Just imagine, John Mulaney, who hosts Saturday Night Live this weekend, could have stood next to John Belushi, Gilda Radnor, Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd as an original Not Ready For Prime Time Player if only he’d been hired when he first auditioned back in ’75.
Don’t bother doing the math. Just watch the new SNL promo and see clips from each of the 36-year-old comic’s 44 failed “auditions.” There’s the one from the ’80s, with its Breakfast Club jokes. And the 2004 impression of John Travolta trying out for Lord of the Rings. And who could forget his character “Guy Who Doesn’t Want To Get Divorced” that bombed repeatedly through the decades.
“I remember one time,” Mulaney recalls, “Lorne pulled me aside and said, ‘We don’t need whatever it is you are.'”
Still, Mulaney, a former SNL writer who has hosted once before (April 4, 2018), is nothing if not hopeful. “I think if I host well for a second time, I’m gonna get another audition.”
Jokes aside, Mulaney first auditioned for SNL in 2008 – not 1975 – and was hired as a writer. He stayed for six seasons. Mulaney hosts SNL this Saturday, March 2, with musical guest singer/songwriter Thomas Rhett.
Check out the new SNL promo above.
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