John Mulaney hosts action-packed ‘SNL’ with Kamala Harris outdoors

You know it’s a busy week on Saturday Night Live when new host John Mulaney Duane Reed performing a musical sketch at the Port Authority Bus Terminal this is only the fifth most important topic for discussion.

The biggest news as previously reportedwas that Vice President Kamala Harris showed up in the cold to “stop the drama” and literally mirror Maya Rudolph’s portrayal of her. We’ll talk about this sketch a little later.

Also notable is that musical guest and festival sensation Chappell Roan performed her sing-along hit “Pink Pony Club“, and also debuted country song surprise“Donor“

In another surprise, 2016 vice presidential candidate Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, who ran with Hillary Clinton, portrayed himself in “What kind of name is this?» Game show sketch. In it, Mulaney plays a man who claims to care deeply about Tuesday’s presidential election but can’t remember Kane’s name.

Mulaney, who hosted “All in L.A.” for Netflix in May and who will host weekly live show for streamer in early 2025did a wonderful job putting it all together into a cohesive blend of sketches. There was an incredibly stupid video of Mulaney playing a ground control officer trying to… help the chimpanzee astronaut return to Earth at the beginning of the show. Two sketches at the end of the episode contained many jokes within simple premises: one was about Little Richard (Kenan Thompson). appeared too often in the 1990s sitcom. And on the other Mulaney played. real New York City Council candidate Harvey Epsteinwho admits in a campaign video that both of his names are highly problematic.

Even without the Broadway fantasy that Duane Reade’s latest edition (more on that below), Mulaney’s hosting would have been the best season 50 so far, or at least equally so. with Ariana Grande a few weeks ago.

Before saying goodbye, the title card was presented. Teri Garr, who died this week. Actor hosted the show three times in the 1980s.

Rudolph finally came face to face with the real Harris at this week’s cold open, whose mirror-talking vanity was similar to his recent one Sketch by Jennifer Coolidge. But three days before the national election, there was plenty to talk about, including former President Trump (James Austin Johnson) wearing a large orange vest at a rally for “carrying it in a garbage truck” and ridiculing former Wyoming Rep. Liz Chaney (“I just said I wanted her to go hunting with her dad”).

J.D. Vance (Bowen Young) appeared briefly before we saw the return of Jim Gaffigan as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff, and Dana Carvey as President Biden.

But, of course, it was Kamala Harris got the biggest reactionjoining Rudolph in saying, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”

During his sixth appearance as host, Mulaney performed a monologue that was extremely fast-paced, jumped from topic to topic, and was notable for making absolutely no mention of the upcoming election. Instead, Mulaney began by telling the audience about his family life: recently married Olivia Munn and he now has a 5 week old daughter along with his 2-year-old son. He described the relative heights of all the people in his life that he is taller, including Mann, his even shorter mother-in-law, and his nanny, whose height is “negative by one foot.” Mulaney talked about his parents, who he thinks are aging too slowly (“They still have brown hair and ride bikes”), and what it was like at 42 to already be considering hip replacement surgery.

Best sketch of the night: Bring Beppo home.

There’s something about Mulaney and the Apes that works on “SNL.” Two years after appearing as a monkey judgeThe host plays a character who struggles to bring Beppo, the first American chimpanzee to orbit the Earth, back home safely. Beppo can communicate verbally using a keyboard of icons, but when mission control loses control of the spaceship, Mulaney’s character must break the bad news to the chimpanzee in words he can understand: “Beppo, don’t go home. Beppo darkened. Beppo is forever zero.” The video takes a few dark and absurd turns, includes a Hidden Figures reference, and ends triumphantly… sort of. Extra points for making the doomed chimpanzee Beppo look so realistic and adorable.

Another good thing: Duane Reade milk is organic, not organic.

Whenever John Mulaney hosts “SNL,” there’s always a good chance he’ll bring back his musical sketch which take place at Duane Reade at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.. For this latest version, former actor Pete Davidson returned, wanting to buy a jug of milk that turned out to belong to a family of possums (Thompson and Ego Nwodim) who had turned the bat into a Lion King number. Marcello Hernandez played a bottle of shampoo kept under lock and key, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams (Thompson) parodied “Aladdin,” citing his Turkish connections. There was more, much more, but the standout may have been Samberg’s return to perform “Baby Bear Carcass,” a tune to “Hamilton’s” opening number, a reference to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s bizarre Central Park story. As the sketch notes, the former presidential candidate is still on the ballot in two swing states. Either you love these New York musical sketches or find them completely random, but you can’t deny their ambition.

Weekend Update Winner: Reba!

Hernandez and new cast member Jane Wickline played “ a couple you can’t believe is together,” but it was Heidi Gardner as “The Voice” coach and country superstar Reba McEntire who won “Weekend Update” this week. In the segment that continued pamper the show’s charm with McIntyre (Why not have her host someday?) Gardner portrayed the singer as an undecided voter. “Call me Shawn Mendes because I’m still figuring it out“, she said. Gardner’s hand-waving impression was coupled with strange stories about McIntyre’s hometown of McAlester, Oklahoma, where: “If you think the milk is bad, take another sip of it.” Even more disturbing: Reba says she’s the daughter of a Republican mom and a dad who was Pennywise the clown from Stephen King’s It. “Mom worked 59 jobs. Dad had only one thing: to have children.” Was this the most accurate impression of Reba? This is wrong. Was that the weirdest thing? Absolutely. Let’s get the real McIntyre on the show to do another one of these mirror sketches.