IN JANUARY,
Mulaney appeared with Pete Davidson on
SNL’s Weekend Update to make fun of Clint
Eastwood’s The Mule. Early in the bit, Da-
vidson, who has grappled publicly with men-
tal-health issues, alluded to a note he posted
to Instagram last year in which he threatened
suicide. On live TV, Mulaney turned to him,
and with genuine emotion said, “Pete, look at
me, look me in the eye. You are loved by ma-
ny, and we’re glad you’re okay.”
I ask about this moment a couple days after
the rehearsal, over lunch at Russ & Daugh-
ters, a gourmet Jewish café that’s like the Wil-
ly Wonka factory of kippered herring. (“Please
don’t print this if it sounds wrong, but I so
identify with the Jewish people,” he says.) “I
tell him I love him all the time,” Mulaney says
of Davidson. “I have a lot of friends who are
like Italian grandmothers, just like, ‘How areyou? I love you!’ ” He pauses. “Pete and I came
up with that bit together, but in my head, I
was like, ‘I hope this is a cathartic thing for
him.’ However it came to be, I was very glad
it was there.”
The Mule routine may have looked like the
straitlaced older brother addressing his way-
ward sibling. But Mulaney’s relationship to
self-destructive behavior is more complex: He