Recent Five-Timers Club inductee, John Mulaney, returned to Saturday Night Live this weekend to host the show for the sixth time, with musical guest, Chappell Roan. As a former SNL writer himself, I was looking forward to him bringing a fresh energy mixed with some classic SNL humor. And with election day nearly upon us, and talk of some exciting cameos, I expected traditional sketches along with a few surprises. So, let’s get into it!
Keep Kam-ala and Carry on-a-la
With three days until the election, there’s no shortage of directions they could have gone for the cold open. Rumors began swirling online Saturday around the secret service presence at 30 Rock, speculating that Kamala Harris would be appearing on SNL.
The cold open begins with Chloe Fineman as CNN‘s Kaitlan Collins, about to go to the candidates’ final campaign speeches in Pennsylvania. Cut to Trump, who has already been talking for 4 1/2 hours in his usual unhinged manner, leading into a breakdown about how he’s tired and doesn’t want to be there. He questions his own babbling, doing bizarre things with the microphone, wrapping it up with, “Who cares?
And speaking of “Who cares,” he turns it over to JD Vance. Bowen comes to the podium and asks, “Where are my normal gay guys at?” They cut to Maya Rudolph as Kamala, with Doug (Andy Samberg) and Tim (Jim Gaffigan) watching this on TV.
As they prepare for Kamala’s final campaign speech, Walz tears up over the beauty of a cheesesteak eggroll, and I feel seen — they are amazing! Kamala just needs to send a quick text to everyone in America, when Dana Carvey as Ja’Biden stops by. No joke, and by the way, he offers to say more things to help the campaign, to which she replies, “Thank you so much for all you’ve done for my campaign.” He leaves the room saying, “There are some reporters outside, I’m gonna go riff.”
Doug leaves her alone to prepare for her speech. She sits at the same mirror from the dueling Jennifer Coolidges sketch a few weeks ago, saying she needs to talk to someone who understands what she’s going through, as they reveal the real Kamala on the other side of the mirror. Kamala reminds herself of her ability to open doors, Maya laughs at the garbage truck reference. Real Kamala asks, “I don’t laugh like that do I?” Some brief words of encouragement and finishing each other’s sentences and they kick off the show.
No matter your views, it’s pretty incredible to see a presidential candidate appear on the show, and it was quite moving to see Maya and Kamala side-by-side.
Monologue
In his stand-up monologue, John Mulaney talks about his family’s short stature and how he finds himself looking down all day at his kids and in-laws, who range in height from 4’ to negative 1’ tall. His ability to tell stories that are both personal and universal, with a touch of self-deprecation, was in full force as he discussed the physical ailments he’s experiencing in his 40’s and feeling too old to do anything. Having a torn hip, he talks about going to physical therapy with “three other older women,” and silver hair and turquoise jewelry everywhere.
He talks about his grandfather, who was born in 1902, thus making him too old to fight in World War II, the oldest thing that’s ever happened. This leads into a bit of darker commentary, in the same upbeat tone, about the reason for Catholic families having so many kids back then. Because most of them died of a cough, despite the parents’ best efforts to heal them, including putting a towel on their head.
What’s That Name?
Bringing back the game show What’s That’s Name? from John Mulaney’s days as a writer on the show, this time it’s a special Election Edition. Michael Longfellow did a great job taking over the hosting gig from Bill Hader. John Mulaney plays liberal, and slightly pretentious, contestant Ben, who is very invested in this year’s election. He gets the first two names correct, Doug Emhoff and Jack Smith, winning $5 per answer. But for the third question, worth $300,000, they bring out Hillary Clinton’s former running mate. Ben can’t remember his name, despite having called that election the most important in American history. Even with the clue that his name is Tim, he still can’t recall, and Tim Kaine finally has to tell everyone his name and that he still exists.
Michael then reads one of Ben’s tweets from 2020 with the names of 12 victims of police violence with #RememberTheirNames, pre-emptively scolding those who forget the names. Ben has to name anyone on the list other than George Floyd, which he cannot. This was a fun throwback to a great sketch from years ago, with a timely take.
Midnight Matinee
We saw the second installment of Midnight Matinee. It takes place at NASA in 1962, a monkey, Beppo, is in space and has just made the first orbit around earth. But NASA loses control of the space shuttle and won’t be able to bring Beppo home. Similar to My Best Friend’s House from a few weeks ago, the majority of the sketch has a serious, and this time, a pretty sad tone as we watch Beppo’s face as he learns he’s not coming home. We know a twist is coming, and then the shuttle explodes. Assuming Beppo is dead, John Mulaney‘s character reveals that Beppo was actually a communist spy. Beppo survives and crashes into the mission control building. He then walks out of the wreckage unscathed, only to steel Mulaney’s wife. This was a very different type of ending than the dark, twisted ending of My Best Friend’s House, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. Maybe the intent was just a happy, slightly twisted ending, but it was a bit of a letdown after the long buildup.
Port Authority Milk Musical
When John Mulaney hosts, it’s a given that we’re going to get a musical parody sketch where someone wants to buy a questionable food item. This time it takes place at Duane Reade in the Port Authority bus terminal. Pete Davidson plays a customer who wants to buy the lone gallon of milk for the bus ride to Boston. This leads into musical numbers from a family of possums, the twinks arriving for the Timothee Chalamet lookalike contest that took place in New York last week, Mayor Adams, who has turned Greyhound into Turkish Bus Lines, and the bear carcass that RFK dumped in Central Park. This was a solid version of this recurring bit, complete with timely references. I think I need to re-watch the previous ones as I find these really enjoyable.
Weekend Update
The highlight for me was Marcello Hernandez and Jane Wickline as “The Couple You Can’t Believe are Together”. Marcello plays Grant, an exuberant Soul Cycle instructor, and Jane plays Alyssa, a grad student at Barnard who is working on her masters in 18th Century Graveyards. Marcello plays Grant completely over-the-top, and Jane plays Alyssa as a quiet, mousy, intellectual. This was a fun pairing of cast members and characters.
The final two sketches were Sitcom Pioneers and a political ad for Harvey Epstein, who is running for city council. The joke is that he’s worried that people will think he’s Harvey Weinstein or Jeffrey Epstein, or they morphed into one person and it’s him. I had to look this person up, and Harvey Epstein is an actual person running for New York City Council.
Sitcom Pioneers featured a show called Family Bonds, a 90’s sitcom, with a similar premise to Full House. Essentially, Little Richard’s tour bus breaks down in front of their home, and so he stays throughout the duration of the show — frequently going off script. The show is canceled after Little Richard shoots the family dog. I found Keenan Thompson’s Little Richard impression absolutely hilarious. And while it’s probably not easy to work Little Richard into many sketches – I’m not sure that the under-40 audience would even know who he is — I would love to see Keenan bring this back.
Parting Thoughts
The sketches were longer and true to Mulaney’s style, as opposed to the shorter, more TikTok-friendly sketches we’ve been getting as of late. I get it, SNL is getting crazy exposure on social media and I love how they’ve adapted in order to bring the show to new audiences. I have to say, I’m glad they stayed true to his brand of comedy. Overall, it was a solid episode, though not my favorite Mulaney episode, it didn’t disappoint either. Next week, Bill Burr returns to host for the second time, with musical guest Mk.gee!
