God bless John Mulaney.
The comedian rounded out another excellent turn as Saturday Night Live host by adding another side-splitting musical parody to his growing collection. First we had “Diner Lobster,” then “Bodega Bathroom”—and now Mulaney has given us a musical ode to the oft-maligned LaGuardia Airport. The best part? Jake Gyllenhaal shows up to parody Wicked, singing a spoof of “Defying Gravity.”
The set-up, as always, was simple: Pete Davidson made the questionable choice to buy sushi while waiting for a flight at LaGuardia Airport. “You’re sure you wanna eat the sushi?” Mulaney’s character asks. Chris Redd, who played Davidson’s friend, adds, “You’re buying sushi at LaGuardia airport? Have you lost your damn mind?!”
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Enter Kenan Thompson—playing the Phantom of the Opera.
“In dreams it’s haunting you!” he sings. “That fish you ate / The expiration date / Ends in ‘one,’ ‘eight.’ / And still you’re choosing it / As food for plane / The Phantom of the Bathroom is there / It smells insane.”
Other notable parody subjects included West Side Story—“I like to wait at LaGuardia,” to the tune of “America”—and Annie, as Kate McKinnon sings “de Blasio” to the tune of “Tomorrow.”
But the real highlight came when Jake Gyllenhaal, who recently appeared in Mulaney’s Netflix special for children, came in on wires to parody Wicked—specifically, by channeling his inner Idina Menzel and singing a modified version of “Defying Gravity.”
“So if you care to search me / I’ll spread my legs real wide / I’ll even bend over for you / You can take a peek inside / You can tell that I enjoy security / You can search way up in my cavity / You can pat me down / You don’t have to use the front of your hands...”
“OK, Jesus,” Mulaney’s character finally interrupts. “We get it, you can continue on to Cleveland now... That’s where everyone at LaGuardia’s going—like it or not.”
Other highlight guest appearances in the sketch included David Byrne, and rising SNL star Bowen Yang spoofed “Suddenly Seymour” as “Profiled Asian.”
“I’m just a profiled Asian,” he sang. “Standing beside you / If I cough then it’s over / You’ll get off the plane / Profiled Asian / No, I wasn’t in Parasite / I know the virus is bad, but / It’s coming from Italy, too.”
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