Esquire USA - 10.2019

(Barry) #1
aesthetics of drag queens and the implicit fun-
niness (to him) of “midgets”; over-the-top
impressions of black characters (and one of a
mariachi band)—that he’s gotten much bet-
ter at avoiding. When it comes to the charge
among some comedians that so-called PC pu-
ritanism is threatening the profession, Mu-
laney says, “My friend Max Silvestri puts it
this way: ‘Why is everyone freaking out about
adapting?’ As a comedian, you constantly
step on your ego to go, ‘I’d like to be a bet-
ter comedian.’ ”
The second time Mulaney hosted SNL, this
past March, he ended his monologue with a
virtuoso imitation of an old-timey police si-
ren. He sustained the sound for a long twelve
seconds, then likened it to the dying moan of
“an old gay cat.” Given the care that he lavish-
es on every syllable, I ask whether any word
besides gay would have worked there. In part
I’m curious on the level of pure joke math. Be-
yond that, though, Mulaney’s career ascent
has coincided with a moment of increased
skepticism toward straight white men in com-
edy, and I wonder how that’s entered into his
thinking when he sculpts a joke these days.
“It would be totally dishonest to say it
hasn’t,” he says. “I’m a privileged white man
who has not had to deal with anything a mar-
ginal group deals with. So me saying, ‘No, that
word works better’ is, I don’t know... .” He
tries to make the case for it: “If the world were
1,000 percent different and no one had ev-
er been marginalized? In a vacuum, yes, it
was a good word. It’s a detail. A description
of something. I tried it on many audiences,
and I will trust the audience.” Rather than
end there, though, he gets into a back-and-
forth with himself about when a detail earns a
laugh and when it invokes an easy stereotype.
“Let’s think about this for a second,” he says.
“I’ve always tried to describe things that I ac-
tually saw once. I’m like, ‘This person came up
to me and I will tell you what they said to me.’
But I’m open to criticism of that.” He laughs,
looking to find his way back out of the weeds.
“We’re not a good breed, the white man. We
can be trained well, but.. .” He stops to gath-
er his thoughts. His willingness to evolve, he
continues, manifests “less in what you see on-
stage and more in what you don’t.”
In November 2017, The New York Times re-
ported that several female comedians had ac-
cused Louis C. K. of inappropriate sexual be-
havior. At the time, Mulaney and C. K. shared a
manager, Dave Becky, who, it was alleged, used
his industry power over the years to suppress
several of those accusers’ stories. Mulaney qui-
etly fired him, having concluded that Becky was
dishonest with him about his role in the scan-
dal. Mulaney doesn’t want to discuss it further
on the record. Speaking to Vulture about C. K.
and Becky this past March, he said, “Women’s
opinions matter, and mine does not.”

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