While Saturday Night Live all-star alum Bill Hader’s second hosting stint last night didn’t measure up to his first, at least he brought back everyone’s favorite questionably qualified city correspondent Stefon to Weekend Update. As ever, the garishly shirted, intensely edgy, disreputably knowledgeable Stefon took viewers on a tour through his preferred night spots, a cavalcade of little people in demeaning costumes, bizarrely named clubs (“Goosh” was one such hot spot this time), and all the ludicrously random people Hader and Stefon co-creator John Mulaney can come up with. Apparently, hot Irish club “Off To Church, Mother!” boasts both the actual Louis Farrakhan and “Farrahchauns,” which, as we all know, are leprechauns that look like Farrah Fawcett.
Playing off Update hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che (or Connor and Percy according to Stefon) in place of former Update straight man (and canonical husband) Seth Meyers, Hader’s eternal club kid once again attempted in vain to stifle the character-breaking giggles (his ecstasy-mobile hands helpfully covering his face) at Mulaney’s signature last-minute cue card changes. (Former SNL writer Mulaney came along with Hader for the purpose, even popping up onscreen as Stefon’s newly employed lawyer and “conceptual piss artist,” Shy.) And, also as ever, a Stefon appearance was most welcome, encompassing as it did: TED talks, sexy asbestos, key fobs, a parade of suspiciously low-slung corgis and dachshunds, and a certain character played by Denzel Washington, who, it seems, gets around even more than Stefon.