Saturday Night Live: John Mulaney with musical guest Jack White

Saturday Night Live brought back the creator of Stefan. Meaning John Mulaney was here to host with musical guest Jack White.

It isn’t surprising that John Mulaney had a great episode of Saturday Night Live. He knows the show, he wrote SNL sketches for five years, and he gets what works in comedy. So when he took on hosting, we weren’t worried.

Luckily for us, his was one of the best episodes of the season. Truly I don’t think there was a bad sketch throughout the night and both of Jack White’s songs were amazing too! That’s what happens when you get a host who understands the show!

Cold Open

Basically, we’re getting a Meet the Parents crossover with the White House. Are Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro planning on making another movie? Who knows. But the entire cold open was themed around it with Stiller as Michael Cohen and DeNiro interrogating him as Robert Mueller — much like the famous lie detector scene from Meet the Parents.

It even included a whole bit where DeNiro asked Ben Stiller if he could milk him since he had nipples. What’s funny is that while cheesy, this cold open was maybe… perfect? It was weirdly specific and random but what we needed this to start the show off right.

Monologue

Is it surprising that John Mulaney did a stand up set as his monologue? Maybe, if you don’t know who John Mulaney is, but that’s his entire thing. He is a great comedian and his stand up is some of the most relatable bits out there. I mean, he’s a sad white boy who makes Timothée Chalamet jokes. What’s not to love?

Maybe the nicest human on the planet, John is one of those comedians that you can watch do stand up for the rest of your lives. It was perfect for his episode and reminded us that John knows Saturday Night Live.

Drag Brunch

When you go to a drag brunch, you have to know you’re going to get read. That’s what drag queens do. But Gary gets read a little too much for his liking, maybe because she asks when someone was happy to see him.

For those of you not familiar with a ‘drag brunch’, you basically get brunch and get to see drag queens. This time, the drag queen wants to attack Gary and he isn’t exactly having it. This sketch was dead-on specific, and any RuPaul’s Drag Race fan would easily appreciate. But it was also relatable, because who isn’t Gary from time to time? We all know a Gary.

The big reveal at the end of the sketch is the drag queen turns out to be a former intern from Gary’s office. She wants revenge even though she still has to take Gary’s order and treat him well. He is a customer after all.

Walk Out

Teenage boys can’t control themselves. Especially when a girl looks them in the eyes and then touches their shoulders. Gerald learned something about himself as he was touched by both a female and male classmate and both seemed to turn him on. Meaning that he couldn’t get up to walk out because he didn’t want everyone to know that he was, in fact, turned on.

While the rest of the class wanted to band together for the school walk out, Gerald was dealing with his situation. There was also your typical Lance, who refused because he’s “not a snowflake.”

While oddly topical, the sketch was humorous, bringing substance with comedy.

Wild Wild Country

Some people don’t join cults for the right reason. Shocking concept, right?

While joining a cult isn’t exactly for everyone, one man wanted to do it for the naked ladies. Basically, this sketch takes a dive into “Netflix series” focused on the exploration of cults and seeing how people get brainwashed. Part of that is joining men who seem to have messages that most don’t agree with.

The sketch points out that some joined because of the sexual aspect, not because they necessarily agree with the messages the leaders were sharing. Which is truly funny because really, some infamous cults sure have a big mix of sex and drugs involved.

It also helps if Nasim Pedrad comes back to do your sketch because she is still one of the greatest Saturday Night Live cast members.

Big Nick’s Greek Diner

If you like Les Miserables, you’re going to love this. Honestly, most watching probably had no idea what this sketch is about other than the fact that a man ordered a lobster at a diner and you, apparently, don’t do that. The entire sketch is Les Miserables songs so the musical theatre nerd in me was ecstactic.

I feel bad for those who don’t appreciate musical theatre because you probably don’t get this or, if you do, it isn’t nearly as fun. One, because Les Miserables is incredible and two, who doesn’t love the idea of a lobster being Jean Val Jean?

Jack White

I’m going to be very honest, I’m convinced that Jack White is Michael Cera in a wig. Other than that, this was very much the Jack White we know and love. You probably know him from his days with the White Stripes or, if you don’t, just watch his Saturday Night Live performances and you can figure out what that music sounds like. “Over and Over and Over” was the first song he did. While a bit repetitive (probably because of the name of the song), it was fun and made us want to rock out alongside him.

“Connected by Love” was his second song and was a very much Jack White. Personally, my favorite hit of his is “Love is Blindness” and this was a little more in the same vein than his first performance. It was very emotional and that is very much what we expect when we see White perform. He’s incredibly connected to his music and it is beautiful to watch.

Weekend Update

Trump had a rough week, making it that much easier for Michael Che or Colin Jost to make fun of him. Between the Syrian air strikes and basically everything with Michael Cohen, the Weekend Update desk had a lot to report on.

Laura Ingraham showed up and, if you’re like me, you didn’t know who she was before she idiotically insulted a school shooting survivor. Most of the “guests” on Weekend Update are right-wing people that we didn’t know existed until the Trump administration. But that’s what makes Weekend Update so amazing. It brings us the jokes we see on Twitter with a bigger spin and with people we, arguably, don’t know anything about.

Hollywood Update

Everyone loves a reboot but maybe we should reboot Switcheroo. A show about a dad and son switching bodies takes a turn for the worse when the show focuses on the sexual relationship between the mother and father even though the father and son have switched bodies. Meaning that the son, theoretically, has to sleep with his mother.

Clearly, there are problems and the show shouldn’t be rebooted but the creator isn’t a great dude and doesn’t really care about the flawed nature of his show. At least this time, politics play a part in the sense that they ignore them.

Doctor’s Office

Most people mistrust people with horns. How you develop horns are not exactly clear but at least Lucian wants to get his horns that are on his forehead removed so that people will talk to him. That and he doesn’t want to fight against goats at the petting zoo who think he’s a rival goat trying to fight for his honor.

Between calf holes, a butthole surgery and more, this is a wild doctor’s visit. Honestly, I think they just wanted someone to have horns in a sketch? The entire thing was fun and fine, but not exactly something too crazily interesting.

The Real Intros of Reality Hills

Sometimes the intros on The Real Housewives shows seem to go on forever. So what if that was the entire show? In the eleventh hour sketch, it was great because there were twin versions of John Mulaney who threw water on each other and may or may not be incestuous.

It didn’t really have a point but that’s what makes these sketches great! Near the end of an SNL episode, we’re just here for some quick n’ easy shorts to wrap up the hour.

Overall, this was an incredible episode. John Mulaney did a brilliant job and hopefully, he comes back soon as this was one of the best episodes of the season!

Next: Saturday Night Live recap and review: Chadwick Boseman with musical guest Cardi B

Check back here on Culturess for more news and updates on Saturday Night Live throughout the week!