Kumail Nanjiani has a number of great bits in his new stand-up comedy special Night Thoughts – commenting on a number of subjects, like how his brain processes extreme anxiety when he is trying to sleep, bands performing encores, and how going to therapy helped him in the wake of the less-than-stellar critical response to the film Eternals. Some of his best material, however, concerns his deep love for his cat Bagel, and while his jokes about the relationship are great all by themselves, I now have an even greater appreciation for them after learning a wonderful behind-the-scenes story from the development of the Hulu original.
The lovely bit of trivia was posted this week on Instagram by Emily V. Gordon, who is Nanjiani’s wife in addition to being credited as an executive producer on Night Thoughts. In the social media post, she offers gratitude and appreciation to the folks at Hulu for a kindness that they extended to the couple in the development of the stand-up special – which was instigated by the sad passing of Bagel earlier this year. In a series of images with text, Gordon wrote,
Here’s a thing you should know about Hulu. Kumail recorded this special earlier in 2025, we edited and locked it, and then Bagel (who is heavily discussed in the special) passed away in September. Hulu not only allowed us to reopen the edit to add an in memoriam for Bagel, but then they did this for us:
The next image in the post featured a clipped version of the poster for Night Thoughts, which you can check out below:
Looking at the bottom left quadrant of the poster, you’ll notice that a photo of Bagel was included in the artwork curled on the bed next to her owner… and neither Kumail Nanjiani nor Emily V. Gordon knew it that was coming. When they saw it for the first time, per the latter, both of them had a very emotional response:
They added her to the poster. As a tribute to her. We both started crying when we saw it. I thought that was very kind and wanted to acknowledge it.
In the special, it’s made very clear that Kumail Nanjiani really loved Bagel, and it surely must have been extremely painful when he and his wife had to say goodbye to such a great pet… but both the memoriam and the poster are wonderful tributes, and it shows that the couple had some terrific partners in the development of the comedy special.
If you haven’t yet watched, Night Thoughts is now available to stream with a Hulu subscription, and regardless of how you feel about cats, it’s definitely worth a watch for an hour of great comedy.
