Part of me is surprised when Gary Janetti turns up to our Zoom interview, given his Instagram account currently consists of mildly misanthropic text-only posts such as “While we’re making these plans, do you mind if we also cancel them?” and “I burn most of my calories rolling my eyes”. His books of personal (very funny) essays – both bestsellers – are titled Do You Mind If I Cancel? (Things That Still Annoy Me) and Start Without Me: (I’ll Be There In A Minute).
Still, he didn’t have to leave his house for our interview. And he’s not the grouch his social media persona would have you believe; he’s chatty and lovely. “I stay at home a lot, so I’m plugged-in phone charging,” he says. “I work a lot, so I’m not hyper-social, but when I go out into the world, I’m ready, so I come alive.”
Gary Janetti has swapped sides from behind-the-scenes TV writer to Instagram celebrity.
Janetti is an Emmy-nominated TV writer, having worked as a writer on the animated comedy Family Guy, as a writer, executive producer and showrunner on Will & Grace, and as co-creator and writer of the British sitcom Vicious. But recently, he’s swapped sides and become a celebrity himself, after finding Insta-fame with almost 1 million followers. His text-only posts are popular, but it was his memes about Prince George and other royal family members that led to him going viral. When he joined the social media platform in 2017, Janetti saw photos of Prince George’s first day of school, and posted a photo with a “sassy” caption. He kept it up, and it soon became an ongoing satire, garnering a loyal following.
“Creatively, I was looking for an outlet,” Janetti says. “When you write for TV, there are so many stages ... When something gets from your head to the screen, that can take a year, and you go through layers and layers of people, and notes and thoughts. This is a way to get something from your head out into the universe instantaneously. And to see people react to that is like, oh, nice! I thought I could kind of feed this into … a modern take of a Shakespearean tale through Instagram and satire.”
Soon he became a meme generator – attracting fans and detractors alike – and after a couple of years, his memes were developed into an animated series, The Prince, for HBO. The series featured a fictional version of the young prince (voiced by Janetti), as an entitled brat, the late Queen as a gun-toting tyrant and the then Prince Charles as a man desperate to be king (this was back in 2020).
His followers loved it. But The Prince, which has only screened in the US, proved controversial. I’m surprised he wasn’t done for treason on his recent visit to the UK.
Janetti in 2019 with his husband, TV personality Brad Goreski.Credit: Getty Images
“I think the Brits like to take the piss, as do Australians,” Janetti says. “I think Brits, Australians and Americans, all three of us share a certain sense of humour.” There’s been no official word from Buckingham Palace, but Janetti did hear some whispers.
“I heard they were very unhappy with the show and wanted it gone after it went to air,” he says. “Well there was only one season, so make of that what you will. But it was also successful, and people still found it, even though because of the fear of controversy it didn’t air in Britain, or Australia.”
We’re still letting Janetti into the country, though. In October, he’ll bring his An Evening(ish) With Gary Janetti shows here for his first live tour. It comes after the release of Start Without Me earlier this year, but it’s not, he says, a book tour – although he will read the odd essay from his books.
“There’s also a bit of video accompaniment,” Janetti says. “I interact with the audience a lot, and they bring me blueberry muffins, so we can have a kind of in-depth analysis.”
Of the muffins? “Correct.”
Janetti’s quest for the perfect blueberry muffin is another Instagram moment, but I hadn’t realised he actually samples food made by strangers. “People had a lot of strong feelings about it,” he says. “So it took on its own life. Now I’m taking it on the road, if you will.”
TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO GARY JANETTI
- Worst habit? Changing tables in restaurants. I usually pretend I like a table that I don’t actually like until I can no longer bear it and then make everyone change.
- Greatest fear? Being stranded alone at a cocktail party. And drowning. In that order.
- The line that stayed with you? “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The opening line to Anna Karenina. That’s a goodie. And shows that I’m smart.
- Biggest regret? Straightening my hair while I was on Will & Grace and then having it ruin the picture I got to take with Madonna.
- Favourite room? My kitchen because it’s where our TV is.
- The artwork/song you wish was yours? Move On by Stephen Sondheim from Sunday in the Park with George. Also, while we’re at it, the painting [that inspired the musical].
- If you could solve one thing … How to get Netflix to keep from switching to the next episode so quickly.
His life isn’t all baked goods, though. Janetti still works on Family Guy as a writer and consultant. He’s written for the controversial comedy, known for its offensive jokes and cartoon violence, on and off since it first aired almost 25 years ago.
His favourite character? “Stewie, 100 per cent. Most of the episodes I’ve written, if not all of them, are Stewie and Brian episodes,” he says. “While it’s definitely subversive, what’s special about the show and why it’s lasted so long is that it’s not just those kind of wrong jokes; there are moments of, like, sweetness and real humanity and, oddly, people have such an affection for these characters even after all this time. I love it.”
But it was his time on Will & Grace that really changed his career.
The first prime-time TV series to feature openly gay leads, the sitcom was groundbreaking in 1998. “Sadly, it would still be groundbreaking,” Janetti says. “It was subversively political, just by existing.”
Writing for the series was liberating; Janetti could be his authentic self.
“As a gay man who had been out since the beginning of my career, every time, in a writers’ room, you have to bend yourself to find your way in. What is my way into the show, how do I bring my sensibility into this character?”
But writing for openly gay characters – Janetti says even Grace (Debra Messing) was gay: “Before we used the word ‘ally’ she was an uber ally” and “Karen (Megan Mullally) was the ultimate gay man” – meant he didn’t have to perform “mental gymnastics”.
“I was like, oh my god, this must be what it’s like to be straight! This is my point of view as a gay man, and I don’t have to do another step,” Janetti says.
Our chat turns to current television – who better to talk TV with? “I don’t hate-watch anything,” Janetti says. “I like things for different reasons – I can appreciate good ‘junk food’ TV. I have very highbrow and very lowbrow taste.”
‘I was like, oh my god, this must be what it’s like to be straight!’
He’s a big Real Housewives fan, has the last season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on his shortlist and loves The Great British Bake Off. “It’s the perfect British show – they either do very twee baking or a horrific, rainy murder.”
I recommend FBoy Island for his lowbrow list, and he tells me about Below Deck Down Under. “Watch it! And then send me the email saying thank you for giving me this gift,” he says.
He loves “anything Australian”, and rates Summer Heights High and Kath & Kim as two of his favourite shows. “I love No Activity. Oh, and The Slap! An Australian friend has also given me some suggestions, including Rosehaven.”
Janetti has been to Australia before, but I still feel the need to warn him that he’ll have trouble finding his beloved Starbucks order. For the past 20 years, he’s ordered the same “coffee” every day – a grande iced mocha, with no whipped cream, almond milk and two pumps of mocha. I know this, of course, because of Instagram.
During lockdown, Janetti’s husband (TV personality Brad Goreski) tried, every day, to recreate his specific coffee order, at home. But he simply cannot, I tell him, enter a Melbourne cafe and ask for that. “I can adapt! I’m game to try everything local,” he says.
Even the muffins from strangers, without the benefit of a medieval monarch-style taster. “People can’t believe I eat them, but it all feels like a very communal experience,” he says. “So I trust that nobody in Australia is going to poison me.”
An Evening(Ish) With Gary Janetti is at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre on October 7 (two shows) and Sydney’s Enmore Theatre on October 11. tegdainty.com/tour/gary-janetti/