whataboutsargeantcrunch:

John Mulaney vs. Jerry Seinfeld and why they say you kill your heroes

So in a lot of interviews John Mulaney has stated Jerry Seinfeld was one of his idols. I think the most recent one I saw was his Off the Camera interview, and he did end up admitting that there’s something deeply dark about Jerry Seinfeld that unsettled him.

So in John’s episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, a lot of the episode is your typical Jerry Seinfeld nonsense where he tries to do his whole ‘whassup w thaaaaat????“ bit, usually using a lazy discriminatory punchline, but in contrast to the man who is well known for calling out racism, sexism, and homophobia (maybe not in any really deep ways but he very much does) in his stand up, it falls flat. And I mean, even that would have been enough to make anyone watching uncomfortable. Especially because that’s also a huge part of John’s stand up is how very badly he needs people to like him all of the time.

Except instead of simply standing there uncomfortably, John calls Jerry out multiple times on how lame and lazy his jokes are. When told his wife simply THINKS she’s got a better eye for design, John stops the conversation dead and refuses to agree with Jerry, and ends up making a joke at Jerry’s defense (see: “Just like all men think they’re funny.” “That’s true.”). When Jerry tries to get John to agree that parents are lazy because they’re respecting their children’s autonomy too much and refusing to cut their hair, John immediately stops and says “I like when the parents let their kids choose.” The episode is filled with uncomfortable little moments where the bits end up just not working because not only is Jerry’s comedy degrading and lazy, but John refuses to let them. Which is ultimately why Anna’s bit at the end of the episode worked SO well. Because John was very clear from the start he wouldn’t know what to get, and that Anna was much more qualified, turning “oh look at these two men who just CANT PLEASE A WOMAN!!!!” into Anna once again stopping John’s campaign for Mayor of Nothing in it’s tracks.

John Mulaney has quoted Jerry Seinfeld as one of his favourites multiple times, and watching the awkward bits that managed to make it into the episode just makes me wonder how many more times John had to say to Jerry that he had gone too far or that his joke just wasn’t good. I get the episodes aren’t just everyone having a chat and a good time, it’s improv based on script, but John Mulaney improvises all of the time and the awkward disappointment he clearly felt in the company of his idol was really sad. It was honestly like watching a kid realize his favourite teacher is actually an alcoholic who hasn’t seen his own kids in 10 years.

In conclusion, John Mulaney did an incredible job of making sure to let someone he idolized know that it is NOT okay to behave like a dimwitted, sexist scrotum, even under the guise of ‘oh well its just comedy!!’ and sometimes we have to accept that maybe this person was once someone who was worth, in our minds, looking up to, but eventually we can and will grow out of them.