# Anyone watch Fox's Mulaney starring John Mulaney? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 8, 2015, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-watch-foxs-mulaney-starring-john-mulaney/714524 "2015-03-08T13:28:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-watch-foxs-mulaney-starring-john-mulaney/714524/1 "2015-03-08T13:28:28Z")
I like John Mulaney’s standup act so wen I heard he was doing a sitcom I was excited to see it. I’ve watched a handful of episodes and I’m disappointed. I like the cast (Mulaney, Nasim Pedrad, Seaton Smith, Elliot Gould, Martin Short!), and there’s occasionally a decent premise (the black guy who had never heard of _Friends_ before gets obsessed with it), but it almost feels like a parody of _Seinfeld_—actually it seems a bit like _Jerry_, Seinfeld’s show-within-a show. Are they acting badly on purpose? Anone else watch this? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-watch-foxs-mulaney-starring-john-mulaney/714524/2 "2015-03-08T14:40:32Z")
I tried watching an episode just to see if it was as bad as everyone was saying. It was. I’ve seen Mulaney live and he’s a top-notch stand-up. No reason why that should translate into being an actor. Someone should give him a talk show. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-watch-foxs-mulaney-starring-john-mulaney/714524/3 "2015-03-08T15:09:05Z")
I do like his stand up work but I haven’t seen the show. sounds like it’s something to avoid. My sister got a kick out of his bit about Ice-T on Law & Order:SVU. > [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > I’ve seen Mulaney live and he’s a top-notch stand-up. No reason why that should translate into being an actor. Someone should give him a talk show. to quote the late Mitch Hedberg: _“When you’re in Hollywood and you’re a comedian, everybody wants you to do things besides comedy. They say, ‘OK, you’re a stand-up comedian – can you act? Can you write? Write us a script?’… It’s as though if I were a cook and I worked my ass off to become a good cook, they said, ‘All right, you’re a cook – can you farm?’”_ ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-watch-foxs-mulaney-starring-john-mulaney/714524/4 "2015-03-08T19:24:35Z")
I’ve watched parts of a couple of episodes, and found it completely unfunny. It wasn’t the bad acting so much as the horrible writing. I also found it hard to get past the aging queen in purple across the hall. I thought culturally we were sort of beyond that kind of stereotype, but maybe I’m just hyper-sensitive. ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-watch-foxs-mulaney-starring-john-mulaney/714524/5 "2015-03-08T20:35:20Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > I do like his stand up work but I haven’t seen the show. sounds like it’s something to avoid. My sister got a kick out of his bit about Ice-T on Law & Order:SVU. > > to quote the late Mitch Hedberg: > > _“When you’re in Hollywood and you’re a comedian, everybody wants you to do things besides comedy. They say, ‘OK, you’re a stand-up comedian – can you act? Can you write? Write us a script?’… It’s as though if I were a cook and I worked my ass off to become a good cook, they said, ‘All right, you’re a cook – can you farm?’”_ Not always “Hollywood’s” fault. Seems like there are comedians (e.g., Steve Martin) who are determine to be Taken Seriously. Usually crap results. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-watch-foxs-mulaney-starring-john-mulaney/714524/6 "2015-03-08T21:38:51Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I also found it hard to get past the aging queen in purple across the hall. I thought culturally we were sort of beyond that kind of stereotype, but maybe I’m just hyper-sensitive. You’re not the only one. He is horrifying. Martin Short’s character isn’t terrible, but he’s not straying too terribly far from the typical Martin Short character, so I think we can credit Short for that. I’ve never seen Mulaney’s standup, beyond the bits from the promos and the two or three episodes of the show I actually sat through, so I’m surprised at people saying he’s good. He managed to get a chuckle from me _once_ in those bits. What quality exists in his regular standup that’s disappearing from the show? Are they using his sub-par material? Does the format screw up his stage presence? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-watch-foxs-mulaney-starring-john-mulaney/714524/7 "2015-03-08T21:51:55Z")
I watched about 30 seconds of the premiere episode, and that was all it took for me to make a decision to deliberately avoid watching any more of this show ever. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-watch-foxs-mulaney-starring-john-mulaney/714524/8 "2015-03-11T01:53:25Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > I’ve never seen Mulaney’s standup, beyond the bits from the promos and the two or three episodes of the show I actually sat through, so I’m surprised at people saying he’s good. He managed to get a chuckle from me _once_ in those bits. What quality exists in his regular standup that’s disappearing from the show? Are they using his sub-par material? Does the format screw up his stage presence? They use some of the same jokes from his most famous standup special, but they just don’t work in the context of the show, as Seinfeld-like bumpers to the sitcom. His standup personality really is engaging, and I can listen to him talking for an hour or two, but it doesn’t translate into sitcom form. I think a lot about standup—especially modern standup—is that it isn’t just a series of jokes that you can chop up into individual bits and use them out of context. You have to let the comedian work up to the jokes. To me, standup is like hanging out with a clever friend, so that’s the context in which it works.