I haven’t written about John Mulaney in a while because I really stopped caring. In recent years, he got married, fathered two children and launched a somewhat successful professional comeback. Meanwhile, I’m really rooting for his ex-wife Anna-Marie Tendler and I am fully invested in her happiness and success. She deserves the whole world. But I digress. Mulaney’s comeback is mostly sponsored by Netflix – they love him over there, and they produce his stand-up specials. Netflix also gave him a new “live variety talk show,” and they got him to do a presentation at their annual programming event. He decided to make a joke about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle weren’t present at Netflix’s annual programming event but the royal pair did catch some strays. John Mulaney, who is returning to the streamer with a new live variety talk show, took aim at the Montecito residents as he was promoting the show.
“Not since Harry and Meghan has Netflix given more money to someone without a specific plan,” he joked.
It comes after Netflix struck a rather handsome overall deal with the pair’s Archewell Productions banner in 2020. That deal has led to series such as the Harry & Meghan docuseries, which launched in December 2022, interview series Live to Lead, Harry’s Heart of Invictus, which premiered in 2023, Polo, which launched last year and Markle’s upcoming lifestyle series With Love.
“I have to say of all the DVD mail order businesses that pivoted, I think Netflix is in the top one or two, Red Box being a close second. Red Box actually offered me more money to do a show, but I told them to stick it. I’m a Netflix guy. I’m not going to premiere in front of supermarkets no matter how much you offer me,” he joked.
Speaking a couple of weeks after the devastating LA wildfires, he added that his series Everybody’s in LA, which aired around the Netflix is a Joke festival, missed one type of expert.
“We had many comedians who were in town for the festival. We had lots of guests. We had a hypnotist. We had an expert on coyotes in Los Angeles. We had a palm tree expert. We had an earthquake expert. We covered most all natural disasters that take place in California except for one. We just weren’t ready,” he said.
I’m not defending him or anything, but it’s clear that his aim was “self-deprecation.” He was making fun of how disorganized he is and he can’t believe Netflix is giving him all of this money, and comparing that to the Sussexes. Which, I mean, fair enough. Netflix did just that – they handed a lot of money to the Sussexes and hoped they would make some shows. I always love how the Sussexes’ critics are always like “what have they even done for Netflix… other than the super-successful docuseries, and the Heart of Invictus, and Polo, and Meghan’s new cooking show.” Like, the list just keeps getting longer… at some point, the haters might have to admit that Harry & Meghan are actually fulfilling their contract.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Netflix.
