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Mick Jagger wasn’t the least bit impressed with all of John Mulaney’s Emmy and Peabody awards. Back when the celebrated stand-up comic was a writer on Saturday Night Live, the Rolling Stones frontman had no problem telling Mulaney that his punchlines sucked. On an episode of Hot Ones, Mulaney remembered one of the jokes he wrote for Jagger’s opening monologue: “Hey everyone, I’m Mick Jagger so mothers, lock up your daughters. Or should I say, daughters, lock up your mothers.”
Jagger listened and gave his blunt assessment, “No, I don’t like that.”
“I actually remember I made Seth Meyers read that one,” Mulaney said. “I was going over a bunch of jokes, and we got to that one. I just handed it to Seth. ‘You could read that one.’”
The Jagger experience was so scarring that Mulaney turned it into part of his act. In his Kid Gorgeous Netflix special, Mulaney elaborated on his interactions with the rock legend. His friends wanted to know: Is Mick Jagger nice? No! Or at least not normal-people nice. Who knows what counts for “nice” when stadiums full of people have been cheering you like a god for 50 years?
“I pitched him a joke and he goes, ‘NOT FUNNY!’” Mulaney says, jaw dropping to the stage floor. “I mean, people say that on the internet but never to your face. There’s a British billionaire in leather pants going, ‘NOT FUNNY.’”
But Jagger wasn’t the only celebrity who told Mulaney to kick it up a notch. Hot Ones host Sean Evans asked Mulaney, “No need to name names, but what’s the worst reaction you ever recall getting from an SNL celebrity host to a sketch that you’ve pitched them?”
“Josh Brolin,” blurted Mulaney after a moment’s thought. “You said, ‘Name names,’ right?”
“Josh Brolin went, ‘Well, this isn’t funny’ as I was writing something and I started to walk him through it. And it was so matter of fact, I wouldn’t even call it the worst.”
It’s actually valuable feedback, offered Evans. “Completely valuable,” Mulaney replied. “And it was early enough on Tuesday night that I didn’t proceed with it. I’m not answering your question because it was such a gentlemanly exchange of ideas.”
“Hey, Josh Brolin, do you like this idea?”
“Let me see. No, that’s not funny.”
“Actually,” Mulaney laughed, “he did me quite a service.”