By Hanna Broderick – Staff Reporter

“John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch” is a children’s comedy special created by Mulaney and Marika Sawyer. The special came out on December 24, 2019 on Netflix, where Mulaney has done three previous stand-up comedy specials. Mulaney’s intention was to create a special that resembled 70s kids television. It was mainly inspired by classic series’ “Sesame Street,” “The Electric Company” and “The Great Space Coaster.” The special features Mulaney alongside 15 child actors and singers ages 8-13, and includes special guests Jake Gyllenhaal, David Byrne, and André De Shields.

At the beginning of the special Mulaney talks about how he was recently watching children’s TV and he didn’t like it. Remembering how much he enjoyed it as a kid, he concludes that TV was simply better back then and his goal was to create something similar to what he enjoyed as a kid. It does exactly that, each skit tackles a different topic through sketches and songs. 

The show is funny for adults because of how much of it represents the innocence and silliness of kids. It sort of pokes fun at the ‘dumbness’ of kids without being condescending towards them. It also makes multiple comments on how sometimes the more simplistic and oddly intelligent approach that children often take, could be the best.

In one sketch, the kids are sitting in a meeting room holding a focus group led by Mulaney about a fake movie he produced, one of the kids breathlessly explains the whole plot to him, despite him obviously already knowing. However, the child does a great job in summarizing the movie and Mulaney realizes that it would be the perfect logline. This is all why it is an appealing special to people of all ages.

Considering that the show was made for kids and adults, the actual format of the show could have been made more in mind of children. The special is 1 hour and 10 minutes long which most kids do not have the attention span to watch. It could have been served better as a multiple episode mini-series showing only one or two skits an episode. Besides that, the actual writing, directing, production and screenplay was phenomenal. 

“John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch” is the perfect special to watch for anyone, of any demographic. It is extremely funny and explores topics that have not been previously talked about in a kids show.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars