John Mulaney’s Baby J: an Analysis

In his newest special Baby J, John Mulaney addresses one of the main elephants in the
room for his viewers: What happened? Mulaney is a widely known, yet somewhat controversial
American comedian who got his start on Saturday Night Live (SNL) as a writer who would
occasionally appear on air. Perhaps his most famous work while on Saturday Night Live was his
“Stefon” character, portrayed by Bill Hader, who would give bizarre, made-up descriptions of
New York’s club scene. John Mulaney joined the “five-timer” SNL club in 2022, meaning that
he had hosted the show five times. It would be difficult and lengthy to list everything that
Mulaney has been involved in, as that list ranges widely from a children’s musical special (John
Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch), to raunchy adult animation (Big Mouth), to a failed sitcom
(Mulaney). Of all his projects, Mulaney is best known for his stand-up comedy specials.
Since 2012, Mulaney has produced four stand-up specials, the most recent of which being
Baby J. Although it is admittedly my least favorite special of his, Baby J is still a wonderful
example of the unique style, tone, and delivery of both his writing and performance. At the heart
of Baby J lies a controversy. Mulaney’s controversy is a recent development in the past few
years, as before he was widely admired and praised for both his personal life and the quality of
his work. This recent infamy is due to his relapse with drug and alcohol addiction, and his
divorce from his ex-wife, Anna Marie Tendler. The divorce is notably not addressed in Baby J,
so it will not be discussed in this analysis. The addiction and subsequent intervention and stint in
rehab are the main focus of the special, however, and will thus be spoken on in this essay.
Baby J started as an international touring comedy show entitled “From Scratch” which I
had the privilege of attending in Cincinnati on March 13, 2022. The most notable thing about the
tour is its length, which was expanded several times and included more than 30 shows. The
takeaway from this is that by the time Baby J reached filming for Netflix in Boston,
Massachusetts, it was extremely refined and cut down for ultimate storytelling and comedic
efficiency. Unfortunately, Mulaney has a strictly enforced recording policy at his shows, so there
is no way to compare earlier versions of the special to the version that was ultimately released.
However, Mulaney appeared widely on late-night television episodes and podcasts to promote
the special around the time of its release and told several of the same anecdotes and jokes that
were told in Baby J.
In this analysis, I will examine the stylistic choices made in the special both in its
delivery and writing and compare those to the choices made in different iterations of the
material, such as those broadcast on late-night shows. I will also compare the delivery in Baby J
to the delivery of his earlier specials, noting how the delivery of the content relates with the
subject matter of the special. Additionally, I will pull from humor theory and examine how
Mulaney follows the theories.
College-educated, Catholic, with two lawyer parents, and often sporting a full suit on
stage, Mulaney has a formal, buttoned-up style that gives his comedy a more high-brow, elevated
tone than that of his contemporaries. This is exemplified in the chosen selection from the special
by the lack of contractions used, with Mulaney repeatedly saying “would have” instead of
“would’ve”. Mulaney also demonstrates this elevated tone by using polysyllabic words not
frequently used in stand-up, like “immediate.”
Although Mulaney retains his elevated tone in Baby J, one notable difference between
John Mulaney’s latest special and his prior ones is his delivery. As Mulaney himself said in Baby
J, “if you’ve seen me do stand-up before, I have kind of a different vibe now. When I was a
younger man, I’d come out on stage and be like, ‘Hey!’ [babbling rapidly] And I wonder what
caused that. Well, those days are over. That’s it. That’s over.” Mulaney, like many other
comedians, utilizes imitation and mimicry to effectively play more than one “part” in the
delivery of a story. In comedy, this replication comes with the opportunity to lampoon the other
in the story. When Mulaney mimics others in his other specials, he uses exaggerated voices and
plays with the volume of his voice to add an extra layer of comedy. However, since the main
focus of Baby J is one personal experience Mulaney had, rather than vignettes throughout his
life, he utilizes exaggerated voices and volume-control less often, leading to a more subdued,
down-to-earth feel. This toned-down version of Mulaney also fits with the subject matter of the
special, the serious topic of drug addiction. Mulaney’s comedy masterfully toes the line between
comedy and tragedy with the special never crossing the line into somber and always remaining
funny and upbeat.
 An apt example of Mulaney toeing the line between comedy and tragedy is when he
comedically reflects upon walking into his intervention. when Mulaney performs the lines,
“When I got there, it was a trick. There was no dinner. It was an intervention. For me.
Interventions for me, are my least favorite kind of intervention,” he makes several intentional
stylistic choices that elevate the humor of the moment. When he makes these choices, Mulaney
engages the audience watching both at home and live in the theater. He repeats the word
“intervention” three times. This both serves to utilize the magic number of three in comedy, and
to direct the viewer’s focus to the main topic of his special early on. The rule of three is a
comedy principle that states a trio of phrases should end with a subversion of the audience’s
expectations set up by the first two instances of the phrase. The rule of three is again used when
Mulaney is explaining his viewpoint as he was walking into his intervention. “’Going to dinner
with a friend from college!’ ‘Going to dinner with a friend from college!’ ‘Going to dinner with
a friend from college!’ ‘What’s Seth Meyers doing here?’ ‘Fuck!’” The delivery of this joke also
uses rhythm to subvert the audience’s expectations, one of the main goals of comedy. The use of
rhythm is so effective that it doesn’t even have to be orated to serve its purpose, when the reader
reads the three repetitions of “going to dinner with a friend from college,” a clear, almost poetic
rhythm is established, only to be radically thrown off by “What’s Seth Meyers doing here?”
“Fuck!” This deviation from the established rhythm also mirrors the confusion that Mulaney felt
in the moment that the story was happening, and thus helps the audience more easily empathize
with Mulaney. This empathizing serves two very clever, but very different purposes. The
primary goal from Mulaney’s perspective is to get the audience to more easily see the humor of
the situation, and to get the audience to sympathize with the comic, and possibly be more
forgiving of his choices that led to the aforementioned negative publicity.
Mulaney also invites the audience to be a part of the joke when he splits the phrase “It
was an intervention. For me” into two sentences. This splits the phrase into a setup/punchline
format. The audience presumably already knows that the intervention was for Mulaney, so him
stating it as if it was unknown reinforces the humor.
A large overarching theme in Mulaney’s writing style is restatement. He particularly likes
to state something, wait for the audience to begin laughing, and then state it again. This gives the
impression that Mulaney is rambling or trailing off in his speech, and is thus more relatable and
more effortlessly funny, when in reality the move is extremely calculated. Another example of
Mulaney comedically stating what the audience already knows can be found in the line “I was
two hours late, ’cause I was running two very important errands. First errand, I went to my drug
dealer’s apartment. I’m ashamed to tell you all I was there to buy drugs.” The audience knows
that Mulaney was there to buy drugs before he explicitly states it, but the restatement is where
the humor comes in. This line also draws attention to the ridiculousness of referring to buying
drugs as an “errand”. Most people would consider an errand doing something menial like
running to the grocery store or picking up dry cleaning, but Mulaney referring to his illegal
activity as such emphasizes the humor and conveys the normalcy of this for him at the given
point in his life.
This impression of effortlessness is also given in the line “I was two hours late, so when I
got there, everyone was mad-der at me.” Mulaney knows that “mad-der” is not a real word, but
the use of it juxtaposes the typically formal, properly-annunciated Mulaney with a childish
misuse of English. This juxtaposition subverts the audience’s expectations, and therefore makes
the comedy more effective.
Besides his stylistic choices, Mulaney also makes his comedy more effective by
following three primary humor theories. There are three main theories for what makes something
funny: superiority theory, relief theory, and incongruity theory. superiority theory was
popularized by philosopher Thomas Hobbes and essentially states that people find something
funny when it makes them feel superior when compared to either someone else, or their former
self. Relief Theory’s main advocate was Sigmund Freud, who posited that laughter is a release
from a build-up of tension created by the comedian. Incongruity Theory is perhaps the most
well-known of the three and was introduced by Aristotle. In his Rhetoric Aristotle says that the
best way to get an audience to laugh is to set up an expectation, and then subvert it.
Superiority Theory is the most obviously present humor theory when examining Baby J,
with Mulaney continuously showing the audience that he is the butt of the joke, for example
when he says, “When I walked into my intervention, I knew immediately that it was an
intervention. Do you know how bad of a drug problem you have to have, if when you open a
door, and see people gathered, your first and immediate thought is, ‘It’s probably an intervention
about my drug problem’?” Relief Theory is harder to spot but is still evident. When Mulaney
says, “Also, I was two hours late for my intervention. Well, I didn’t know people were waiting
on me. I wish I had. I would have been a million hours late.” He sets up tension with “I wish I
had”, making the audience wonder “why does he wish that?” He then relieves that tension with
the answer, that he would have been a million hours late. Incongruity theory can be found all
throughout the special and the bit, but one example is “I was two hours late, ’cause I was running
two very important errands. First errand, I went to my drug dealer’s apartment. I’m ashamed to
tell you all I was there to buy drugs.” Mulaney sets up the expectation in the audience that his
“errand” is something ordinary, but subverts that expectation when he admits that his errand is
purchasing drugs.
The appearance of spontaneity is essential for comedy to work, and Mulaney is a master
at this. Mulaney appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on April 26, 2023 to promote Baby J. He
chose to tell the story of him walking into his intervention, similarly to the story he tells in the
special, however there are key differences in the way Mulaney delivers the two instances. On
Jimmy Kimmel Live, Mulaney says, “You don’t know it’s an intervention when you come to it. I
thought it was dinner with two friends from college. It was not, I was two hours late for the
dinner. They were mad-der about that than the drugs. All their concern for me as a drug addict
really went away with the two hours late. Sorry about that, coke addicts, they’re not known for
their appetites.” Mulaney copies partially from the special in that he repeats the same content
from the story, but some of the comedic flair is lost. He forgoes the repetitive, rhythmic telling of
his thought process walking into the intervention with a much flatter retelling, simply stating the
facts of the situation. Mulaney keeps the instance of “mad-der” in this retelling, showing that
he’s confident in its ability to do some heavy lifting comedically. The bit about cocaine addicts
not being known for their appetites was not featured in the special, so he may have come up with
the joke after the special’s filming. Overall, the tone is much more conversational, as Kimmel
and Mulaney are friends. The clip demonstrates that Mulaney is ultra-perceptive to his
environment, whether that be a theatre filled with fans coming to see him alone, or a more casual
talk show where all of the viewers may not be previously familiar with him. Mulaney is able to
expertly tweak the specifics of his comedic choices and delivery according to how he perceives
this environment.
As a fellow stand-up comedian, I look up to John Mulaney a lot. He’s my favorite
comedian, and his style stands out to me as someone who, like Mulaney, went to college for
English and values the stylistic elements of stand-up comedy. In between beginning writing this
essay as its completion, I had the chance to see John Mulaney live again, this time in Columbus,
and found that I was able to observe what truly makes him funny with a new lens. I encourage
readers: the next time you watch a stand-up comedy special, pay close attention to the stylistic
choices the comedian makes. You may just find that the material becomes even funnier to you.

Appendix
“Baby J”
That night, December 18th, 2020, I was invited over to my friend’s apartment for dinner.
Exciting, right? No. When I got there, it was a trick. There was no dinner. It was an intervention.
For me. Interventions for me, are my least favorite kind of intervention. When I walked into my
intervention, I knew immediately that it was an intervention. Do you know how bad of a drug
problem you have to have, if when you open a door, and see people gathered, your first and
immediate thought is, “It’s probably an intervention about my drug problem”? “There’s no other
reason people would be behind a door.” This was my thought process, walking into my
intervention that night. “Going to dinner with a friend from college!” “Going to dinner with a
friend from college!” “Going to dinner with a friend from college!” “What’s Seth Meyers doing
here?” “Fuck!” Also, I was two hours late for my intervention. Well, I didn’t know people were
waiting on me. I wish I had. I would have been a million hours late. I was two hours late, so
when I got there, everyone was mad-der at me. They were like, “And you’re late.” I was like,
“Hey, if you wanted me here on time, you could have texted me, ‘John, we have cocaine.'” I
would have been a half hour early to help set up chairs. I was two hours late, ’cause I was
running two very important errands. First errand, I went to my drug dealer’s apartment. I’m
ashamed to tell you all I was there to buy drugs. (Baby J, 0:10:40)
 Works Cited

Mulaney, John. “Lost in New York.” YouTube, 24 Aug. 2023, youtu.be/DEDUrZSdkPY.

Lintott, Sheila. “Superiority in Humor Theory.” Oxford Academic Journal of Aesthetics and Art
Criticism, Oxford, 25 Oct. 2016, academic.oup.com/jaac/article/74/4/347/5981167.

Morreall, John. “Philosophy of Humor.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford

University, 20 Aug. 2020, plato.stanford.edu/entries/humor/.