Comedian John Mulaney brought a touch of cynicism to the discussion of the writers’ strike on the latest episode of “Hot Ones.”
Host Sean Evans asked Mulaney what it would mean for people who love TV and movies if the strike stretches to November or December.
“Now if I were to be a touch cynical, there’s a lot of content already out there,” the comedian said. “I feel like we’ve all been saying that for years like ‘God there’s so many shows. There’s so many shows.’ There’s so many shows, and now we’ll see how many there are.”
Mulaney has picketed, and the FYC event for his new Netflix comedy special “Baby J” was canceled in the wake of the strike’s start.
“You only have the ones you have. If everyone’s just going to continue watching streaming TV, I wonder when it will hit a point where as a viewer it’s frustrating that there’s not new stuff,” he added.
Evans then asked him if money were taken out of the equation, what is most at stake in the negotiations.
“On the picket line, I’ve heard more and more about AI, which I thought was not a fringe issue, but kind of off to the side,” Mulaney answered, and Evans shared that he thought comedians might be insulated because he can’t imagine AI being funny.
“I also am very confident that there is a profound difference between knowing you’re hearing a joke from a person and knowing you’re hearing it from AI,” Mulaney said. “And the audience isn’t just looking for like the content”
Evans summarized the low-hanging fruit that AI could achieve as a mechanical laugh.
“But I have famously terrible instincts, and I’ve never known what’s going to happen in the future. I have heard AI jokes that are solid. I wouldn’t call them crossing over into good, but they’re solid,” Mulaney said. “So maybe AI could replace that 15th joke in an award show monologue when they have to acknowledge a movie that’s nominated but the joke. Isn’t that good? Maybe it could provide [that].”
Mulaney completed his interview saying he would maybe picket at Warner Bros.
