Being right doesn't mean it's funny though... Call me old fashioned but isn't the point of comedy to be funny, not correct?
What do I know though, it's been years since I've found any standup comic very funny, and most comedy movies just make me groan. I'm no expert on what is or isn't funny, I just find it odd that you defend the humor here by pointing out its correctness.
FWIW I've never heard of this guy nor heard any of his jokes.
I was there. It was so funny! Somehow the articles make it so serious and less funny. Being there in the room, it felt like it was needed. Like a relief valve for what people were thinking but not able to say. To laugh together…as a huge group makes community and in a sense some sort of catharsis. Healing perhaps.
I quite like John Mulaney but I do kind of agree, these are rather contrived insights. That being said, I also think that delivery is part of what makes a joke land and we're just reading a few select bits after the fact as opposed to watching Mulaney deliver them onstage. I remember being introduced to some Mitch Hedberg bits over IM some years back, followed the next day by them reciting those bits, and it didn't click at all until they popped in a VHS tape (yes it was that long ago) and I saw Hedberg anxiously weaving back and forth, heard him mumbling and elongating his phrases. I wouldn't say Mulaney's in the same league, but I don't think it's unfair to say this contributes.
