Lessons are taught, empowerment is imparted, furry-suited mascots are mourned. Serving as the special’s spine are interviews with the tiny members of the cast, who share their deepest fears and insecurities with a candor that feels natural, unforced and funny - so very natural that if the phobias involving death, home invasion and clowns are scripted, it’s an astonishing match of writing and performance.

There’s an animated recounting of the fake-and-fabulous illustrated book Sascha’s Dad Does Drag a spectacular sketch with Mulaney as a marketing rep for Sony Pictures Animation doing a focus group with kids and the latest installment in a fictionally long-running bit called “Paper Mache Time,” featuring guest star David Byrne. Wizard-style scientific experiment and vamp between segments.Īnd the segments? Well, they’re whatever Mulaney and Sawyer want them to be. It uses a faux outdoors “Sackett Street Garden” set as its home base, a place for Mulaney, playing himself, to chat with the kids, share stories, perform the occasional Mr.

Written by Mulaney and longtime SNL collaborator Marika Sawyer, the special was inspired by Sesame Street, The Electric Company, The Great Space Coaster and probably a dozen smaller youth-programming showcases. Or, as Mulaney explains at the top of the show to the group of wildly talented children who are his co-stars: “Honestly, if this doesn’t turn out great, I think we should all be like, ‘Oh, it was ironic.’ And then people’s be like, ‘Oh, that’s hilarious.’ But if it turns out to be very good, be like, ‘Oh, thank you, we worked really hard,’ and act fake humble and then you win either way.”įortunately for all involved, John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch turns out to be very good, so much so that a perfect present for this Christmas Eve one-off would be an order of additional specials, perhaps a full series.

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