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Saturday Night Live host–and musical guest—Timothée Chalamet played the part of Benny, a barista-in-training who, instead of brainstorming some of the corny puns often seen on coffee shop chalk boards, channels stand-up routines on Def Comedy Jam.
The sketch begins, though, with a coffee shop colleague (Jane Wickline) making the quick decision to throw in the towel after not knowing the the difference between a latte and a cappuccino.
Raising her hand, Wickline answers confidently, “A cappuccino has the mozzarella on the bottom and thesauce on top.” But after being informed that she just described Detroit-style pizza, Wickline lets out a “Woof.”
“I don’t think I can recover from that one. Goodbye, everybody,” she says, standing up and leaving.
The training continues, with the lead baristas (Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner) explaining that“a fun part ofworking at this cafe is writingquippy jokes for our chalkboardout front.”
Benny seems interested.
“Woah, wait. We get to do jokes?” he reacts, before pausing a moment. “I love comedy,” he adds flatly.
“Oh, that’s great, Benny. I bet you’ll be very good at this,” Gardner predicts.
“Yeah, I bet I will be,” he replies stone-faced, leaving it anyone’s guess what he actually has planned.
After other trainees (Devon Walker, Ashley Padilla) weigh in with average and awful puns about coffee and cold weather, it’s Benny’s turn.
After a moment of quiet contemplation, Benny jumps to his feet and bursts out a line with a previously unheard vocal style:
“Man…you ever go to yourlady, she got a yellow ring’round the tub? I’m like, ‘Girl, who you been washing up inthere? Homer Simpson?!’”
When the baristas seem confused, Benny maintains that what he said was appropriate. “We’re doing jokes, right?”
“You did a Chris Rock-style pace,” Gardner tells him. “That’s kind of difficult to convey on a sign.”
When it’s his turn again, Benny has another line all set: “You ever get ready to go toCheesecake Factory with yourlady and she goes, ‘I don’t wantto eat too much. I don’t want toget big.’ Girl, too late!Big Benny say what?” he calls out, cuing some music which he dances to.
When given the opportunity, Benny even does some crowd work with a customer, asking him “How big is your wife?”
On the third go around in search for a good pun on the word “latte,” Benny comes back with: “Man, just the other day mylady said, ‘Big Benny, how muchweight you think I gained?’Girl, a latte!”
Having nailed the closer to his “set,” Benny introduces the next comic, Big Reggie McCray (Kenan Thompson), and is told that his performance means he’s now the owner of the cafe.
