John Mulaney- Gen Z’s favorite stand-up comedian and tall child. His phenomenal storytelling skills, signature vocal inflections (where Every Word Sounds Like It’s Capitalized) and chaotic goofball energy, combined with the fact that he looks and sounds like an old-timey radio host, make every moment of every one of his shows absolute comedic gold. Over spring break, I had the privilege of rewatching John Mulaney’s Netflix specials with a friend of mine, who is a sweet summer child and has never seen them before. Afterwards, I took it upon myself to rank and review all of his shows for your reading pleasure. However, since none of them can be called “bad,” I focused mainly on summarizing their many frequently-memed bits and lines and ranking them based on how funny I found them overall. Enjoy!
#4: The Top Part (2009)
The bulk of the content in ‘The Top Part’ consists of bits about John’s life in New York, from the riches of (pre-presidency) Donald Trump to Jerry Orbach’s eyes to accidentally chasing a woman in a subway station late at night. He gets candid about getting blackout drunk and somehow waking up with more money than he left the house with (“that means I traded money for goods and/or services. Which is scary.”) He closes with one of his most iconic bits known as “The Salt and Pepper Diner,” which recounts the best meal he had as a child, during which he requested not one, not two, but twenty-one plays of Tom Jones’ “What’s New Pussycat?” on a diner jukebox with his best friend and watched the other restaurant patrons descend into madness. (Available on YouTube and Spotify.)
#3: The Comeback Kid (2015)
“Comeback Kid” sees an increase in John Mulaney’s storytelling, including the origin of many iconic lines that are attributed to him less often, such as “2020? That’s not a real year,” “stop snitching, motherf*cker,” and “I am very small and I have no money, so you can imagine the kind of stress that I am under.” He goes into detail about marrying his wife (“and that’s my WIFE!”), meeting Bill Clinton (who attended Yale with his parents and was his mother’s crush) at age 12, and the time during his childhood when his father gave into their pleas to stop by McDonald’s on a road trip, only to get a single black coffee in the drive-through (another often-quoted story). We are introduced to his French bulldog puppy, Petunia, who makes a cameo appearance at the start and is established early on in the show as a “bad dog.” Besides its comedic content, I felt that “Comeback Kid” was also very aesthetically pleasing to watch: through the magic of complementary colors, John’s navy suit pairs very nicely with the dark orange background. (Available on Netflix.)
#2: New in Town (2012)
“New in Town” is arguably Mulaney’s most iconic show, with many hilarious lines and bits that are associated with him, including “John Mulaney killed Princess Diana,” “tall child,” “in a brilliant moment of word association,” and “I said no, you know, like a liar.”
Out of all of his content, this consists of bits with the most variety, with topics ranging from the movie ‘Home Alone 2: Lost in New York’ to his negative experiences with Delta Airlines to being “a high-waisted man with feminine hips.” He ends by bringing down the house with one of my favorite bits, a story about attempting to get a Xanax prescription from his doctor and receiving an unplanned prostate exam in the process. Like “The Salt and Pepper Diner,” “The Xanax Story” simply gets funnier and funnier every time I listen to it. (Available on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Spotify.)
#1: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City (2018)
John Mulaney goes even deeper into the storytelling in ‘Kid Gorgeous,’ recounting his elementary school “Street Smarts!” assemblies with one Sheriff J.J. Bittenbinder, writing for SNL with Mick Jagger (the origin of the “No! Yeah!” meme template), and his thoughts on higher education (“college is like a $120,000 hooker”). Though John rarely gets political in his comedy, the show features a classic bit comparing Trump being president to a horse being loose in the hospital. We hear more about his extremely healthy relationship with his wife (“my wife is a bitch and I love her SO much!”) and about attending church every Sunday as a child. I was in stitches the. Entire. Time. Finally, aesthetically speaking, I believe that ‘Kid Gorgeous’ had the nicest background— that purple, blue, and gold art deco backdrop simply can’t be beat. (Available on Netflix.)