John Mulaney was under investigation by the Secret Service for a joke on "Saturday Night Live" that made "an elliptical reference" to the sitting U.S. President, Donald Trump.
The comedian has received a fair amount of backlash this year for controversial remarks made on the show but it was his one about Trump that landed him in hot water. Mulaney admitted to the probe on Tuesday during an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"
"In February, I did a joke that was not about Donald Trump," Mulaney explained, per Variety. "The joke was about how it was a leap year, and leap year had been started by Julius Caesar to correct the calendar, and another thing that happened with Caesar was that he was stabbed to death by a bunch of senators because he went crazy. And I said I think that’s an interesting thing that could happen."
Mulaney was eventually cleared because he made no direct mention of Trump in his joke. It also helped that he had not written any "manifestos" or "rants" online against the President, because the investigation could have ended very differently. However, although he was deemed as no threat to Trump, the joke did still raise questions. Mulaney recalled explaining himself to a person renting his apartment in Washington D.C.
"The person vetting me was very understanding that the joke had nothing to do with Donald Trump because it was an elliptical reference to him," he said. "I didn’t say anything about him. In terms of risk assessment, no one who’s ever looked at me thought I registered above a one."
Mulaney added that, while under questioning, he told investigators that he had been cracking jokes about Trump for 13 years. He managed to convince them that the quip was harmless.
"They said if it’s a joke, then I am cleared by the Secret Service," he said.