Kicking off his SNL appearance with a poignant monologue, the 39-year-old offered an expression of gratitude to be hosting the late-night show for the fifth time in four years.
“It is amazing to be here hosting Saturday Night Live for the fifth time,” Mulaney began. “For many, many reasons, I’m grateful to be here tonight.”
“After a very complicated year, it is wonderful to be in a place that’s always emphasized sobriety and mental health,” he added, sarcastically.
Since spending 2008-2012 as a member of the SNL writing team, Mulaney has addressed multiple substance abuse issues, including alcoholism and cocaine addiction.
During a September, 2021 appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, the two comedians and former-SNL writers had a candid conversation about Mulaney’s struggles at the end of 2020.
“I went to to rehab in September. I got out in October. I moved out of my home with my ex-wife,” he explained to Meyers. “I host Saturday Night Live on Halloween [and] I relapsed on drugs after the show.”
Mulaney continued to explain that after relapsing after Halloween, he continued to use drugs, before a group of friends (including Meyers) staged an intervention, and encouraged him to return to rehab in Dec. 2020.
Describing the intervention to the SNL audience over the weekend, Mulaney said he knew immediately what was happening when he walked in to a dinner party and saw 12 of his friends (six in person in New York City, six via Zoom from Los Angeles) gathered, waiting for him.
“In December of 2020, I went to a dinner at a friend’s apartment. But it was not dinner. It was an intervention — for me,” Mulaney said. “My least favorite kind of intervention.”
“When I walked in to my intervention, I knew right away,” he continued. “Do you know how bad of a drug problem you have to have, if when you open a door and see people gathered, your first thought is: ‘This is probably an intervention about my drug problem’?”
After a two month rehab stay until Feb. 2021, Mulaney began dating actress Olivia Munn. Less than a year later, in Nov. 2021, the couple welcomed their first son.
In September, before his son’s birth, the comedian told Meyers that “Olivia and this baby have helped save me from myself in this early journey out of recovery.” This weekend, Mulaney relayed a similar message, and detailed some of his first experiences as a father.
“Life is a lot better and happier now,” he said. “I have a 12-week old son. He is as pretty cool guy for someone who can’t vote.”
“He’s a very good boy,” he added.
After commenting on his child’s distaste for bright hospital lights, Mulaney joked that a recent product recall precipitated a relatable moment between father and son.
“His favorite pacifier just got recalled. It’s such a bummer. He loved it,” he lamented.
“We had like a dozen of them [and] we still have them on a basket on our counter.“I see this look in his eyes all the time of, like, ‘Ah, I want to use those but I can’t because they could kill me.’”
Recounting his deadpan response, Mulaney generated a ton of laughs with the final joke of his opening monologue.
“Welcome to my world, homie,” he concluded.
