Excuse me. He is out of rehab. He is divorced. He has a baby on the way. But he’s certainly not new in town.

Comedian John Mulaney is no stranger to the spotlight following the release of his 2018 Netflix special Kid Gorgeous, which earned him a horde of new (mostly Gen Z) fans. They loved his over-the-top stage presence, his quirky storytelling, and his devotion to his wife.

It was hard to believe at the peak of his popularity that anything could throw him off his rhythm—until the public was bombarded by an onslaught of news about his personal life. In short: he entered rehab for addiction, divorced his wife Annamarie Tendler, started dating actress Olivia Munn, and has a baby on the way.

Even though these experiences are undoubtedly personal to Mulaney, his highly involved fanbase has run wild with strong opinions on literally everything (apparently: Annamarie is an enabler. Olivia is a homewrecker. John is a traitor.). In the midst of these opinions, Mulaney has become a rather controversial figure.

Visual and media arts student Elizabeth Albahary ‘24 is invested in this controversy. Albahary has been an avid fan of Mulaney’s for years, attending his recent show From Scratch this past August. She said while Mulaney’s stage presence seemed unchanged (notable in the way that he swung the microphone cord on stage like a jump rope), the content was unlike his past work. It was raw, emotional, and as comedic as it was heartfelt. While Albahary enjoyed the show, the difference was undeniable.

“He wasn’t himself,” Albahary says.

But who is John?

That question is probably answerable by Mulaney himself, or the people closest to him—not necessarily the teenagers who idolize him.

At the end of the day, the buzz surrounding Mulaney’s controversies doesn’t stem from his recent behavior. Instead, the intense emotional investment of his fans is the product of the parasocial relationship developed between the two parties. Parasocial relationships are a step beyond being a casual fan, and a step beyond idolization: it is viewing the relationship as an equal one, when in reality, it is starkly one-sided. These relationships are formed generally between fans and celebrities, in which the fans see their idols as friends.

When Mulaney steps onto the stage, his fans walk away as though they just had a great one-on-one chat with their dear friend John. Too many fans see the stories that he tells as a glimpse into his deepest thoughts, and they take those anecdotes as gospel. Because he joked about not wanting kids in his 2012 special New in Town, Olivia Munn’s recent pregnancy is seen as a betrayal. His divorce is viewed in the same light: if Mulaney told his fans he loved his wife while on stage, how could he divorce her?

The parasocial relationship between Mulaney and his fans has really blinded many from comprehending a simple truth: they do not know him. They know a character, much like an actor is not the same person on-screen and in real life, no matter how startling the similarities are. The line needs to be drawn somewhere, and with Mulaney’s fans, it’s blurry at best.

“Know that public figures are always performing,” Emerson publishing professor Alexander Danner says. “They’re not there to be your friend. They’re at work, and you’re seeing their work face.”

Mulaney is at work and his job is simple: make people laugh. This requires hyperbole: taking little things from his life and turning them into over-the-top stories. Some of it is true, some of it is fake, and some is in the middle.

His comedy has to come from extremes, explains writing, literature, and publishing student Fiona Murphy ‘24. “You play up parts of your personality. He’s like, ‘I am a person who loves my wife!’ He's not gonna be like, ‘oh, we have issues sometimes,’” she says.

Mulaney may share the same experience as his on-stage persona, but everything he says is twisted into something comedic. The parasocial relationship prevented fans from accepting that his jokes were just jokes, just part of his show. Some went as far as to minimize his cocaine use because he played it off as a joke on stage, leading many to be shocked by his stint in rehab.

Because of this parasocial relationship, fans could not draw the line between his two halves, and now that the line has become distinct, it appears Mulaney has fallen from grace.

In reality, fans have just realized that no one is as perfect as they are on stage.

The Downfall of the Comeback Kid