“Diner Lobster” was hilarious and surprising. “Bodega Bathroom” began with a funny observation but proceeded into Randy Rainbow–level Willy Wonka parody. “Airport Sushi” tapped into early corona-outbreak anxiety, even if the “adding topical parody lyrics to Broadway standards” bit was beginning to feel more and more like a skit the faculty put on for the students at a performing-arts middle school assembly. As John Mulaney returned last night to host Saturday Night Live for a fourth time, he found yet another funny, gross premise to build one of these musical revue skits** on: Pete Davidson trying to buy a pair of unpackaged, “I <3 NY” briefs in a struggling Times Square souvenir shop to show off his "modest bulge." Mulaney and company make the most of those seedy, creepy Times Square mascots, with Kenan Thompson dressed as a Minion and Kate McKinnon dressed as the Bubba Gump mascot “Shrimp Louie” becoming my new favorite DeviantArt ship. Maya Rudolph delivers whatever the SNL equivalent of an 11 o’clock number is (a 12:55 number?) dressed as Lady Liberty, belting a reworked “I’m Still Here.” And now that we’ve seen Bowen Yang in a Batman suit, I think we can all agree that Bowen Yang should play Batman.
**I call it a skit and not a sketch because these Mulaney musicals kind of remind me of the “skits” my Bubbie used to put on with her ladies’ group that were just kind of strung-together song parodies with lyrics about current events like the Lewinsky scandal and were mostly a chance for them to wear goofy costumes and wigs. I mean this in a very pure, good way because it was clear they were having so much fun and they worked really hard on them. Fight me on this. Whatever.
