Why John Mulaney joining Late Night with Seth Meyers is a big deal

John Mulaney recently announced that he’s joining the writing staff of Late Night With Seth Meyers. Here’s why we’re excited about that news.

Things are changing behind the scenes at Late Night with Seth Meyers and comedy fans should be excited. In a surprising move, it was announced last week that stand-up comedian John Mulaney has joined the writing staff for Late Night With Seth Meyers.

Producer Mike Shoemaker shared the news on Twitter, noting that Mulaney will stay on “as long as [he] wants.” While Mulaney and Meyers are good friends with a long history of working together, this news still came as a surprise. Very rarely do such established stars like Mulaney work in the writers’ room for late-night TV beyond brief guest-writing gigs.

In his first appearance since joining the Late Night team, Mulaney gave a glimpse into the kind of comedy he’ll bring to the show. The comedian talked with Meyers about how ghosts might have brought about Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. More specifically, though, he explained how he wishes it was socially acceptable to talk about ghosts all the time, not just during election cycles. You know what? I’d better just let him explain it to you.

Comedy fans should be thrilled about John Mulaney joining Late Night with Seth Meyers

For fans of comedy, Mulaney joining this writing staff is thrilling news. Simply put, John Mulaney is a really big deal. He’s an Emmy Award-winning writer and performer, he’s currently starring in a popular Netflix show (Big Mouth), and he’s even acted in a Marvel movie (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse). The man has been on Broadway, for Pete’s sake, and he just joined the writing staff of a show that airs at 12:30 am!

That being said, this isn’t just exciting because Mulaney is famous. It’s also exciting because of how well Mulaney and Meyers work together. John Mulaney joined the Saturday Night Live writing staff in 2008 when Seth Meyers was the head writer. One of their most memorable collaborations at SNL was the “Weekend Update” correspondent Stefon. Stefon, played by Bill Hader, was written by Mulaney, but it was his relationship with Meyers that made the character so memorable.

One of the most popular sketches from the first time Mulaney hosted SNL was “Diner Lobster,” an incredible musical number about the one dish no one ever orders at a diner. Mulaney actually wrote the sketch years ago – when he was a staff writer and Meyers was the head writer at SNL – but according to Mulaney, Meyers “didn’t pick it.” Hopefully now, after the success of “Diner Lobster” and Mulaney’s other musical numbers, Meyers won’t hesitate to put Mulaney’s sketches on Late Night.

Mulaney and Meyers have also worked together outside of Saturday Night Live. Mulaney has written several episodes for the hilarious IFC mockumentary series Documentary Now co-created by Meyers. The episode they co-wrote, “Original Cast Album: Co-Op,” is widely considered one of the best episodes of the entire series. In case I haven’t made myself clear, Mulaney and Meyers work really, really well together.

Seth Meyers already has an incredibly talented writing staff, featuring Amber Ruffin, Jenny Hagel, Karen Chee, and more. With John Mulaney on board, things are set to get even better. So strap yourselves in and get ready, because we’re in for a wild ride.