‘SNL’ Recap: John Mulaney’s Musical Number Exposes The Hellish Hell Hole That Is LaGuardia Airport

HOST: John Mulaney
MUSICAL GUEST: David Byrne
EPISODE: SNL Season 45, Episode 14
DATE: February 29, 2020

BIG PICTURE: John Mulaney is incapable of hosting a bad episode of Saturday Night Live, and this week’s episode was no exception, with Mulaney shining in new sketches and a returning favorite (of sorts).

The cold open began as a look at Mike Pence (Beck Bennett) being put in charge of the coronavirus, but quickly descended into the traditional Democratic candidates scrum. Mulaney played Joe Biden, enjoying his South Carolina victory, and Kenan Thompson showed up as Dr. Ben Carson, finally able to comment on something he knows. Rachel Dratch appeared as Amy Klobuchar, Larry David as Bernie Sanders, and Fred Armisen as Michale Bloomberg, being tormented by Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Warren. In a later sketch, Justin Theroux appeared as Kyle Mooney’s personal trainer, and Jake Gyllenhaal made a cameo in the musical Airport Sushi sketch, the next segment in Mulaney’s “singing about things people shouldn’t buy in New York” series.

MONOLOGUE/HOST: Mulaney came out and did what John Mulaney does, using the monologue for a killer stand-up routine. He pondered why Baby Boomer dads have no friends, and why they all seem to be cramming for a World War II quiz show, noting throughout that Jesus’ biggest miracle was being an adult man with 12 real friends. He talked about not liking the founding fathers for the way they ordered the Constitution – free speech, guns, then no quartering the army? The third amendment, he feels, seems a bit unnecessary today.

NOTABLE SKETCHES/PERFORMANCES: A Sound of Music parody pondered a creepy age difference between Liesl (Cecily Strong) and Rolf (Mulaney), with Rolf admitting to being increasingly older – she’s 16 going on 17, he’s 33 going on 39, except that he’s really 41. Plus, in Austria in “Nineteen thirty-bad” an age difference will soon be the least of her worries. Still, she has her doubts. “You’re a geriatric delivery man, and I’m young and good with puppets,” she said. “You do the math.”

Mulaney played an older man whose nephew, Pete Davidson, turned him into a meme that made him look like a man who can’t get laid without paying for it. Over a geeky picture of him, we see lines like, “When she wanna smash, but the pee pee too small,” and “I guess heaven needed a bitch.” “When Green Book on HBO” is the only one that made sense to him.

Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon played sisters in a classic movie parody called “Say, Those Two Don’t Seem to Like Each Other,” where their attempts to kill each other over a man are a tad obvious. One gives the other a new scarf – only it’s a snake. Turns out the man they’re chasing, Beck Bennett, likes their “foppish” brother, Mulaney, better, and Mulaney does nothing to discourage him.

Mulaney also gave us the third segment in his way-too-dramatic musical renditions of someone ordering something they shouldn’t, here with Davidson buying sushi at an airport convenience store. Thompson, Strong, Mulaney, McKinnon, David Byrne (singing an airport parody version of “Road to Nowhere”), Jake Gyllenhaal and more take on songs such as “America” from West Side Story and “Tomorrow” from Annie as they take a torch to every New Yorker’s least favorite airport, LaGuardia. A worthy addition to the canon, as we learn that Bennett makes an unusually believable juvenile delinquent baby.

WEEKEND UPDATE: Colin Jost talked about how the Coronavirus has a two percent mortality rate, noting that if you gave him only a two percent chance of dying during Trump’s first term, he’d take it. He also talked about the week’s stock market plunge, calling it the Trump Slump, and making clear he wants the phrase put into general conversation.

Michael Che was scared of making a Coronavirus joke because if he dies from it, they’d show this sketch. Suddenly, fearing death from the Coronavirus, he broke down, taking off his tie, having a drink, and confessing he might have a kid. Then, throughout the segment, he just continued his breakdown, including recalling how his grandmother told him not to bring home a white girl, something he considered an impossibility since he’s in show business.   

At the Update desk, Chris Redd came on to lament what a crappy month they had for Black History Month, with Coronavirus on the way, no black candidates in the presidential race (which means he lost his slot in the debate sketches), and Deontay Wilder losing to Tyson Fury. In the end, he asked for another month. They’ll take April, but you can keep April Fools, since “that’s how you got us over here in the first place.”

THE 10 TO 1 SLOT: Ego Nwodim hosted Forgotten Figures in Black History, highlighting Terrance Washington (Thompson), the first black man to boo Jackie Robinson. Turns out he held a grudge, making it sound like his own baseball career washed out, but really because his wife once called Robinson “handsome.” In the end, he persuaded all the men around him to boo Robinson with him.

SNL returns next week with host Daniel Craig, and musical guest The Weeknd.

Larry Getlen is the author of the book Conversations with Carlin. Follow him on Twitter at @larrygetlen.

Watch the John Mulaney/David Byrne episode of SNL on YouTube