No Oscar campaign would be complete without a Saturday Night Live hosting gig, and this year, Timothée Chalamet is carrying on that tradition. Chalamet, who just scored a Best Actor nomination for playing Bob Dylan in the biopic A Complete Unknown, returned to Studio 8H to host the long-running sketch comedy series for the third time, having previously taken on the duties in 2020 and 2023 (he also made a surprise cameo during Carey Mulligan‘s episode in Season 46).
Unlike his other appearances, Chalamet livened this one up by also doubling as the musical guest, putting him in line with the likes of Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and his fellow 2025 Oscar nominee Ariana Grande (Wicked). Here are the best moments from Chalamet’s third hosting gig, from his opening monologue (in which he jokes about always losing awards) to the best sketches.
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COLD OPEN
No episode of SNL would be complete without a cold open lampooning the week in politics, yet this one started with a wild left turn. The sketch took us back to the signing of the U.S. Constitution, with a multi-gendered and multi-racial cast portraying the founding fathers. Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda came out of the crowd as — who else? — Alexander Hamilton to utter the famous phrase, “In America, we will never have a king.” “Never say never,” said Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) as he emerged from the wings to address the crowd as Miranda stood frozen behind him. Trump talked about his executive order to end DEI initiatives, saying, “Workplaces need to return to looking like the TV show The Office,” with mostly white employees and one funny Black guy.
Trump reminisced about his inauguration, recalling, “We had a lot of surprises at the inauguration, like Melania.” He commented on the various billionaires who were present, from Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg to Tesla and X owner Elon Musk. “We love Elon,” Trump said, “but to quote some of his own children, I do not want him in my life.” He bragged about his various executive orders, especially the transphobic one about how there are only two genders. “From now on there will be two genders: one to work and one to cook,” he boasted. “No more makeup on men, unless you need it to be president.” He even tried to get Miranda to break while holding his frozen position, joking, “He’s in sniffing distance of an EGOT and he’s gotta stand there frozen until I’m done talking.” Before signing off, Trump conceded, “I delivered on all of my promises, except for lowering the price of eggs.”
SEE ‘Emilia Pérez,’ ‘The Brutalist,’ and ‘Wicked’ lead 2025 Oscar nominations: See the full list
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CHALAMET’S MONOLOGUE
Chalamet greeted the audience by acknowledging that while this was his third time hosting, it was his first, “with a little stache and a little goatee.” It was also the first time that he would also be the musical guest, making him that rare actor to also sing during their hosting gig. “That’s a distinction I share with the great Gary Busey,” he joked. Chalamet teased performances of Bob Dylan songs to promote his performance in A Complete Unknown, and gave a heartfelt tribute to the film’s eight Oscar nominations, including one for him in Best Actor. It’s the second time he’s competed for that prize after 2017’s Call Me by Your Name, and Chalamet admitted that it isn’t exactly an honor just to be nominated.
“I just keep loosing,” he said, “and each time it gets harder to pretend it doesn’t sting,” before introducing a montage of clips from awards shows in which he’d competed and come up short. “Just another lonely night with my Dune popcorn bucket,” he quipped. He decided to use this opportunity to “read the acceptance speech I’ve carried in my pocket for four years,” and sat in the audience to give it the full awards show experience. He gave the envelope to an audience member, who announced the winner as … Keenan Thompson.
COFFEE SHOP SKETCH
Perhaps Chalamet’s funniest sketch concerned a coffee shop training session. The managers (Mikey Day and Heidi Gardner) were encouraging their new baristas (Chalamet, Devon Walker, and Ashley Padilla) to come up with coffee-related puns for the blackboard. While Walker and Padilla came up with some clever (if not necessarily funny) caffeinated wordplay, Chalamet took it as an opportunity to launch into some Chris Rock-inspired standup routines, mimicking the cadence and delivery of the former SNL star. Day and Gardner were perplexed, to say the least, especially when Chalamet came up with a brand new slogan for the shop: “Nothin’ wrong with a big ol’ woman and a hot ass cup of coffee.”
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MUSICAL PERFORMANCES
Considering how much time Chalamet spent learning how to sing like Bob Dylan, you’d hope he could replicate that on the SNL stage, and he didn’t disappoint. Saturday Night Live alum Adam Sandler showed up to introduce Chalamet’s first batch of Dylan performances, which he enlivened with his own unique interpretations: a hip hop-inspired version of “Outlaw Blues,” which he performed with a hoodie and sunglasses, and an auto-tuned take on “Three Angels,” featuring James Blake on organ. As Chalamet acknowledged in his opening monologue, these are deep cuts for Dylan fans, showing how far into his research he went.
Keenan Thompson introduced Chalamet’s second musical set, showing there were no hard feelings for the award “loss” earlier. Chalamet’s rendition of “Tomorrow is a Long Time,” for which he also played guitar, was a far more traditional performance of a Dylan tune, but no less haunting and effective.
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WEEKEND UPDATE
We would be remiss if we didn’t shout-out Michael Che‘s quip about this week’s Oscar nominations, led by Netflix’s Emilia Perez, which, Che said, “received 13 total… viewers.” Ouch!
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