Natalie Oganesyan
In his sixth time hosting Saturday Night Live, John Mulaney‘s opening monologue featured jokes about his family life, relationship with actress and wife Olivia Munn and his 2020 stay in a rehab facility.
Most recently having hosted the NBC sketch comedy show in 2022, the comedian also tackled his health and shared a story about the words of wisdom his father offered him as he was recovering from substance abuse.
“He was trying to think of something wise to say, and at one point he goes, ‘Ah, yeah, I just wish grandpa were here.’ I said, ‘Dad, if grandpa were here, he would be 118 years old, and I highly doubt he would have good advice about handling social media backlash,” Mulaney said. “Something tells me that a dairy farmer from East Troy, Wisconsin who was too old to fight in World War II [chuckling] — it’s my favorite thing about him, he was too old for the oldest thing that ever happened; they needed every guy and my grandpa showed up and they were like, ‘Uh, we’re good.’”
Elsewhere during the monologue, the Everybody’s in LA host joked about the state of his health and potentially needing hip replacement surgery, contrasting that fact with the relatively good shape his parents are in.
“I’m 42, I don’t feel well either,” he began. “My brother called me in April, he goes, ‘Mom fell.’ I fell, it hurt. I also bit it at an outdoor restaurant, a bunch of waiters fanned me with menus, too. I also have a Band-Aid on the top of my hand. Older folks love a Band-Aid on the top of their hand. They love to take out that variety pack of Band-Aids, they shake ’em all up, they find the biggest, squarest, rubberiest Band-Aid, looks like it could patch a tire, they slap it on their hand. They love it to bits. How are they injuring their hands that way? What situations are they finding themselves in? Getting robbed, ‘I got a knife,’ ‘Let me at him, cut through this translucent liver-spotted claw of bird bones you son of a bitch.’”
Toward the beginning of the set, the multi Emmy winner poked fun at the fact that having a 5-week-old daughter and 2-year-old son — along with a Chinese and Vietnamese wife and mother-in-law, as well as Filipino maid — has ensured that he has spent his home life largely looking down at people shorter than him.