To close his post-rehab special “Baby Jay,” rockstar comedian John Mulaney recited the transcription of a GQ interview he does not remember giving because he was under the influence of hard drugs.
In said interview, he spewed what semblances of a talk show concept he had in mind at the time; a few years later, he debuted “Everybody’s in LA” for Netflix in 2024, then rebranded it for a weekly rollout on the streamer as “Everybody’s Live” this spring.
Whether he’s working clean or leaning into the obscene, thriving comfortably as a stand-up or taking “Sack Lunch Bunch”-level creative risks, Mulaney has always proven to win his crowd.
Noted for being a highly idiosyncratic variety show, "Everybody's Live’s” weird energy blends ‘90s Conan and Adult Swim’s "The Eric Andre Show" with a David Lynch-grade fever dream, RIP.
Mulaney will typically host famous friends of his as guests, plus a less-than-wild card academic or professional who wields expertise in that episode’s theme. Some topics tend to alienate part of the viewing public sans the requisite experiences.
However, Wednesday, April 9th’s “Getting Fired” is as evergreen as chatter fodder gets.
Bill Hader, Chelsea Peretti, Johnny Knoxville and real-life H.R. professional Catie Maillard’s stories came between big-swing torpedo-barrels like: (1) Mulaney’s second banana, character actor Richard Kind, believing himself to be K*I*S*S frontman Gene Simmons after a head injury; (2) Chester Cheetah’s real-life inspiration performing a song-and-dance number; and (3) a loaded pre-taped interview with Michael Jackson’s pet chimpanzee, “Bubbles.”
Hader recalled the time he was fired as a movie theater ticket-ripper for spoiling the end of 1997’s “Titanic” to a group of sorority girls for ridiculing his Charles Mansonesque disposition.
This went viral the second he uttered it.
Knoxville—who Mulaney sincerely remarked should receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor—talked about how his friendliness overrode his bossman responsibilities in the early “Jackass” days. In true George Costanza fashion, some of his fellow screw-loose colleagues who he fired would just continue to show up as if nothing happened.
Maillard illuminated the professional funnymen on how employee coaches also tasked with bad news deliverance must avoid saying “sorry” as a liability-prevention measure.
At the top of his Episode No. 5 monologue, Mulaney may have lifted one of his strongest bits from a future special to introduce the night’s theme. First and foremost, he addressed that a life of privilege in showbusiness has afforded him the luxury of evading traditional firing.
Nevertheless, he still found the burden of professional purgatory greatly weighing on him after leaving his “Saturday Night Live” head writer post to develop his own pilot he has since characterized as a “total, unmitigated f—ng disaster.”
Before NBC rejected his sitcom pitch and FOX opted in, he landed a job writing a Madden Commercial starring actor Paul Rudd and then-NFL linebacker Ray Lewis.
Mulaney’s lengthy, off-the-wall anecdote about the latter giving him some wild sage advice at the “crafty” table back in 2012 perfectly encapsulates how one’s search for a “deus ex machina” between full-time gigs can transform into mad libs real quick.
It's that "Betwixt, Betweenland” where you will take anything you can get—someone with the right words, any words, at exactly the right time.
Anything to win your crowd.