John Mulaney is one of the most popular modern stand-up comedians, but his career could have been launched earlier with Home Alone in the ’90s.

John Mulaney is best known for his quirky stand-up routines, like New in Town and Kid Gorgeous, which earned him the honor of being one of the most popular comedians of the 21st century.

In addition to stand-up comedy, Mulaney also spent four seasons on the writing team for Saturday Night Live.

 As of today, Mulaney has hosted the NBC sketch comedy series five times and became one of the few SNL writers to host the show.

While Mulaney didn’t make the cut to appear as an actor on SNL, he later gained recognition for his voice-acting performances.

Mulaney has lent his voice to shows like Big Mouth and voiced both Peter Porker in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Chip in the recent revival filmChip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers. 

But even before SNL, Mulaney could have skyrocketed to fame if he had taken the lead role in Home Alone.

Before Home Alone, director Chris Columbus had recently quit National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation after irreconcilable differences with the star of the Vacation film series — Chevy Chase.

Luckily, ’80s teen comedy filmmaker John Hughes sent the Home Alone script Columbus’ way only two weeks after he left Christmas Vacation. Finding a director was easy, but now they had to search for the actors.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Columbus met with hundreds of prospective actors for the lead role of eight-year-old Kevin McCallister in Home Alone.

 Fortunately, Hughes had some prior experience with the perfect fit for the part — Macaulay Culkin. Culkin had previously starred in Hughes’ Uncle Buck alongside John Candy — only a year before Home Alone was released.

While it’s unknown if any other big names in the acting industry auditioned to play Kevin, Mulaney was among the prospective children for Home Alone.

Mulaney was born and raised in Chicago, and Home Alone was actually filmed in Chicago’s surrounding suburbs.

According to the Chicago Tribune, a talent scout had asked Mulaney to audition for the Home Alone role due to his children’s sketch comedy experience.

On an episode of Live with Kelly, Mulaney revealed his parents weren’t entirely on board with the idea of him auditioning for the part.

Mulaney stated his parents told him they didn’t want him “to audition for that movie” while he was at a doctor’s appointment for a booster shot.

One can’t help but wonder what a child version of Mulaney could have done with Home Alone due to his quirky humor.

Although it would have been interesting, Culkin arguably was the best choice. Culkin also appeared in the sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New Yorkbut quit acting before the Home Alone films went downhill. Maybe fans need a Mulaney deepfake.