The last time John Mulaney hosted Saturday Night Live, he embarked on an extended metaphor comparing the Founding Fathers to the 1992 Chicago Bulls. What did Mulaney have in store for his next hosting gig, his fourth overall? On Halloween night, America learned the answer to that; the answer, it turns out, involved bizarre voting advice and some memorable stories about Mulaney’s grandmother.
While Mulaney’s comedy sometimes touches on political subjects, he tends to come at it from unexpected angles. His bit about Donald Trump as a horse in a hospital is a perfect example; it’s a resonant image, but it avoids a lot of the cliches that come to mind when referencing Trump in comedy. Its break from the norm is why it’s accrued so much acclaim, and it’s not hard to see part of Mulaney’s monologue last night as a kind of sequel to it.
Mulaney’s increasingly surreal and irreverent take on Election Day doesn’t land quite as well as his earlier riff on the current administration. Thankfully, he uses the election as a segue to discuss his 94-year-old grandmother voting — which then prompts an amazing story about the time she attempted to get a new photo for her drivers license. Some of Mulaney’s funniest bits simply involve him recounting things his family members have done; this one is no exception.
It ends on a particularly hilarious, self-effacing joke. It’s good to have Mulaney back hosting the show; one can only imagine what’ll happen once he’s joined the Five-Timers Club.
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