John Mulaney Roasts RFK Jr. and Tech Billionaires in Seventh SNL Hosting Turn With Phoebe Bridgers
Mulaney Returns to Studio 8H for a Seventh Time
John Mulaney hosted Saturday Night Live for the seventh time on Saturday, November 14, with four-time Grammy winner Phoebe Bridgers as the musical guest, in the sixth episode of the show’s 52nd season. The episode aired live at 11:30 p.m. ET from Studio 8H in New York on NBC and Peacock, and it leaned hard on Mulaney’s history with the show: he was an SNL writer from 2008 to 2013 and co-created Bill Hader’s Stefon character before becoming one of the show’s most reliable guest hosts.
Mulaney opened his monologue by joking about that history. “One of the only difficult things about working here was dealing with hosts,” he said. “So, it’s fun when I host, because it’s like there’s no host.” The stand-up portion moved from his boomer father’s quirks to his son’s toddler friends, then into a roast of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., complete with an impression. “You dumbass, your thing can’t be the measles,” Mulaney said, adding that he has known Kennedy for more than a decade — and that someone he has known that long should not be part of the government.
Cold Open Takes Aim at Tech Billionaires
The cold open put Mulaney at CIA headquarters, schooling a room full of tech billionaires — Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — on how to tell when a woman is interested in them, and when she is actually a spy. The sketch played on the week’s headlines around Nvidia co-founder and former CEO Jensen Huang, and it ended with a surprise: SNL alumnus Bowen Yang returned to the show to play Huang himself.
Yang’s appearance set up one of the night’s running threads. He came back later in the Central Park musical sketch, reprising his Broadway role as Mary Todd Lincoln from Oh, Mary!, this time singing a parody of the Dreamgirls number “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” — about the New York subway system.
The Night’s Sketches
The episode moved quickly through a full slate of sketches. In a news-report sketch about a plane crash on a flight from Turkey to Newark, Mulaney played a survivor trying to pass off his hair-transplant bandages as injuries from the accident. Marcello Hernandez played a pilot who had undergone penile enlargement surgery, and the sketch ended with Kam Patterson appearing as former New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who had also been on the flight.
A fake pharmaceutical commercial for “Sister” featured Mulaney, Andrew Dismukes and Kenan Thompson relying on their sisters to look after their sick parents. Ashley Padilla played Kathy, the self-described worst person on earth, crashing her co-workers’ happy hour with a fishbowl drink, while Jeremy Culhane hosted a fake brewery show, Gettin’ It Done, sharing autumn IPAs with Mulaney’s Brewmaster Kenny.
In “The Little Park of Horrors,” Mulaney played a horse-drawn carriage operator mourning New York City’s recent ban on the carriages. The Central Park musical sketch introduced a parade of characters, including Veronika Slowikowska as a marathon runner singing a parody of “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” Tommy Brennan as a pedicab driver, Mikey Day as a homeless man, Kenan Thompson as a cloud of weed smoke singing Cats’ “Mr. Mistoffelees,” and James Austin Johnson singing “Mamdani,” a parody of “Maria” from West Side Story. Padilla’s Kathy returned for a callback, fishbowl in hand: “We talking transpo?”
Related Articles
Weekend Update and Phoebe Bridgers
On “Weekend Update,” co-host Colin Jost joked about the FAA grounding of planes on Friday, quipping that “suddenly, ferry transportation is looking pretty reliable.” Co-host Michael Che answered with his own RFK Jr. impression, declaring, “Put me in the cast, Lorne!”
Bridgers marked her third appearance on the show overall and her second as a solo musical guest, following her 2021 debut and a 2023 return as part of boygenius. For her first performance she sang “Bobby,” from her latest album Lost Weekend. The song is reportedly about her boyfriend, Bo Burnham — whose real name is Robert — and Burnham co-wrote it along with six other songs on the album. Lost Weekend’s lead single, “Lost Boys,” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart in August.
Why This Episode Matters
Mulaney has become SNL’s most dependable returning host, and this episode arrived at a strong moment for the season: last week’s show, hosted by Druski with The Strokes as musical guest, drew 5.6 million viewers, the highest audience of Season 52 so far. The episode also showed how much of the show’s recent conversation has been about its own history: Shane Gillis, who hosted earlier this season, spent much of the past week addressing the backlash to his October monologue, and Mulaney’s return played as the opposite kind of homecoming.
Latest Developments
The episode is now streaming on Peacock, where viewers can watch the full show the day after it airs. Early reaction online focused on the cold open, the RFK Jr. roast and Yang’s surprise return, with clips of the monologue and the Central Park musical circulating widely on Saturday night and into Sunday morning.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many times has John Mulaney hosted Saturday Night Live?
Seven times, including the November 14, 2026 episode. Mulaney was an SNL writer from 2008 to 2013 before becoming a frequent guest host.
Who was the musical guest on the November 14 episode of SNL?
Phoebe Bridgers, performing songs from her latest album, Lost Weekend. It was her third appearance on the show overall and her second as a solo musical guest.
What did Phoebe Bridgers perform on SNL?
For her first performance of the night, Bridgers sang “Bobby,” a track from Lost Weekend reportedly about her boyfriend, comedian Bo Burnham, who co-wrote the song.
What was the cold open about?
Mulaney played a CIA briefing for tech billionaires Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, with Bowen Yang returning to the show as former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Final Paragraph
With a seventh hosting turn, a surprise return from Bowen Yang and a musical guest at the peak of a new album cycle, the November 14 episode gave Saturday Night Live exactly what it wanted from a Mulaney night: a confident, news-driven show built around a host who knows the building. The episode now lives on Peacock, and the season continues with its next live show in the weeks ahead.
Sources: AmeriLedger; Bleeding Cool; Just Jared; NBC; Wikipedia; SSBCrack News.
