GQ Men of the Year honoree John Mulaney jokes that he knew even as a child that one day he’d be recognized as such by the magazine.
“Little boy John was one of most grandiose delusional people you’ve ever met,” he told Variety at the Men of the Year party Thursday at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. “That was probably number 10 on the list. But it’s a very fun surprise and it’s been a really cool experience. I’m tempted to sound jaded about it, but it’s all been lovely.”
He said wife Olivia Munn and her mother were “thrilled” when Mulaney told them the news. “Although I think [Olivia’s mom] may have misunderstood and thought I got sexiest man alive,” he cracked.
This year’s Men of the Year roster also includes Dwayne Johnson, Pharrell Williams and Shaboozy.
The party was western-themed. Editor-in-chief Will Welch explained why he decided to go country this time around. “It starts with country dominance,” he told Variety. “I grew up listening to country music — Dwight Yoakam, Garth Brooks, stuff like that – but we’ve also seen country just take over, the charts, all this hip hop fusion of country, people like Post Malone kind of going country, Beyoncé going country with “Cowboy Carter” and of course another big moment was Pharrell doing a big cowboy collection for Louis Vuitton. It seems like a moment.
“Then we were talking about that this is the 29th Men of the Year and you have to keep reinventing yourself and reinventing things so we had this idea of the [party’s] livestream and we thought American rodeo and creating a state fair atmosphere,” Welch continued. “Once we had that idea click in, the rest was easy.”
Besides, Welch added, “when you hear ‘American rodeo,’ you’re like, ‘I want to go to that.’ Dressing up in a rodeo western way, everybody could do it. It’s incredible how many people tonight are on theme.”
Check out more photos – and cowboy hats – in the photos below.
