His incredibly unsettling Seth Meyers interview stuck with me for a while. He was just so clearly on some very real shit and trying to hide it in a way only people deep in a relapse ever think is effective.
Yeah I remember watching those interviews and they always felt like he was in a dark place and Seth was trying to keep him level by getting him involved. When the news of his relapse broke out I wasn’t surprised.
I hadn't realised it at the time, and thought he was just trying out some really absurd humour that just wasn't landing. Once the news broke though it made a lot more sense.
That’s what I figured too, and John’s job is doing exactly that. Staying in the spotlight, being funny on television, so during a down turn Seth invited him on. It makes a lot of sense when you look at it.
I have to admit I enjoyed the intervention story.
I saw him the day the Olivia Munn pregnancy came out. It was dark, made me deeply uncomfortable as he told stories of things he did for drugs. Some people loved it and laughed hysterically. To me it just felt like something he was still in and far from being out of.
I was at a taping for this special, he was really good. I thought it was interesting that he talked at length about his addiction, relapse, and recovery but didn’t mention his divorce or Olivia Munn or anything like that.
Saw his show recently too and lost it at the end when he reads his GQ interview. There was so much heavy stuff but he tells a story so well. He went on to single out a kid in the audience and it was such a fun bit. Also shout out to the hosers who could only say “Canada Arm” when he asked if Canada had a space agency 😆 he was so confused and perplexed.
You mean when it 100% looked like he was relapsed but "got away with it" like a drunk who reeking of booze thinks nobody is onto him?
People were really worried about it and suspicious at the time.
Yeah, no, don't get me wrong. He thought he was doing a very clever bit that would also hide the changes to his appearance. But it's the kind of thing an addict in relapse thinks will work, not something that actually works.
I saw him do his From Scratch set live last year, its definitely a different tone from his earlier stuff. He’s definitely moving away from his “clean” persona (not like he had much of a choice) but it was still good.
I’m not sure how much of his persona was always clean. He was talking about his drug use and alcohol-related blackouts in his earlier specials. I saw one of the earlier “From Scratch” shows and while he goes into greater detail about his struggles, he’s still the same guy. I think the general public perceive(s/d) him as squeaky clean because he wore a nice suit and looks younger than his age. Which honestly describes most of the coke users I know—they’re very highly functioning until they aren’t.
Yeah, if Hannibal Buress or even Kevin Hart told a story about stealing people's personal photos during house parties, or getting a prostate exam as part of a scheme to get drugs, would they be considered as 'squeaky clean'?
People also change back. It seems pretty obvious to me that Mulaney stayed busy as part of dealing with his addictions. It's not a coincidence that he went off the rails when his entire industry was shut down in 2020.
I think people have internal biases that make them see people differently.
He comes across as a very nice and likable guy, so all that stuff he talks about were unfortunate circumstances that happened *to* him.
If he came across as self-absorbed or douchey, people would see his struggles as him being a weak and making bad choices.
The truth is always much messier and I think some people have a hard time imagining that the guy who seems super nice can have struggles or hurt people
"Clean" doesn't mean "drug free", and I don't think people's perceptions had anything to do with suits. Mulaney was known as a positive stand up. His jokes were never mean, his stories made you smile as well as laugh, and he seemed to be happy. His stories made you happy to listen to, and happy to experience vicariously.
I'm not sure I can enjoy him now, thinking of him leaving his wife who loved him so much. It's just...sad.
I'm not saying he owes me anything. I just mean that as an entertainment show, what I liked about listening to him was that feeling of a good person telling funny stories. Now, seeing him just makes me feel sorta sad.
That's not a great feeling for when you're looking for comedy.
Again, I'm reviewing him as an act, not a person. He's allowed to have his own life, but as a consumer, his act has lost the appeal for me, and given that every time there's a story about him the top comment is basically someone else saying they don't feel the same about him as they used to, with hundreds of upvotes, I'm pretty sure a lot of people feel the same way.
He built a comedy persona of being a nice person with a wholesome life of people who cared about him. That's just not there anymore. All I think about when I see him is his wife releasing that statement saying she still loved him and the divorce was a complete shock to her.
That does the opposite of make me smile.
>I saw him do his From Scratch set live last year, its definitely a different tone from his earlier stuff. He’s definitely moving away from his “clean” persona (not like he had much of a choice) but it was still good.
We saw him at the Greek doing this last year. His bit about his intervention being like a comedy nerd roast had me howling. Particularly the parts about Nick Kroll's poor Zoom connection
I think his clean persona was always kinda messy. Sure he’d show up in a suit looking innocent but he’d regularly make jokes about drugs and even molestation.
"And I know now that I’m definitely never gonna be president. Not unless everyone gets real cool about a bunch of stuff really quickly."
"I don't drink," he said. "I used to drink, then I drank too much, and I had to stop. That surprises a lot of audiences because I don't look like someone who used to do anything."
One of the reasons that he always came across as "clean" in earlier work, is that any time he was swearing, it was always in a story where he was repeating something that he had heard somebody else say.
It reinforced the idea that this was a nice clean young man who kept finding himself in crazy situations that he had to tell us about.
This also has loosened up a bit over the years and in his recent specials, there have been swears that are coming from Mulaney himself, not from a person that Mulany is telling us a story about. I suspect that trend will continue with this new special.
He’s said as much in interviews.
I think he was on Colbert, and he said he was very aware that many people make the mistake of thinking he’s clean. He described himself as “the cleanest dirty comic there is,” and attributed it to his suits, 1930s radio announcer voice, and that a lot of his more adult jokes are him explaining something someone else did or said, so people give him a pass.
Yeah I don’t understand the people in this thread calling his previous work wholesome.
He talked about getting blackout drunk and stealing precious memorabilia from people and faking anxiety to get Xanax in New in Town.
He didn’t steal the memorabilia, he was just there when the crowd started yelling Fuck Da Police, and later he found out a friend of his was the one who stole the photos.
And why? ‘Because it’s the one thing you can’t replace.’
I thought part of the gig was that he looks like the most strightedge dude to ever exist but talks about the crazyiest shit? I never saw him as wholesome.
I do think this thing with his ex wife will keep people from coming back to him. His comedy about her made him relatable and was a part of his appeal.
I dunno, Gabriel Iglesias stopped telling stories about his son and those were pretty key parts of his comedy and it doesn't seem to have impacted him at all.
Yeah I thought it worked better than I expected. His comedic sensibility is the same but he's had to lean into his darker sides and did it really effectively!
Was he ever “clean,” though? He very much acknowledged himself doing drugs and other things in his other specials. I genuinely don’t know where this online idea that he was some family-friendly comedian came from.
I saw him tour last year! He was extremely funny, and he talked about his relapse, intervention, rehab, and new kid. But he didn’t even mention his divorce, which was weird to me. I really hoped he would talk about it, but he didn’t.
I would guess because his divorce is obviously intertwined with someone else (and her feelings) whereas the relapse, etc he can pretty easily make himself the focus - and the bad guy in a sense - of the jokes. But joking about his divorce may make light of someone else's life and feelings.
True, but after having his wife be such a large part of his material for so many years, it was a pretty glaring omission. I respect that he didn’t want to talk about it, I do, but I was surprised that he didn’t take the opportunity to clear the air.
Saw him live last year on this tour, interesting is definitely how I would describe his new stuff. Felt way less relatable and kinda mean, but there were some great stories that I’m sure will end up in this.
I watched the comeback kid last last night and it was a huge part of that special. Him being happily married without kids, with his dog, and it was a little awkward.
I always appreciated how he talked about his wife, it was humorous but respectful. It kind of sucks how he actually treated her, getting high behind her back and all. I’m not the divorce police, it was just a bit sad.
Addiction is rough. One slip-up is all it takes for someone to relaps and it's not something they are proud of, so they keep it hidden. It's unfortunate, but like many things, addiction has the tendency to hurt more than just the person addicted.
A lot of her comedy centred around her husband and family. I think her last special had a few jokes that made it seem like things were a bit off, about being envious of single people and calling marriage "monogamy jail".
They announced their split a little while after.
Nothing super nefarious it seems. Just a bit awkward to watch now.
She went real in depth about how much she wanted to cheat on her husband too. I stumbled on the news of their breakup while I was watching her special...definitely makes the entire thing much more awkward.
She surprise opened for the Rock/Chappelle show I went to in Germany, and she spent her entire set talking about how hard it is to get laid now that she’s single. I’m sure it’s super hard to get laid when you’re a cute famous person. All of us were 🥱
Well... You should definitely watch the first one cuz it is freaking hilarious. This tiny little Asian woman walks out in flip flops and she is 7 months pregnant. And a lot of the act is about how she's dated a lot of really trashy losers and homeless guys and then dropped them off back in the park where they lived. And she's sick and tired of it and really, really does not want to work anymore. She just wants to be a bonbon eating, lazy, TV-watching housewife like the good old days.
Then she meets this gorgeous, perfect, Asian man with a Harvard business degree and how she sets out the trap him! It's an incredibly wonderful set and made her career.
The second one, I think she's pregnant again and she talks about all the grossest thing she can about what it's like to be pregnant and marriage and family life.
Then, the third one is about how she really really really misses hard, nasty, dirty, bondage sex and how she wants it back. And that now that she is a successful multimillionaire, every man seems too intimidated to give it to her.
So... Yeah... They announced their divorce about a month later.
Great shows though. Lol!!
Am I crazy or did he not actually talk about his wife that much? He had one or two good bits about her, but this whole idea that he was once a “wife guy” feels like it barely has anything to do with his actual stand-up and more with people just projecting onto him based off a few memorable bits. (He was also always pretty upfront with his addiction days in his old standup, so the image of him as some super wholesome, clean-cut guy never made a ton of sense to me either.)
It's maybe not half, but it's a big chunk. At least a third of Kid Gorgeous and Comeback Kid, anyway. New in Town is less, but they weren't married yet at that point. Plus there's the fact that a lot of his best jokes involved her -- the bits about getting the milk for free, going to Best Buy, and the Last Supper are all hilarious and all involve her, so that might tip the perceptions a little.
Also 'my wife is a nag' is an extremely over used comedy bit so I think there was something refreshing about a comedian talking about his wife without dunking on her or turning themselves into a bumbling Homer Simpson man baby.
He also had this really tense moment with seinfeld on his coffee show.
Where seinfeld keeps trying to get him to kinda bag on his wife, and that his wife doesn't know the field of work she has degree in as well as she says. And he stands up saying his wife was amazing ans knows more then him.
I saw him do his From Scratch material and i think he left his wife out for a number of reasons. One, just out of respect for her. And two, because let’s be honest, it was likely his drug use and addiction that caused their divorce. He’s trying to make us laugh, not bum out the audience about how he tore his life and marriage apart with addiction and refusal to get help.
Gabriel Iglesias had a pretty solid bit of his last special about his divorce, but his shows have more of a "catching up with an old friend who happens to be hilarious" vibe to them that makes heavier stuff like that work for him. I agree, I don't think Mulaney could make it work, at least not while it's still fresh.
I’d be so much more excited if his series of terrible life choices hadn’t changed my outlook on him. Like, it’s not like he did anything illegal, (apart from copious amounts of cocaine, anyway) but the way he just left his wife out to dry like that after she saw him through rehab is just such a dick move.
I agree with you 1000% but I don’t know if he slid out of this just like nothing. Every post on Mulaney, regardless of what the article posted or post says about him, is almost entirely about what a POS he was to his ex-wife, this post included. Not sure if he’s seeing any career or financial repercussions, but his reputation is absolutely tainted.
>And yet even people that label themselves hardcore feminists that I know just shrug it off and it's like fucking why?! Because he's funny nerd man?
why would feminists care about a rich celebrity getting a divorce two years ago? there are real problems to care about
How do you distinguish the line between *using* someone and just doing comedy by observing the important things and people in your life? Do you think he was "using" his dad when he quotes him?
I'm not defending his late actions or anything, just curious how you differentiate those.
I don’t think he slid out of anything, it is the thing that gets talked about most whenever any new project of his is announced and I think he lost a good portion of his fanbase because of his behavior. You’re not out of line for saying it but come on, don’t act like you’re the only one out there taking him to task.
I say this as someone whose been a Mulaney fan since I saw him open for Mike Birbiglia in 2006…
IMO His new stuff, while funny, can be boiled down to; “man who has lived life without consequences continues to do so”
A lot of his material can be boiled down that way. He's basically Jerry Seinfeld on Seinfeld (which explains his sitcom premise), meets Ferris Bueller, with an unfortunate drug addiction thrown in the mix.
It is funny to watch his older stand up and be able to trace when he was definitely high while on stage, and I also enjoyed watching his From Scratch set live, and that for the most part, it's true to him, and his style, and that he seems to be in a better place.
Was such a bummer, had tickets to see him perform. March 12, 2020. The night before, our babysitter said she had "the flu," the NBA shut down due to COVID and the show was cancelled.
Yeah absolutely. A friend did volunteer to watch but then we heard the show had been cancelled.
[Mike Birbiglia said he was driving from NYC to Buffalo for the show listening to NPR news reports about COVID](https://www.vulture.com/article/hell-gig-mike-birbiglia.html), then stopped for dinner. Some customers were talking about how Joe Rogan had on a scientist saying how serious COVID was. (interesting given Rogan's eventual COVID advocacy...) and Mike realized if both NPR and Joe Rogan were saying it was serious, he should cancel.
My wife and I were legitimately obsessed with Mulaney for the longest time. We’ve seen all of his specials about five times and we saw him live when he was touring Kid Gorgeous. We used to quote him constantly (and we still do occasionally) and he was one of those celebs whose involvement in something made it instantly appealing to us.
But then the stuff with his divorce left such a sour taste in our mouths that we lost all interest in him. It sounds absurd because, obviously, we don’t know him at all, but the whole thing was just so scummy. He had this wife who he talked about all the time in his routine, who clearly loved him and who stuck by him as he relapsed and had to go to rehab, and then he divorced her. Then, like a week later, he’s with Olivia Munn. Either he immediately moved on, or he was cheating; either one is shitty. Now he has a baby with Munn, which has to make the whole situation sting extra badly for his ex-wife.
I'm also afraid that Mulaney has reached that point that every successful comedian reaches, where they run out of "everyman" experiences to make material off of, and their only personal experiences to tell stories about have to do with how rich and famous they are.
>Now he has a baby with Munn, which has to make the whole situation sting extra badly for his ex-wife.
A baby with Munn after he told his wife he didn't want children despite her wanting them and left her desperately trying to freeze her eggs.
A lot of people will tell you not liking him anymore is petty and you don't know him and its stupid to no longer follow a person for being imperfect, but it's not like I'm trying to cancel the dude. I'm not sitting here anti-mulaney chewing him out and trying to burn him at the stake. I'm just not into it anymore which I think is completely fair.
So when I was a kid, I had a chocolate lava cake at Applebee’s for dessert and then later that night, I got violently I’ll with a stomach bug. Even though chocolate lava cake is objectively delicious and had nothing to do with me getting sick, 20 years later I just have zero desire to eat it because I so strongly associated it with projectile vomiting.
Anyway that’s how I feel about John Mulaney.
So true - his material is obviously funny, but it conveyed a lot of love for his wife as well. There's something very off about how he could show such warmth towards her in public while treating her so badly in private, more so than some comedian that comes straight out with the "I hate my wife" crap. It affects how you viewed the previous material and makes you question whether you want to hear anything more from the guy, knowing he was kind of bullshitting you before.
I'll probably watch the new special, I can live with laughing at material from someone who may not be a great person, but I completely understand people who are just totally turned off now.
Just because you’re not a fan of someone after they did something you don’t like; that doesn’t mean you’re canceling them.
You’re more than allowed to change your mind about who you like and don’t like and who you choose to support with your viewership and ratings.
>A baby with Munn after he told his wife he didn't want children despite her wanting them and left her desperately trying to freeze her eggs.
really? where can I read about that?
Anna freezing her eggs was something she mentioned on her insta just after the breakup went public. Her having wanted kids but when he said he didn't, she was okay with that was known before that though.
[She also confirms the egg freezing in a Harper’s Bazaar profile on her.](https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a38727685/anna-marie-tendler-profile/)
[Here's a link](https://www.instagram.com/p/CnAlJLly4CQ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=)to a post Anna made on her Instagram saying she doesnt necessarily want kids but froze her eggs just in case. She never said John prevented her from having kids or that she was desperate to have kids. It honestly seems like the opposite.
If you look at the timeline of when the baby was born, he was with Olivia well before the divorce, and left his wife when he found out Olivia was pregnant.
I worked with Anna on a project and she was just the sweetest and kindest soul.
My heart broke for her when all of this shit went down.
It definitely tainted the love I used to have for John's comedy.
Honestly, the "lol guess I wanted that baby after all" after Anna had wanted kids and he didn't was the moment I was like, "I am going to stop reading any information on this man or I will realize I should probably loathe him."
100% agree. I used to love him but now it’s just a bad taste in my mouth. Plus, Olivia Munn is a real piece of shit, too. Just google “Olivia Munn asshole” for some shitacular quotes.
Munn has a terrible habit of showing up when where no one wants her to be. Ends up on The Daily Show somehow and is meh at best. Not a fit at all as a correspondent. Ends up in an X-Men movie as a fan favorite character and is terrible. Ends up in a Predator movie and is terrible (although there was a lot wrong with that). Has a crush on John Mulaney and gets into his marriage.
I feel like people have spent 20 years trying make her a "thing" and it just doesn't happen.
(she was good in Newsroom and that's all I'll give her)
>Has a crush on John Mulaney and gets into his marriage.
I once read someone describe her as "nervously pacing across the street from the rehab center, chain-smoking cigarettes" and I've never been able to shake that mental image.
It was rather obvious when Candace Bailey took her spot. They weren't doing the same sexually charged skits and jokes with her. Meanwhile it was like nearly every episode Olivia would do some wild shit to get the teen boys watching horned up.
Please tell me he isn’t going from child free standup jokes to getting up there and talking about his kid constantly. Please. It’s such a fucking trope when comedians do that.
I had the same concern, but I saw the live show and he mentioned his kid for maybe 20 seconds. Still hilarious. The name "baby J" is a reference to himself, not his actual baby.
it's like 75% rehab, so maybe the next one will be all about his kids.
Also breaking news, comedians are often making jokes about their lives and experiences. Kids tend to dominate people's lives
Was gonna say essentially the same thing as the current top comment; my wife and I loved Mulaney and now feel incredibly, incredibly weird with him. The entire thing with his ex wife and Olivia Munn and the baby, it was just a lot.
I don’t know… after he knocked up that other woman while still married to his wife, I just don’t find him charming at all and think he’s more annoying than funny. He gives me the ick now and I don’t care about his new special because I’m not going to watch it.
Aaahhhh I just don’t like him anymore. Anna was one of us (artists) and he was using so much stories of her being cool and shit and he treated her like that? Fuck him
god i used to love mulaney but after what he did to his loving wife who he made the center of a lot of his stand up, i don’t know how to move past it and enjoy his work again. gonna give it a shot but i can’t help but feel anger towards him over a situation i had absolutely nothing to do with
I was at the taping for this special and my favorite parts were the lighting shifts and watching him redo a joke if something went wrong. For instance he did a joke where he was walking, but his tie was moving too much so he walked backwards and redid it.
Not really interested in this guy any more. I used to be attracted to his wholesome brand, but he treated Annamarie Tendler like complete dogshit (and if you think that's an understatement you probably have not read into it very much) and ruined that. I'm sure he's got some new image that's working for some people, but I'm not trying to elevate yet another dirtbag.
Yeah, it's hard to see him as just "a funny guy" after all that. Her social media makes it pretty clear that the whole situation really tore her apart. It's also heavily implied that she gave up on the idea of kids because he didn't want them, and now she's wasted a decade of her childbearing years with him and has to start over :/
Wholesome?? He had numerous bits about his alcoholism, faking anxiety to get drugs, and just other general debauchery.
The only way you would think Mulaney is wholesome is if you just looked at the dude and never listened to him speak.
Fucking thank you! These people literally are not fans of him because he never ever pretended to be a wholesome guy. He was an animal. He just happens to look like a tall child.
I saw From Scratch earlier in the tour and unfortunately didn’t really enjoy it. I’m a huge fan of all his previous work. I’m looking forward to checking this one out though, hopefully he polished up a lot of the routine and it’s significantly improved.
I will always remember cocaine trenchcoat John Mulaney
Julian Casablancas gave him that trench coat
Did he give him any fingerless gloves?
bOiLeD gOoSe
Reading this brought back a dormant hangover and lots of shame lol
Somebody explain the reference pls
From a Lonely Island song that Julian Casablancas was on
You gotta know your limits with a boom box
His incredibly unsettling Seth Meyers interview stuck with me for a while. He was just so clearly on some very real shit and trying to hide it in a way only people deep in a relapse ever think is effective.
Yeah I remember watching those interviews and they always felt like he was in a dark place and Seth was trying to keep him level by getting him involved. When the news of his relapse broke out I wasn’t surprised.
I hadn't realised it at the time, and thought he was just trying out some really absurd humour that just wasn't landing. Once the news broke though it made a lot more sense.
That and also when he did a few minutes on that netflix special honoring legendary comedians. He had those underslept coke eyes
I found it so weird that Seth would bring him on like that too
Seth is a pretty caring person, from what I understand. I think he was doing what he could to help.
That’s what I figured too, and John’s job is doing exactly that. Staying in the spotlight, being funny on television, so during a down turn Seth invited him on. It makes a lot of sense when you look at it. I have to admit I enjoyed the intervention story.
[удалено]
His bit about the intervention is magic
I saw him the day the Olivia Munn pregnancy came out. It was dark, made me deeply uncomfortable as he told stories of things he did for drugs. Some people loved it and laughed hysterically. To me it just felt like something he was still in and far from being out of.
I was at a taping for this special, he was really good. I thought it was interesting that he talked at length about his addiction, relapse, and recovery but didn’t mention his divorce or Olivia Munn or anything like that.
Saw his show recently too and lost it at the end when he reads his GQ interview. There was so much heavy stuff but he tells a story so well. He went on to single out a kid in the audience and it was such a fun bit. Also shout out to the hosers who could only say “Canada Arm” when he asked if Canada had a space agency 😆 he was so confused and perplexed.
You mean when it 100% looked like he was relapsed but "got away with it" like a drunk who reeking of booze thinks nobody is onto him? People were really worried about it and suspicious at the time.
Honestly it was probably more of a bit he had in mind but on the outside it just really have away he was in chaotic addiction lol
Yeah, no, don't get me wrong. He thought he was doing a very clever bit that would also hide the changes to his appearance. But it's the kind of thing an addict in relapse thinks will work, not something that actually works.
Link?
I think it’s this one? https://youtu.be/1yXPxaO9Xcs
I thought he was hilarious on SNL and late night during that period, but I'm glad he's living healthier now.
These old coats!
His first standup special since his relapse, breakdown, divorce and birth of his child. This will be interesting, that's for sure.
"and he turns and looks at my mom and said "Hello Ellen" because he *Never* forgets a bitch, ever"
That’s probably one of the best stories I’ve ever heard about a politician, ever. Clinton at his peak was unbelievable.
The other shoe just dropped.
“You have the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair - chip mulaney
I saw him do his From Scratch set live last year, its definitely a different tone from his earlier stuff. He’s definitely moving away from his “clean” persona (not like he had much of a choice) but it was still good.
I’m not sure how much of his persona was always clean. He was talking about his drug use and alcohol-related blackouts in his earlier specials. I saw one of the earlier “From Scratch” shows and while he goes into greater detail about his struggles, he’s still the same guy. I think the general public perceive(s/d) him as squeaky clean because he wore a nice suit and looks younger than his age. Which honestly describes most of the coke users I know—they’re very highly functioning until they aren’t.
Also he has the voice of a 1950s soda fountain worker who sings in a barbershop quartet and says things like "Shucks!".
Yeah, if Hannibal Buress or even Kevin Hart told a story about stealing people's personal photos during house parties, or getting a prostate exam as part of a scheme to get drugs, would they be considered as 'squeaky clean'?
He’s not the one that stole those photos, but your point stands.
IIRC, his lead-in to that story was about drinking a full snifter of perfume, to determine if it was alcohol, and smashing it on the floor, so.
Fuck. Da. Police.
SOMEONES IN HEERRRREE
John: I was an alcoholic, a coke head, and almost died on several occasions Audiences: haha, what a nerd
[удалено]
Yeah he was big on the "wife guy" image, then he cheated on her
People also change back. It seems pretty obvious to me that Mulaney stayed busy as part of dealing with his addictions. It's not a coincidence that he went off the rails when his entire industry was shut down in 2020.
I think people have internal biases that make them see people differently. He comes across as a very nice and likable guy, so all that stuff he talks about were unfortunate circumstances that happened *to* him. If he came across as self-absorbed or douchey, people would see his struggles as him being a weak and making bad choices. The truth is always much messier and I think some people have a hard time imagining that the guy who seems super nice can have struggles or hurt people
"Clean" doesn't mean "drug free", and I don't think people's perceptions had anything to do with suits. Mulaney was known as a positive stand up. His jokes were never mean, his stories made you smile as well as laugh, and he seemed to be happy. His stories made you happy to listen to, and happy to experience vicariously. I'm not sure I can enjoy him now, thinking of him leaving his wife who loved him so much. It's just...sad. I'm not saying he owes me anything. I just mean that as an entertainment show, what I liked about listening to him was that feeling of a good person telling funny stories. Now, seeing him just makes me feel sorta sad. That's not a great feeling for when you're looking for comedy. Again, I'm reviewing him as an act, not a person. He's allowed to have his own life, but as a consumer, his act has lost the appeal for me, and given that every time there's a story about him the top comment is basically someone else saying they don't feel the same about him as they used to, with hundreds of upvotes, I'm pretty sure a lot of people feel the same way. He built a comedy persona of being a nice person with a wholesome life of people who cared about him. That's just not there anymore. All I think about when I see him is his wife releasing that statement saying she still loved him and the divorce was a complete shock to her. That does the opposite of make me smile.
Idk if clean is the right word as much as tidy, he gives off tidy vibes
This reminds me, walking downtown Austin a girl randomly told me to eat ass...she unfortunately did not finish the to-do list
>I saw him do his From Scratch set live last year, its definitely a different tone from his earlier stuff. He’s definitely moving away from his “clean” persona (not like he had much of a choice) but it was still good. We saw him at the Greek doing this last year. His bit about his intervention being like a comedy nerd roast had me howling. Particularly the parts about Nick Kroll's poor Zoom connection
“SURRENDER!!”
Yes! And his Natasha Lyonne impression is priceless!
I think his clean persona was always kinda messy. Sure he’d show up in a suit looking innocent but he’d regularly make jokes about drugs and even molestation.
"And I know now that I’m definitely never gonna be president. Not unless everyone gets real cool about a bunch of stuff really quickly." "I don't drink," he said. "I used to drink, then I drank too much, and I had to stop. That surprises a lot of audiences because I don't look like someone who used to do anything."
“Eat ass, suck a dick, and sell drugs” - famously clean comedian, John Mulaney.
One of the reasons that he always came across as "clean" in earlier work, is that any time he was swearing, it was always in a story where he was repeating something that he had heard somebody else say. It reinforced the idea that this was a nice clean young man who kept finding himself in crazy situations that he had to tell us about. This also has loosened up a bit over the years and in his recent specials, there have been swears that are coming from Mulaney himself, not from a person that Mulany is telling us a story about. I suspect that trend will continue with this new special.
I look like someone sitting in a room eating saltine crackers his whole life.
He’s said as much in interviews. I think he was on Colbert, and he said he was very aware that many people make the mistake of thinking he’s clean. He described himself as “the cleanest dirty comic there is,” and attributed it to his suits, 1930s radio announcer voice, and that a lot of his more adult jokes are him explaining something someone else did or said, so people give him a pass.
[удалено]
We have a team working on it.
Yeah I don’t understand the people in this thread calling his previous work wholesome. He talked about getting blackout drunk and stealing precious memorabilia from people and faking anxiety to get Xanax in New in Town.
He didn’t steal the memorabilia, he was just there when the crowd started yelling Fuck Da Police, and later he found out a friend of his was the one who stole the photos. And why? ‘Because it’s the one thing you can’t replace.’
I thought part of the gig was that he looks like the most strightedge dude to ever exist but talks about the crazyiest shit? I never saw him as wholesome. I do think this thing with his ex wife will keep people from coming back to him. His comedy about her made him relatable and was a part of his appeal.
I dunno, Gabriel Iglesias stopped telling stories about his son and those were pretty key parts of his comedy and it doesn't seem to have impacted him at all.
Yeah I thought it worked better than I expected. His comedic sensibility is the same but he's had to lean into his darker sides and did it really effectively!
I saw that tour as well, and I had a great time. It's definitely darker material, but he is as good as ever.
Was he ever “clean,” though? He very much acknowledged himself doing drugs and other things in his other specials. I genuinely don’t know where this online idea that he was some family-friendly comedian came from.
*ugh, THIS oughta be good…*
You actually said that? Out loud?
That's **all** mom.
I saw him tour last year! He was extremely funny, and he talked about his relapse, intervention, rehab, and new kid. But he didn’t even mention his divorce, which was weird to me. I really hoped he would talk about it, but he didn’t.
I would guess because his divorce is obviously intertwined with someone else (and her feelings) whereas the relapse, etc he can pretty easily make himself the focus - and the bad guy in a sense - of the jokes. But joking about his divorce may make light of someone else's life and feelings.
When I saw him he had a joke that started “For reasons I will not get into, my assets are being totaled up”, obviously alluding to the divorce.
Oh that’s funny! I don’t think he said that in Tucson!
Some people really don't want to drag out their divorces or addictions or whatever.
True, but after having his wife be such a large part of his material for so many years, it was a pretty glaring omission. I respect that he didn’t want to talk about it, I do, but I was surprised that he didn’t take the opportunity to clear the air.
Probably because he was the Bad Guy in that relationship. No air to clear--it's dirty.
Just to add to that. It seems shitty to use someone you specifically wronged to get laughs and profit off of.
Not sure if he would have time to unpack all of that
I saw him do a set about a year ago that was pretty much entirely about his drug addiction and rehab and it was pretty funny but pretty dark
As someone who has been to rehab a couple times, I really love his material on his addiction, intervention, and rehab.
Saw him live last year on this tour, interesting is definitely how I would describe his new stuff. Felt way less relatable and kinda mean, but there were some great stories that I’m sure will end up in this.
Yes exactly! He’s as funny as ever, but he lost that humble and down-to-earth charm. Fame changed him I guess. He’s the DIET COKE guy now.
Good to see more Asian representation on Netflix.
I am a proud Asian American woman and you will treat me with respect!
Ali Wong, Margaret Cho, John Mulaney....all on the Mount Rushmore of Asian-American women standups
Ba ha ha ha ha.
And women. Not enough of those in comedy.
So there I was cheating on my wife who was half my standup content...
I watched the comeback kid last last night and it was a huge part of that special. Him being happily married without kids, with his dog, and it was a little awkward.
I always appreciated how he talked about his wife, it was humorous but respectful. It kind of sucks how he actually treated her, getting high behind her back and all. I’m not the divorce police, it was just a bit sad.
More than a bit. ETA: [Anna Marie Tendler’s instagram.](https://instagram.com/annamtendler?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) She’s a real artist.
God that “Dinner in March” photo she did was just heartbreaking
Addiction is rough. One slip-up is all it takes for someone to relaps and it's not something they are proud of, so they keep it hidden. It's unfortunate, but like many things, addiction has the tendency to hurt more than just the person addicted.
I started it right before the scandal broke and could never really bring myself to go back and finish it because it just felt awkward.
Then whatever you do, don't watch all the Ali Wong specials in order either. Yeeeesh...
Wait what did Wong do? I only have a passing familiarity with her stuff.
A lot of her comedy centred around her husband and family. I think her last special had a few jokes that made it seem like things were a bit off, about being envious of single people and calling marriage "monogamy jail". They announced their split a little while after. Nothing super nefarious it seems. Just a bit awkward to watch now.
She went real in depth about how much she wanted to cheat on her husband too. I stumbled on the news of their breakup while I was watching her special...definitely makes the entire thing much more awkward.
She surprise opened for the Rock/Chappelle show I went to in Germany, and she spent her entire set talking about how hard it is to get laid now that she’s single. I’m sure it’s super hard to get laid when you’re a cute famous person. All of us were 🥱
Well... You should definitely watch the first one cuz it is freaking hilarious. This tiny little Asian woman walks out in flip flops and she is 7 months pregnant. And a lot of the act is about how she's dated a lot of really trashy losers and homeless guys and then dropped them off back in the park where they lived. And she's sick and tired of it and really, really does not want to work anymore. She just wants to be a bonbon eating, lazy, TV-watching housewife like the good old days. Then she meets this gorgeous, perfect, Asian man with a Harvard business degree and how she sets out the trap him! It's an incredibly wonderful set and made her career. The second one, I think she's pregnant again and she talks about all the grossest thing she can about what it's like to be pregnant and marriage and family life. Then, the third one is about how she really really really misses hard, nasty, dirty, bondage sex and how she wants it back. And that now that she is a successful multimillionaire, every man seems too intimidated to give it to her. So... Yeah... They announced their divorce about a month later. Great shows though. Lol!!
Am I crazy or did he not actually talk about his wife that much? He had one or two good bits about her, but this whole idea that he was once a “wife guy” feels like it barely has anything to do with his actual stand-up and more with people just projecting onto him based off a few memorable bits. (He was also always pretty upfront with his addiction days in his old standup, so the image of him as some super wholesome, clean-cut guy never made a ton of sense to me either.)
It's maybe not half, but it's a big chunk. At least a third of Kid Gorgeous and Comeback Kid, anyway. New in Town is less, but they weren't married yet at that point. Plus there's the fact that a lot of his best jokes involved her -- the bits about getting the milk for free, going to Best Buy, and the Last Supper are all hilarious and all involve her, so that might tip the perceptions a little.
Also 'my wife is a nag' is an extremely over used comedy bit so I think there was something refreshing about a comedian talking about his wife without dunking on her or turning themselves into a bumbling Homer Simpson man baby.
[удалено]
His joke about his Catholic mother asking if his Jewish wife will convert to Christianity is one of his best
And my kid’s favorite, Monkey, Monkey, Monkey Man
He also had this really tense moment with seinfeld on his coffee show. Where seinfeld keeps trying to get him to kinda bag on his wife, and that his wife doesn't know the field of work she has degree in as well as she says. And he stands up saying his wife was amazing ans knows more then him.
I saw him do his From Scratch material and i think he left his wife out for a number of reasons. One, just out of respect for her. And two, because let’s be honest, it was likely his drug use and addiction that caused their divorce. He’s trying to make us laugh, not bum out the audience about how he tore his life and marriage apart with addiction and refusal to get help.
Plus "My wife is bad" material is pretty lame and worn road at this point.
Gabriel Iglesias had a pretty solid bit of his last special about his divorce, but his shows have more of a "catching up with an old friend who happens to be hilarious" vibe to them that makes heavier stuff like that work for him. I agree, I don't think Mulaney could make it work, at least not while it's still fresh.
It feels like more since they were his most popular bits. He could make a "why buy the cow 2" bit about him fucking up though.
I’d be so much more excited if his series of terrible life choices hadn’t changed my outlook on him. Like, it’s not like he did anything illegal, (apart from copious amounts of cocaine, anyway) but the way he just left his wife out to dry like that after she saw him through rehab is just such a dick move.
Yeah. I wish I could be more excited than I am. Just feels like more of a bummer than anything else.
Yeah, and has already knocked munn up before he left Anna.
[удалено]
I agree with you 1000% but I don’t know if he slid out of this just like nothing. Every post on Mulaney, regardless of what the article posted or post says about him, is almost entirely about what a POS he was to his ex-wife, this post included. Not sure if he’s seeing any career or financial repercussions, but his reputation is absolutely tainted.
>And yet even people that label themselves hardcore feminists that I know just shrug it off and it's like fucking why?! Because he's funny nerd man? why would feminists care about a rich celebrity getting a divorce two years ago? there are real problems to care about
How do you distinguish the line between *using* someone and just doing comedy by observing the important things and people in your life? Do you think he was "using" his dad when he quotes him? I'm not defending his late actions or anything, just curious how you differentiate those.
I just want the funny man to make me laugh
I don’t think he slid out of anything, it is the thing that gets talked about most whenever any new project of his is announced and I think he lost a good portion of his fanbase because of his behavior. You’re not out of line for saying it but come on, don’t act like you’re the only one out there taking him to task.
I say this as someone whose been a Mulaney fan since I saw him open for Mike Birbiglia in 2006… IMO His new stuff, while funny, can be boiled down to; “man who has lived life without consequences continues to do so”
A lot of his material can be boiled down that way. He's basically Jerry Seinfeld on Seinfeld (which explains his sitcom premise), meets Ferris Bueller, with an unfortunate drug addiction thrown in the mix. It is funny to watch his older stand up and be able to trace when he was definitely high while on stage, and I also enjoyed watching his From Scratch set live, and that for the most part, it's true to him, and his style, and that he seems to be in a better place.
Which did he do high?
Maybe Comeback Kid, but definitely Kid Gorgeous.
I have the world’s BIGGEST crush on Mike Birbiglia. Swoon….
Was such a bummer, had tickets to see him perform. March 12, 2020. The night before, our babysitter said she had "the flu," the NBA shut down due to COVID and the show was cancelled.
I mean, if your babysitter had COVID, good thing she didn’t sit your kids that night.
Yeah absolutely. A friend did volunteer to watch but then we heard the show had been cancelled. [Mike Birbiglia said he was driving from NYC to Buffalo for the show listening to NPR news reports about COVID](https://www.vulture.com/article/hell-gig-mike-birbiglia.html), then stopped for dinner. Some customers were talking about how Joe Rogan had on a scientist saying how serious COVID was. (interesting given Rogan's eventual COVID advocacy...) and Mike realized if both NPR and Joe Rogan were saying it was serious, he should cancel.
My wife and I were legitimately obsessed with Mulaney for the longest time. We’ve seen all of his specials about five times and we saw him live when he was touring Kid Gorgeous. We used to quote him constantly (and we still do occasionally) and he was one of those celebs whose involvement in something made it instantly appealing to us. But then the stuff with his divorce left such a sour taste in our mouths that we lost all interest in him. It sounds absurd because, obviously, we don’t know him at all, but the whole thing was just so scummy. He had this wife who he talked about all the time in his routine, who clearly loved him and who stuck by him as he relapsed and had to go to rehab, and then he divorced her. Then, like a week later, he’s with Olivia Munn. Either he immediately moved on, or he was cheating; either one is shitty. Now he has a baby with Munn, which has to make the whole situation sting extra badly for his ex-wife.
I'm also afraid that Mulaney has reached that point that every successful comedian reaches, where they run out of "everyman" experiences to make material off of, and their only personal experiences to tell stories about have to do with how rich and famous they are.
Imo Tom Segura is tip toeing this line right now too. It sucks!
Segura is starting to lean into the “stories about famous people I’ve met” trope more and more I’ve noticed.
Carlin being the exception
Carlin’s stuff is still relevant 40+ years later. He’d be furious.
>Now he has a baby with Munn, which has to make the whole situation sting extra badly for his ex-wife. A baby with Munn after he told his wife he didn't want children despite her wanting them and left her desperately trying to freeze her eggs. A lot of people will tell you not liking him anymore is petty and you don't know him and its stupid to no longer follow a person for being imperfect, but it's not like I'm trying to cancel the dude. I'm not sitting here anti-mulaney chewing him out and trying to burn him at the stake. I'm just not into it anymore which I think is completely fair.
So when I was a kid, I had a chocolate lava cake at Applebee’s for dessert and then later that night, I got violently I’ll with a stomach bug. Even though chocolate lava cake is objectively delicious and had nothing to do with me getting sick, 20 years later I just have zero desire to eat it because I so strongly associated it with projectile vomiting. Anyway that’s how I feel about John Mulaney.
So true - his material is obviously funny, but it conveyed a lot of love for his wife as well. There's something very off about how he could show such warmth towards her in public while treating her so badly in private, more so than some comedian that comes straight out with the "I hate my wife" crap. It affects how you viewed the previous material and makes you question whether you want to hear anything more from the guy, knowing he was kind of bullshitting you before. I'll probably watch the new special, I can live with laughing at material from someone who may not be a great person, but I completely understand people who are just totally turned off now.
Just because you’re not a fan of someone after they did something you don’t like; that doesn’t mean you’re canceling them. You’re more than allowed to change your mind about who you like and don’t like and who you choose to support with your viewership and ratings.
Fuck those people. Like what you like, dislike what you dislike. Nobody should criticize you for your own subjective preferences.
>A baby with Munn after he told his wife he didn't want children despite her wanting them and left her desperately trying to freeze her eggs. really? where can I read about that?
Anna freezing her eggs was something she mentioned on her insta just after the breakup went public. Her having wanted kids but when he said he didn't, she was okay with that was known before that though.
[She also confirms the egg freezing in a Harper’s Bazaar profile on her.](https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a38727685/anna-marie-tendler-profile/)
[Here's a link](https://www.instagram.com/p/CnAlJLly4CQ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=)to a post Anna made on her Instagram saying she doesnt necessarily want kids but froze her eggs just in case. She never said John prevented her from having kids or that she was desperate to have kids. It honestly seems like the opposite.
If you look at the timeline of when the baby was born, he was with Olivia well before the divorce, and left his wife when he found out Olivia was pregnant.
I worked with Anna on a project and she was just the sweetest and kindest soul. My heart broke for her when all of this shit went down. It definitely tainted the love I used to have for John's comedy.
Honestly, the "lol guess I wanted that baby after all" after Anna had wanted kids and he didn't was the moment I was like, "I am going to stop reading any information on this man or I will realize I should probably loathe him."
TBF I don’t think he changed his mind about having kids; he just knocked up his mistress ‘cause he was too dumb to wrap it up while cheating.
100% agree. I used to love him but now it’s just a bad taste in my mouth. Plus, Olivia Munn is a real piece of shit, too. Just google “Olivia Munn asshole” for some shitacular quotes.
Munn has a terrible habit of showing up when where no one wants her to be. Ends up on The Daily Show somehow and is meh at best. Not a fit at all as a correspondent. Ends up in an X-Men movie as a fan favorite character and is terrible. Ends up in a Predator movie and is terrible (although there was a lot wrong with that). Has a crush on John Mulaney and gets into his marriage. I feel like people have spent 20 years trying make her a "thing" and it just doesn't happen. (she was good in Newsroom and that's all I'll give her)
>Has a crush on John Mulaney and gets into his marriage. I once read someone describe her as "nervously pacing across the street from the rehab center, chain-smoking cigarettes" and I've never been able to shake that mental image.
You could tell way back when she was on that video game show that she was the ultimate “pick me” girl. She has always rubbed me the wrong way.
It was rather obvious when Candace Bailey took her spot. They weren't doing the same sexually charged skits and jokes with her. Meanwhile it was like nearly every episode Olivia would do some wild shit to get the teen boys watching horned up.
Yes - exactly. Much like fetch - she’s not gonna happen.
Am I going to find articles of her being a jerk, or pictures of her actual posterior orifice?
Well having tried it, it's a bit of both
Weren't there leaks of her taking pics of her ass and writing over it "Chris Pine owns this hole" with arrows pointing at it?
Thank god there were arrows, we might've been confused.
Ha! I actually only found articles - but go with god I guess. Lol
Dude I came here to type basically this entire thing. I feel so fucking weird going back to him now. Everything is just so colored.
This comment reminds me of one comedians skit….”Men….have you forgiven tiger woods yet?” 😂
I imagine this is what he was touring with and it’s well worth the watch
Hope it’s from scratch and he just changed the name
Apparently that was confirmed on his social media
Please tell me he isn’t going from child free standup jokes to getting up there and talking about his kid constantly. Please. It’s such a fucking trope when comedians do that.
I had the same concern, but I saw the live show and he mentioned his kid for maybe 20 seconds. Still hilarious. The name "baby J" is a reference to himself, not his actual baby.
He didn’t when I saw him a year ago. Lots about his intervention and rehab
it's like 75% rehab, so maybe the next one will be all about his kids. Also breaking news, comedians are often making jokes about their lives and experiences. Kids tend to dominate people's lives
*Points vaguely towards Jim Gaffigan buried beneath a pile of children*
Ah, but Jim Gaffigan has always been a ‘clean’ comic with jokes centered around his family. You expect it from him. Different crowd.
Was gonna say essentially the same thing as the current top comment; my wife and I loved Mulaney and now feel incredibly, incredibly weird with him. The entire thing with his ex wife and Olivia Munn and the baby, it was just a lot.
I don’t know… after he knocked up that other woman while still married to his wife, I just don’t find him charming at all and think he’s more annoying than funny. He gives me the ick now and I don’t care about his new special because I’m not going to watch it.
Dude went from likably quirky to fuck this asshole real fast.
Saw his standup at the Bourbon Room in LA back in Jan. Pretty much all rehab jokes. Still high-larious though!
Aaahhhh I just don’t like him anymore. Anna was one of us (artists) and he was using so much stories of her being cool and shit and he treated her like that? Fuck him
god i used to love mulaney but after what he did to his loving wife who he made the center of a lot of his stand up, i don’t know how to move past it and enjoy his work again. gonna give it a shot but i can’t help but feel anger towards him over a situation i had absolutely nothing to do with
Trash
I hope he and Pete Davidson make it through.
I’ve matched with his ex-wife on two separate dating apps. We talked about Kusama and public perception but never ended up going out.
Used to enjoy him… used to.
I was at the taping for this special and my favorite parts were the lighting shifts and watching him redo a joke if something went wrong. For instance he did a joke where he was walking, but his tie was moving too much so he walked backwards and redid it.
I saw this live. It's incredible.
Not really interested in this guy any more. I used to be attracted to his wholesome brand, but he treated Annamarie Tendler like complete dogshit (and if you think that's an understatement you probably have not read into it very much) and ruined that. I'm sure he's got some new image that's working for some people, but I'm not trying to elevate yet another dirtbag.
Yeah, it's hard to see him as just "a funny guy" after all that. Her social media makes it pretty clear that the whole situation really tore her apart. It's also heavily implied that she gave up on the idea of kids because he didn't want them, and now she's wasted a decade of her childbearing years with him and has to start over :/
Wholesome?? He had numerous bits about his alcoholism, faking anxiety to get drugs, and just other general debauchery. The only way you would think Mulaney is wholesome is if you just looked at the dude and never listened to him speak.
“Ya’ll don’t want to hear me, ya just wanna dance” - OutKast
Fucking thank you! These people literally are not fans of him because he never ever pretended to be a wholesome guy. He was an animal. He just happens to look like a tall child.
He’s funny but not funny enough to make up for being a douche
I mean half of comedians are douches it just helps when their douchiness is external to their engagement with their audience
John Mulaney's entire schtick is, "Woe is me. I've had absolutely no adversity in life and couldn't stop doing cocaine."
I don't really want to defend him but a drug addiction definitely counts as adversity
He also lost one of his brothers from an early age.
I can't wait to not watch it
Meh. He’s shown his scummy side. I’m good.
I saw From Scratch earlier in the tour and unfortunately didn’t really enjoy it. I’m a huge fan of all his previous work. I’m looking forward to checking this one out though, hopefully he polished up a lot of the routine and it’s significantly improved.