As the newest member of the Saturday Night Live five-timers club, John Mulaney received a special induction with surprise appearances from Tina Fey, Conan O’Brien, Paul Rudd, Candice Bergen, Steve Martin and Elliott Gould.
The sketch began with Martin, Rudd and Bergen meeting in a library where they were all sporting their honorary SNL smoking jackets.
When Mulaney entered, he was hazed by the SNL veterans before receiving his own.
“Let me be the first person to say, ‘Who are you?’” Bergen asked, before Mulaney quipped, “If you have a niece or son who’s bad at sports, he might know who I am.”
Rudd, whose own induction into the special club was interrupted by a Covid-19 surge late last year, lamented that his “five-timer show in December was going to be a lot better. That is, until the whole cast decided to call out sick.”
“Congrats, man! Tonight it’s all about you,” Rudd said to Mulaney. “And me to a degree as well. You know, my party was canceled, due to laziness.”
Welcome to the Five-Timers Club, @mulaney! pic.twitter.com/dwPHW9ILvs
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) February 27, 2022
Martin dubbed the occasion “not special,” but O’Brien reassured Mulaney and said, “John, don’t listen to them, this is very, very special. I was in the very first five-timers special.” The talk-show host and comedian then added that he and Mulaney “were never supposed to be on TV” because they’re “hideous.” O’Brien – returning to NBC following the Tonight Show fiasco over a decade earlier – also couldn’t help shouting the show’s catchphrase “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night” even though it was midway through the show.
The special guests then began giving out reasons as to why they couldn’t get rid of some of the veterans, with Martin saying Fey had to stay because “she was the first woman ever to wear glasses on TV.” Fey then added that Bergen was kept around because of the sexual harassment that happened in the 1970s.
In the end, it was Rudd who gave Mulaney his jacket.