John Mulaney is one of the most beloved veterans of Saturday Night Live. Though he wasn’t ever a cast member, he made some memorable appearances at the Weekend Update desk, and he was one of the best writers on the show for a long time. Now that his star has risen outside of the realm of SNL as one of the best comedians working today, there’s a lot of excitement whenever he hosts. That excitement was even higher since his fourth stint hosting was for the Halloween episode, and it was more than a treat. It was a smorgasbord of outstanding sketch comedy and an incredible monologue. Even my least favorite sketch of the night was still funny.

Let’s get into the best and worst sketches from the John Mulaney hosted Saturday Night Live.

The Best

Headless Horseman – Everyone knows the story of the Headless Horseman, but in this version, when Ichabod Crane encounters the mysterious man in the woods, he has some questions. To me, this is an instant classic Halloween sketch that should be played during a compilation of spooky-themed sketches every year. It’s original, and it’s just the right amount of inappropriate to get away with being on late night network television. It sounds like the writers knew what they were getting away with too, because the end tag placing credit for writing the sketch on Lorne Michaels is a great cap.

New York Musical – Well, it’s now a tradition for there to be some kind of New York-based musical sketch whenever John Mulaney hosts Saturday Night Live. This one isn’t quite as weird or niche as the previous installments, but it’s a funny and wonderful tribute to all the oddities of New York City, which isn’t doing so hot right now due to the coronavirus pandemic tearing down all the businesses that tourists from all around the world usually frequent. Maya Rudolph’s part is especially uplifting in addition to be funny.

Cinema Classics: The Birds – A Cinema Classics sketch is already decent when it has Kenan Thompson hosting as Reese De’What, and the bookends are especially hilarious in this edition. On top of that, we have a pitch perfect recreation of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds along with footage from deleted scenes where it’s revealed how much more menacing some of the attacking birds in question really were. Plus, we have John Mulaney doing what he does best by asking as many questions as possible to find out just why birds are attacking like this, including how they set fire to a gas station. Kate McKinnon is also top notch as Tippi Hedren.

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