Jim Gaffigan isn’t afraid to say what everyone is thinking — but he brings the humor, of course.
For the star’s latest comedy special, Hulu’s The Skinny, the 58-year-old addresses his 50-lb. weight loss head-on.
The hour-long show kicks off with rumors that Gaffigan is using Ozpemic — he clarifies that he’s actually on Mounjaro, “which is better right, because it sounds like an Italian restaurant,” he says.
“Sure I may never find true joy again but I can finally fit into my clothes that went out of style 30 years ago. So it’s not a bad deal,” he adds.
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All joking aside, Gaffigan previously told PEOPLE he is thankful for the drug for giving him “a better life.”
After struggling with weight gain throughout his adult life, last year his doctor asked if he’d considered medication. “She was like, ‘Well, some people are against it.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t care, I’ll try it.’ My knees hurt and my cholesterol was kind of not great,” Gaffigan says. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.”
In the Hulu special, he addresses critics who think using weight loss medication may be “cheating.” “I’m not playing Major League Baseball,” he says.
For those who say it’s “not fair,” he quips: “Neither is balding and being born with no pigmentation, but I’ve learned to deal with it.”
Also in the special, Gaffigan tackles another health issue with humor — his wife Jeannie being diagnosed with Lyme disease. He explains that the family adopted a dog during the pandemic despite Jeannie’s allergies and she ended up with Lyme (“which you get from ticks, which is something dogs foster,” he says). Although she has since recovered, he still joked about it
“There’s so many elements of that that are just wrong,” he tells PEOPLE. “But the humor of that and the challenge or the assignment of making that funny and accessible to all — whether they are dog lovers or someone who’s allergic who has to deal with this or has to deal with a spouse’s interest that really kind of makes them uncomfortable — the challenge of making that funny was really exciting to me.”
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Of course, the star touches on other topics his fans have come to expect from his comedy, including parenting and religion. “I think we all have this relationship with food, or faith, or a personal belief system and our own vanity. It’s really the human condition, it’s ever moving,” he tells PEOPLE. “We think we have everything figured out and we just keep failing — but well-intended.”
When it comes to poking fun at his kids (he shares Marre, 20, Jack, 18, Katie, 15, Michael, 13 and Patrick, 12, with Jeannie), he rarely specifies which child he’s referring to in his material. “The objective of is not to embarrass them,” he explains.
Instead, he’s “more sensitive” to the “burden” they have as a children of a comedian. “Whenever any of my kids are funny in school, their peers or the teachers will be like, ‘You did that because your dad’s a comedian.'”
One thing that gave him a bit more street credit at home was his stint as vice presidential candidate Tim Walz on Saturday Night Live. “One of the funnest things of [doing] SNL was knowing that I would come home after doing it, and my younger kids, my 12 and 13-year-old and 15-year-old had watched it. By the time I got home, they might be asleep, but it would come up over the next couple of days that they had watched it with my wife and they got a kick out of it.”
“I’m still kind of processing it,” Gaffigan says, reflecting on his time at the show. “SNL has obviously had an impact on us for our entire lives because it’s been around so long. For me, there were moments where I realized I was part of this remaining piece of comedy heritage. So, in other words, I was participating in something that had touched comedy for 50 years, So I think it was just the fact that I got to participate in this level of comedy legacy that it’s hard to describe.”
He never auditioned to be on the show when he was starting out — something he calls “a mistake.” “The whole traditional form of the path into SNL often is writer, and then you join the performing players. I never really pursued writing jobs there because I found performing so fulfilling.”
But he clarifies, “I have no regrets where I landed.”
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Next up for Gaffigan is a 10-stop North American tour alongside pal Jerry Seinfeld. He also has a solo tour with dates through October 2025.
As for any other goals farther down the line, he muses on writing and directing a movie but says he’s happiest spending time on the road touring: ‘I love those days.”
The Skinny is streaming now on Hulu. Tickets for his tour can be purchased on JerrySeinfeld.com and JimGaffigan.com.