SNL Season 43: John Mulaney

Former SNL writer and stand up comedian John Mulaney made his hosting debut. Onto the review

Meet The Parents Cold Open: Once again, SNL does its political coverage best when Trump isn't actually portrayed. We got a couple of guest cameos, Ben Stiller as Michael Cohen and Robert De Niro as Robert Mueller. It went on from there, recreating the lie detector scene in Meet The Parents. I also noticed an interesting dynamic here with Sessions and Pence. We'll see if that continues. (7.6)

Monologue: Time and time again, stand-up monologues always win out, as this week's did. (8.7)

Drag Brunch: (6.9)

National School Walkout: (7.2)

Wild Wild Country (short): Even without seeing wild wild country on netflix, this still was a well done looking parody. We even got snl alumni Nasim Pedrad, but Kenan was the star. (8.0)

Diner Lobster: This was definitely a thing. I'm not sure there are enough words to describe this masterpiece....except Lobster Les Miserables. Seriously, from the set designs, to the choreography and the singing, this was so well done. This sketch had no business working as well as it did. (9.5)

(Jack White): (8.0)

Weekend Update: The first guest saw Kate McKinnon as Laura Ingraham. She did that David Ortiz of made-up sponsors for her show...but the premise still worked.

Then Kenan showed up as Lavar Ball, which is quikcly becoming one of my favorite characters of his. (8.1)

Sitcom Reboot: (6.5)

Horns: (6.9)

(Jack White): (7.5)

The Real Intros Of Reality Hills: (6.0)

And while it was cut (score not included), there was a terrific cut for time sketch. Luke Null really shined in this. The trio of Luke, Cecily and John made it shine.

The material wasn't quite there post-update, but the material that worked really, really worked. I'm sure we'll get John Mulaney hosting again (who has quickly become one of my favorite stand-up comics). (7.58)

Will Ferrell: 8.02
Chance The Rapper: 7.83
Ryan Gosling: 7.63

John Mulaney: 7.58
Sam Rockwell: 7.55
Kumali Nanjiani: 7.48 

Bill Hader: 7.42 
Charles Barkley: 7.41
Chadwick Boseman: 7.34 
Sterling K. Brown: 7.30
James Franco: 7.28
Kevin Hart: 7.20
Saoirse Ronan: 7.16
Tiffany Haddish: 7.15
Larry David: 7.14
Jessica Chastain: 7.11
Gal Gadot: 7.08 
Natalie Portman: 7.03