John Mulaney’s Baby J takes parasocial relationships to rehab

polygon.com:

John Mulaney knows exactly who his fans are. It’s why one of the funnier bits in Baby J, his new Netflix special, comes when he’s in an environment where people don’t know who he is. Mulaney, who thought he’d be chill about this, suddenly discovers he’s quite vain, going so far as to leave newspaper articles about him conspicuously displayed, so they might put together that he’s kind of a big deal.

Shortly thereafter, he shares an anecdote about a friend, Lenny, who asks him what he does for a living, and when he tells Lenny he’s a comedian, Lenny’s shocked that Mulaney can make a living that way.

“Yeah, ask your daughter,” Mulaney retorts with mock petulance. “Or your son if he’s not into sports.”

Also, all this happened in rehab.

Much like Chris Rock’s Selective Outrage, Baby J, Mulaney’s new Netflix comedy special, arrives after a particularly tumultuous series of events for the performer. Unfortunately for Mulaney, his public travails were arguably a bit worse than getting slapped by Will Smith. Across a whirlwind nine months through the end of 2020 and into 2021, Mulaney became a minor tabloid sensation as he checked into rehab, got divorced, started seeing actor Olivia Munn, and had a child.

The reason his troubles became gossip fodder is simple for those who’ve followed Mulaney’s comedy for any number of years. John Mulaney has built a career making jokes under a comedic persona that is decidedly not a divorceé with a drug problem. With a twinkly confessional style, Mulaney delivered years’ worth of gags about his hopelessly straight-laced demeanor, wearing smart suits as he delivered bon mots about being comedy’s foremost Wife Guy who also happened to look like three toddlers in a waistcoat, manically