GQ Writer Thought John Mulaney ‘Seemed Fine’ During Drugged-Out Interview
In Baby J, John Mulaney’s excellent new stand-up special (now on Netflix), he ends his 80-minute set with perhaps his biggest self-own. This comes after a hilarious (and harrowing) recounting of his rock bottom: A life-threatening coke habit that resulted in a trip to rehab in December 2020. In typical Mulaney fashion, he spins this story with a sense of humor that softens the blow of the relentless darkness.
But after stories of buying—then immediately pawning—$12,000 watches at a loss in order to fund his habit, enduring mild sexual harassment to get phony prescriptions, and his preteen attempts at copping drugs and alcohol on the Chicago streets, the most damning piece of evidence of his all-time low comes at the very end. Mulaney reads from an interview he gave to GQ on Dec. 15, 2020; he went to rehab on Dec. 18, 2020. This was, he tells us, him at his absolute most coked-out, and the transcript proves it.
Since Mulaney first started telling this story on his From Scratch tour in 2021, where he began workshopping the special, it’s brought a lot of attention to GQ writer Frazier Thorpe. Now that Baby J is out, Thorpe has given his side of the story in a new piece for that publication.