John Mulaney’s SNL Monologue Was The Second Most Impressive Thing He Pulled Off Last Night

A quick five minutes on rehab and sobriety followed by 90 seconds about the birth of his three month old son. I can’t tell how he’s handling sobriety, it’s hard for everyone. It’s especially hard to tell how a guy who jokes about every single thing is doing as he mocks interventions, rehab, and turning painters into sympathetic drug dealers. But the only thing I feel truly confident discerning from this clip is that one of the best living stand-ups is still at the top of his game. It’s only six-and-a-half minutes of material, but condensing the setup of an hour special into a tenth of that time, working in callbacks and having a punchline tie his newborn’s pacifiers into his own addiction was truly incredible.

But the most incredible thing Mulaney pulled off last night wasn’t a joke. Far from it, actually. He got Conan O’Brien to appear on NBC.

I didn’t know there was anyone who could get Conan back on NBC, not even if there was a fire. Not for infinity billion dollars. The skit had zero chance to top the moment of Conan walking through that door, unveiling himself on a stage full of stars to the loudest applause. But that single moment, knowing the decade of contempt Conan’s held towards NBC, is the best thing that’s happened on that network in quite some time. I was marking out like my favorite wrestler’s music hit during a Royal Rumble. Nobody but Mulaney could have pulled that off.