Comedian John Mulaney revealed the Secret Service investigated him after he made a joke that implicitly referred to an assassination.
Mulaney, the 38-year-old stand-up comic, revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live Tuesday night that the Secret Service interviewed him after he joked that Julius Caesar “was such a powerful maniac that all the senators grabbed knives and they stabbed him to death,” and that it would “be an interesting thing if we brought that back now,” while he hosted Saturday Night Live in February 2020.
According to Mulaney, the Secret Service “opened a file on me because of the joke.”
“I have to say, am I stoked there’s a file open on me? Absolutely. Did I enjoy it in the moment? Not so much,” Mulaney said. “But the person vetting me was very understanding that the joke had nothing to do with Donald Trump. It was an elliptical reference to him. I didn’t say anything about him.”
Other comedians, including George Lopez and Kathy Griffin, have also gotten into hot water with Secret Service over jokes made that were implicitly threatening toward the president.
A Secret Service spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that the service does not discuss protective operations in response to questions about Mulaney’s claims.
