If you saw two guys in their 70s wearing turtlenecks and corduroy, buying Alan Alda’s autobiography at the Strand Bookstore, you’d probably just walk past. But for Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, that exact sight was the Big Bang of their creative lives. They didn't just see two old men; they saw George St. Geegland and Gil Faizon.
They saw a career.
The bond between Nick Kroll and John Mulaney is one of those rare Hollywood things that isn't just for the cameras. It’s deep. It’s messy. It started back at Georgetown University in the early 2000s when Kroll, a senior and director of the improv group, cast a freshman named Mulaney. Think about that. Kroll basically "discovered" him in a college basement.
Since then, they’ve lived a dozen comedy lives together. They’ve been roommates, writing partners, and Broadway stars. Honestly, they’ve even had the kind of real-life drama that breaks most friendships, yet they keep showing up for each other.
The Tuna of it All: From Sketch to Broadway
You can’t talk about these two without talking about Oh, Hello. It’s the definitive piece of their shared DNA. What started as a weird bit at a New York comedy club called Rififi eventually took over the world—or at least the Upper West Side.
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The premise is stupidly simple. Two "legendary" bachelors, George (Mulaney) and Gil (Kroll), host a public access show. They prank people with sandwiches.
Specifically, sandwiches with too much tuna.
It’s high-brow/low-brow at its best. One minute they’re making a joke about a niche 1970s playwright, and the next, they’re cackling about a "tuna-tini." When the show hit Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in 2016, it wasn’t just a hit; it was a phenomenon. They did 138 performances. They had guest stars like Steve Martin, Whoopi Goldberg, and even O.J. Simpson's lawyer (it’s a long story).
Why it clicked
- The Chemistry: They know exactly how to step on each other's lines to make it feel real.
- The Shared History: They’ve been doing these voices for nearly 20 years.
- The Improv: A huge chunk of their live show was spontaneous. They’re both so fast they can keep the ball in the air for 90 minutes without breaking character.
Big Mouth and the Reality of Puberty
After the wigs came the animation. Kroll created Big Mouth for Netflix, a show that is aggressively honest about how much it sucks to be thirteen. It’s semi-autobiographical for Kroll, so naturally, he brought Mulaney in to play his best friend, Andrew Glouberman.
In the show, Nick Birch (Kroll) and Andrew Glouberman (Mulaney) navigate the horrors of hormone monsters. It’s funny because it feels like they’re just playing versions of their college selves. Kroll voices about 80 different characters on that show—from Maury the Hormone Monster to a surfing tampon—while Mulaney provides the anxious, high-pitched moral compass.
It works because the friendship on screen is anchored in a friendship that survived the actual 2000s in NYC. They aren't just reading lines; they’re ribbing each other in a way only old friends can.
The Intervention: When Comedy Stopped Being Funny
Comedy partnerships usually end because of money or ego. For Kroll and Mulaney, the biggest test was a literal life-or-death situation. In December 2020, Mulaney was in the grip of a severe drug addiction.
Kroll was the one who helped coordinate the intervention.
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He wasn't just a participant; he was essentially the producer of the event, bringing together college friends and fellow comics. Kroll has spoken openly on podcasts like Armchair Expert about how terrifying it was. He was in L.A., Mulaney was in New York, and the world was in the middle of a pandemic. Kroll was genuinely afraid his best friend was going to die.
When Mulaney got sober and returned to the stage with his Baby J special, he joked about the intervention. He joked about how "annoyed" he was that his famous friends were there. Kroll later admitted that hearing those jokes was a bit of a gut punch. He’d been terrified, and now his trauma was a punchline.
But that’s the deal with these two. They process everything through the work. Kroll eventually said he understood—that Mulaney’s "intoxicating" performance style requires him to give the audience every raw part of himself, even the parts that might hurt his friends' feelings.
What’s Next for the Duo?
If you think they’re done, you haven't been paying attention. They’re still very much in each other's orbits.
Starting in late 2024 and running through early 2025, they’ve been appearing in All In: Comedy About Love on Broadway. It’s a rotating cast show based on Simon Rich’s stories. They aren't always on stage at the same time, but the fact that they’re both involved in the same production shows that the professional bridge is still standing.
Plus, they’re headlining the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival in Vancouver in September 2025. They’ll be sharing the stage with Mike Birbiglia and Fred Armisen. It’s basically a Georgetown improv reunion on a massive scale.
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How to keep up with their latest work
- Watch the Specials: If you haven't seen Oh, Hello on Broadway on Netflix, start there. It’s the blueprint.
- Listen to Podcasts: Check out Nick Kroll’s 2025 appearance on Armchair Expert for the most honest look at their friendship today.
- Catch the Live Shows: They are increasingly doing "festival style" lineups together rather than two-man tours. Watch for "John Mulaney and Friends" style bills.
The reality of Nick Kroll and John Mulaney is that they are two very different people held together by a specific, weird sense of humor. Kroll is the character actor, the man of a thousand voices. Mulaney is the storyteller, the sharp-tongued writer. Together, they’ve managed to turn a college friendship into one of the most resilient partnerships in modern comedy. It isn't always perfect, and it isn't always "tuna," but it’s definitely one for the books.