Stars: 4/5
John Mulaney was back for his fourth time hosting Saturday Night Live this past weekend, and although it may have not been the best show Mulaney has hosted, he still delivered, nevertheless. Mulaney headlined the show with the band The Strokes performing as a musical guest. The show also featured a few comedic celebrities and past SNL cast members like Jim Carrey and Maya Rudolph who were featured in the political cold open. 
Saturday’s show cracked jokes at many relevant topics like coronavirus, Halloween and the election, but Mulaney really stole the show.
Mulaney is a bit of an SNL veteran. He worked for the show as a writer for about 6 years and has hosted the show three times prior to this episode, and you can tell that Mulaney is comfortable owning the stage in Studio 8H of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. 
Personally, I have always been an SNL and Mulaney fan, so I was especially excited about this episode. Lately, I haven’t been getting into SNL because the last few episodes I watched were not particularly funny to me, but I decided to give last week’s episode a shot because of how good Mulaney’s other episodes were. 
The first thing I enjoyed was Mulaney’s monologue. I’m not a big fan of the cold opens and other sketches that don’t feature the host, so I was looking forward to the monologue to actually start the show.
Mulaney’s monologue felt like he was doing a mini standup show, which was great because I’m a huge fan of his standup. I know a lot of other celebrities’ monologues are written for them which makes for a stiff and awkward performance, but Mulaney didn’t have this problem. As a former writer from SNL, I know Mulaney most likely wrote his own material, and it showed both in the comedy and in his deliverance.
The show’s sketches were pretty funny, but not hilarious. I think having Mulaney as a host really saved the show for me. Another thing I enjoyed was the consistency of the show. With this episode being Mulaney’s fourth, some sketches were sequels or continuations of other sketches featured on his previous episodes. Although I enjoyed this, I can see it falling flat among viewers who are not familiar with other SNL episodes featuring Mulaney. 
One of the sketches that is part of a series that has become a Mulaney staple of SNL was the small mini-musical titled “New York Musical.”
Every one of Mulaney’s past episodes has included an obscure mini-musical usually involving Mulaney and other SNL cast members performing songs to warn Pete Davidson’s character from ordering or buying a certain thing from the store or restaurant where Mulaney works. Although “New York Musical” wasn’t nearly as intricate as the other mini-musical sketches, I enjoyed it because it’s something I look forward to with every Mulaney episode of SNL. 
Another consistent sketch was “Another Uncle Meme” which was a continuation of “Uncle Meme” from Mulaney’s last time hosting in February.
This sketch followed Mulaney’s character as he is cyberbullied by his nephew played by Davidson. Davidson’s character takes photos of Mulaney’s character and turns them into memes that become very popular on the internet. I enjoyed this sketch, but I think it might be a little confusing to those who haven’t seen the first “Uncle Meme.” 
I enjoyed the fact that Mulaney was the host of the episode, but the sketches were a little bit subpar. I liked the continuing sketches, but I think that they may be getting a little stale after the fourth time. I liked that Davidson was featured more in this episode too, and I’m guessing that has a bit to do with Mulaney and Davidson’s close friendship.
I think the sketches were funny, but they’re by no means the best I’ve seen on SNL. This also doesn’t mean that Mulaney’s performance wasn’t good. I really enjoyed Mulaney as a host, as I always do. He did a great job hosting, but I think the sketches could have been a little funnier. I think he had a great standup-like monologue, which I expected.
If you like SNL or are a Mulaney fan, I’d give this episode a watch. Although there are other Mulaney episodes I like better, Mulaney still killed it, which made it more enjoyable for me.