John Mulaney On American History and the Chicago Bulls

The first time John Mulaney hosted Saturday Night Live, the show that ensued gave viewers a musical reason for why you shouldn’t order lobster in diners. The second time John Mulaney hosted Saturday Night Live, he and Kate McKinnon revisited a famous scene from To Have and Have Not, albeit with a very surreal spin.

On February 29, John Mulaney hosted Saturday Night Live for the third time — and was, as he noted in his opening monologue, the first person to host SNL on Leap Day. This, in turn, led Mulaney onto some historical tangents, including Julius Caesar’s role in establishing Leap Year — and whether World War II-obsessed fathers are actually preparing for a quiz show in which they might win lucrative prizes.

“I don’t want to dwell on politics, but I dislike the Founding Fathers immensely,” Mulaney said — which then segued into a long foray into American history and how it relates to the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s.

Also discussed in the monologue: Mulaney’s experience with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Lin-Manuel Miranda and whether or not the Third Amendment is, perhaps, placed too high in the Constitution. The evening’s musical guest was Mulaney’s John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch cohort David Byrne; it also featured a thematic followup to “Diner Lobster” and “Bodega Bathroom,” about something else that might inspire bad decisions.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…