On Saturday, John Mulaney hosted the funniest episode of Saturday Night Live that I’ve seen in a while. I think the last one I enjoyed this much was the one Ryan Gosling hosted in September 2023, and that was because Gosling looked like he was having the time of his life at Studio 8H.
This was Mulaney’s sixth time hosting SNL. Since his first time hosting in 2018, Mulaney has had a recurring series of musical sketches. The first one was the hilarious “Diner Lobster.” In the first four sketches of the series, Pete Davidson played a character whose actions were the catalyst for the ensemble breaking into parody songs. He did not appear in the fifth one because he was away shooting a movie, but he was back for number six. Speaking of, Pete has been in the process of removing his tattoos because he wanted to focus more on acting and was tired of having to sit in the makeup chair for an extra three hours just to have his tats covered up. Last week, we got a glimpse of Pete’s new look thanks to a photo he took with Machine Gun Kelly at an event in LA. This weekend, we got an even better look at his bare arms during his appearance in “Port Authority Duane Reade.”
A year after hosting Saturday Night Live, Pete Davidson made a surprise return to help his friend and host John Mulaney poke fun at…the Port Authority Duane Reade. (If you know Diner Lobster, you know where we’re going with us.)
“Welcome to the Duane Reade inside the Port Authority bus terminal,” a behind-the-counter Mulaney said to Davidson and SNL’s Andrew Dismukes. “May I offer you a flu shot?”
Davidson—wearing a t-shirt that showed off his now-almost-bare arms following his tattoo removal—passed on the vaccine but admitted he needed a few things before he and Dismukes catch a bus to Boston.
“Our system is down right now,” Mulaney revealed, “so we are only accepting cash or sex.”
Thankfully, Davidson said had change to pay for, um, “that jug of milk in the little fridge…I’ll take that.”
Yes, that’s he wanted. Even Mulaney was appalled.
“I’m sorry,” the host replied. “You mean the gallon of milk surrounded by cans of twisted iced tea in the fridge that’s hotter than the rest of the store?”
Davidson insisted it would be OK—”I don’t want to make a separate stop at the supermarket in Boston”—and while he thought the jug said organic, well, it actually read organ.
“What’s the big deal?” he asked. “Milk is milk, right?”
Wrong.
Cue a family of possums (that would be Kenan Thompson and Ego Nwodim) singing “Milk From My Wife” to the tune of “The Circle of Life.”
“From the moment she gave birth in a backpack, her dozen nipples began to excrete,” Thompson belted out. “But there was more to see than can ever unsee. A plastic jug filled with goop from her teat. It’s milk from my wife and it feeds a soul!”
From there, Mulaney, Davidson and Dismukes went on to poke fun at the Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest, Mayor Eric Adams and why NYC keeps shampoo under lock and key.
For Davidson, the 8-minute cameo marked a rare public outing as he’s temporarily stepped out of the spotlight. Before SNL, he was most recently seen out alongside pal Machine Gun Kelly Oct. 23 in Los Angeles, where he debuted the progress of his jaw-dropping tattoo removal, a stark difference from his previous appearance in which his arms were filled with ink.
Nothing will ever be as funny as the original Diner Lobster sketch but I thought “Port Authority Duane Reade” was pretty fun. It’s weird to see Pete without all of the tattoos but he looks really good in general! While watching the episode, I noticed how healthy both Pete and John look. It’s not the lack of tattoos. They both just look healthier and happier, and I hope they are both in better places now.
We almost never stay up to watch SNL live, but our kids were at their grandparents’ house on Saturday and the extra hour of sleep from the end of daylight savings time inspired us to stay up to watch Vice President Harris make her cameo. We ended up watching almost all of it! We stopped right before Chappell Roan’s second song because we are old and just couldn’t stay awake any longer, lol. I especially loved “What’s That Name” which had a cameo by Senator Tim Kaine. That was hilarious.
If you’re interested in watching it, here’s “Port Authority Duane Reade” sketch:
Photos are screenshots from YouTube/SNL
Pete looks good. I hope he is doing well. He seems to know when to get help if he needs it. I wish him well. I stayed up to watch SNL to see Kamala and went to sleep right after her appearance . Gone are my days of watching SNL start to finish.
Pete is looking good.
Hope he keeps doing well.
Tats can be a pain to cover in roles. Chris evans remarked on it once and that’s why most of his are where they can be hidden with a short sleeved shirt. Good to see Pete looking healthy and relaxed. John too. He’s had a lot go on the last few years. Rehab, divorce, remarriage (July), two kids and Olivia’s really serious health issues.
Oy. I watched the cold open for Kamala, and enjoyed that. The rest of the episode was a hard no for me, except for a couple Weekend Update jokes.
SNL has really been on an up-swing recently. Mr. Davidson’s ex-girlfriend Ariana Grande hosted a few weeks ago and she was absolutely hilarious too. That castrati sketch with her, Maya Rudolph, and Andy Samberg had me in stitches. And the charades skit with Bowen Yang!
Pete looks great. I noticed that the dark circles around his eyes are way less than about a year ago. I noticed this first when I saw that pic of him and Machine Kelly.
Has anyone read the book Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld? It’s set in the world of the fictional TNO The Night Owl (SNL) with the female protagonist as one of the writers of the fictional comedy sketch show. It’s really good and I recommend it.