John Mulaney delivers another SNL instant classic sketch with "Airport Sushi" musical

The Atlantic

"No matter what your opinion of SNL’s recent quality, the episodes hosted by Mulaney have become a sort of annual tradition to look forward to, one that the producer Lorne Michaels should keep alive," says David Sims. "As Mulaney himself said during his opening monologue, he didn’t have any projects to publicize—'I have nothing coming up; I’m here to promote the month of March,' he deadpanned. But as Mike Shoemaker, a longtime SNL producer who now works on Late Night With Seth Meyers, put it on Twitter, Mulaney hosting is like Steve Martin hosting in the ’70s—'you knew the whole show was going to be better.' And it was, with one particularly standout sketch. 'Airport Sushi' followed the same format as the prior musical numbers, with Chris Redd and Pete Davidson playing befuddled customers at an equally beloved and reviled New York institution—this time, LaGuardia Airport. When Davidson’s character opts to buy some packaged sushi, he inadvertently summons the 'Phantom of LaGuardia,' a tortured-looking goose played by Thompson. 'In dreams it’s haunting you, that fish you ate / The expiration date ends in 18,' he crowed, eventually revealing himself to be one of the birds 'that took down Sully’s plane.' Befitting the third entry in a trilogy, 'Airport Sushi' was even more extravagant than Mulaney’s other two musical parodies. 'Diner Lobster' was originally written by Mulaney with the now–SNL head writer Colin Jost in 2010, and the former insisted on reviving it for his first appearance as a host. Watching the mythos around these sketches build year after year has been delightful, and their zaniness seemed to feed into Mulaney’s recent Netflix special, John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch, a kid-focused spectacular with plenty of musical numbers."

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