Kenan was the best cast member of the evening. Okay. I was going to give it to maybe Michael Longfellow just because I felt like for Michael Longfellow he had a good night. Sure. He was in a decent amount of sketches. But if you're going to really go to – it's kind of like, are you going to give it to the guy that is really great, that's always great? Kenan was great. He was in a lot and he did a lot in the sketches that he was in and he was funny in all of them. For sure. Yeah. I can't argue with him. All right. Sketch of the night.

[00:46:06] Oedipal complex or whatever. Oedipal arrangement. Oedipal arrangement. I mean, it's just – I haven't felt that unnerved watching a sketch in a long time. Yeah. It just really made me uncomfortable and I love that. It was a special kind of comedy. Very unique, very unsettling. Well, if you're saying it was at the funniest of the night, no. But it absolutely made the most impact. Because it was so weird? Yeah. It was so – it was honestly hard to watch sometimes. Yeah. And I loved it. Yeah. Especially for you that doesn't like uncomfortable comedy. I don't like – And someone who's super attracted to their mom. Yeah. No, my mom's hot. But I don't like that.

[00:46:35] Did you agree that was your favorite? Yeah. Okay. What did you think? I had a hard time. I didn't think any sketch this episode was great. I didn't. And that kind of saddens me because I love Timothee Chalamet. This episode did feel like it was under what we would usually get from Chalamet. I was waiting for like a peak. We didn't even get a song this time. That's what I'm saying. We had no tiny horse. We had no –

[00:47:00] The departure of Pete Davidson I think hurts Chalamet overall because that buddy-buddy that he had with him, it just kind of elevated his performance. Yeah. And he doesn't really have another cast member. He's doing that with him. But he brought Pete Davidson back. Yeah. I was going to say Pete wasn't on the cast when Chalamet was on last time. I'm telling you right now. So what do you think was missing, guys? Pete Davidson from this episode. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying like – Yeah. I'm just saying like – You could have brought him back and he didn't. And they did. Exactly. That's my fucking point. They should have brought him back.

[00:47:30] Exactly. Oh, my gosh. No, but Ben, have you thought about that? Like what if they brought him back? Yeah. Like cast members can come back to the show, you know? No. Adam Sandler, did he introduce himself? All right. That's enough from you guys in the peanut gallery, okay? Wow. He doesn't learn his lesson. I don't learn lessons. He never does. He never does. He never learns anything. I'm going to go touch up my makeup. If I had to pick one, though, I would probably go with – Deborah. I'm going to go with New Barista Training. I really liked what Timothee Chalamet was doing. It was funny. It was funny. It was funny.

[00:48:00] All right. Hey, we don't have any new episodes, traditionally new episodes in February, but we do have something new in February. What is it, Brad? Valentine's Day. No, we've got the 50th anniversary show. Yes. February 16th is when the 50th anniversary primetime special is happening on Sunday, not Saturday. Don't fuck it up. Do you guys want to get together and watch it? Yeah, we're going to get to get that and watch it. We're going to have some – Nate, shut that down real quick. We're going to get to watch it. I guess we'll do.

[00:48:30] Wow. It does look like they're not going to have any new episodes until the 50th anniversary special because they did not announce any new hosts or anything like that, and we've got two weeks. That's a lot of logistics to pull together. I mean, you imagine everybody that came in with the 40th that is still alive will be there, and now you've got another decade to fill. Actually, three weeks we have until the special. But you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I know. 100%. So you're not going to get anybody that went to the 40th that will not be at the 50th, at least invited, right? Those people are all-timers. Yeah, I hope that Louis C.K. is not going to be there.

[00:48:59] I mean, he might be. Dave Chappelle's there. Rob Steiner will be there. Yay. Making copies. Like, literally, he's going to be doing – That's the only job they're going to give him. It's just a copy of Adam Sandler's contract with him to keep him all his moves. I really can't wait for the sketch with Rob Steiner, Jim Brewer, and Victoria Jackson. They're just going to put them in a cage and keep them off to the side. It'll be that cage that Eugene Levy was in when he hosted. Yeah. And they'll put the other three of them in there.

[00:49:29] It'll be a fart box. And Nicolas Cage will be in there as Andy Samberg. Okay. In the cage. But no, we're going to have an episode right after that special happens. In between there, we're going to have a couple kind of retrospective episodes. We'll try to do one. Let's not get too ambitious. Let's just say one. We're going to do five retrospective episodes between now and – Which sounds like we'd be too ambitious. Anytime that you make us do research, we really don't like this. Oh, it's so hard to have fun and watch a comedy TV show that we love. It's like an article.

[00:49:59] Like for work. Let's do work for Brad. Well, I got my top 20 weekend update anchors of all time ranked. And I was like, oh, hey, guys. All you got to do is watch every single weekend update for the entirety of the show. It's not even hard. But no, so there are – I talked about this on the last episode. There are four SNL documentary episodes as part of a special docuseries called SNL 50 Beyond Saturday Night. Those are all available on Peacock now.

[00:50:21] But on top of that, tonight, Monday, the night that we're recording this, a new documentary episode is premiering on NBC about the SNL music side of the show. And so that's airing. And we're going to watch all of those and talk about them on an episode before we get to the 50th anniversary special. I love it. According to SNL's fandom page, fandom.com page, there likely isn't a new actual episode until March 1st.

[00:50:51] So we'll figure out stuff to do in February, like you said. That would make sense. We'll have an episode. There's going to be a lot to unpack for the 50th. Yep. Yeah. All right. Well, I believe the 40th anniversary episode was like three hours with commercials. This should be three hours. Yeah. All right. Who's ready to get horned up? Me. Yeah. Nate? Me and Goat Boy. Horned up. Okay.

[00:51:16] On that note, on that peak of comedy, we're going to end this podcast. Hey, Brad, where can people find you? You can find me on Slashroom.com. Sometimes I do stuff about Saturday Night Live, but the reviews weren't really getting the clicks. But I still like to talk about it, and I'm on Twitter. Brad, I was fired from the position of writing the reviews because they weren't getting the clicks. So hey, all you listeners, thanks. Yeah.

[00:51:45] But you know what? I did write a nice story about how Chevy Chase and Bill Murray got into a fight backstage. Yeah. During the originals. When did that one go up? Like a week ago. Good clicks? Sure. Got a lot of clicks on that one, guys. I don't know. So thanks for clicking on that. But yeah, so you can find me there doing stuff, and we have a podcast called Go Fix Yourself. We'll talk about it. You can find me on GeoCities. Mm-hmm. I've still got an active page talking about my 2000 Mustang. Good. Good. And Ronnie Python.

[00:52:16] And Zanga for me. Yeah. Yes. So I'm still live journaling as well. Yes. My SimCity 2000 walkthrough videos are still live. Cool. All right, rate and review us. Leave us some comments. Let us know what you thought. Well, who was your MVP of the night? Favorite sketch. And you know where Brad got it wrong on the Predometer. Yes. It's always fun. Always fun. Or just like other comments about Brad. It's fun. Being wrong. So. All right. We'll be back in a couple of weeks. Be good to yourself. Be good to others. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.