Lorne Michaels doesn’t like to project a lot of regret in interviews. He seems to prefer to appear somewhere between unflappable and philosophical, which is to say he is often distant. This sometimes means that his reflections on mistakes or triumphs – but especially mistakes – in the history of Saturday evening live must be removed from between the lines. We can infer when he thinks a particular hire may have been a mistake if it is let go after a season or two (more often than not, prematurely). And perhaps we can conclude that when he sees writers-turned-artists like Tina Fey or John Mulaney as near-permanent guest figures in the afterlives of their alumni, he sees (dare to dream!) how it would have made sense to give them more cameras give. moment when he regularly had them at his disposal. It’s as if he gets the chance to answer the usually hypothetical question: “if not now, when?” and creating the illusion that on the continuum of a definitively time-consuming show, there is somehow time for corrections. (What this says about his apparent desire to keep things cool with Shane Gillis is disturbing.)

Then again, maybe he’s just reconfiguring these figures into greater on-camera prominence so that as time goes by people might forget that they weren’t on screen that much when they actually worked there, and keeping Michaels firmly anchored in their career stories. (Kind of the reverse of the Steve Martin effect, where he hosted so often that people later assumed he was a cast member.) And of course Tina Fey was on camera; she was dynamite on Weekend Update. But she also seemed to set the precedent that at least one Update host should avoid sketches whenever possible — which seemed odd to anyone who, for example, regularly attended the Sunday night ASSSCAT shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in the early 2000s, where Fey would improvise performing sketch comedy and keeping up just fine with Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch. It would continue to seem weird the way Fey played 30 Rockmade films and did that too SNL drop-ins and hosting gigs, which are her most famous SNL bits came after her six years on the show.

Mulaney, for his part, got a few tryouts on air while he was a writer; I will say it was two Weekend Update pieces, one (or the only?) of which discussed how his father was a spokesperson for Rockport shoes, unbeknownst to anyone at Rockport. (As a Rockport aficionado who wore them to every adult job I ever had until I gave up and just wore regular sneakers, I found this very funny.) Despite my enthusiasm, it clearly wasn’t seen because it went particularly well, and Mulaney remained a writer — but to become such a frequent host, he reached the five-timer mark faster than anyone except Steve Martin and Buck Henry. This week’s episode brought him up to six, along with Fey (and Scarlett Johansson, Elliott Gould, and Drew Barrymore, among others). Only seven people have hosted more times than this, and one of them is dead. Another is what happened to Chevy Chase.

Still, Mulaney will probably never be completely lost in the film and confused with a former cast member, as his episodes, perhaps more than any other recurring host save for a few Martin episodes, have an increasingly authoristic bent. That does not mean that they are perfect, that they are immune to various diseases SNL pitfalls, or that Mulaney is an inimitable visionary who only writes next-level sketches. He has no fewer than three recurring bits. (And, of course, he doesn’t single-handedly write every sketch just because he worked there.) But this final episode in particular felt confident in every single piece it put in, and in putting Mulaney at the center, even if that meant you didn’t have to make as many pieces as usual. This is a long-winded way of pointing out that there were a total of three live sketches performed this week (not counting the cold open, which always feels like something different).

Some of that is just luck of the draw. Having a host doing a stand-up monologue gives you something more solid in a spot that might otherwise be the most perfunctory of the evening, but will also eat up a bit more time. If there is more than one Update guest, like tonight, a few more minutes will pass. Oh, and what if the next President of the United States comes along with her fingers crossed at the end of her campaign, extending a cold open that already feels obligated to include five different political impressions? Honestly, it’s a wonder they had time for good sketches at all. But one of the best parts of the episode, aside from the fact that nothing in the episode bombed and the further good fortune of Chappell Roan putting on a few lavish numbers with a seemingly brand new song, was how the skits never seemed to end abruptly in a panic or flight in good territory or even a bad situation. On the contrary: Sometimes they developed patiently, even when the audience had no earthly idea why anyone would want to make a skit about Little Richard ruining a family sitcom in the early 1990s. These sketches weren’t exactly slow, but their patience suited Mulaney’s playing style. His stand-up is based on his specific explanations and elaborations and tonally accurate turns of phrase, rather than quick punchlines.

That, in particular, has been both the inspiration and the bane behind Mulaney’s signature role as host: mounting a large-scale musical parody of a kind of New York sleaze. The first time came the realization that this was going to be an escalating sequence for some reason Les Miserables riffs on diners who inexplicably had lobster on the menu were sublime. But later iterations didn’t just lose that sense of surprise; they also reduced conceptual rigor in favor of a more revue-like approach, mixing and matching songs from various Broadway shows and, more annoyingly, a few movie musicals as well.

The ship has sailed according to this outline, adhering more strictly to a set of rules which, I admit, many may not regard as particularly important. But this edition, which began with Pete Davidson buying a gallon of milk at a Duane Reade Port Authority outpost, somehow felt more affirming: from a new batch of New York annoyances; of the joys of playing truly silly Broadway parodies to even a suspecting audience (yes, some low-slung Disney tunes, but also: Andy Samberg does the opener of Hamilton like a dead bear); of Mulaney’s undying love for this routine in general. It was eight minutes long, which immediately made me feel weird because I thought Dan Bulla’s (very funny) filmed piece about an ape astronaut might have lasted a little longer than expected. That’s basically what Mulaney episodes are for, right? The writer’s bits with more jokes and strange comments than are conceptually necessary – in which the puppet primate character Beppo is mercilessly blown up and allowed to make a strangely adorable return to Earth. Where it is implied that Little Richard really shot a dog on a sitcom set. Where Sarah Sherman is on set for minutes, only for a Margaret Atwood star. If not now, when?

What was going on

In addition to the aforementioned space monkey, the episode managed to bring “What’s That Name?” to bring back. for an election-themed edition with a sharper bite than anything in the show’s designated Political Humor sections.

On the other side of the episode, looking at the upcoming elections at a more granular level, a fake ad for a New York City lawmaker unfortunately named Harvey Epstein was purely absurd, but perfectly placed in a live broadcast that, at least where I residential, , contained about 80% of the political ads fighting over who would do the best job securing Nassau County’s border. (I wish I was joking.)

What was out

I haven’t talked much about Weekend Update in these recaps so far, because there isn’t that much to say about a decade-long anchor team tenure that was supposed to end this season since “three years ago.” is no longer an option. But in an episode that was mostly quite good, the shrugging Update jokes stood out more than usual. As for the big cold open thing, maybe I’m softening on it, knowing that no matter what happens on Tuesday, it’s unlikely we’ll see many of those five-on-one impressions again, as Jost and Che will do that. be here at least through May and possibly until 2035. In terms of Kamala Harris’ actual cameo, there’s almost nothing the show can do with this stuff that wouldn’t be met with multiple layers of ridicule. It was fine. A little cute, a little silly.

Most Valuable Player (who may not be ready for prime time)

Michael Longfellow has something very specific, and he channeled it perfectly into menace as host of “What’s That Name?” (and it can’t be easy to follow Bill Hader in a Mulaney-centric sketch). That may seem like a small thing to hang an MVP title on, but in reality, most of the cast (except perhaps Kenan as Little Richard and Heidi Gardner as Reba) were in utility mode this week, to good effect .

Next time

I don’t normally feel that way about Bill Burr, but I did feel a wave of relief when I heard that he has replaced Dave Chappelle as the stand-up host who has chosen to guide us through the possible Trying Times . (Or, perhaps more likely, Chappelle rejected Lorne?)

Stray observations

• • Literally dozens, if not hundreds, if not thousands of people joked about how an episode of John Mulaney with music by Chappell Roan will inspire record levels of normalcy on the Internet. There’s a perverse part of me that wishes one or both of them did a little more to drive their parasocial networks crazy. But “do a solid episode” is probably the better choice in that department.
• • I like Chappell Roan, but “Pink Pony Club” sounds like it fits in there Rock of Ages and that doesn’t suit me! However, making a non-album track (apparently called “The Giver”) for the second track is a better move.
• • The Update segment with Marcello and Jane as the couple you can’t believe is together leaned on the stereotypes that could have formed about each performer: that Marcello is very loud and Jane is very recessive. But he leaned so hard that it actually worked again.
• • Where the hell was…? Here’s the part of the recap where I ask where the heck a certain cast member was. Where the hell was Ego Nwodim? Again?! She wasn’t completely absent, but overall she could use more of her this season.