John Mulaney has a confession about bike riding: he can do it, but explaining how is another matter. At the Nov. 5 premiere of Prime Video’s Madden, the comedian told E! News that his attempts to coach his 4-year-old son Malcolm had hit a verbal wall. That’s when the John Mulaney bike-teaching hack was born—a low-tech solution involving a pair of sweatpants instead of training wheels.
A Father's Instruction Problem
Mulaney, 44, said he rides a bike himself, though not frequently. The challenge wasn’t his own ability but translating it into instructions a preschooler could follow. He described the struggle as trying to explain the mechanics and realizing he had no clear way to communicate them.
Rather than rely on a standard teaching method, Mulaney turned to a workaround he was quick to credit elsewhere. He said he could not claim the idea as his own, but it gave him a way to keep Malcolm upright while letting the boy do the actual riding.
How the Sweatpants Method Works
The setup is simple. Mulaney holds a pair of sweatpants so that the crotch sits against Malcolm’s chest, just under his armpits. From behind, he grips the fabric to steady the boy and catch any side-to-side wobble. Malcolm pedals and balances on his own, with no training wheels attached.
In Mulaney’s description, the child is genuinely riding the bike while the parent acts as a human safety net. The unconventional approach skips the usual assisted-riding phase and goes straight from no wheels to sweatpants.
Family Life and a Milestone Birthday
Malcolm is Mulaney’s son with wife Olivia Munn. The couple also share daughter Méi, 2. Mulaney noted that Malcolm is approaching his fifth birthday, which falls during the holiday season—a time of year the host of Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney said he is looking forward to.
He also offered a glimpse of Malcolm’s communication style. According to Mulaney, his son is skilled at stating what he wants, even when frustrated—sometimes asking for space because another parent will allow more television. Mulaney framed the exchanges as a lesson in reading a child’s actual request rather than taking it personally.
Why He Joined the Madden Film
Mulaney appears in Madden as Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins. The film, in select theaters Nov. 18, traces John Madden and the video game empire built around his name. Mulaney said he was drawn to a detail in the story: the designers believed the game would inspire kids to play football and go outside.
He acknowledged that such an outcome is hard to predict when creating a video game, but said the intention was real. The goal, as he described it, was to get young people so engaged with football that they wanted to take the plays outdoors.
