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Poor Ernie from 'Sesame Street' Did Not Want to Hear John Mulaney's Life Story

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | June 20, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | June 20, 2024 |


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We know a lot about John Mulaney. He has always worked his personal life into his comedy. He’s done so to such an extent that when it was discovered that he had left his wife and impregnated Olivia Munn soon after, people lost their minds. It was like a trusted friend had betrayed them. Then, Mulaney had a very public stint in rehab, which he would later address in a comedy special as he is wont to do.

Addiction is difficult to deal with, even without a national spotlight on you. Mulaney has gone into detail about how hard it was for him to do. He was lucky enough to have support from friends and coworkers (and, ya know, the money to be in what I assume was a very nice rehab center). Mulaney didn’t have everyone’s support, however. Ernie from Sesame Street gave him the cold shoulder.

Mulaney has a lot of reverence for Sesame Street, as he should. While speaking at the IndieWire Honors, the comedian expressed his love for The Street and its creator Jim Henson. “There’s two great variety shows of our time: Saturday Night Live and Sesame Street,” Mulaney explained. “And Jim Henson was so rewarded by Sesame Street that he immediately felt like he was being boxed in, and he wanted to do so many other things. And I think a lot of us lucky enough to have success feel that itch.”

He went on to tell a story about working with the revered Muppets. “In terms of television innovation, I have a great story,” Mulaney said. “In 2020, I had a long nervous breakdown and I was having trouble with the substances. And I went on what was called The Not Too Late Show with Elmo, which was a talk show hosted by Elmo from Sesame Street. I want to be very clear since the media’s here: I was not on drugs while I was on The Not Too Late Show with Elmo. But I had recently been on drugs. And I hadn’t slept since being on those drugs.”

A quick side note. One of the first things I wrote about for this site was Elmo’s talk show. It was awesome. It was also a victim of David Zaslav’s current reign of uncreative terror. At least it was around long enough for Mulaney to meet his favorite Muppet, Ernie. “Ernie was a big influence on me, for real,” the comedian said. “Because I like how he took nothing seriously, and Bert was a f***ing prick. And Ernie was always silly, and that meant a lot to me as a kid.”

Since Mulaney is a bit of a sharer and was at a dark point in his life, he got personal with the famous felt friend. “I go up to Ernie, and said ‘Hey, can I talk to you?’ And I started telling him how much he meant to me, how I think of life as this grand joke, and he embodied that for me,” Mulaney recounted. “I’m telling Ernie and I go ‘I’m going through a rough time for myself, and you’re still a North Star to me in terms of humor.’”

It’s sweet that Mulaney was able to vent to this Muppet who meant so much to him. While having a spotlight on your troubles can make things more difficult, Mulaney is in a position to have grand moments like this, even if Ernie didn’t necessarily want to be a part of it. “Anyway, I’m really unloading on Ernie. And at one point the Muppet looked off for help,” he continued. “So to me, when I think of innovation in television, I think I might be the first person to ever make a Muppet go ‘Someone want to help me out here?’”

It takes a lot to make Ernie feel like Bert. That may be an accomplishment all its own. As always, Mulaney can take something personally devastating and make it funny. Thank goodness for that. Without the ability to find the funny in the awful, who knows where he’d be?