Author: Therese Odell

Saturday Night Live
John Mulaney & Chappell Roan
November 2, 2024

The wonderful John Mulaney has hosted Saturday Night Live six times in the past six years. In fact, since 2018, he’s become a staple, usually hosting once a season in what will be one of the strongest episodes of that particular season (if not THE strongest). But it’s not all laughs: Mulaney has been through some shit in those 6 years — a relapse into drugs and booze, a divorce, a stint in rehab, and all the humiliation associated with all of that happening in the public eye. But Mulaney also bounced back, and stronger than before: he’s now a father of two, newly married to a woman he stood by through a cancer scare, and with a career that withstood all of those stresses.

And that is why, even if Saturday Night Live didn’t intend it, Mulaney was the perfect person to host the show on this particular Election Eve — in some ways, he represents the country itself. Like John, 2020 and 2021 were rough years for our nation: a pandemic, an economic crisis, a volatile election, an attempted coup — there were times we weren’t sure we were going to make it out the other side. But we fought through and came out changed: and like Mulaney, better than before, with the strongest economy in decades, unemployment at the lowest rates in memory, and our country in (relative) peace times.

I’m not entirely sure where I’m going with this, except to say that I hope Mulaney and our country maintain that sense of optimism, that we keep making good decisions every day, and that we all stay on track. I guess our country, at least, will find out whether or not we choose to on Tuesday.

Oh, and also? This is just a fantastic episode, start to finish.

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