Everybody's Live with John Mulaney - "Getting Fired" review

Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney - “Getting Fired”

On this week’s episode of Everybody’s Live, John Mulaney brings in Bill Hader, Johnny Knoxville, Chelsea Peretti, and HR executive Catie Maillard.

Throughout the show this week, Richard Kind is convinced he is Gene Simmons from KISS, post-suffering from a “brain injury” of sorts and Mulaney and guests call him Gene for the entirety of the show.

In his monologue, he describes a conversation he had with Ray Lewis after he had just had a show pilot turned down by NBC. He explains how Ray Lewis told him that he must “win his crowd” and how that helped him after being fired from the NFL. Ray Lewis’s advice helped him get his pilot onto FOX, but the pilot was an epic failure.

Hader and Peretti are introduced first. Hader discusses how he was fired from a movie theater for spoiling the end of Titanic, and Peretti discusses her time as a receptionist.

The two sit as far away from each other as they can, making it a bit awkward at first.

Mulaney, Hader, and Peretti take their first caller of the night, Lilah. Lilah talks about how she is a principal of a school and once had to fire a teacher for smoking cigarettes in the classroom while the students were asleep.

There are continued ads during this episode for Mulaney’s message that encourages men to learn what their height is.

The three talk to an audience member who gives a brief dance performance before Johnny Knoxville is introduced into the show. Knoxville discusses how he once had an employee who would routinely ask to be fired only to return to the job months later.

The four take their second caller of the night, Daniel. Daniel tells them about how he used to work at Disney and was once fired for eating a dinner roll on the job. Before he was fired, however, they made him go to “trial” at “Mickey court”

After this, the show cuts to a video segment in which Mulaney pretends to host an interview with Michael Jackson’s monkey, Bubbles.

The final guest for the show is then introduced, Catie Maillard. Maillard is an HR executive who shows Mulaney the proper way to fire someone. They pretend to fire Richard, who still believes he is Gene Simmons.

This episode definitely shows the progress Everybody’s Live has made since the beginning of this season. However, a lot of Mulaney’s jokes still have good starts that aren’t followed through effectively.

The episode feels as if Mulaney is trying to cram too much into one episode, which is what leads to the episode feeling a bit all over the place. The two callers had funny stories, but the stories weren’t further discussed after hanging up the phone.

Despite this, Mulaney looks more comfortable hosting a talk show in this episode and the progress is still noticeable.

Rating: 3/5

Lucy Bielecki is a second-year majoring in telecommunications. To contact her, email lpb5533@psu.edu.