# John Mulaney John Mulaney is an American stand-up comedian whose bits from specials like The Top Part and Kid Gorgeous turned into a fixture of Tumblr and Twitter meme culture during the 2010s[1]. His delivery and specific lines get pulled out as reaction images and quote overlays, with the Salt and Pepper Diner routine about jamming a jukebox with Tom Jones songs becoming one of the most cited bits online[2]. ## Origin Mulaney was born on August 26, 1982 in Chicago and started at Comedy Central out of college, where he pitched an I Love the 80s parody titled I Love the 30s with Nick Kroll[3]. His first stand-up album, The Top Part, dropped on iTunes on March 24, 2009 and included the Salt and Pepper Diner bit that grew into his most quoted online routine[2]. He joined Saturday Night Live as a writer in 2008 and stayed for six years, occasionally appearing on Weekend Update[3]. After leaving SNL, he released The Comeback Kid in 2015 and Kid Gorgeous in 2018, each of which produced a new wave of quote screencaps and audio edits on Twitter and Tumblr[6]. - **Platform:** Stand-up comedy (source) / Tumblr (viral spread) - **Creator:** John Mulaney - **Date:** 2009 ## Overview John Mulaney memes typically take short, self-contained lines from his stand-up specials and pair them with unrelated images or scene captures, treating the audio as a quotable script instead of a joke to retell[3]. Common formats include text overlays on reaction shots, screencaps of his facial expressions mid-bit, and edits that sync his delivery to cartoon footage or video game clips[1]. The Salt and Pepper Diner story, in which he and a friend loaded a diner jukebox with 'What's New Pussycat?' broken up by one play of Tom Jones' 'It's Not Unusual,' turned into a stand-alone reference used far beyond his own fanbase[2]. His writing tenure on Saturday Night Live from 2008 through 2013 fed the same audience, since he co-created the Stefon character with Bill Hader and wrote for Weekend Update[3]. Fans on Tumblr circulated GIF sets from those SNL bits alongside stand-up clips, giving the material a longer half-life than most late-night writing and producing Drakeposting parodies that swap Drake for a Mulaney reaction shot[3]. ## How It Spread Tumblr was the earliest home for Mulaney memes, with users pulling captioned stills and transcribed lines from his specials into reaction posts through the mid-2010s[3]. His Twitter account @mulaney grew past 740,000 followers, feeding a steady stream of direct quotes and clip shares[2]. A dedicated subreddit at r/johnmulaney collected fan edits, quote images and Drakeposting-style parodies swapping Drake for Mulaney reaction shots[5]. The Salt and Pepper Diner routine kept generating spinoffs on its own, with animators syncing his voice to cartoons and creators quoting the 'What's New Pussycat?' punchline over unrelated footage[1]. His Facebook page passed 100,000 likes, giving the older bits another distribution channel for casual sharers[4]. The 2018 Netflix special Kid Gorgeous, filmed at Radio City Music Hall, produced another burst of quotable moments, including the 'horse loose in a hospital' bit that circulated as its own copypasta[6]. ## How to Use The common convention is to lift a short line from a Mulaney bit, usually five to fifteen words, and place it over an unrelated image or scene, treating the quote as a caption rather than the joke itself. Reaction sets often use a still of his face mid-delivery from one of the Netflix specials. For audio edits, creators typically sync the punchline to a cartoon or video game clip that matches the tone of the line. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is John Mulaney? John Mulaney is an American stand-up comedian and former SNL writer whose quoted lines and screencaps became a recurring format in Tumblr and Twitter reaction memes[3]. ### Where did John Mulaney come from? Mulaney was born in Chicago in 1982 and started at Comedy Central before writing for Saturday Night Live from 2008, releasing his first stand-up album The Top Part on March 24, 2009[2]. ### What does John Mulaney mean? As a meme, John Mulaney refers to short quotes and reaction stills lifted from his stand-up specials, most notably the Salt and Pepper Diner routine about the Tom Jones song 'What's New Pussycat?'[1]. ### How do you use John Mulaney? Users typically pair a short line from one of his specials with an unrelated image or clip, or post a screencap of a Mulaney facial expression as a reaction[3]. ### Is John Mulaney still popular? Yes, his standup catalog is classic on meme sites, with the Salt and Pepper Diner and Kid Gorgeous bits still cited across Tumblr, Twitter and Reddit years after release[5]. ## References 1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hUPgxYguB0]() 2. [https://twitter.com/mulaney]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/john-mulaney]() 4. [https://www.facebook.com/JohnMulaney/]() 5. [https://www.reddit.com/r/johnmulaney/]() 6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAQRtjvtQRo]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/john-mulaney Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library