12 Most Hilarious Moments From Big Mouth Season 6 Ranked
As Charles Bradley sings on the Ozzy Osbourne cover that serves as the series' theme song, "Big Mouth" is going through changes. Picking up where Season 5 left off, Season 6 of the raunchy Netflix cartoon finds its young teen characters facing a new semester at Bridgeton Middle — slightly older, not a bit wiser, and more sexually frustrated than ever as they adjust to new conditions and relationships. Andrew (John Mulaney) is flying high from his long-distance relationship with Bernadette "Bernie" Sanders (Kristen Schaal), while Matthew (Andrew Rannells), newly out to his family, is dating bisexual horndog Jay (Jason Mantzoukas). Jessi (Jessi Klein) frets over the pregnancy of her dad's new girlfriend, while hormone monsters Maury (series co-creator Nick Kroll) and Connie (Maya Rudolph) have baby drama of their own after Maury gets pregnant from one of their many trysts.
Change has long been the overall theme of the show, which uses a menagerie of supernatural creatures to represent the physical and emotional transformations of puberty. Season 6 delves deeper into the questions of how and why people change, whether through Nick (Kroll) learning a shocking secret about his overly affectionate father (Fred Armisen) or Missy Foreman-Greenwald (Ayo Edebiri) testing how much of herself she can ignore for her new boyfriend. Through it all, though, the show remains as filthy, depraved, and gut-bustingly hilarious as ever. Let's take a look at the funniest moments from "Big Mouth" Season 6.
12. Dinner with the rabbi
Truthfully, most of this list could have been taken up with moments featuring Richard Kind as Andrew's apoplectic father Marty Glouberman, who has been a series all-star since the very first episode. Marty's constant rage at anything and everything in the world is matched only by his disgust at his son's endless sexual humiliations, as in Episode 1 when Andrew's attempt at Zoom sex with Bernie ends with Marty threatening to castrate him with a screwdriver.
But Marty's peak of insufferability comes in Episode 5, "Andrew's Gonna Touch a Boob Tonight," when the Gloubermans host not just Bernie, visiting from Vermont, but Rabbi Paulblart (Kroll) for Shabbat dinner. Andrew's mother Barbara (Paula Pell) has been spending a lot of time at the synagogue recently and has clearly put a lot of effort into the meal to impress the rabbi. But Marty, unable to admit his jealousy and fearing that she and the rabbi are having an affair, seethes in a "brisket-fueled rage." When Barbara admonishes him for trying to eat before the rabbi has finished his lengthy blessing, Marty counters, "Oh who cares? You think God's listening to us? He's probably busy making a new COVID." Things only get worse from there, much to Andrew and Bernie's discomfort, until Barbara can't take it anymore and finally leaves, middle finger in the air as she goes.
11. Devastated Wolf
The relationship between Matthew and Jay is never quite as solid as either of them want to believe. They are both excited to be dating, but sometimes that isn't enough, and disaster keeps befalling them, as when a spirited hook-up ends with Jay's pants car (a car full of pants) falling off a cliff, or when Matthew is less than enthused to meet Jay's other sexual partners, who are pillows. When Jessi notes early in the season that Matthew has managed to "tame Jay Bilzerian," the offhand comment sticks with Matthew; he worries that he has indeed turned a wolf into a swan.
It all comes to a head in Episode 9, "The Parents Aren't Alright," when after a bad dream Matthew decides to end it with Jay. At a park near the woods, Matthew tells Jay that he doesn't like him anymore. This isn't true, of course, but he knows that Jay will never accept the truth and will continue to deny his true self in order to make Matthew happy. "Go on, get!" Matthew shouts, tears in his eyes, as if Jay were actually a dog; Jay, confused and afraid, flees into the woods. "Devastated wolf!" he howls, making the subtext of their relationship into text. It's very silly and yet heartbreaking at the same time, in a way only "Big Mouth" can pull off.
10. It's Big Mouth! These people are sick!
"Big Mouth" has always been home to fantastical creatures and self-referential humor. The first episode introduced Maury and Connie and the ghost of Duke Ellington (who lives in Nick's attic), and over the seasons that unseen world has expanded into shame wizards, anxiety mosquitos, depression kitties, love bugs, and other wild and weird characters. Likewise, the initial focus on human characters Andrew, Nick, and Jessi has expanded, giving weighty and meaningful roles to their peers, parents, and family members, each with their own hangups and accompanying creatures.
At the start of Season 6, Missy sets her sights on Elijah (Brian Tyree Henry), formerly just an extra in the background who graduates to having a voice, a name, a personality, and even his own storyline. In Episode 8, "Asexual Healing," Elijah is pleasantly surprised to find the show's camera following him for a change, as he and Missy attend his family's cookout. And because he gets his own story, he gets his own hormone monsters, Gil (Gil Ozeri) and Barry (Mike Birbiglia) from the spinoff series "Human Resources," who immediately recommend that Elijah masturbate onto the grill. When a disgusted Elijah asks why he would ever do such a thing, Gil looks straight at the camera and replies, "Because it's 'Big Mouth!' These people [meaning both the filmmakers and the audience watching] are sick!"
9. Girl we got with your mom
One of the central tensions of "Big Mouth" is that it is a series replete with graphic sexual content involving children, but written and performed by actors who are mostly in their 30s or 40s. As such, there is a distinct young gen-X/elder millennial frame of reference for much of the humor. Lonely loudmouth Lola's (Kroll) storyline in Episode 7, "Dadda Dia!" turns on three very specific 1990s/early 2000s pop cultural references: the boy band explosion at the turn of the millennium, the 1994 "hot coffee" lawsuit against McDonald's, and the 1999 ABBA jukebox musical "Mamma Mia!" After a too-hot Hot Pocket burns her mouth, Lola sues the company. When she wins a huge settlement, the three members of the 2000s boy band Boys4Life (Adam Levine, Matt Rogers, and Ed Helms) show up at her door, each of them claiming to be her father; Lola's mother, a career groupie, is currently touring with Hoobastank.
Each of them make their claim to Lola's parentage via the song "Girl We Got with Your Mom," a pitch-perfect parody of the kind of bubble gum Y2K pop that sent *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys to the top of the charts two decades ago. The Bros narrate the circumstances in which Lola's mom Cookie had sex with all three of them in the same window of time to have possibly fathered Lola. "Holy Joe Paternity!" she exclaims. But if it all seems a little too good to be true, that's because it is.
8. Dead Doves
Sometimes a joke doesn't need to be sophisticated or some elaborately constructed callback. Sometimes, it just needs to be the sight of dead birds flopping out of a teenager's backpack. Episode 2, "Twenty Two and You," has the Bridgeton kids take a cut-rate DNA test in their science class, with some surprising results. Nick is shocked to discover that he is actually Scottish on his father's side, a revelation that powers most of his storyline for the season. Jay, on the other hand, is delighted to find that he has an older half brother from one of his father's many affairs.
He and Matthew visit his new brother's house, and while he is rebuffed, the experience leads to an epiphany: If Jay has one known half-brother, and if his father is a constant philanderer, then there must be dozens of secret Bilzerians out there. He opens his backpack to release the doves he keeps inside. "Doves, bring me my brothers!" the magician-in-training commands, only to watch as three suffocated and/or unfed white birds drop to the ground. "Oooooh boy," Jay sighs as a horrified Matthew looks on. Jay's love of magic, particularly of the Criss Angel Mindfreak style, has been one of his most consistent traits, and one of the first things he changes about himself for his relationship with Matthew; the dead doves are a sign of trouble to come.
7. Andrew's Case File
Season 5 introduced love bugs, little cheerful firefly-looking creatures who accompany the first blush of a new relationship. Chris O'Down's Flanny O'lympics was first introduced on "Human Resources" and makes his "Big Mouth" debut in Episode 2 as Andrew's new love bug. But Flanny is not quite prepared for the horror show that is Andrew Glouberman's sexual history, and soon finds his cheerful spirit crushed by Andrew's massive case file. When Maury throws a heavy box full of papers marked "Andrew" in Flanny's hands, the love bug is overwhelmed. "Mother of Mary, that's Andrew's file?" he asks Maury, only to discover that's just the first box; there's a whole pallet of boxes marked "Flatulence issues" and "His f***in' hats," among others.
Flanny tries to find the silver lining in Andrew's depraved clouds, but always comes up short. When he asks if the class DNA test shows if Andrew is related to Bernie, Maury chuckles, "Oh that wouldn't stop Andrew." Andrew, being no help at all, concurs. Flanny, horrified and depressed at the revelation, decides to start in on Andrew's two-box incest file.
6. Lady Pussysqueak
Missy's relationship with Elijah is bumpy from the very start, as he turns out to be not a cute boy for her to project her feelings onto and grind with, presumably, but an actual person with thoughts and feelings of his own — religious feelings in particular. Missy is massively horny from the start of the season, but Elijah is a devout Christian and his church is staunchly against self-pleasure. In Episode 6, "The Apple Brooch," Missy tries to abstain from doing anything more than holding hands with Elijah, much to the dismay of her hormone monster Mona (Thandiwe Newton). Lacking the physical intimacy she craves, Missy pours her sexual frustrations into a fantasy world based on the hit Netflix Regency-era romance "Bridgerton."
Featuring the kids from the similarly-titled Bridgeton Middle in gowns and waistcoats, Missy's fantasy revolves around the roiling inner passions and outwardly chaste romances of Jane Austen. She drops her glove in front of Elijah, who is entering the priesthood in a fortnight, so that their fingers might touch ever so slightly. Meanwhile, society ladies read the latest scandals as written by the mysterious Lady Pussysqueak, whose identity remains a secret even though it's obviously Lola, thanks to the telltale sound coming from her private parts.
5. Your vulnerability is your strength
Nick's discovery from the DNA test that his father Elliot is Scottish sets off an incredible emotional journey for the entire Birch family. It turns out that Dr. Elliot Birch, the most gentle man that Nick (or anyone knows), was born William McGregor and was trained as a child in the (apparently) ancient Scottish sport of nipple twisting by his brutal father Seamus (Peter Capaldi), himself a champion nipple twister. Nick seeks out his long lost grandfather, who is living in squalor in Staten Island, which results in Seamus coming to live with the Birches.
In a flashback we see how a terrible nipple twisting accident led Elliot to turn away from his father's hypermascuine ways, but when Seamus insults Nick's mom Diane (Rudolph), Elliot punches him out, awakening the terrible alpha male within. All of this leads up to the season finale, "F***ed Up Friday," in which a series of "Freaky Friday"-esque body swaps lead to lessons being learned. Nick, in the body of his grandfather, challenges Elliot to a nipple twist, to remind him that his gentleness is not a flaw. "Your vulnerability is actually strength," Nick/Seamus tells his father/son as they twist each other's nipples to oblivion, a simultaneously heartwarming and hilarious moment.
4. Just remember, you've been there before
Elsewhere in the finale, Andrew finds himself in a much different clinch with a parent. Stuck in his father's body, it falls on his shoulders to repair his parents' marriage and un-freaky this Friday. With Marty-as-Andrew playing Cyrano to Andrew-as-Marty from outside the bedroom door, he admits feelings to Barbara that he never could have before: That he loves and appreciates his wife more than anything, and that his anger and abrasiveness is born from insecurity that he's just not good enough for her.
Like Nick talking sense into his father, Andrew's words from Marty's body work on Barbara — a little too well. Barbara is not only touched by Marty's declaration, but turned on. She pushes Marty to the bed and takes his pants off, and suddenly Andrew is confronted with the very real possibility that he might have to have sex with his mother in order to keep her from finding out about the body swap. Maury, watching helplessly from the sidelines, can only offer "Just remember — you've been there before!" by way of comfort. Luckily, the body swap magic undoes itself at the last possible moment, putting Marty back in his own body underneath Barbara and putting Andrew back in his body, creeping by the door like a little pervert.
3. Roll the super-clip!
Episode 4, "Rice Purity Test," focuses on the eponymous test, a meme from Bernie's school with 100 sexual or otherewise illicit acts. For every act you've done, you subtract a point; the lower your score, the more of a degenerate you are. When Andrew introduces the test to Bridgeton, it spreads like a virus. No one is terribly surprised that Jay's score is 2, but Andrew's surprisingly low score of 61 generates more than a little disgust. Andrew objects to their ughs, correctly noting that "you all know who I am" before turning to the camera and commanding, "Roll the supercut!"
"Rice Purity Test" revives the lost art of the sitcom clip show, when a long-running series strings together old clips to pad out a light episode and/or season. This episode ends up being more of a parody of clip shows than the real deal, as it has plenty of plot (mostly involving Missy and Jay's divergent reactions to their respectively high and low scores) and the clips ultimately don't matter much after the start of the episode. But if nothing else, the episode gives us the Andrew supercut, a quick run through six seasons' worth of Andrew's orgasm face as he defiles one moment after another, whether in the comfort of his own room or hanging out with Nick and Jessi. "Jesus, Andrew," says Gina (Gina Rodriguez), aghast at the montage we just watched, "how are you not dehydrated, like, all the time?"
2. As Balthazar foretold
Episode 3, "Vagina Shame," is presented as a series of "case studies" by author and shame wizard Rita St. Swithens (Juliet Mills), centering around the particular sorts of shame that afflict the female characters of "Big Mouth," from Missy fretting over her first period to Caitlin (Jenny Slate), the pregnant girlfriend of Jessi's dad, learning that she will need to have a C-section instead of the natural birth she had planned. Lola gets her own case study as she debates whether or not to shave her pubic hair; when she hears Jay, Nick, and Andrew talking about their preference for women who are shaved, the debate is settled.
But not everyone is on board with Lola's decision — specifically, two loyal pubic hairs stylized as medieval knights, Leandre and Balthazar. They extol the virtues of pubic hair as a natural protection against infection and, apparently, falling leaves, as Balthazar keeps unhelpfully mentioning. Despite their protestations, Lola shaves and immediately regrets her decision — and when a stray leaf blows in through the bathroom window, she is powerless to stop it. "Ouch," she whimpers, "It's as Balthazar foretold." Lola is consistently one of Kroll's best performances on the show, whether she's playing Bonnie and Clyde with Jay or outing herself as a 9/11 truther, and the pathos he gives to her grief is arguably the peak line reading of the season.
1. Hookup House Commercial
The show walks such a fine line in telling such sexually explicit stories about middle schoolers, and as with "Dadda Dia," one of the subtle ways it sidesteps its own problematic content is in its decidedly late gen-x/old millennial sense of humor and references. In the first episode of the season, "The Hookup House," a humiliating attempt at Zoom sex with Bernie sends Andrew on a quest to find a more private space to be intimate. He finds it in Nick's attic, which is unoccupied other than the ghost of Duke Ellington, and has a pair of willing hosts in Nick's sexually permissive parents. Nick, initially against this use of his attic, comes around when he realizes that having the "hookup house" will drastically increase his chances of making out with the girls of Bridgeton.
But how to get the word out about the hookup house? By filming a commercial in the style of a 1-900 adult chat line from the 1990s and airing it on the morning announcements, of course. Shot with a gauzy filter and featuring Andrew, Nick, and Jay lounging around the gross attic in silk robes while a saxophone plays lustily in the background, it is the sort of thing that would be incomprehensible to any actual 13-year-old in 2022, long after the internet had eradicated the need for both telephone chat lines and late night commercials for them. But for viewers (and television writers) of a certain age, this genre of advertisement is burned into their memory, and "Big Mouth" gets the vaguely sexy but mostly embarrassing details just right.