John Mulaney Trolled Jim Gaffigan on Instagram With a Red ‘X’ – and No They Don’t Hate Each Other

Is comedian John Mulaney feuding with Jim Gaffigan? Mulaney posted a photo with Gaffigan and comedian Mike Birbiglia but drew a large red “X” over Gaffigan’s face.

Mulaney captioned the Instagram photo, “I saw one of my best friends and the man who taught me how to be a comedian in his new beautiful and hilarious show “The Old Man & the Pool.” Congratulations @birbigs, you did it again.”

Jim Gaffigan gives it right back to John Mulaney

But then Gaffigan posted the same photo, along with the red “X” and trolled Mulaney. “It was so great to see the new @birbigs show,” he captioned the photo. “Definitely go see #oldmanandthepool. Mike is one of my favorite comedians and also happens to be a fellow @georgetownuniversity graduate.”

“Of course there are other brilliant Hoya comedians like @nickkroll and @jacnov and there’s another guy whose name I can’t think of cause he’s super forgettable …you know that one who is Pro-Putin and wears ugly coats …I can’t think of his name,” he wrote, referring to Mulaney. “Anyway, this post is about me telling you to go see #oldmanandthepool. Go!”

Birbiglia had a completely different take and posted group photos that included his wife, Gaffigan’s wife and Mulaney’s girlfriend, Olivia Munn. “Old friends at Week 3 of “The Old Man & The Pool” on Broadway,” he wrote, sans the red “X.”

John Mulaney and Jim Gaffigan (and Mike Birbiglia) worked together

Snarky humor is Mulaney, Gaffigan, and Birbiglia’s specialty. Mulaney was a guest star on Gaffigan’s series The Jim Gaffigan Show. Gaffigan shared a throwback clip on Facebook of an audition sketch where he and Mulaney auditioned for the same role. The only problem is Gaffigan was cast in the “ugly” role. He thought he was auditioning for “Young JFK.”

Gaffigan also shared another clip from his show of “lunch” with Mulaney. In the sped-up video, Gaffigan eats lunch while Mulaney patiently sits next to him. He captioned the video with, “Me: I’m hungry. Friend: You just ate though. Me: [eating].”

Birbiglia, Gaffigan, and Mulaney collectively helped to raise $1 million for first-generation college students through the Georgetown Scholars Program in 2019. The trio are considered to be Georgetown’s most famous comedians. They weren’t in school at the same time but became friends later in life.

Jim Gaffigan gave Mike Birbiglia the best advice – which he didn’t take

Birbiglia shared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon how he met Gaffigan. While still getting his feet wet in comedy, Birbiglia went on the Georgetown computer to see if any alums were standup comedians. “At the time I didn’t know anyone who was a comedian,” he recalled. “So I wrote into the computer database, ‘Stand up comedian.’ And there was one result. And it was Jim Gaffigan.”

Birbiglia called Gaffigan and told him about his dream to become a comedian. Gaffigan said if he was ever in New York to let him know. Luck would have it … Birbiglia was going to New York the next week. Gaffigan and Birbiglia planned to meet at a pizza place around 1 pm.

“He didn’t show up,” he recalled. “And it was 2:00 and he didn’t show up.” By 3pm Gaffigan was MIA but Birbiglia had nowhere to go so he waited. “And then he shows up and he goes, “You’re still here?’ I go ‘Yeah, I had nowhere to be.’ And he gave me advice that ended up being the best advice I’ve ever heard given to a comedian. He said, ‘Don’t move to New York until you’re good.’ And I … didn’t follow that advice.”