John Mulaney prepares for SNL with a Five-Timers Club-worthy storm-off

“Always good to have you here, John,” Saturday Night Live star Cecily Strong said to this week’s host John Mulaney, before admonishing, “although things have changed a little bit since you hosted last.” While that statement certainly could apply to Mulaney’s actual life since his most recent November 2020 hosting gig, Cecily’s warning, instead, focused on all the backstage changes at SNL.

Flanked by musical guests LCD Soundsystem in their entirety, old pro Mulaney simply nodded along at Strong’s litany of Studio 8H adjustments. New snack area? No problem. Worse coffee? Eh, it’s free. Plus, pulling the all-nighters necessary to pull together a 90 minute live TV show means gobbling down caffeine in any form. But Mulaney was taken aback at Strong’s revelation that NBC has apparently taken care of that pesky wolf problem.

“What do you mean ‘gone,’?” Mulaney asked, incredulously, before engaging in a prime, prima donna storm-off. Strong had to counsel LCD frontman James Murphy that those wolves were what kept former SNL writer Mulaney coming back to host, leaving us to wonder just what they’re going to do with Mulaney’s Five Timers Club blazer….

So, what can we expect from John Mulaney’s upcoming Saturday Night Live episode?

Well, we should get plenty of Mulaney, the Big Mouth star, future chipmunk, on Saturday, as his bullet train to Five Timers glory pulls into 8H. (Fun fact: only Steve Martin and Buck Henry got into the exclusive, completely made-up club faster.)

As for the show itself, all eyes are on Mulaney’s monologue, where, presumably the stand-up will address the highs and lows of what’s actually been going on in his life since he last hosted—especially if viewers haven’t been able to score tickets to Mulaney’s sold-out comedy tour, fittingly titled From Scratch. During those live shows, Mulaney reportedly fashions material from everything including rehab, to divorce, to recent parenthood with Olivia Munn. (Since Munn and Mulaney’s child was born just a few months ago, he should be used to not sleeping anyway.)

Apart from what promises to be another of the comic’s always stellar stand-up sets, this week’s show will likely bring a fifth, lavishly produced musical number, as Mulaney and Colin Jost’s surprise breakout sensation “Diner Lobster” has made such New York-inspired silliness de rigueur. And if none of those recurring Broadway numbers have boasted the gleeful surprise of a lobster Kenan Thompson crooning a Les Mis-inspired lament in a bubbling water tank, they’re still always a highlight. Maybe Mulaney can work up an Into The Woods-themed sketch to make up for the lack of backstage wolves. Just spitballing.