John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch is a children's musical comedy special created by John Mulaney that debuted on Netflix on December 24, 2019. The show, directed by Rhys Thomas, was written by Mulaney and Marika Sawyer and inspired by classic children's television series Sesame Street, The Electric Company and The Great Space Coaster. Eli Bolin composed the music, with lyrics from Mulaney and Sawyer.
Performing with Mulaney are 15 child actors and singers, aged 8–13. Celebrity cameos include Richard Kind, André De Shields, David Byrne, Natasha Lyonne, Annaleigh Ashford, and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Summary
The program is a one-hour long variety special that presents itself as one episode of a larger series. The special consists of several songs, skits, and activities interspersed with scripted segments of Mulaney chatting with the Bunch as well as unscripted interviews with both the children and the adult guest stars about their greatest fears and acting background.
Jake, ostensibly in character as a younger version of Mulaney, sings a song about his grandmother's boyfriend Paul and his many quirks, while wondering why the rest of his family hasn't accepted Paul. Jonah summarizes a fictional book he has read called Sascha's Dad Does Drag and the Act Needs Work, a book with a comically frank depiction of drag culture from the perspective of the son of an aging drag queen. Mulaney plays the producer of a fictional Sony Pictures Animation film called Bamboo 2: Bamboozled which is being focus grouped by the entire Bunch. The skit pokes fun at the kids' viewing habits and the tropes of modern western animation. A father, played by Mulaney, hires a math tutor (André De Shields) to help his son Jonah with algebra. The Tutor performs an elaborate Dixieland-style jazz number about how not knowing math caused him to lose his eye — however, it turns out to be a shaggy dog story, with his eye being unexpectedly saved at the last minute, and he reveals afterwards that he had simply lost his eye by accident while performing the song. A transitional scene focused on Googy, supposedly a recurring Sack Lunch Bunch character, is interrupted when Mulaney is forced to reveal to the kids that the actor who played Googy passed away, subsequently having a frank conversation about death. During lunchtime, Orson breaks into song about how he will only ever eat one food: "a plain plate of noodles with a little bit of butter." Mulaney and Tyler play a chess game and continually try to throw one another off with existential questions and absurd facts. Suri urges Mulaney to play "restaurant" with her, only for the game to end abruptly when Suri refuses to allow him entry into her imaginary restaurant. Actor Richard Kind has an unscripted discussion with Ava, Cordelia, and Camille about movies, his career, and their experiences in plays. Nearly every sentence contains the phrase "girl talk." Lexi and her friend David Byrne prepare to put on a skit in front of the guests at her parents' dinner party. However, when all of the guests talk over the performance, she and Byrne launch into a musical number urging the guests to pay attention and explaining what they planned to do in the skit, including cartwheels, acting out the entirety of Frozen, and a fake newscast while wearing an enormous blazer. Zell and Oriah perform a dramatic '80s-inspired power ballad wondering what happens to flowers at night. Jacob and David Byrne make a papier-mâché volcano despite Byrne's childhood fear of volcanoes. While Mulaney asks about the Bunch's top New York moments, Alex recalls a time he was in New York and saw a woman (Annaleigh Ashford) crying on the street. He wonders in song about what would happen if he had gone up to her and asked what was wrong, and imagines the friendship they may have shared if he had done so. Special guest Mr. Music (Jake Gyllenhaal) attempts to demonstrate how one can make music without instruments. However Mr. Music, having failed to prepare for his segment, grows increasingly exasperated as the objects around the studio he tries to use as examples fail to make any sound. The special ends with a final round of interviews with all of the child and adult performers.