If there’s one thing that’s got to be truly great about running a TV show, it’s giving some young hopeful their first real shot at stardom or success. So it’s with the maximum kudos available that we report tonight that Late Night With Seth Meyers has expanded its writing staff by one this week, reaching a hand way down to the lowest rungs of the entertainment industry and adding an obscure young man with obvious potential to its ranks: Stand-up comedian, Carnegie Hall-filler, and former Saturday Night Live writer (and also host) John Mulaney.
Alright, so we’re being a bit silly here, in that Mulaney is, you know, John Mulaney. But Variety does indeed report that the Sack Lunch Bunch creator and Ice-T enthusiast has joined his old buddy Meyers’ show in the role of a staff writer, which in this case appears to mean “writes silly bits about ghosts, then goes on the show and delivers them to make Seth Meyers laugh.” Executive producer Mike Shoemaker noted in a tweet announcing the move that it’s essentially happening because “John likes to work”; despite the shutdown of all the industries in which he regularly makes a living, we’re pretty sure John Mulaney’s hurting less for a paycheck than he is a venue in which he gets to say “ghouls” in a very delightful way to millions of people.
Anyway, congratulations to this plucky new voice in American comedy; with any luck, he’ll be able to parlay this sudden rush of superstardom into the true brass ring of TV comedy success: His own Fox sitcom! (Possibly with Martin Short, we don’t know, let’s see how this all plays out.)