One never knows what they’re going to hear or see during a live television event, as the 2025 TV schedule has proven through several huge stories. However, this latest case of an interesting humor choice came from the Netflix subscription driver Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney. In a monologue that somehow went from questioning the existence of dinosaurs to Gene Hackman’s untimely death, a slight tangent turned into a rather odd joke.
Right out of the gate, our host was hitting the subject of death. Joking that this week’s Everybody’s Live topic “was supposed to be ‘The Pope is Still Alive,’” the veteran SNL writer riffed on the holy father’s passing in an actually lighthearted way. But when it came to the matter of science, Mulaney switched topics through this conversational pathway:
Scientists are now like, ‘We believe dinosaurs were killed 66 million years ago by an asteroid.’ Stop. You don’t know that. We don’t even know how Gene Hackman and his wife died, and we found their whole bodies with full clothes on, one week after the event. How about that Santa Fe police? ‘Uh, hello. Press conference No. 470. We now believe that a rat bit Mrs. Hackman, turning her hands into mummy hands.’ Just slow down. You don’t know what happened.
Admittedly, the first gasp of audience shock led to more of a laugh on the “mummy hands” bit. But even with that in mind, I was with Mr. Mulaney through his Everybody’s Live monologue, up until that point. Considering the timing of Hackman's death, the news surrounding it, as well as the joke, it was a shocking bit to witness.
I could be wrong, and I could be missing something from John Mulaney’s monologue here. He certainly knows how to stand out, even through something as simple as Mulaney's habit of wearing suits to a gig. So just in case, I have that very segment provided here:
For the most part, the rest of Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney’s opening salvo was about criticizing scientific analysis, and even the personality/outward appearance of professionals in that field. And as for the joke at the expense of Mr. Hackman and his late wife, Betsy Arakawa, it was, again, shocking to hear. In the day since this happened, the joke has been debated online and met with quite a bit of backlash, as the New York Post reported.
Of course, humor is a very subjective thing, and once again, I could be missing some of the steps that landed John Mulaney’s punchline. Now, as this discourse surrounding this joke continues to play out, we'll keep you posted. In the meantime, Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney broadcasts on Netflix every Wednesday at 10 PM ET.
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