Timothée Chalamet as SNL Musical Guest Has the Internet Speculating

Actor Timothée Chalamet will serve as his own musical guest on Saturday Night Live. But what does that mean?

Following last week’s announcement that Chalamet will be pulling double-duty when he hosts SNL on January 25, fans are speculating about what might be in store, since (unlike most hosts who’ve served as their own musical guest) Chalamet isn’t known as a musician.

Of course, the leading presumption is that Chalmet will perform Bob Dylan songs. The actor trained for five years to embody Dylan in the new biopic A Complete Unknown, and performed all the songs heard in the movie live during filming.

If SNL does go the Dylan tribute route, it’s also possible they’ll schedule just one musical performance in the show. Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”—the namesake of the biopic—exceeds six minutes in its original version.

One outside-of-the-box prediction is that Chalamet will reprise his SoundCloud rapper $mokedcheddathaassgetta, a standout character from his 2020 hosting debut that he reprised in 2023. Chalamet reprising that character would also open the door for a cameo by Pete Davidson.

$mokedcheddathaassgetta originated as part of the rap duo XanMob alongside Davidson’s Guaplord, who gifted viewers with a track called “Yeet Skrt” in 2020. The character’s second appearance didn’t include Davidson, who had hosted his own episode a month prior, but the former cast member has already returned once this year to appear in “Port Authority Duane Reade” with host John Mulaney. 

As internet speculation goes, it don’t stop there.

Perhaps the best theory (or most wishful thinking) yet came from a Redditor on r/LiveFromNewYork, who predicted that Chalamet will be introduced as musical guest, only for the real Bob Dylan to take the stage. “I base this prediction not on what I think is very likely, just on what I think would be awesome,” they note. Dylan has only appeared once on Saturday Night Live, serving as musical guest in 1979.

He has, however, been impersonated several times on the show, including by two regular faces from SNL’s current season: Dana Carvey and James Austin Johnson. As X/Twitter user @memesistential suggests, that opens the door to a wilder theory: a “Bob Dylan Quartet,” featuring Chalamet, the SNL impressionists, and the real Dylan.

Short-lived SNL cast member Patrick Weathers portrayed Bob Dylan in 1980, and Carvey did the same on Weekend Update in 1991. Most recently, Johnson has become the show’s resident Dylan impressionist. A noted Dylan fan, Johnson has brought his impression to a sketch that takes place on the A Complete Unknown red carpet, a promo, and an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

(Bringing it all back home, Johnson also plays a role in A Complete Unknown.)

It’s also worth noting that Jimmy Fallon has a Dylan impression of his own in his arsenal. He most recently broke it out for the song “Thanksgiving Eve” on his holiday album Holiday Seasoning. He’s also one of the few late-night hosts to wrangle some sort of appearance from Dylan in years.

We’ll find out for sure on January 25th, when Chalamet returns to Studio 8H.

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