John Mulaney has said that he’s alive and sober because his closest friends convinced him to go to rehab. But he doesn’t always check with them before making new jokes about that intervention—even when performing over Zoom.
Many fans focus on Mulaney’s wild past and personal struggles, but they often forget how deeply his addiction affected the people who truly know him. These friends and family didn’t just watch his shows—they lived through the hard times with him. While some TikTok users argue about whether Mulaney deserves criticism for joking about his ex-wife Anna Marie Tendler after their divorce, those closest to him still feel the pain of his difficult path to sobriety, which began in 2020. When Mulaney included the story of his intervention in his well-received stand-up special, it didn’t bring big laughs from the people who were actually there.
On a recent episode of the Armchair Expert podcast, Mulaney’s longtime friend and comedy partner Nick Kroll spoke about his own experience with Mulaney’s addiction and the jokes Mulaney made about it in the Emmy-winning special Baby J. Kroll admitted he didn’t like some of the material that made fun of him. For others who were part of the intervention, the special probably wasn’t a surprise since they had lived through those tense moments, watching remotely on their computers.
Kroll described the intervention as a scary and intense event. “It was so scary and brutal to go through,” he told podcast host Dax Shepard. “John was in New York. I was in L.A. It was the height of the pandemic. It was really stressful trying to organize an intervention, bringing together friends from college and other close friends.”
He remembered Mulaney’s behavior in 2020, right before the intervention. “John was running around New York City like a madman. I was deeply scared he was going to die.”
About the intervention itself, Kroll said it helped him understand Mulaney’s struggles better. “Suddenly, you realize, ‘Oh, that’s why my friend has been so inconsistent for so long,’” he explained. “It gives you empathy, but also a lot of anger because they were lying to you.”
Fortunately, the intervention convinced Mulaney to go straight to rehab after a “friend’s dinner” he dressed up for. When he returned from rehab, he stayed sober—but some tension remained. “When he started doing stand-up again, and all his jokes were about the intervention, he was still pretty angry,” Kroll said. “He was clean, but mad at us. I thought, ‘I don’t know if I like that joke about me.’”
Even though Kroll didn’t love being the subject of some of Mulaney’s angry jokes, he understood his friend’s need to be honest on stage to keep making comedy. “Everyone has their own way of processing things,” Kroll said. “What makes John so funny and captivating is that he shares his life openly.”
However, Kroll pointed out that Mulaney’s special doesn’t tell the whole story, and Mulaney isn’t the only one still dealing with that difficult time. “People don’t hear enough from the friends who were terrified during all this,” Kroll said. “Addicts tell their stories brilliantly, often in ways perfect for stand-up. But there are also people trying to keep them alive. That’s part of the story too.”
