S43.E18: John Mulaney / Jack White

[formerlyfreedom]

John Mulaney hosts; Jack White is the musical guest.

[VCRTracking]

[vb68]

That's one of the better promos I've seen. Love when he says "don't show the feet!"  If the whole show matches that humor, it will be a good show.

[cpcathy]

It would be a GREAT show if it matches those promos. I've been getting ready for the episode by watching John's specials, and I listened to one of his podcast episodes with Pete Holmes (it's Holmes' podcast). So funny. He really took the demise of his sitcom to heart, I felt for him.

[opus]

I have high hopes for tonight's show.

Which, of course, is usually the kiss of death.

[VCRTracking]

I didn't realize until going on Tumblr the person on the lower right was Colin Jost! I thought "Who is that odd looking woman?"

Edited April 14, 2018 by VCRTracking

[cpcathy]

That's awesome.

[peeayebee]

3 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

I didn't realize until going on Tumblr the person on the lower right was Colin Jost! I thought "Who is that odd looking woman?"

Isn't Colin on the far left, with the beard?

[Spartan Girl]

The second they led Ben Stiller's Michael Cohen into the interrogation room, I knew -- I KNEW -- Robert De Niro was going to come out as Robert Muller.

Even if it was just a repeat of Meet the Parents, I was laughing at the code names for the Trump administration.

[jjj]

I have no idea how they could even choose material for the cold open.  The could have done a full show of cold opens based on this week's events.  But getting De Niro must have made it easier to focus. 

28 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

The second they led Ben Stiller's Michael Cohen into the interrogation room, I knew -- I KNEW -- Robert De Niro was going to come out as Robert Muller.

Even if it was just a repeat of Meet the Parents, I was laughing at the code names for the Trump administration.

Edited April 15, 2018 by jjj

[ebk57]

That Lobster Les Miz skit was fabulous.

[formerlyfreedom]

I have just added "You might want to wait, I just did something historic in there" to my bathroom departure lexicon.

[vb68]

Wow, Luke Null got a sketch! And he had lines in another sketch! The topper was he pretty good, too. 

[Galileo908]

Cold Open: Jeff Sessions (I regret wishing that I was a real boy!) and Mike Pence. And Michael Cohen is...Ben Stiller?! Oh boy, I see we're gonna get cameo heavy. And then DeNiro showed up as Mueller and I realized that they were spoofing the lie detector scene from Meet The Parents. I wasn't a fan of that movie, or that scene.

Monologue: Mulaney has a mic in his hands, and now for an hour-long monologue! That songs for 30 year olds joke was written for me. 

Drag Brunch: This wardrobe department is the best in the business. Man, that stare was great and Mulaney just killed it.

Walkout: This was great. Mulaney pulls off a high school student so well. Kenan didn't get to do enough. And "Let's have Kate do a weird voice" is a formula that has yet to fail.

Wild Wild Country: Okay, Kenan got to do more. Loved this. And it was great to see Nasim again.

Big Nick's: Well, wasn't expecting Kenan showing up as a singing lobsterman. And then it became Les Mis. In a Greek Diner. "This diner has excellent set design." Pete was so utterly broken, but so committed to it anyway, it was great. But he ordered the tuna melt and I'm genuinely sad that we won't find out if he got too much tuna. A+ for effort at the very least.

WU: Where to start with Trump? Let's just cover EVERYTHING. And of course they had to cover Laura Ingraham. Loved hearing her new sponsors (Reverse Mortgages and Malaysia Airlines were my favorite). Well, we're watching this live, so I'll see you all in hell!

Switcheroo: This just got deeper and deeper in absurdity and cringiness and that was great. The emergency broadcast test came on during the sketch and drowned out the dialogue of the clip, and I'm not sure if that was intentional or not. "Little Andy Cunanan" was referring to a serial killer?

Surgeon: This was stupidly absurd, I loved it. Luke Null got a starring role in a sketch! It's a miracle!

The Real Intros of Reality Hills: "We've reduced these women down to two lines. You're welcome." I loved this, and I wanted more.

I'm pretty sure the writers responsible for last week were all sent home and John Mulaney and his writing partners wrote this entire show themselves. I also may have been right about the monologue, the show ran too long and we didn't get a proper 12:55 sketch. NBC cut off the goodnights for crying out loud! May 5th is Donald Glover & Childish Gambino. I predict that we'll have another Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines situation with this one. I'm looking forward to it.

EDIT: Someone on twitter described Jack White as "Edward Scissorhands with real arms" and now I can never unsee that.

Edited April 15, 2018 by Galileo908

[jjj]

The farewell cut off in the middle of the first sentence!  Anyone else? (Seattle here)

[opus]

11 hours ago, opus said:

I have high hopes for tonight's show.

Which, of course, is usually the kiss of death.

Phew. It was good.

[Galileo908]

2 minutes ago, jjj said:

The farewell cut off in the middle of the first sentence!  Anyone else? (Seattle here)

New York here, got cut off, too.

[formerlyfreedom]

I really enjoyed this episode, and was angrily waving my fist at the cut off good night. And it really felt like the cast enjoyed themselves tonight, it came through in their performances. MORE OF THIS, SHOW!

[jjj]

2 minutes ago, Galileo908 said:

New York here, got cut off, too.

Wow, even the mothership. We at least get it again in 90 minutes. 

[Dev F]

3 minutes ago, jjj said:

Wow, even the mothership. We at least get it again in 90 minutes. 

I'm pretty sure it was a timing issue rather than a technical issue. They just slammed into the end of their timeslot and got cut off.

Edited April 15, 2018 by Dev F

[ebk57]

Thoroughly enjoyed this show.  I had no idea I was a fan of John Mulaney until I saw him at the Letterman Mark Twain show.  He was hilarious.  The show tonight was weird and funny.  And there was Jack White.  Doesn't get much better.

 

I, too, was annoyed that the good nights were cut off.  @jjj, if anything happened at the end, please let us know after you watch.

[Galileo908]

4 minutes ago, jjj said:

Wow, even the mothership. We at least get it again in 90 minutes. 

NBC's Twitter uploaded the whole goodnights, too.

[Lantern7]

I would've lose money betting on a "Too Much Tuna" sketch. I guess the sow blew the budget flying in Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro, and they didn't have enough for Nick Kroll. Also, I was thinking there would be a reference to John Mulaney figuring Donald Trump being what a hobo figured a rich person would be like.

My mother is heavy into Le Mis, so of course I'll have to show her the diner sketch.

[vb68]

This is probably my favorite episode of the season.

The Cold Open and Monologue just flew by even though they ran long and it pushed the rest of the show back. I bet anything that Mulaney had been planning his monologue for years.

The student walk out, Lobster Les Miz, and Netflix sketches were all fantastic and showed real creativity.  Even the back half ones were pretty good. I do think Reality Intros was heavily edited at the last second for time.

I even liked the music, which is increasingly rare for me. ( I think I'm in Mulaney's boat there.)

I will say after being on fire for so long, Update is lagging a bit the last few shows. I did enjoy Colin missing his cue. I was meh on Kate's Laura Ingraham. That needed pure venom.

Boo on NBC for cutting off Mulaney thanking all the departments and being ultra classy.  Memo to the affiliates: No one cares if your 1 am shows are a few precious seconds late.

Edited April 15, 2018 by vb68

[slasherboy]

I absolutely love John Mulaney.

A good deal of his monologue was straight from his "Kid Gorgeous" tour.  But that's ok.  I liked it the first time around too.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

This show made up for last week's snoozefest! More like this please! Have Mulaney on every episode.

I wasn't into the cold open until Ben Stiller showed up and then Meet the Fockers happened. Yay!

I was actually into Mulaney's monologue. Totally LOL'd at the bit about writing a song catered to people in their mid-30s & the reluctance of meeting up tonight and then not seeing each other again for another 6 months. That is my life. 

Cameo by Nasim Pedrad in the Netflix documentary, yay! (I always loved having a Persian representing on SNL).

I loved Lobster Les Mis!! I think I probably wouldn't have been as into it if it was a musical that I don't know/love, but I am a sucker for anything Les Mis. Was the sing-along supposed to be off with the lyrics? That added to the hilarity.

LOL @ Laura Ingraham's sponsors. Colin Jost's smile always make me smile silly.

"You can't get pregnant from the sex we have." Teehee.

[ebk57]

Random question - did it sound to anyone else like Darrell Hammond introduced Mulaney as "Mulvaney" at the start of the show? 

[opus]

1 minute ago, MVFrostsMyPie said:

Was the sing-along supposed to be off with the lyrics? That added to the hilarity.

Well, that's their story now and they're sticking to it :)

[vb68]

4 minutes ago, ebk57 said:

Random question - did it sound to anyone else like Darrell Hammond introduced Mulaney as "Mulvaney" at the start of the show? 

I think he did and Wikipedia seems to confirm it.

[Dev F]

8 minutes ago, MVFrostsMyPie said:

Was the sing-along supposed to be off with the lyrics? That added to the hilarity.

To me it looked like Cecily blew a cue early in the song. They seemed to adjust the music to compensate for her delay, but maybe the chyrons were still synched to the original timing?

[ebk57]

11 minutes ago, vb68 said:

I think he did and Wikipedia seems to confirm it.

Thanks.  I was a bit confused (not unusual...).  And wow, those Wiki updaters work fast! 

[SHD]

I thought this episode was weird and excellent. Mulaney, showing everyone how it's done.

That Andrew Cunanan joke just flew past everyone in the audience during the Switcheroo sketch.

In the Mad Men photo above, everyone looks hilariously straight-laced except for Seth Meyers, who looks exactly the same as he does now.

Any musicians/sound people...what was the purpose of JW's three mic set-up?

Edited April 15, 2018 by SHD

[vb68]

2 minutes ago, SHD said:

That Andrew Cunanan joke just flew past everyone in the audience during the Switcheroo sketch.

It did. I didn't catch it until it was mentioned here.

[heatherchandler]

On 4/13/2018 at 12:22 PM, cpcathy said:

It would be a GREAT show if it matches those promos. I've been getting ready for the episode by watching John's specials, and I listened to one of his podcast episodes with Pete Holmes (it's Holmes' podcast). So funny. He really took the demise of his sitcom to heart, I felt for him.

I looked for his episode but couldn’t find it.  I’d love to listen to that!

 

51 minutes ago, vb68 said:

 

Boo on NBC for cutting off Mulaney thanking all the departments and being ultra classy.  Memo to the affiliates: No one cares if your 1 am shows are a few precious seconds late.

 

Ha!  I really loathe the idiot girl on 1st Look or whatever that bs show is after snl.

[SHD]

1 hour ago, ebk57 said:

Random question - did it sound to anyone else like Darrell Hammond introduced Mulaney as "Mulvaney" at the start of the show? 

I wonder if that was some kind of inside joke. Mulaney seems like the kind of guy who would ask him to purposely mispronounce his name.

Edited April 15, 2018 by SHD

[jjj]

1 hour ago, ebk57 said:

Random question - did it sound to anyone else like Darrell Hammond introduced Mulaney as "Mulvaney" at the start of the show? 

He did it *twice*!  In the cast of the evening, and when he finished with:  "John MULVANEY!"  

[ebk57]

34 minutes ago, heatherchandler said:

Ha!  I really loathe the idiot girl on 1st Look or whatever that bs show is after snl

This so much!  I actually miss the last host.  Never warmed up to this woman.  I'm so happy when the PBS stations in the area aren't in their endless pledge drives because I can turn to the music shows and skip 1st Look! (Not that anyone is forcing me to watch, but...inertia) 

Edited April 15, 2018 by ebk57

[nowandlater]

2 hours ago, jjj said:

The farewell cut off in the middle of the first sentence!  Anyone else? (Seattle here)

Thank god for Twitter...

[VCRTracking]

Show so far is great!

Ben Stiller as Cohen! Robert DeNiro as Mueller!

The drag waitress sketch reminded me of John's bit how unnecessarily mean drag queens are.

Shout out to Patrick Stewart's infamous intro to Salt n PEPA!

Nasim! She was perfect to play Ma Anand Sheela from Netflix' Wild Wild Country!

The Les Miz lobster sketch is awesome. Cecily singing, Pete breaking and Kate as "Clawsette"!

[Mystery]

I really liked it. Loved the Mulaney intro, loved the lobster Les Mis even though it was mis-timed with the cue cards (FWIW: I grew up Catholic near Boston, and we always had fish on Friday night; my parents would get us fried fish from a local place but my grandmother, living in an in-law apartment in our house, would boil lobsters and they would be banging on the pot lids trying to get out; I have never eaten lobster) loved the weird documentary. WU was strange. It seemed like everyone was breaking tonight. 

 

eta: I have my Tivo settings to record a minute before and a minute after, just in case. Also, I liked Pete's "Mean Girls on Broadway" remark; it has gotten good reviews. Yay, Tina!

Edited April 15, 2018 by Mystery

[nowandlater]

This is an unpopular opinion...but I hate when stand ups host. I hate it because of the monologue. Yes, I know that standup was a part of the SNL when it premiered, but it just feels like it takes the momentum from the show. I hate it when John Mulaney does it, Dave Chappelle, Louis CK, etc. etc...I like Mulaney in the rest of the show. But I just hate comedians doing their standup act for the monologue. I want something special out of the monologue, even if it's something annoying (like a singing monologue). I wasn't something surprising. Or clever. Also, when comics do their act in the monologue, it seems to go on forever.

[jjj]

Well, they cut it off again on the west coast repeat at the same spot,  so thanks for the tweet!.

3 hours ago, ebk57 said:

I, too, was annoyed that the good nights were cut off.  @jjj, if anything happened at the end, please let us know after you watch.

[vb68]

Really good cut for time piece-

 it's a shame that didn't make the show.

[Peace 47]

Lobster Les Mis was so freaking funny.  It was my runaway favorite sketch of the night.  Alex Moffat waiving the menu flag at the end was the perfect capper.  Also, Kenan has a nice voice.  I liked Chris’s line along the lines of:  “Seafood” is in quotes!

[Pete Martell]

 

They should have left this in. It at least amused me, and poor Luke Null got something to do.

8 hours ago, nowandlater said:

This is an unpopular opinion...but I hate when stand ups host. I hate it because of the monologue. Yes, I know that standup was a part of the SNL when it premiered, but it just feels like it takes the momentum from the show. I hate it when John Mulaney does it, Dave Chappelle, Louis CK, etc. etc...I like Mulaney in the rest of the show. But I just hate comedians doing their standup act for the monologue. I want something special out of the monologue, even if it's something annoying (like a singing monologue). I wasn't something surprising. Or clever. Also, when comics do their act in the monologue, it seems to go on forever.

My view depends on the comedian. I never liked Louis CK's material so I had no desire to hear more of it. I thought that John Mulaney was pretty funny and had a very good sense of pacing - I was still left wanting more by the end. And it left a few minutes less for more failed political "humor" and pointless celebrity cameos, which is a very good thing for me. 

Edited April 15, 2018 by Pete Martell

[Princess Sparkle]

According to his twitter, Lobster Les Miz was something he and Colin Jost wrote in 2010 and it got cut, and Switcheroo was something he wrote in 2009 that was also cut. I’m glad they brought both of them back; they were hysterical. 

John Mulaney killed it. I know it helps to be a former writer (and a prolific one) , so you already know the format, but he was exceptionally good. Hopefully this introduces him to people who haven’t heard of him. 

[Ottis]

For some reason my DVR missed the cold open and came on in middle of the monologue. I had to look up the host. This isn’t a knock, just a question: Why was he hosting? Wait, I just realized this is one of the guys on Big Mouth. Is that it? 

Missed the political open. Well, didn’t see it. Don’t miss it. 

Shade restaurant had a great premise, but lost me when it focused specifically on “privilege.” Couldn’t it just be about being mistreated by an old boss?

Gun protest was a single joke that went on too long. At this point, the host’s delivery began to bug. It wasn’t quite right for the skit.  And this is when I realized who the host was, because his line delivery was just like Big Mouth, every time. 

The Bloods.... mostly loved just the guy who participated “for the ass.” Because I have always felt there were a lot of those guys in cause movements 

Diner on Broadway was kind of fun, even if I liked the premise that no one orders lobster in a diner more than the way it went because the location was on Broadway. 

Weekend Update was OK. I don’t know why anyone cares if Trump watched people pee on each other, just like I didn’t care if Clinton had an affair. Also, I clearly don’t watch enough political shows to get the context of what upsets a lot of people. And I have always despised cream soda and also never knew white people liked it. Keenan is just delightful, though, every damn episode.

Switcharoo... this was the first time I laughed out loud in this episode. “Even the Haitians were like, ‘No dice.’”

Horn guy... man, this host has exactly one way to deliver lines. 

Jack White has some odd music. I can’t quite place him in any category. Haven’t seen him since the White Stripes debut. 

Bravo... OK, then. 

I didn’t see any of the goodbye. DVR didn’t get that far. 

[mikem]

For some reason, the lobster Les Mis version that is up at nbc.com is not the one that was shown last night.  The singalong subtitles match the singing.  And at the very end, Pete doesn't order a tuna melt.  He orders the veal, and John Mulaney says, "Let's go kill that baby cow!"

I would assume that this is the dress rehearsal version, although I don't know why they would make that change.

Pete still appears to break at the same place, meaning that his grinning and almost-laughter at that place was planned.  Which is weird.  I didn't think SNL did fake breaking like that.  Unless it's supposed to be a reaction to the appearance of the lobster.

[theredhead77]

15 minutes ago, mikem said:

For some reason, the lobster Les Mis version that is up at nbc.com is not the one that was shown last night.  The singalong subtitles match the singing.  And at the very end, Pete doesn't order a tuna melt.  He orders the veal, and John Mulaney says, "Let's go kill that baby cow!"

I just popped in to see if I imagined the tuna sandwich line last night. Odd!

[jjj]

32 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

I just popped in to see if I imagined the tuna sandwich line last night. Odd!

Definitely said tuna melt at the end. I watched the West Coast rerun as well as the live version.