The smartest choice Saturday Night Live has made in years is slotting John Mulaney into an annual hosting gig. He’s pretty much the perfect host: he’s a hilarious stand-up and fantastic performer who wrote for the show for years, giving him intimate first-hand knowledge of what goes into producing an episode. He puts his own stamp on every episode he hosts, and the rest of the cast and writing staff has so far risen to the occasion, resulting in the best episodes of the last three seasons.
This weekend was Mulaney’s third time hosting, and although it wasn’t the revelation that his first episode was, it was still far better than a typical SNL. Mulaney set the tone with another excellent monologue, where he delivered a solid eight minutes of new material about dads, their lack of friends, their love of World War II, and a whole lot more. As good as some of the sketches were this week, Mulaney’s monologue was easily the highlight—a decent chunk of top-notch comedy from one of the most gifted and confident comedians working today.
Check out Mulaney’s monologue below.