Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney is rocking and rolling. The Wednesday, April 16 episode featured one of the show’s best bits yet. Throughout the broadcast, John Mulaney cut to a group of 24 men, each wearing a shirt that revealed their respective heights, ranging from five to seven feet. The goal: achieve the perfect diagonal by lining up the men from shortest to tallest.
But there was a challenge, too, Mulaney explained. Men often have a hard time coming to terms with their height. Thus, one of the goals of the evening was for the men to come out, so to speak, and embrace who they truly are as part of the “#KnowYourH” campaign. “Many men become emotional when learning their height,” Mulaney said. “So psychiatric counselors are standing by.” Mulaney, the host confessed, was proud of these men.
The gathering was part of the show’s theme of “Heights.” It was a brilliant bit with a hilarious payoff. And no one summed it up better than one of the show’s guests, David Letterman. “I am so excited. I used to do a television show, and every now and then we’d come up with a lame premise, like the height deal,” Letterman said, genuinely amused and happy. “I am thrilled and stunned that it’s working so well. Congratulations.”
What’s better than that?
That Letterman was the guest on this night was a moment of comedy serendipity. The bit is precisely the kind that Letterman and his team at Late Night, and then later The Late Show, first brought to the genre. While on the couch chatting with Mulaney, Letterman gleefully remembered that on his show, they would often announce the collective weight of the audience. Mulaney asked whether it was a real number. Letterman said it was genuine the first few nights, but then the intern decided it was a waste of time and decided to make it up.
To say there is no one like Letterman on late night today would be an understatement: there is no one even trying to be like him. There is little innovation, few resources dedicated to bits and taking risks, especially on network television. It’s still early, but if there is anyone ready to take over the mantle from Letterman, the one that Conan O’Brien for years carried across channels, it seems Mulaney is ready.
The Richard Kind of It All
When Everybody’s Live returned this year, the big question was this: what would be done with Richard Kind? As the sidekick/announcer to Mulaney on the show, it seemed that Kind was perhaps too big a talent to merely introduce the host and throw in a few one-liners now and again. Figuring out how best to use Kind would be key to the show’s success.
Well, on the April 16 episode, we got further evidence that Kind himself is hitting his stride on the program. Taking on the role of the show’s ombudsman, Kind at one point chimed in to inform Mulaney that he was being a bit of a, well, brat. “You know, and if you were any more of a brat,” Kind said with a chuckle, turning towards the audience, “you would be hanging with Charlie XCX.” Absolute silence.
“Wow,” Mulaney said. “That was rough.”
Kind began to beat himself up, claiming that the writers had led him astray, assuring that such a joke would be a “cultural moment.” They had even recorded a “Behind the Scenes” featurette on the writing of the joke, which Kind then played. In the featurette, writers Rajat Suresh and Jeremy Levick tell the story of how they came up with such a brilliant idea. “I think there is no Charlie XCX joke,” Jeremy says, “without living in an age of the clown-philosopher.”
At one point, Rajat comes clean about being in a dark place while writing the joke. He was responsible for a “pretty famous celebrity death,” he reveals. “We offer counseling to everyone who works on the show,” Mulaney says in a cutaway, “and to their credit, they’ve refused it.”
One of the best parts of the entire bit is hearing Letterman chuckle throughout.
Overall, the episode of Everybody’s Live was one of the strongest yet from start to finish. Mulaney delivered a stellar monologue, chatted with guests Hannibal Burress, Nikki Glaser, and Leanne Morgan, and featured music from Randy Newman. Jimmy Kimmel even stopped by to help Mulaney complete the height bit at the end, featuring Charlie Wilson singing, “America the Beautiful.”
Ronny Chieng Is Really Good At This
Ronny Chieng was back behind the desk at The Daily Show last week. As part of the show’s ongoing series, “The Worst Wing,” Chieng chronicled the work of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his long-running conspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism. “He’s basically a health expert the same way Katy Perry’s a rocket scientist,” Chieng observed.
Kennedy, who, in case you forgot, is the Secretary of Health & Human Services, made comments this week that severely demeaned people with autism, basically claiming that they could never live full, happy lives. “These are kids who will never pay taxes,” Kennedy began a point during a recent speech. Chieng, as always, was quick to point out the absurd cruelty at play.
“Wait? That’s what you’re going to lead with? Like that, that’s the big tragedy for you?” Chieng asked, before mocking Kennedy: “These poor kids will never know the joy of attaching a Schedule K to a 1040A.”
“It’s not even accurate,” Chieng added. “I mean, autistic people do pay taxes. Are you thinking of art history majors?”
The entire monologue, and indeed Chieng’s whole time behind the desk, is worth watching. But it is in small moments like these where Chieng establishes himself fully as a spiritual successor to what made/makes Jon Stewart such a force: finding even more absurdity in already absurd situations. With precision, Chieng is able to wordsmith a critique that captures something more than the self-evident cruelty. In commenting on not just the cruelty, but its delivery, he leaves room for laughs without downplaying what was said.
Finally, on the Monday, April 14 episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart welcomed one of the greatest stand-up comics working today, Ramy Youssef, who joined to discuss his new animated show, #1 Happy Family USA. The big reveal in the conversation: Stewart and Youssef are texting buddies.
It’s obvious in the interview: the two have an immediate rapport. Youssef and Stewart use the show as a jumping-off point to talk about the current moment in America, the ongoing assault on immigrants by the federal government, and the poignancy of having a show at this moment that deals with the immigrant experience in America.
The two also talked about the rise in both Islamophobia and antisemitism. Stewart observed that the two are brethren. Youseff agreed, but noted that the former got a much worse ending than the latter. “Islamaphobia is so weak,” he observed. “It’s like arachnophobia. It just sounds like, ah, you had a weird Islamic experience as a kid.”
“Islamaphobia,’ it’s like a shellfish allergy,” Youseff added. “It’s like, oh, he doesn’t want any, he has Islamophobia. It sounds so benign. ‘Antisemitism’ is like, woah, dude, what are you on about?”
Youseff went on to reason that, just on a word level, “we’re at an incredible disadvantage.” Stewart agreed. “I never thought of it that way,” he said.
“And that’s because you’re Islamophobic,” Youseff said, without missing a beat.
“The timing! The timing of it, Ramy,” Stewart said. “I’m going to have to go through our text chains and find out how subtle my Islamophobia has been here.”
Will DiGravio is a Brooklyn-based critic, researcher, and late night comedy columnist, who first contributed to Paste in 2022. He’s been writing Paste’s late night TV recaps since 2024. He is an assistant editor at Cineaste, a GALECA member, and since 2019 has hosted The Video Essay Podcast. You can follow and/or unfollow him on Twitter and learn more about him via his website.
