Famously, Steely Dan are a divisive band. As a big Dan fan himself, John Mulaney knows this, and relished the opportunity to have a "fresh person" — a.k.a. his son, Malcolm — listen to them for the first time.
"That's one reason to have a baby, is because you can test Steely Dan out on them," the comedian told Jimmy Fallon on last night's (December 10) episode of The Tonight Show (which notably also saw the kick-ass debut of Julien Baker and TORRES's country project). The father-son bonding did not go as planned, though: Mulaney revealed that Malcolm learned to speak solely because of "how much he hated Steely Dan."
"He was nine months old and I was like, 'Okay, it's time,'" the comedian recalled, adding that his son loves dancing ("He'll dance to sirens!") and music — especially Elvis. "I turn on 'Hey Nineteen.' He's not dancing, so I change it to the song 'Gaucho,' from the album Gaucho. He's still not dancing."
Mulaney continued, "My son looks at me and he says, 'E-I-E-I-O.' And I go, 'You wanna listen to "Old MacDonald"?' And he went like that," he told Fallon, nodding vigorously. "I turn on 'Old MacDonald,' and he immediately starts dancing."
"So here's what's interesting about that story: he had never spoken before," the comedian said. "That's how much he hated Steely Dan; he taught himself to talk. He couldn't get words out, but he just went [garbled discontentment sounds]. He couldn't stand this pop jazz and went, 'E-I-E-I-O.'"
Any major dude will, in fact, tell you.
Elsewhere in the segment, Mulaney spoke about welcoming his new daughter, thinking he'd gotten bed bugs while filming a Peacock show with Natasha Lyonne and accidentally texting R&B singer Miguel about it, as well as his role in the Broadway show based on the Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs, which is set to premiere tonight. Check out the full interview below.