John Mulaney’s 11 Best Roles
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The post John Mulaney’s 11 Best Roles appeared first on Consequence.
John Mulaney’s career feels like it’s been going on several tracks simultaneously for years now. His stand-up, his increasingly prolific work as a voice actor, and his rich history of guest-starring roles have all contributed to his status as one of today’s leading comedy voices. While his stand-up is a singular aspect of that, it’s also exciting to look at just how deep a resume he has as a performer, whether playing an animated super-pig, a cantankerous old man, or a literary icon.
For the purposes of this list, assembled in celebration of his birthday (August 26th), we did not consider his individual stand-up specials or his iconic work co-hosting the Independent Spirit Awards with Nick Kroll (though they’re all remarkable feats that you should check out). Instead, we focused on the times when he’s made some effort to step outside himself… though Mulaney’s comedy has always thrived in the space between what we know is real and what we might perceive, meaning that even the times he’s played “John Mulaney,” we’re never quite sure what we’re seeing. All that’s certain is that we’re laughing.
You also can catch Mulaney playing himself — that is, doing stand-up — this September when he heads on a short tour with Jon Stewart and Pete Davidson. Get tickets here.
— Liz Shannon Miller
Senior Entertainment Editor
George St. Geegland — Oh, Hello on Broadway (2016)
Oh Hello! on Broadway (Netflix)
When watching John Mulaney as the geriatric George St. Geegland in Oh, Hello, not only is his comedic prowess on display, but you get the sense that this character is someone who lives inside of him. In many of Mulaney’s characters, there’s an urge to slip into someone this ridiculous, and George St. Geegland gives him full freedom to be as bizarre — and psychotic — as possible. Mulaney, of course, is accompanied by a similarly chaotic Nick Kroll in Oh, Hello, and their partnership results in New York-centric, occasionally explosive comedy.
Though Mulaney had first developed the character in the early 2000s, a few appearances as St. Geegland on Kroll Show helped cement his power, leading to multiple reprisals throughout the 2010s, all culminating in the run of Oh, Hello on Broadway (pronounced “brud-way“). There, the little details of George St. Geegland — his barking speaking voice, his old guy-dirtbag anecdotes, and the pinpoint specificity of his jokes (a typical Mulaney trope) — solidified him as an unforgettable character. — Paolo Ragusa
Cecil Jellford — Difficult People (2016)
Difficult People (Hulu)
One of the curious qualities of Julie Klausner and Billy Eichner’s weird and wonderful Hulu comedy series Difficult People is how many straight men ended up playing love interests for Eichner’s character, including John Cho, Seth Meyers, and Joel McHale (okay, he was a cannibal, but there was still some tension there). Mulaney also made a memorable appearance in the Season 2 premiere, “Unplugged,” as a random gym hook-up that Billy tries to date properly — only to discover that Cecil is an “old-timey” obsessed with anachronistic culture. It’s a silly bit, but when Mulaney commits to a character, he commits hard, and every beat of Cecil and Billy’s romance sings because of his fearlessness. — L.S. Miller
Andrew Glouberman — Big Mouth (2017-present)
Big Mouth (Netflix)
The long-running animated series Big Mouth, set to end with its upcoming eighth season, features another team-up between Kroll and Mulaney, as the two of them play best friends Nick and Andrew, perennial 13-year-olds “going through changes.” While Kroll is playing a character based in part on his own friendship with co-creator Andrew Goldberg, Mulaney gets to bring a lot of himself to the role of Andrew. His signature suave droll gets a lot of use during Andrew’s most awkward moments, a hilarious comedic juxtaposition that’s essential to the show’s off-kilter approach to adolescence. — L.S. Miller
Host — Saturday Night Live (2018-2022)
Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Mulaney got his initial start in comedy as a writer for Saturday Night Live, but after finally getting mainstream recognition for his comedy work, he returned home to become an incredibly swift inductee into the Five Timers Club (he hosted for the first time in 2018, and got his jacket on February 26th, 2022). It’s not hard to understand why he became a go-to host for the long-running sketch comedy series, as his episodes always ended up feeling special, with perhaps his most demented ongoing bit being the series of musical sketches that began with “Diner Lobster” in 2018 and culminated with “Airport Sushi” in 2020. — L.S. Miller
Spider-Ham — Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Spider-Ham: Caught in a Ham (Sony)
Mulaney’s voice during his stand-up has always been kind of cartoonish, exaggerating those high notes to really hammer home the humor. So if you’re going to make him a superhero, it makes sense it’d be one who hammers the bad guys with an oversized mallet that fits in your pocket. There’s something just downright perfect about his casting as the voice of Peter Porker, Spider-Ham in the Spider-Verse franchise, where he can deliver just about every line like it’s the punchline of a bit because the character essentially is a bit. The fact that’s he’s able to find some pathos in the goofy little porker just shows how precise his exaggeration really is. — Ben Kaye
“John Mulaney” — Crashing, Bupkis (2018, 2023)
Bupkis (Peacock)
When Mulaney has to play Mulaney in something that isn’t his own project, what we’re really witnessing is a perception of the man. Take his pre-rehab appearances on HBO’s Crashing, where he’s an egotistical jerk with a carefully crafted public persona. Integral to the season finale, he only warms up to leading man Pete Holmes once Holmes proves he’s worth Mulaney’s super-star time. Then there’s Bupkis, a post-rehab spot where he addresses his battle with substance abuse as he tries to help Pete Davidson confront his own. This is a more toned down, matured Mulaney, but even he acknowledges he’s in constant internal crisis. The magic is he’s captivating as both incarnations as himself — warm even when’s a jerk, kind of a jerk even when he’s being warm. Either way, if this is how the people who know him write him for him, the fictionalized Mulaney makes the non-fiction Mulaney seem like someone you’d like to have in your circle of friends. — B. Kaye
Henry David Thoreau — Dickinson (2019)
Dickinson (Apple TV+)
Dickinson had a great line-up of guest stars over its three-season run, as the literary world of titular poet Emily Dickinson (Hailee Stenfield) needed populating. Casting Mulaney, and then pushing him to give Henry David Thoreau a real jackass vibe, was one of its most ingenious choices. “Never meet your heroes,” the writer of Walden tells young Emily, before he goes on to prove exactly why that is. — L.S. Miller
Himself — John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch (2019)
John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch (Netflix)
Tender-hearted and odd, The Sack Lunch Bunch is one of Mulaney’s more interesting experiments. As the MC of the slightly askew children’s show, he’s able to turn something that presents itself initially as silly into something very sentimental, while the cast of 15 very talented young children keep the whole thing afloat. Inspired by shows like Sesame Street and The Electric Company, Mulaney’s take on children’s musical media tackles the idea of fear in a way that ends up feeling somewhat wise, enhanced by the moments of vulnerability he personally brings to the screen. — Mary Siroky
Simon Sawyer — Documentary Now! (2019)
Documentary Now! (IFC)
In Season 3 of Documentary Now! lies “Original Cast Album: Co-Op,” arguably the series’ best episode ever. Each cast member, from Renée Elise Goldsberry to Richard Kind, delivers an Emmy-worthy performance, but it’s Mulaney’s turn as composer Simon Sawyer that remains one of his most hilarious roles. Actively a parody of Stephen Sondheim, Mulaney executes the “tortured, incredibly rude musical genius” archetype perfectly, and his balance between intense perfectionism and outright nihilism is remarkable. When he occasionally decides to provide a note to his cast in the recording studio, his demanding, unpredictable suggestions are lovably absurd — and as one of the episode’s co-writers, you can tell it’s a role that Mulaney had wanted to play for a long time. — P. Ragusa
Chip — Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)
Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (Disney+)
This Emmy-nominated film was a lot funnier and more demented than it got credit for, and Mulaney’s dulcet tones were just one variable in that very funny equation. There’s just something about Mulaney’s talent as a voice actor, encapsulating a certain level of maturity in the most immature circumstances, which makes him such a natural fit for a project like this; as Chip, the more serious of the two title characters, he offers a grounding influence opposite the equally well-cast Andy Samberg as Dale. If you’ve seen it, you know how wild it is that this movie even exists, and yet it’s still streaming now on Disney+. — L.S. Miller
Stevie — The Bear (2023)
The Bear (FX)
To wander into an emotional war zone during the holidays — in a flashback episode also featuring Jamie Lee Curtis, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, and Gillian Jacobs — is not for the faint of heart. But because the show loves to toe the line between family drama and comedy, Mulaney absolutely kills it in Season 2 of Hulu’s The Bear as the straight man in the chaos of Christmas, offering a few of the sparse laughable moments in the high-tension episode “Fishes.” There’s also an element of homecoming to his role: The Chicago native is visibly having a great time in the company of actors who have steeped themselves in the lingo and mannerisms of the Midwestern city. — M. Siroky
John Mulaney’s 11 Best Roles
Consequence Staff
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