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The Bachelor let Nick Kroll and John Mulaney loose on its live aftershow. Chaos ensued.

Gil and George, lifelong bachelors.
Gil and George, lifelong bachelors.
Gil and George, lifelong bachelors.
ABC
Caroline Framke
Caroline Framke wrote about culture, which usually means television. Also seen @ The A.V. Club, The Atlantic, Complex, Flavorwire, NPR, the fridge to get more seltzer.

When you tune in to The Bachelor’s live aftershow, Bachelor Live, you can always expect a chat with an ousted contestant, and perhaps some color commentary from Bachelor alums and a quirky panelist or two.

But if you tuned in to Bachelor Live on Monday — and the full episode is available on Hulu — you got all that, plus a couple of famous comedians crashing the salacious proceedings as quirky old men.

Paul F. Tompkins and Paget Brewster — who host the musical comedy show Thrilling Adventure Hour together in Los Angeles — were the first guests to join Bachelor host Chris Harrison during this week’s episode of Bachelor Live, much to their obvious enthusiasm and disbelief.

And then, in the last 15 minutes, George St. Geegland and Gil Faizon joined the show, and, in the words of comedian John Mulaney, “that’s when it went from good to great.”

Mulaney and Nick Kroll have been playing cranky Upper West Siders George and Gil (respectively) since 2008, whether onstage at New York underground theater Rififi, on Scott Aukerman’s Comedy Bang! Bang! podcast and IFC series, in sketches featured on Kroll’s recently concluded Comedy Central series Kroll Show, or in their “Oh, Hello” live show, which is currently touring the country.

Mulaney’s George and Kroll’s Gil are particular men. They love sharing their opinions, ogling ladies, and “pranking” people at diners by ordering “too much tuna.” They have shaggy gray hair, wear ill-fitting clothes, and make esoteric references just for the hell of basking in everyone’s confusion.

George and Gil are not, in other words, an obvious choice for Bachelor Live.

mulaney kroll bachelor

Two of these things are not like the others. (ABC)

While their appearance in Monday’s episode was brief, George and Gil nonetheless made an impression on Bachelor Live. Gil offered his advice to Lace, a promising contestant who’d just taken herself out of the running, and then proposed to her. George offered his advice to Ben, the current Bachelor, recommending that he shake up his dating strategies:

I think you need to diversify your dates. First it was an airplane, then a helicopter ... what’s next, an airplane?! Think of new ideas, m’friend. The sky is the limit.

For viewers who wholeheartedly love The Bachelor and have no idea who George and Gil are, the segment was a thoroughly confusing one. For evidence, check out Mulaney’s Twitter, where he’s gleefully retweeting baffled viewers:

To be fair, Gil and George don’t exactly align with The Bachelor’s world of drunken debauchery and fairy-tale romance. George and Gil’s speed is more “coffee and a nap in a diner booth.” The combination of their creaky grumbling and The Bachelor’s slick production didn’t exactly mesh.

But if you’re someone who watches The Bachelor ironically — or at least claims to — George and Gil’s bizarre brand of chaos might be exactly what the plasticine franchise needs more of. At any rate, what makes a live show more than unpredictable, oddly lovable weirdos?

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