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Video: John Mulaney Unveils A Bodega Bathroom Musical On Great 'Saturday Night Live'

Ben Yakas

Published Mar 4, 2019

Modified Mar 11, 2019

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Ben Yakas

Published Mar 4, 2019

Modified Mar 11, 2019

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To open his monologue on this weekend's episode of Saturday Night Live, second-time host John Mulaney jokingly told first-time viewers that he hosts the show every week, and dear God if only it were true. This has been an overall down season of the show, marked by lots of listless political parodies, but Mulaney, who was a writer on SNL for six seasons, knows how to bring out the best of the show and current cast better than maybe any host at this point in time. This was, not so unexpectedly, the best episode of the season so far, where almost every sketch was a highlight.

But the highest of all the highs was Bodega Bathroom, a sequel to last year's Mulaney masterpiece Diner Lobster (learn more about that one here). Like its predecessor, it's a completely surreal, ever-expanding musical sketch, with tons of music from and references to the likes of Cats, Rent, Little Shop Of Horrors and Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. (And it was only first rehearsed on Friday at 11:45 p.m.!) Mulaney owes it to all of us to write his own musical comedy.

The episode was filled with some pretty specific NYC references aside from the bodega bathroom, and Mulaney's Monologue in particular had some of the best, including a story about his wife seeing Woody Allen while pushing their dog in a stroller, and a reflection on subway announcements.

Bill Hader popped up in a few sketches tonight in major supporting roles, the best of which came with What's That Name?, in which Mulaney and Cecily Strong were contestants who could easily remember D-list celebrity names, but can't remember the names of people in their lives. Everybody was great in this sketch, but Hader was incredible, especially when Mulaney asked him what he wants, and he responded, "In a word...chaos."

Cha Cha Slide was another winner, with a bunch of well-timed physical comedy, some nicely underplayed twists, a rare lead role for new cast member Ego Nwodim, and also Leslie Jones doing some Beyoncé moves in the background.

Your mileage may vary on Chad, Pete Davidson's completely blank Millennial stoner recurring character, but Chad's Horror Movie was one of the best uses of him yet. If we weren't going to get Mulaney and Davidson talking about The Mule again, this was a pretty good substitute.

As he revealed on Instagram, the Toilet Death Ejector ad was actually written a decade ago with Simon Rich and Marika Sawyer before being brought back to life this weekend. (It would have made a good candidate for Second Chance Theater otherwise.)

The Cold Open, which satirized the Michael Cohen (Ben Stiller) hearing, was slightly better than all the other terrible political cold opens we've gotten this season (no Baldwin/Trump, and Hader was fantastic as Rep. Jim Jordan, and Kyle Mooney was great as malaprop-spouting Rep. Paul Gosar). I wouldn't watch it again, but it's like that old Arrested Development joke: it might be a bump up from "Sell" to "Don't Buy."

Scroll down below to check out the rest of the episode, including the return of Kenan Thompson's Reese De'What in To Have And Have Not and the pretty solid Legal Shark Tank (Mulaney was born to play Alan Dershowitz, Kate McKinnon's Rudy Giuliani took one step closer to transforming into The Penguin, and Celino & Barnes were a great addition to everything).

And here's Weekend Update—because the show was running quite late this week, there was only one guest: the owners of Smokery Farms (Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon) came on to discuss their farm that only serves "stupid and bad animals to counter the viral, cute animal videos harming the meat industry."

And Dianne Feinstein Message was a cut-for-time pre-taped sketch in which Sen. Feinstein (Cecily Strong) responds to footage of her arguing with school children about climate change with a special campaign message.

You might be wondering who the musical guest was: his name is Thomas Rhett, and he performed two songs (see them here: "Look What God Gave Her", "Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time"). If you Google him, you'll find that he is listed as "country," but these songs sound more like very generic pop, and they made me hate music.

Actor, People's "Sexiest Man Alive" of 2018, and part-time DJ Idris Elba will host the show next weekend with musical guest Khalid.

Tagged

john mulaney

saturday night live

snl

television

Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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