Lin-Manuel Miranda Spoofs ‘Stranger Things,’ ‘Hamilton’ on ‘SNL’

Lin-Manuel Miranda didn’t make it very long into his Saturday Night Live hosting debut before the Hamilton jokes began.

Kicking off his inaugural hosting effort, Miranda began a special rendition of a song from his hit musical, “My Shot.” “My name is Lin-Manuel, I am hosting SNL and I am not throwing away my shot.” 

He then walked backstage looking at the photos of past hosts, and stopped at the photo of Donald Trump, going into one of Hamilton’s songs lyrics, “Never gonna be president now … .”

In a Stranger Things spoof, Miranda played Gaten Matarazzo’s role of Dustin, urging his friends to get to the Upside Down. The viewers also finally got to meet Lucas’ family, played by Leslie Jones and Kenan Thompson. Miranda and Matarazzo recently shared their mutual love of each other’s work in an exchange on Twitter, after Miranda tweeted an uplifting message for his followers, accompanied by a GIF of Matarazzo: “Good morning. Your smile is worth a fortune, and yours to spend as you wish.”

“What makes you think you can be out this late?” Thompson asked, citing recent kidnappings in town. Kate McKinnon even appeared as Eleven with special powers, but they were no match to Jones’ intimidation. 

Miranda also appeared in a classroom as “the cool teacher.” But first, in a song about theater cast parties, he showed up fashionably late as the cool high schooler that played the lead in every musical (and got all the girls).

McKinnon starred in a sketch about Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, starting the day off with enthusiasm (to the tune of “Walking on Sunshine”) when Trump says something she has to defend on TV. After a particularly rude comment, she finally broke: “What do you want me to say? He’s the worst person, he’s crazy!” 

Waking up on your day off like… #SNLinManuel pic.twitter.com/tkFNBx7CJv

— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) October 9, 2016

Continuing the musical theme, Miranda brought Wells Fargo bank accounts for everyone in town, instead of instruments, in The Music Man. 

Up next for the writer-actor are Disney’s animated Moana, which he has penned music and lyrics for, and he will then star opposite Emily Blunt in the live-action Mary Poppins Returns, in which Miranda will play a lamplighter.

Blunt makes her hosting debut Oct. 15, joined by Bruno Mars, who makes his fourth appearance as musical guest. And Tom Hanks will host for a ninth time on Oct. 22, with Lady Gaga, who is getting ready for the release of her new studio album Joanne, set as musical guest.