For the fourth time, John Mulaney returned to host Saturday Night Live on Saturday, October 31. The former SNL head writer's homecoming fell on the biggest night of the month. It was more than a Halloween episode; with three days left until Election Day 2020, the show made damn sure to remind us just how important it was to go out and vote — and vote for Democratic nominee Joe Biden. With plenty of material available thanks to the timing of Saturday's episode, the cast and writers turned in one of the strongest episodes thus far in Season 46.

Perhaps the biggest treat from Saturday's episode was the "Strollin'" sketch, which followed a funky quartet (Chriss ReddKeenan Thompson, Ngo Ewodim, and SNL newbie Punkie Johnson) as they tried to find a location to vote that was, in fact, still open. What began as a song about the excitement of heading to the nearest polling location to cast a vote quickly spiraled as a Standard-Issue White Man (Mulaney) blocked the group's efforts to vote. The catchiness of "Strollin'" combined with the jarring familiarity of the numerous obstacles numerous Americans have faced and will continue to face on Tuesday, November 3, as they attempt to cast their ballot equaled one of the evening's strongest sketches.

Equally as strong (albeit much more puerile) was an entire sketch centered around blowjobs. To be more specific, it was a sketch called "Headless Horseman" and featured notorious scaredy-cat Ichabod Crane (Mulaney) encountering the Headless Horseman (Beck Bennett) and quelling his fear by asking the undead villain if he's ever, y'know, thought about maybe giving himself a different kind of head since it's, y'know, right there. Look, "Headless Horseman" won't win anyone an Emmy but it felt good to just laugh as some perverse silliness for five minutes and forget reality.

While "Strollin'" and "Headless Horseman" were two of the best sketches of the night, with each respective sketch best incorporating the themes of the night with great jokes, there was no shortage of top-tier sketches. Other highlights include: A funny two-hander spin on Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, wherein Mulaney and Kate McKinnon appeared in "deleted scenes" further highlighting the complete absurdity of the 1963 horror movie; yet another musical sketch (a running theme on Mulaney-hosted episodes at this point) that took place inside a schmucky New York City souvenir store; and a very good opening monologue which was basically just 10 new minutes of Mulaney stand-up and one very good punchline about making sure you vote for your favorite old man on Tuesday.

New episodes of Saturday Night Live air on Saturdays at 11:30/10:30c. Watch more of the best sketches from the John Mulaney-hosted Election 2020/Halloween episode below. For more, get all the Peacock updates you need here.

 

Allie Gemmill is the Weekend Contributing Editor for Collider. You can follow them on Twitter @_matineeidle.