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.”Jacket and
shirt by Dolce &
Gabbana.