John Mulaney Skewers RFK Jr. and Cheryl Hines' Marriage at Netflix Event

John Mulaney rolled out a brand-new Robert F. Kennedy Jr. impression at a Netflix- backed Night of Too Many Stars benefit on Thursday, May 7, in Los Angeles, and he did not hold back. The bit mixed Hollywood gossip, campaign baggage, and some very sharp jokes about public health. Yes, it got spicy.

What Mulaney did onstage

Mulaney, 43, told the crowd he knows Kennedy well enough to call him 'Bobby' and argued that alone is a reason he should not be anywhere near government. He framed Kennedy as someone who likes to linger around comedy circles and then took a swing at Kennedy's marriage to Cheryl Hines (yep, Cheryl from Curb Your Enthusiasm), claiming onstage that Kennedy cheats on her. He even paused to half-apologize for the pearl-clutching, hinting that certain Westside Angelenos in the crowd knew exactly what he meant, and called it 'public domain' gossip while standing at the Hollywood Bowl.

Quick context on the RFK Jr. chatter

• In 2024, during Kennedy's presidential bid, multiple outlets reported he was sexting New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi. New York Magazine later apologized for not disclosing that Nuzzi had a personal relationship with an unnamed person she was covering, widely understood to be Kennedy.
• Nuzzi told the New York Times the relationship was not physical but conceded it should have been disclosed, and apologized to her colleagues for the lapse.
• In August 2025, Cheryl Hines addressed the swirl of rumors in the Wall Street Journal without relitigating every headline, saying she and Kennedy talk through everything, are close friends, and trust each other.

The benefit and the bit

The show itself was a fundraiser for the NEXT for Autism foundation. Mulaney joked it was the best benefit he had done since a Kennedy-hosted Riverkeeper gala about a decade ago. That set up his RFK Jr. voice: he explained that Riverkeeper is the group devoted to keeping the Hudson River clean, then undercut it by wisecracking that if you have ever been near the Hudson, you know that is a tough job — he painted the water with the kind of grimy, New York-y image you are probably already imagining.

From there, he leaned into the impression — the gravelly cadence, the faux-serious certainty — and turned it toward Kennedy's public health posture. In Mulaney's telling, 'Bobby' wants to be in charge of your bones and your stomach, is a 'stupid f***' about the wrong things, and treats measles like a calling card. The joke escalated into a riff about giving people the measles, lamenting what he and the audience had 'gotten ourselves into,' and invoking the Kennedy family legacy before swerving into a self-roast about his own snake-like complexion. It was broad, mean, and very much his lane.

'Enough of that s***. Stop making me political.'

That was Mulaney snapping out of the voice to close the bit — mock-exasperated, fully in control, and clearly enjoying the chaos he had just kicked up.