SNL’s “Dylan McDermott Or Dermot Mulroney?” Is An Impossible Game Show

SNL’s “Dylan McDermott Or Dermot Mulroney?” sketch plays on the similarities between the two actors and turns them into an impossible game show. Like Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds is sometimes confused for La La Land’s Ryan Gosling, or funnyman Will Ferrell and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Dylan McDermott and Dermot Mulroney are two stars that are often mistaken for each other. It’s understandable, really: they’re around the same age, they both have dark hair and that whole brooding thing going on and they’ve got confusingly similar-sounding Irish names.

It doesn’t help both actors have played Julia Roberts’ love interest at least once in their careers. McDermott played her husband in 1989 sob fest Steel Magnolias and Mulroney played the object of her affections in both the 1997 romantic comedy My Best Friend’s Wedding and Amazon series Homecoming. Even more confusingly, Mulroney once played a character called Kit McDermott in the 1989 comedy-drama Staying Together and both actors were in American Horror Story (albeit in different seasons).

In one of SNL’s funniest skits from season 38, the show pokes fun at the mix-up over the two actors in an imaginary game show aptly titled “Dylan McDermott Or Dermot Mulroney?” The premise is deceptively simple; all contestants – played by episode host Jamie Foxx and cast members Kenan Thompson and Jay Pharoah – have to do is correctly guess whether game show host Bill Hader is showing them a picture of Dylan McDermott or Dermot Mulroney. It’s much harder than it sounds.

In one round, Jamie Foxx’s confused contestant offers an incorrect guess with the name Derbel McDillet, while Kenan Thompson wins some points for guessing Rupert Everett, who according to Bill Hader’s host is “the gay Dermot Mulroney.” Even funnier, Dermot Mulroney himself turns up – at least we think that’s who it was – and is confused over whether he is indeed Dermot Mulroney or Dylan McDermott. Well, Hader did describe it as “America’s most difficult game show.”

Finally, in 2018 – six years after the “Dylan McDermott Or Dermot Mulroney?” SNL skit – the two actors put to rest decades of confusion when they appeared on screen together for the first time in now-canceled Fox sitcom LA To Vegas and proved they are actually two separate people. The show starred Dylan McDermott as Captain Dave Pratman – a heavy-drinking, womanizing pilot for a budget airline – and featured Mulroney in a two-episode role as Captain Steve Jasser, a rival of Dave’s who gets better routes and won their airline’s award for sexiest pilot six years in a row. Strangely enough, even when they’re sharing a screen, it’s hard to remember which is which.