Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: May 26, 2018

The Saturday Night Live long summer vacation has begun and hosting tonight’s first SNL repeat episode of the hiatus is John Mulaney.

It’s the worst time of year to be a Saturday Night Live fan. No weekend has us further away from new shows than this one. At this point in time, we still don’t know when the new season (#44) will even premiere or if any cast members are departing the show or, on the flip-side, what talents will be joining the series in front of the camera or behind-the-scenes in the writers’ room. However, be sure to check in with the IBang regularly because we’ll have any and all of that news as it comes to light.

Each summer, SNL EP Lorne Michaels always draws from the previous season’s episodes to fill each Saturday until the show comes back live. And tonight at 11:30pm on NBC, Michaels has chosen one of the more ambitious shows of SNL – Season 43 to start off the break. It was the show that originally aired April 14, 2018 starring host John Mulaney with musical guest Jack White. This episode is actually kind of an odd choice to use as a kick-start to a summer full of reruns since it was the lowest rated Saturday Night Live of the entire past season, even though it was filled with surprise guest cameos, very silly and funny sketches and one of the hottest comedians selling out theaters today, John Mulaney.

Mulaney was on SNL to promote his brand new Netflix special, “John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City” which is still available for streaming now. It was also a noteworthy homecoming for Mulaney who wrote for Saturday Night Live for six seasons beginning in 2008. He even won a Primetime Emmy Award as part of the SNL writing staff in 2011. On tonight’s encore Saturday Night Live, you’ll get to see a couple of the sketches that Mulaney wrote with different writing partners back in his SNL days which were produced and performed for tonight’s special homecoming episode. One is the highly outrageous “Diner Lobster“, which was a huge production number parodying “Les Misérables” on Broadway and featured Pete Davidson as a customer who breaks the unspoken law that no one ever orders the lobster off the menu at a diner. The other was “Sitcom Reboot” which Mulaney wrote during his time on Saturday Night Live about a sitcom creator looking back nostalgically at his TV comedy series about a boy and father who switch bodies and then proceeds to call out the elephant in the room when it comes to who should be sleeping with the mom? The kid living in her husband’s body or the husband who’s now in the body of her young son!? Plus, also on tonight’s episode, there’s a sketch about the National School Walk-Out Day Against Gun Violence where one high schooler played by Mulaney finds it an unfortunate time to have to get up and walk out, also a sketch featuring a man consulting his doctor about his body modifications and one that will have you remembering the name, “Tawny Pockets” after tonight.

The cold open on tonight’s repeat SNL was a crowd-pleaser and got a huge pop with a couple of great celebrity cameos that welcomed two more impressions into Saturday Night Live‘s version of President Donald Trump’s world. If you don’t remember who those guest stars were from the original air date, we’ll let you be surprised all over again, but let’s just say, if you liked the comedy movie, “Meet the Fockers“, you’ll love tonight’s SNL cold open. That was immediately followed by John Mulaney’s monologue which was handled hilariously by the master comedian. If you’re a John Mulaney fan, you’ll notice that tonight’s monologue included some bits from the comedian’s recent Netflix special, “John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City,” including a hysterical bit on Sir Patrick Stewart’s time hosting Saturday Night Live.

Tonight’s Weekend Update with Colin Jost and Michael Che was in high gear, taking on Trump topics like the raid on DJT lawyer Michael Cohen’s office, the air strike launched against Syria, fired FBI director James Comey’s new book and porn star / Trump mistress Stormy Daniels. Off-Trump topics on Update included another case of teacher-student sex, a protester at Bill Cosby’s trial, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s uncomfortable testimony in front of Congress and doggy yoga. The news team was also visited by cast member Kenan Thompson as basketball persona non grata LaVar Ball and Kate McKinnon debuting her latest hysterical WU character, conservative radio and television personality Laura Ingraham.

On a side note, the most unique and mysterious moment from tonight’s SNL which happened the evening it aired live, but most likely won’t be included in tonight’s repeat, was Saturday Night Live announcer Darrell Hammond’s live introduction of host John Mulaney. Two full times in a row that night, Hammond introduced the comedian as John “Mulvaney.” It was strange to say the least and Hammond, who Mulaney wrote for during SNL – Season 34, simply offered a sincere, but somewhat jokey explanation on Twitter involving him confusing his cue cards. We would love say listen for it again tonight, but it seems to have already been scrubbed from any official SNL videos of the moment floating around the internet. If you want to hear it as it really happened, go to our recap of that episode, “What Did You Miss on Saturday Night Live This Week?”.

In the promos for tonight’s repeat Saturday Night Live, first, John Mulaney is high atop 30 Rock, looking forward to hosting despite some SNL budget crunches. Be sure to stick around to see new featured cast members Heidi Gardner and Chris Redd at the end of the promo. Then, the host is joined by cast member Aidy Bryant and musical guest Jack White where the three of them discuss how all marriages are different and address a John Mulaney rumor.

Tonight’s first Saturday Night Live rerun of Summer ’18 is hosted by John Mulaney with musical guest Jack White. It airs tonight at 11:30pm on NBC.