'Saturday Night Live': Can John Mulaney redeem himself after Julius Caesar-Trump joke? Here's what had happened
Comedian John Mulaney is set to host the new episode of ‘Saturday Night Live’. This will be his fourth time hosting the show and also the second time this year. Mulaney hosted an episode of ‘SNL’ Season 45 in February 2020. The Strokes are the musical guests of the episode. Previously, Mulaney has worked as a writer as well for the show. In a video released on the show’s social media platforms, Mulaney can be seen reminiscing about his connection with the show – both as writer and performer – in the 10-minute clip. In the extended video, he shares how he got the job in the first place and other personal stories from his time on the show.
In Season 45, when he had hosted, a particular statement of his had been a topic of discussion at that time. During his opening monologue, he compared President Donald Trump to Julius Caesar. He started the address by talking about the episode falling on a leap year which was created by Julius Caesar himself, a Roman military general stabbed to death in 44 BC. He said: "Caesar started the Leap Year in order to correct the calendar and we still do it to this day." And then went on to say, “another thing that happened under Julius Caeser, he was such a powerful maniac that all the senators grabbed knives and they stabbed him to death. That would be an interesting thing if we brought that back now".
While he doesn’t mention POTUS by name, it did irk a lot of people, as reported by MEAWW. In 2018, in his Netflix special, ‘John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City’, Mulaney had said, “This guy being the president, it's like there's a horse loose in a hospital. I think eventually everything's going to be okay, but I have no idea what's going to happen next. And neither do any of you, and neither do your parents because there's a horse loose in the hospital. It’s never happened before. No one knows what the horse is going to do next, least of all the horse. He's never been in the hospital before; he's just as confused as you are.” For this as well, Mulaney does not mention Trump’s name. While he is not known for making political jokes, it would be interesting to see if anything has changed this time, since the elections are almost knocking on the door.
During his past appearances, Mulaney had given many memorable performances. People still talk about the lobster-themed parody of ‘Les Miserables’ sketch ‘Diner Lobster’, where Mulaney played the waiter of the eatery where Davidson orders the lobster. Soon, Kenan Thompson emerges as a life-size bearded lobster in a tank and launches into a rendition of Jean Valjean’s song, 'Who Am I?'. He followed it up with two other musical sketches – ‘Bodega Bathroom’ and ‘Airport Sushi’. And, who can forget Mulaney as the sassy drag queen waitress named Tawny Pockets in ‘Drag Brunch’.
‘Saturday Night Live’ airs at 11.30 pm ET on NBC.