it’s a stacked week on “Saturday Night Live” when a brand new John Mulaney-led Duane Reade on the Port Authority Bus Terminal musical sketch is simply in regards to the fifth-most necessary factor to debate.
Additionally notable was that musical visitor and pageant sensation Chappell Roan carried out her sing-along hit “Pink Pony Club” and debuted a shock nation music, “The Giver.”
In one other shock, 2016 vice presidential candidate, Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who ran alongside Hillary Clinton, portrayed himself in “What’s That Name?” a game-show sketch. In it, Mulaney performs a person who claims to care deeply about Tuesday’s presidential election, but can’t bear in mind Kaine’s title.
Maya Rudolph, left, with Vice President Kamala Harris through the chilly open.
(Will Heath / NBC)
Mulaney, who hosted “Everybody’s in L.A.” for Netflix in Could and who will host a weekly dwell present for the streamer in early 2025, did an admirable job holding all of it collectively in a stable mixture of sketches. There was a sublimely foolish video through which Mulaney performs a floor management officer attempting to assist a chimp astronaut return to Earth early within the present. Two sketches late within the episode jammed in a number of jokes into easy premises: one was about Little Richard (Kenan Thompson) showing too many instances in a Nineteen Nineties sitcom. And the opposite featured Mulaney enjoying real-life New York Metropolis Council candidate Harvey Epstein, who acknowledges in a marketing campaign video that each his names are extremely problematic.
Even with out the Broadway fantasia that’s the newest version of Duane Reade (extra on that one beneath), Mulaney’s internet hosting would have been tops for the fiftieth season thus far, or at the least neck-and-neck with Ariana Grande from a couple of weeks in the past.
Earlier than the closing goodbyes, a title card honored Teri Garr, who died this week. The actor hosted the present 3 times within the Eighties.
Rudolph lastly got here face-to-face with the real-life Harris on this week’s chilly open, whose speaking-to-the-mirror conceit was just like a current Jennifer Coolidge sketch. However there was numerous floor to cowl three days earlier than the nationwide election, together with former President Trump (James Austin Johnson) at a rally, sporting an enormous orange vest for “wearing it in garbage truck” and mocking former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney (“I just said I wanted her to go hunting with her dad”).
J.D. Vance (Bowen Yang) appeared briefly earlier than we noticed the return of Jim Gaffigan as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff and Dana Carvey as President Biden.
However in fact, it was Kamala Harris who obtained the largest response, becoming a member of Rudolph with, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”
For his sixth outing as host, Mulaney carried out a monologue that was extraordinarily quick-moving, leaping from subject to subject, and that was notable for making completely no point out of the upcoming election. As a substitute, Mulaney started by updating the viewers on his household life: He lately married Olivia Munn and now has a 5-week previous daughter together with a 2-year-old son. He described the relative heights of all of the individuals in his life who he’s taller than, together with Munn, his even shorter mother-in-law and a nanny who’s “negative 1-feet tall.” Mulaney talked about his mother and father, who’re ageing too slowly for his style (“They still have brown hair and go on bike trips”) and what it’s been like, at age 42, to already be fascinated by hip-replacement surgical procedure.
Finest sketch of the evening: Convey Beppo house 
Additionally good: Duane Reade milk is organ, not natural 
At any time when Mulaney hosts “SNL,” there’s all the time a great likelihood he’ll deliver again his musical homage sketch that takes place at a Duane Reade on the Port Authority Bus Terminal. For this newest model, former forged member Pete Davidson returned, trying to purchase a jug of milk that seems to be from a household of possums (Thompson and Ego Nwodim), who flip the bit right into a “Lion King” quantity. Marcello Hernández performed a shampoo bottle saved below lock and key whereas New York Mayor Eric Adams (Thompson) parodied “Aladdin” in reference to his Turkish connections. There was extra, heaps extra, however the standout could have been Samberg returning to carry out “Baby Bear Carcass,” in tune with the “Hamilton” opening quantity, a reference to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s weird Central Park story. Because the sketch notes, the previous presidential candidate remains to be on the poll in two swing states. Both you like these New York-centric musical sketches otherwise you discover them fully random, however you may’t deny they’re formidable.
‘Weekend Update’ winner: Reba! 
Hernandez and new forged member Jane Wickline performed “a couple you can’t believe are together,” but it surely was Heidi Gardner as “The Voice” coach and nation celebrity Reba McEntire who received “Weekend Update” this week. In a section that continued to indulge the present’s fascination with McEntire (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 mentioned. Gardner’s arm-waving impression paired with unusual tales about McEntire’s hometown of McAlester, Okla., the place, “If you think the milk is spoiled, give it another sip.” Extra disturbing: Reba says she’s the daughter of a Republican momma and a daddy who was Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King’s “It.” “Momma worked 59 jobs. Daddy only had one: eating kids.” Was it probably the most correct Reba impression? It was not. Was it the strangest? Completely. Let’s have the true McEntire on the present to do one other a type of mirror sketches.