John Mulaney Points Out Accused Murderers Have Hosted SNL Over the Years

We were expecting a raucous retrospective on Sunday night’s “Saturday Night Live” 50th Anniversary show … and one of the hosts ratcheted it up a notch, going straight for the jugular with a lethal observation.

In the opening monologue, Steve Martin introduced comedian John Mulaney, and the two tuxedoed raconteurs reminisced over the many hosts over the years … with Mulaney observing, “894 people have hosted ‘Saturday Night Live,’ and it amazes me that only two of them have committed murder.”

That brought a mixture of laughter and groans from the audience, and Martin. There have been a few hosts over the years associated with untimely deaths … but only two of them have actually been charged with murder.

Alec Baldwin, who’s hosted the show a staggering 17 times, was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins after a prop gun fired a real bullet on the New Mexico set of the movie “Rust” in 2021. Charges were later dropped due to prosecutorial misconduct. But that was no murder. Baldwin was in the audience Sunday night, BTW.

There were nasty rumors actor Robert Wagner, who hosted in 1989, was involved in the drowning death of his wife, Natalie Wood, in 1981 — but officials determined Wood died from hypothermia in an accidental drowning.

The only two hosts ever charged with murder, were, of course, O.J. Simpson, who hosted in 1978, and Robert Blake, who hosted in 1982.

You may recall Simpson was charged with murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, both stabbed in 1994 in L.A. Simpson was acquitted in a double-murder trial, but was later found liable in civil court for their wrongful deaths.

Robert Blake was charged with murder after his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, was shot to death outside an L.A. restaurant in 2001. He was also acquitted, and was also found liable for her death in a civil lawsuit.

Before dealing his fatal blow, JM made a few other quick jabs at the show’s hosts in general, joking many of them in the room were “some of the most difficult people I have ever met in my entire life.”