John Mulaney Tells Jimmy Kimmel How ‘SNL’ Monologue Prompted A Secret Service Investigation
John Mulaney doesn’t look like much of a threat to national security, but a joke he told last February on Saturday Night Live nonetheless got him a visit from the Secret Service.
Mulaney, whose Big Mouth series returns to Netflix on Friday, said on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night that because of the joke about the assassination of Julius Caesar, he now has a Secret Service file.
He told the joke while hosting the Feb. 29 SNL episode: “Leap Year began in the year 45 B.C. under Julius Caesar. This is true. He started the Leap Year in order to correct the calendar and we still do it to this day. Another thing that happened under Julius Caesar was he was such a powerful maniac that all the senators grabbed knives and they stabbed him to death. That’d be an interesting thing if we brought that back now.”
The SNL writer described his reaction to Kimmel: “I guess they opened a file on me because of the joke, and I have to say, am I stoked there’s a file open on me? Absolutely. Did I enjoy it in the moment? Not so much. But the person vetting me was very understanding that the joke had nothing to do with Donald Trump. It was an elliptical reference to him. I didn’t say anything about him.”
Mulaney continued, “In terms of risk assessment, no one who’s ever looked at me thought I registered above a 1.” The Secret Service interviewer, he said, was “very nice.”
As by the Secret Service interviewer whether Mulaney had “anything else” they should know about him, the comic considered confessing to sniffing glue when he was a kid, but was told they meant other subversive writing.
“I have bad writing habits,” Mulaney told Kimmel. “I could never pound out a manifesto.”
Mulaney also cleared up a joke from his more recent SNL hosting gig just before the presidential election. In what was meant to be an elaborate set-up for a joke about the ubiquity of Jane Lynch, Mulaney said things won’t change regardless of who becomes president. Backlash ensued.
“I should have said, ‘I very much want one to win over the other and there will be improvements if one wins,'” Mulaney said. “I flat out forgot, I just forgot to do it.”
Watch the interview above.
More from Deadline
Best of Deadline
U.S. Coronavirus Update: One Covid-19 Death Every 40 Seconds
Coronavirus: Movies That Have Halted Or Delayed Production Amid Outbreak
Hong Kong Filmart Postponed Due To Coronavirus Fears; Event Moves Two Weeks Before Toronto
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
