Last night marked former Saturday Night Live writer John Mulaney's third hosting stint, and as any fan of sketches like "Diner Lobster" and "Bodega Bathroom" knows, a Mulaney SNL episode means one thing is guaranteed: A musical theatre ode to hyper-specific New York City gripes. And this time, he brought along Jake Gyllenhaal and the night's musical guest, David Byrne.
The hyper-specific gripe of the night was NYC's infamous LaGuardia Airport, which has been ranked among the worst in America. After Pete Davidson's character made the highly inadvisable decision to buy airport sushi, he and Chris Redd were ushered into magical, musical world of LaGuardia. There, one of the geese that disabled Captain "Sully" Sullenberg's plane (Kenan Thompson) sang a duet from The Phantom of the Opera with the chef behind the god-forsaken airport seafood (Cecily Strong), while Bowen Yang sang about being a racially-profiled Asian traveler to the tune of "Suddenly Seymour."
But the biggest surprise came when Mulaney's Sack Lunch Bunch co-star Jake Gyllenhaal stopped by as the "guy who travels in pajamas" and who really enjoys those invasive examinations from the TSA, all to the tune of Wicked's "Defying Gravity."
"I dress so TSA can have easy access to my body," sang Gyllenhaal, who let everyone know that he'd prefer to be patted down with the inside of the TSA agents' hands. Byrne, the night's musical guest, joined in for the grand finale, with the Talking Heads frontman appearing as the "baggage handler who tosses everyone’s suitcases into Long Island Sound." Check out the full extravaganza below.
Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture. She's based (and born and raised) in Brooklyn, New York.
