Did John Mulaney Lie About This Classic ‘SNL’ Moment?
John Mulaney never really came across as the most truthful of comedians. After all, his closing bit in the breakthrough special New in Town was all about how he falsified medical symptoms in order to get prescription drugs, which plays a lot differently now. He also told a story about how he once told a classmate that he wasn’t at a party that got out of hand, when, in fact, he was, you know, like a liar.
But we all trusted Mulaney when it came to stories about his time at Saturday Night Live. Specifically, in his special Kid Gorgeous at Radio City, Mulaney recounted how his favorite instance of an SNL host introducing a musical guest was when “the great Sir Patrick Stewart” threw it to popular hip-hop group “Salt… N-PEPA!”
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“Like he was surprised by Pepa,” Mulaney explained. “Like minutes before they had been like, ‘Sir Patrick we can’t find Pepa anywhere.’ And he was like, ‘If we must go on with Salt alone, we will go on with Salt alone!’ And they’re like ‘3, 2, 1…’ And Pepa bursts through the door and he’s like, ‘Ladies and gentleman Salt — and what’s this? PEPA!’”
As the Star Trek news site Red Shirts Always Die pointed out, Mulaney’s bit was so memorable that Stewart shared a clip of it on social media earlier this year to celebrate SNL’s 50th anniversary. He also donned a Salt-N-Pepa T-shirt and attempted to recreate the moment.
But if you look at the actual clip of the Star Trek: The Next Generation star introducing Salt-N-Pepa, it really isn’t all that strange. He basically just says “Salt-N-Pepa” the way you would expect him to. Perhaps he hits “Pepa” a little harder than “Salt,” but not in a way that would justify concocting an imaginary scenario in which Salt was nearly forced to go solo until Pepa showed up at the very last second.
The comments on the YouTube video seem to indicate that a number of folks felt let down by the real introduction after all the hype. “This was not as exciting as John Mulaney made it seem lol,” one person wrote. “John said it was more exciting... You know, like a liar,” someone else chimed in.
“John u lied to me bby,” another complained, while a different argued that “it wasn’t as enthusiastic as John Mulaney said it was, but it was a damn good introduction.” Fans also defended Mulaney, suggesting that the routine was based on his recollection of the intro, which he only ever “experienced in the moment” while he “was over on the bench.”
Still, Sir Patrick may be glad that this brief intro has become the defining moment of the episode, and not, say, the sketch where he plays an erotic cake baker who only makes cakes depicting women “going to the bathroom.”
