Credit: First We FeastComedian and former SNL writer John Mulaney came on one of the two famous chicken-eating YouTube interview shows, Hot Ones, to promote his new comedy special Baby J on Netflix this morning.
While there, the subject of the Writers Strike – and by connection, the looming SAG-AFTRA strike – came up, and the broadcast veteran had some interesting takes on where he thinks the strike is going and who may fold first.
John Mulaney Gets Cynical About the Writers’ Strike on ‘Hot Ones’
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Hot Ones host Sean Evans asked Mulaney what he thought would happen if studios were still holding out on making a fair deal with the WGA by November or December this year.
The comedian replied that he’s not sure if there could be a buildup of enough audience demand to put any added pressure on the strike, as, unlike last time, streaming is now a factor.
It’d be interesting to see. Now, if I were to be a touch cynical – there’s a lot of content already out there, and you know, I feel like we’ve all been saying that, for years, like, “Oh, there’s so many shows…” and uh, now we’ll see how many there are. ‘Cause you only have the ones you have.
If everyone’s just gonna continue watching streaming TV, I wonder when it will hit a point where…as a viewer, its frustrating that there’s not new stuff.
Mulaney’s tone seemed to imply that he did not believe viewers would tire of existing offerings any time soon – which would mean that they get to remain entertained, not feeling the squeeze of having “nothing to watch” the way they would have in the days where cable schedules dictated our viewing habits.
This could be a double-edged sword, and when John Mulaney says that it would be “interesting to see” how it plays out, he’s not being diplomatic – it is unexplored territory that will produce new information on how the streaming era has changed audience demand for content.
How Will Streaming Availability Affect the Writers’ Strike?
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A few things could happen here. It could be that the audience’s perfect contentment to watch the endless libraries of shows available removes a key bargaining chip for studios who cannot rely on the income from those streams alone. This would explain why so many companies – like Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros. – are now choosing to begin gutting their streaming services and removing what they deem “underperforming” content.
However, it could also be that said lack of demand also takes the pressure off of the studios, which may be content to take a few losses and sit and wait for out-of-work writers and actors to become more desperate to make a deal.
What the AMPTP (the American Motion Picture and Television Producers) and the individual studios are fighting so hard to keep – besides a lot of money that should be going to their creatives as residuals – is their right to replace writers and actors with AI whenever they see fit.
It’s interesting, on the picket line, I’ve heard more and more about AI, which I thought was, not a fringe issue, but kind of off to the side.
The Artificial Intelligence issue has become one of the main ones on which the whole Writers’ Strike hinges, as studios have refused to meet a demand that all contracts specify that they can not use AI to generate episode ideas, plots, or scripts, nor can it be used to write entirely new shows.
The best deal they could offer the WGA was a “yearly meeting to discuss advances in the technology,” which union members saw as a non-starter that would take away almost all of their future leverage.
Artificial Intelligence Is Driving A Wedge Between Studios and Creatives
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Now, it looks as though SAG-AFTRA may join the WGA in a strike over a similar issue, as more and more contracts begin to include clauses that allow for the use of an actors’ likeness “in perpetuity” – meaning that it wouldn’t necessarily be illegal for a studio to use only a CGI rendering of an actor they had hired before, shortchanging them of a job they would have been paid for.
(It’s one thing to be Samuel L. Jackson, but not everybody is famous enough just “cross that sh** out” in their contracts.)
The threat of AI taking over our entertainment world is already more than just a threat. Warner Bros. has been using artificial intelligence for years to help them select which movies pitches, castings, and other early-production decisions would fare best with audiences – which may help to explain the company’s recent series of misfires, especially on the superhero movie front.
AI scripts have also been getting more advanced with the rise of ChatGPT and other easily-accessible bots. However, on that front, John Mulaney is reasonably confident that the robots still have a long way to go – he said he is “very confident that there is a profound difference between knowing you’re hearing a joke from a person.”
John Mulaney Speculates on How AI Could Replace Writers, Comedians
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However, Mulaney didn’t deny that there are places where it could be utilized – mainly in the jobs everyone considers not to matter.
I have heard AI jokes that are solid. I wouldn’t call them crossing over into good, but they’re solid – so maybe AI could replace that 15th joke in an awards show monologue, that’s fine – you know when they have to acknowledge a movie that’s nominate? Maybe AI could provide that.
These are the jobs that even people in the business usually hate having to do anyway – the problem is, though, that many of these are also typically lower-level jobs, the ones that give new players in the business time and space to practice and hone their craft so that they can become someone like John Mulaney.
Let’s explain this using a metaphor that National Geographic – another magazine owned by a major media company (Disney), which has just laid off the last of its staff writers – might use:
Taking away the tide pools where the tadpoles learn to swim may seem like cleaning up the pond and making it look prettier, but all you’re really doing is taking away future frogs. Eventually, you’re going to destroy your own ecosystem.
Mulaney concluded this interview by saying, “But I have famously terrible instincts, and I’ve never known what’s gonna happen in the future, so what do I know?” However, we think he seems to know quite a bit.
The next few months will be pivotal in the future of the entertainment industry, and it all hinges on AI and how long it will take the studios to see that gaining free use of it isn’t worth losing all of their actual talent.
What do you think would happen if the strike lasted until November or December? Who do you think will fold first? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments.