-You guys, our first guest tonight
is an Emmy award-winning comedian.
You know from his work on "Saturday Night Live"
and from the Netflix series, "Big Mouth."
Please welcome back to the show, our very good friend,
John Mulaney!
♪♪
[ Chuckles ]
♪♪
-Center of this?
Here? -Oh, you're back!
-This is okay? -This is okay.
-Cool. All right. Hey, man.
-It's so good to see you. -Good to see you.
-Congratulations on hosting "SNL" again.
-Thank you very much. It was really, really fun.
A very magical evening. -That's good to hear, because,
you know, I would worry that a lot of the magic
is out of there because less audience.
But you still had a great time?
-There was a really enthusiastic, wonderful,
hot audience that we could tell was going to be great
right before the live show started.
Loren came in my dressing room and he said,
"They're a really hot crowd." and that's not said there often.
-No. -Things that jinx things are --
I mean, things aren't said there, period.
So jinxes especially.
They said they were a really hot crowd.
He goes, "There is a whole group that's dressed as mimes."
And I said, "Well, you know, mimes are silent."
And he went, "Well, yeah, but not tonight."
[ Laughter ]
I got a standing "O" from the mimes.
-You did? -Yeah.
-Beginning or end? -Beginning.
I felt really good about it. -That's great.
-Yeah. -Because, again,
it should be noted this was Halloween.
-It was Halloween -- -It's very rare to have a "SNL"
on Halloween. -What if we didn't note it?
That would've been fun to just keep talking about
how there were mimes there.
What else is weird that we're not mentioning?
I can't think. -It's a great coat, John.
-It's, um, making me so happy. -Yeah, because --
Well, there is a story behind it.
-This is a coat worn by -- Oh, there's people.
This is a coat -- Hey, Shoemaker.
This is a coat.
This was the coat that Julian Casablancas
of The Strokes wore on stage on "SNL" on Saturday.
-Yeah. -And when we were shooting
promos, he had on a really cool Knicks jacket.
I said, "That's a cool jacket. I gotta get that jacket."
I said that out loud knowing I --
you know rock stars have clothes you're like,
"I'm never in my life gonna see those clothes."
Like, "I'm never going to walk into the store
where they sell those clothes."
So I said that out loud thinking maybe he would tell me
where I get the jacket. -Yeah.
-But that didn't happen. That's all right.
So after the show, he came in to my dressing room.
He's like, "So you want a jacket?"
And he gave me this one, and he gave me a leather jacket.
I mean, this is like --
There is nothing I can do with this,
but, like, I like -- there is nothing, but I enjoy it so much.
-It's really good. -It's so meant for like
a lead singer. -Yeah, yeah, that's right.
You're right. -Even me doing a lead singer
is bad. -See, even that, though,
but when you do that, the coat all of the sudden comes alive.
-Yeah? -When you stand like
John Mulaney, there is nothing happening in that coat.
-Coat or no coat, there is nothing happening.
But I got home, and I was looking in the pockets,
and I found these. -Oh, man.
-So I texted him a photo. I said, "Hey, you left these."
Do you want me to have someone drop them off?
You know rock stars, they're very meticulous.
"I'll be right over." He went, "You keep them, man."
So I just looked in the mirror. Saturday night, you know,
just came home, so thrilled with the show,
so happy to be back here. And then just to like come down,
I just stood and stared at myself in the mirror like this.
I was so happy. -You -- it's amazing
how much younger the glasses make you look.
Because then, you look like a kid in a teen movie.
Like it's his first time at a party.
-Right, right. But he does computers.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah. -Right. Right.
I know who you're talk about.
The glasses bespeak of computers.
-Yeah. -Like Whistler in "Sneakers."
-There you go. -Sure.
Good thing we don't have an audience here
or they would be going nuts at that reference.
[ Laughter ]
They'd be yelling out their favorite "Sneakers" character.
-"Sneakers" holds up. -It holds up really well
because it's good and it's about the Internet,
but it's not like "The Net." -Right.
-Or the movie "Disclosure" where they're sucked into
a CD-ROM at the end.
Those kind of got them wrong, the future.
-"Sneakers" was kind of on the money.
-I'd pretty much say "sneakers" in terms of your, like,
Poitier, Robert Redford,
Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, David Strathairn.
-Is it Rene Russo? -No. It's, uh, um...
-Oh, it's -- -Mary.
-From "Battlestar Galactica."
-Let's edit it like we know her name.
-Yeah. -It's Mary McDonald?
-Mary McDonnell. -Yeah, and Mary McDonald.
Um... [ Laughter ]
So I am realizing --
-That will trim well. -Yeah, well,
'cause it's on four. We'll cut to four.
And Mary McDonnell.
Am I forgetting anyone? -No. Who is that --
-Ben Kingsley. -Oh, Kingsley.
-But I like that you went, "No, just keep moving please."
If you are -- I was thinking when you said I looked young.
If you are worried about your age and how you look,
and I have been lately, because I turned 38,
and people no longer go like, "What?!"
You know, they go, "Oh, yeah. Okay."
you should get a coat, get a coat and the glasses.
-Yeah. -And people aren't going to be
like, "How old are you?" You know?
They're going to be like, "What -- What led you to this?
What do you do?" Anyway... -That's good advice.
-I have a lot of good advice. -So we don't have an audience.
And I feel like they're different
kind of questions to ask. So I got a question for you
that I was thinking, watching you host the fourth time.
You're an excellent "SNL" host. Four excellent episodes.
-That's very nice of you to say.
-I worked for you then, worked with you then
when we were... -Yeah.
-...writers on the show. -You did not work for me.
I very much worked for you. -But you auditioned
and were hired as a writer. -August 7, 2008.
-August 7, 2008. You had a long, fruitful run
as a writer on the show. -Yeah.
-And yet now you've hosted
more than any of the cast members from that era.
Do you feel like Loren at some point has to come to you
and say "We got it wrong?" -Oh, in not casting me?
-Yeah.
-Um....
No.
No, no, no.
Uh, no.
Um, because the cast was Bill Hader,
Will Forte, Jason Sudeikis --
I'm just talking about the males, my "competition."
There were a lot of people that looked like me.
There were a lot of white guys,
there were a lot of white brunettes.
And Fred, you know -- -That's how I describe you
when people say "How would you describe John's comedy?"
-He's funny. He's a white brunette.
And I like the use of "brunette" in general.
You don't hear it enough. Blonde is thrown around,
but brunette -- No, like, there --
I could not do what Fred Armisen does.
I could not do what Bill Hader does.
I could not do what Andy Samberg does.
No one can do what Will Forte does.
-Yeah. -And if more people could,
you know, they'd put a stop to it.
[ Laughter ]
That cast was so good.
The casts are so good.
I never once thought I should be in the cast, you know?
-Yeah. -It felt like when I would write
for Bill, it was like writing for, like, Jimi Hendrix.
It was like I write the notes and he lights the guitar
on fire, or whatever Jimi Hendrix did.
[ Laughter ]
But I thought I could do "Update,"
but you were doing "Update." -Yeah.
-And I liked you so much, I thought it would be rude
if I made a -- I thought it would be rude
if I made, like, a super hard ugly press for it.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-The fourth season of "Big Mouth"...
-Yes. -...is coming to Netflix
later this year. -The reason I'm here.
And we've run out of time to talk about it,
but it's great and everybody should watch it.
-"Big Mouth's" fourth season is coming soon,
and we were so thrilled that the amazing Maya Rudolph
won an Emmy this year... -Amazing.
-...for playing the Hormone Monstress.
When the third season ended, my character Andrew
and Nick Kroll's character, Nick,
he gets to be Nick, were in dire straits.
They were in a fight.
So we'll see where that picks up in the fourth season.
But while we were on break, to see Maya get that was fantastic.
-You guys might see an edit somewhere in here.
John and I had a very long conversation.
And the whole of it will be online,
but due to time constraints, this is what you're seeing now.
-Yes. You're seeing the very --
the heavily censored, compromised version.
Go online for the full discussion
where we reveal everything.
Or rather discuss the same things,
but go on too long about it.
-That's right. We'll be right back.
-Wait. I should have -- I mean, I should have
the last word if I'm dressed like this.
-Yeah, sure. -Which camera?
-Just right over there. -Which one?
-One. -Oh.
So you say the penultimate.
-Okay. The fourth season of "Big Mouth"
is coming to Netflix later this year.
We'll be right back with NBC's Kristen Welker.
-And remember,
always trust your gut. -[ Chuckles ]