John Mulaney compares having a 3-year-old to working for Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show
John Mulaney is shading Ellen DeGeneres.
“You know what having a 3-year-old is like?” Mulaney, 42, asked viewers during Wednesday’s episode of “Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney” on Netflix. “Having a 3-year-old is what I imagine working on Ellen’s show was like.”
“Because people come over and they’re like, ‘How is it?’ And you’re, like, ‘Oh, it’s fine. You know, we have fun. There’s games,”” he added.
“We have dancing, you know. So if he starts dancing, you dance. But if he stops dancing,” he continued, changing to a more serious tone before saying, “You f—ing stop dancing right away.’”
The comedian shares son Malcolm, 3, and daughter Méi, 7 months, with wife Olivia Munn.
DeGeneres’ eponymous talk show ended in 2022 after 19 seasons following toxic workplace accusations.
In a bombshell 2020 report from BuzzFeed News, several “Ellen DeGeneres Show” staffers accused the talk show of a toxic workplace environment. They also accused producers of racism and sexual misconduct. At the time, Warner Bros. investigated the complaints and ultimately fired several producers.
DeGeneres, 67, apologized at the time and addressed the allegations on air when the show returned for its 18th season.
“As we’ve grown exponentially, I’ve not been able to stay on top of everything and relied on others to do their jobs as they knew I’d want them done. Clearly some didn’t,” DeGeneres reportedly wrote in a memo at the time. “That will now change and I’m committed to ensuring this does not happen again.”
She addressed the controversy last year in Netflix’s “For Your Approval,” which she touted as her final stand-up special ever.
“I got kicked out of show business because I’m mean,” DeGeneres said. “You can’t be mean and be in show business. They’ll kick you out. No mean people in show business.”
Speaking about the rumors that she’s not nice, the “Finding Dory” star said, “Yeah, you all heard I was mean. Everybody heard that I was mean. Everywhere I go, I know everyone’s heard that I’m mean.”
During Mulaney’s Netflix program, he shared a memory about his son Malcolm experiencing stage fright before a school recital while joking about DeGeneres’ ability to “bounce back” from her scandal.
“I look at the whole concert and I look at the kids, and I bend down and I say to my son, ‘Hey, this doesn’t matter at all. Nothing matters. So if you’d like to sit in my lap and watch the show, that’d be fun.’ And he said, ‘Yeah. Yeah, I want that,’” Mulaney explained. “His teacher comes over and goes, ‘Malcolm, are you sure?’ Your class worked very hard. Everyone’s excited to hear the song.’”
Mulaney said his response was, “Oh, excuse me Ms. Inez, you have no idea how much you can disappoint an audience and still bounce back in this business.”
