Something cool about SNL is that it is usually a stepping stone for people’s careers. It gets interesting to see what they do with their careers after the hit show.
John Mulaney was a writer from 2008 to 2013. One of his most successful bits was a bit on a weekend update called Stefon (Bill Hader). This bit ran the whole time Mulaney was a writer on the show. In the last installment Mulany guest started as a friend of Stefon. Even though the bit ended in 2013, this took place as a one-night thing in 2018.
He appeared in a few sketches throughout the years. He appeared in many sketches after his time at SNL when he would host occasionally.
After his time on SNL, he did a few stand-up shows, tours and Netflix Specials.
He also got together with another comic named Nick Croll to come up with the animated Netflix show Big Mouth.
This show came out in 2017 and is now in its 7th season. The concept of this show is that it follows a group of animated middle schoolers and their trials and tribulations going through puberty.
Through funny songs and other jokes, they have told this story for 7 years.
Most of John Mulaneys previous work has been light hearted and PG. That was until it came out in late 2020 that Mulaney went to rehab.
As it is poked fun at in the space of comedians, Mulaney did a lot of drugs. In his most recent special he talks about his addiction and intervention.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, his friends invited him over to there house and with some of his friends on zoom and some in person they has an intervention for him.
After this meeting, he has to collect his things and go to rehab per his friend’s strong suggestion.
The reason this story is so well known is because he openly talks about his experience in his most recent stand-up special titled “Baby J”.
To jump to the end of this special, for the last section he reads and annalizes a GQ Article with an interview from him he doesn’t remember having. This is due to the fact that it took place three days before he was sent to rehab.
The interview is full of him being out of it and giving very interesting answers to the questions. This interview was done over the phone so he was in his home.
One of the more interesting parts of this interview is the question, “I want to talk about how this year has been for you creatively, because around this time last year, you were coming off Sack Lunch Bunch, which was arguably one of your biggest creative risks and it really paid off. How has your creative process been impacted by this year?” What Mulany said next was expected by no one. This arguably seems like a straightforward question. Mulany said, “If you heard that spoon, it’s because I’m eating a bowl of Fruit Loops. Working in this new reality, at first I thought, “Okay, now’s your chance. Literally, you’ll be alone without any collaborators. You can write anything you want.”
This answer is not taken out of context the Fruit Loops comment was actually the beginning to his answer for is question.
In his special, he fully pulls apart this interview discuss what was possibly going on in his head at the time. He does this in a very funny way to make himself feel better about the situation.
Fun fact about his first stand-up tour after coming back from rehab he sold shirts that said “I saw him after he got outta rehab.”
Early in this interview, he talks about his interactions with ghosts and other thing of that nature. He also goes on to barely answer the questions being asked and more of just goes on little rants the whole time.
Even though his comedy is seemly still light-hearted he was able to put together a new show that took the type of comedy that he has always done and then mold it into something the could help him during a hard time.
The GQ Article in Reference: https://www.gq.com/story/john-mulaney-marvel-spider-verse-snl-seth-meyers-interview