“I felt like for other shows too, [it] was like, don’t do that,” Kaling admitted. “And then it feeds into a whole thing of like, it’s not cool to compliment.”

Mindy Kaling recalls producers advising her not to compliment David Letterman: ‘He doesn’t know what to do with it’

"I felt like for other shows too, [it] was like, don't do that," Kaling admitted. "And then it feeds into a whole thing of like, it's not cool to compliment."

By Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on Entertainment Tonight and Popsugar.

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July 2, 2026 8:00 p.m. ET

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Mindy Kaling; David Letterman. Credit:

- Mindy Kaling recalled how *David Letterman* producers warned her not to compliment the talk show host because he "doesn't know what to do with it."

- "I felt like for other shows too, [it] was like, don't do that. And then it feeds into a whole thing of like, it's not cool to compliment," Kaling said during an appearance on Amy Poehler's *Good Hang* podcast on Tuesday.

- Unlike Letterman, Kaling declared that she loves compliments, praise, and recognition.

Unlike some of the great comedic minds of late-night, Mindy Kaling loves to hear a compliment.

The *Not Suitable for Work* creator reflected on her love of praise during a visit to Amy Poehler's *Good Hang* podcast on Tuesday, in which she recalled learning others weren't of a similar mind as her during the early days of her career.

"Remember when we used to do *David Letterman* and the producers would be like, 'Do not compliment him. He doesn't know what to do with it,'" Kaling brought up to Poehler, who laughed as she agreed. "And you were like, 'Oh, so it's like an insult to compliment a host.' It's like a hostile act."

Noting that it was very "formative" when the producer laid down the decree, Kaling admitted that the experience led her to believe the same when it came to other talk show hosts. "I felt like for other shows too, was like, don't do that. And then it feeds into a whole thing of like, it's not cool to compliment," she reasoned.

Mindy Kaling attends the Hollywood Reporter's 'Awards Chatter' live podcast on June 4, 2026.

Tiffany Rose/Getty

"And yet, I love compliments," *The Office* alum asserted, adding that she would love if "someone came onto my show and was like, 'I love the show.'"

Poehler, who is never shy to praise her podcast guests, was quick to agree. "I love to give. I love to get," the former *Saturday Night Live* cast member shared. "I mean, literally, what are we doing? What are we gonna be, like, mean to each other? The world is on fire."

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Kaling went on to heap some praise on Poehler herself, gushing to the host that she is a loyal fan of the podcast.

"I just want to say that I love the show," she said. "I watch it with my nanny in little clips on YouTube at night after the children are down. And it's like such an intimate thing to watch in the dark. You talking to, like, Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Hahn, and then [we] have our little ads on YouTube."

Poehler noted that Kaling has had an impressive year as well, with her latest comedy series, *Not Suitable for Work*, having made its debut on Hulu on June 2, which she likened to "the third in a trilogy."

"I'm really trying to get that I have a trilogy, that I'm like Peter Jackson," Kaling quipped, to which Poehler interjected that as a "mogul" she has to make everything seem like part of a "master plan."

Avantika and Ella Hunt on 'Not Suitable for Work'.

*Not Suitable for Work* is the third live-action series Kaling has created, following *Never Have I Ever *and *Sex Lives With College Girls*. As she previously explained during an appearance on the *Today* show, the new series is "the last show in this trilogy of shows that I've done about young people. *Never Have I Ever *was a show loosely based on my childhood and the loss of a parent. *Sex Lives With College Girls* was very loosely based on my time at Dartmouth."

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Speaking to Poehler, Kaling shared that she loves "writing for underdogs and ambitious people and people with lots of big wants and needs, both romantically and professionally, and who feel like they don't have access to it."

She added, "That's sort of, I think, the thing in common with all three of those shows. I'm not writing shows for, like, television studies professors, do you know what I mean? Not that I don't think that's an important job and things, but I want to do something that's like when times are hard — you know, when like my mom was sick and we wanted to watch something, it's like we watch *Modern Family*. It was like, I want to watch something that's like legitimately so funny."

Watch Kaling's appearance on the *Good Hang With Amy Poehler* podcast above.

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