John Mulaney told Jimmy Kimmel he was investigated by the Secret Service after a joke he made in February on Saturday Night Live.
Mulaney detailed his experience during his Tuesday appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “I did a joke that was not about Donald Trump,” he explained. “The joke was about how it was a leap year and leap year had been started by Julius Caesar to correct the calendar and another thing that happened with Caesar was that he was stabbed by a bunch of senators ’cause he went crazy. And I said, ‘That’s an interesting thing that could happen.’”
He said the joke led to the investigation. “Am I stoked there’s a file opened on me? Absolutely. Did I enjoy it in the moment? Not so much,” he added. “But the person vetting me was very understanding.” He said that the investigator understood his bit had nothing to do with Trump and that “it was an elliptical reference to him,” he explained. “I didn’t say anything about him.”
“They were very nice in the interview,” he added. “In terms of risk assessment, no one who’s ever looked at me has thought I’d registered above a one.”
He was then asked if there was anything else they should know about, and he contemplated telling them bad things he’s done like sniffing glue when he was a kid, but they were apparently referring to if he had any online rants or manifestos against Trump. “I said, ‘No, I have bad writing habits, I could never pound out a manifesto,’” he joked. Mulaney came clean with them about “making fun of him for 13 years.” In the end, Mulaney said he has been “cleared by the Secret Service, I’ve been told.”
