A historic night happened on Saturday Night Live as John Mulaney joined the ranks of comedy legends by becoming a member of the Five-Timers Club! The club began with Buck Henry and kick-started a legacy (decades later, mind you) that introduced several returning hosts into the Five-Timers Club. The setup is simple: You host Saturday Night Live five times, and you get a new jacket and get access to the club where Dan Aykroyd is the bartender, and Martin Short is a waiter.
Most of the time, these jokes are hilarious and interwoven with nostalgia. The new inductee gets to meet the other members — usually, someone wants to join the club who has barely hosted and tries to sneak in, or a performer who was connected to the show at some point or another shows up — and the new host gets their new jacket. The club is, unfortunately, for the most part, a collection of white men who have hosted Saturday Night Live the most — but hopefully, the show continues to branch that out.
The sketch was funny because, when you think about it, Paul Rudd didn't really get to have a Five-Timers episode since the cast had COVID and many called out because of the rise in cases during his fifth hosting episode. So Rudd is there and constantly brings up how his episode was barely a tribute to his fifth time given what was going on and was a glorious look at Rudd's talent and timing, along with why the Five-Timers Club is so good.
We had the return of Steve Martin, Candice Bergen, Tina Fey, and, a surprising, Elliott Gould. There was a portrait of Drew Barrymore on the wall, who is one of the only other women to be a member of Five-Timers Club along with Scarlett Johansson and Melissa McCarthy. Then Conan O'Brien showed up to try and get into the Five-Timers Club even though he's only hosted one time but was a writer on the show for quite some time. What was great about this journey into the club was Rudd constantly bringing up that his episode was barely an episode.
Mulaney got his coat (albeit by taking it from Rudd) after the club said that they were getting too big and he needed to steal a coat, but honestly, I hope they keep bringing us more of the Five-Timers. It's time to branch out this club and get some amazing talent in there yet again because I need to see Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (a member) come back and give someone new a coat.