It's Election Day, so here's John Mulaney and Seth Meyers being funny and sweet for 20 minutes
Aux Features Clips
Deep, steadying breath, everyone. It’s Election Day in America. And not just Election Day, but the biggest, scariest, most potentially disastrous and republic-ending Election Day since—nope, this is it. This is the one. And late-night hosts, who’ve spent the last four-plus years finding ways to be funny while soul-vomiting at the daily reality of a Donald Trump presidency, spent their last pre-election shows making their final pitches for sanity and booking guests doing the same. Stephen Colbert summed up the oddly calming futility of worrying about what to do at this point, quoting Apollo 13’s Jim Lovell by saying of our careening-into-the-possible-void nation, “Isaac Newton is in the driver’s seat now.” (Colbert’s zen attitude aside, there’s plenty you can still do, even if you’ve already voted. Like charging up your cell phone to watch out for any of Trump’s self-ordained white supremacist militia of “poll watchers” harassing voters at your local polling place. Just spitballing.)
But Maybe Seth Meyers had the best idea of all, inviting pal, fellow SNL alum, stand-up star, recent Saturday Night Live host, and all-around guy who never seems to get too high or low about anything, John Mulaney. With his friend and former SNL coworker (or, as Mulaney was quick to correct, “employee”) safely distanced on the Late Night couch, and without an audience to play to, the two basically just shot the shit for a while. And with Mulaney, that’s essentially the sort of comfort viewing we could all use about now. Especially as the two spent an extended (unedited video below) segment just chatting about their relationship, their time on SNL, and Mulaney’s “remarkably effective, terrible” go-to icebreaker question, “Have you ever seen a ghost?” (Meyers says no, while Mulaney is hilariously on-the-record on the topic.)
The duo spent a while riffing on Mulaney’s wardrobe, a far-too-hip jacket given to Mulaney by Julian Casablancas, frontman of Saturday’s musical guest, The Strokes. Mulaney, putting on the sunglasses Casablancas left in the pocket, did, as he admitted, look like the nerd in the 1980s teen movie trying too hard to be cool at a party. (Think the stoned Anthony Michael Hall in The Breakfast Club. That’s the idea.) But most of the time was spent with Meyers answering real, genuinely sort-of touching questions from Mulaney’s notebook, like “Who do you wish you’d been closer to that you weren’t?,” and “Have I ever hurt your feelings?” On the latter, Mulaney claims head writer boss Meyers never did, with any aloofness at bad news stemming from being “mad at the system.” (Meaning Lorne, essentially.) Still, Mulaney was sincere in thanking Meyers for being the one who initially went to bat in suggesting Mulaney try out for SNL, with Mulaney saying of the life-changing experience, “It was like picking up rocks off the ground, and you were like, ‘You wanna go to the moon?’”
Basically, Meyers, who did book Tracy Chapman as well to sing an unsurprisingly stirring rendition of “Talkin’ ’Bout A Revolution,” knew we’d all need a solid 20 minutes with a funny friend to at least block out some entertainingly sweet time away from our phones today. (Colbert, in his monologue, aptly predicted most people’s Election Day as, “hope-dreading while laugh-screaming at our doomscrolling.”) So vote if you haven’t already, stay hydrated, take walks, keep your cell camera ready, and, like Meyers and Mulaney, give yourself permission to just be human for a little while.
17 Comments
late-night hosts, who’ve spent the last four-plus years finding ways to be funny[citation needed]
First?
Martyyyy
John Mulaney IS Vincent Adultman.
So did Mulaney repeat his SNL bit that it didn’t matter who you voted for? That was really funny and sweet.
That part about how some things won’t change was poorly stated, but he did also say outright that we’re trying to defeat Nazis, which I thought balanced it a bit.
Nazis that are, according to John’s dad, as bad as John.
“No matter what happens, nothing much will change in the United States. The rich will continue to prosper while the poor languish, families will be upended by mental illness and drug addiction.”
It’s kind of disappointing to see that Mulaney is as dumb as the the average celebrity (who is in turn as dumb as the average American – which is pretty dumb) but there would be a metric fuckton of difference for all of us if there weren’t 3 more Republican judges on the Supreme Court, for example. Or, can you imagine the different kind of environmental outcomes we could be looking for to if Al Gore had won in 2000? People are dumb as hell.
No one is less interesting than the guy who goes around talking about how dumb everyone else is.
Mulaney is not a dumb guy at all, but I agree that joke was bad timing and bad judgement. Especially since I think he was just trying to use it as a segue way to the bit about sleepovers or whatever… Like it was supposed to be a throwaway line but it marred the whole set. I mean, Trey Parker and Matt Stone deserve the shit they get for propegating that sentiment and for the damage it’s done (even as they seem to be be wising up) and it should hang over their careers. Mulaney definitely deserves to be called out for one joke in his monologue but based on all I know of him (as a fan, of course, and I am biased) I don’t think it’s what he actually believes.
“I mean, Trey Parker and Matt Stone deserve the shit they get for propegating that sentiment and for the damage it’s done”Turns out Giant Douche *was* as better choice than Turd Sandwich
Yeah, god forbid anyone be even remotely cynical while performing a comedy routine. But I guess we should call him a trump enabler or some stupid shit now.
I read it more like voting Joe Biden in isn’t going to magically undue all the systemic problems that have been going on long before Trump over night, but sure.
Sure, and that’s absolutely the message to push on the eve of an important election
I liked the love for Sneakers – definitely the best hacker movie of all time, and has a top notch cast through and through. Little surprised they didn’t mention James Earl Jones when listing cast members, even if he’s only in person for one scene.
I’m just waiting for the moment the old timey dam inside him breaks and he says what he really feels.