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Who Knew There Was This Much to Say About Swinging

Photo: HBO

Silicon Valley star Thomas Middleditch has given an interview in Playboy that has what we might call “severe Burning Man energy.”

And not just because he discusses, among other things: Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg; “alpha” and “beta” men; shooting guns with Alex Jones; getting his private pilot’s license; and how “after spending an entire weekend playing computer games,” he likes to “take mushrooms and drink rainwater off a tree.”

No, its when Middleditch talks at astonishing length about being polyamorous that the interview truly veers into “look at me disrupting shit” territory.

In response to what is itself a cursed question — “You and one of the Godzilla writers visited a swingers club with your partners during production. Are you and Mollie, your wife of four years, familiar with the swinging scene?” Middleditch describes telling her, in his own words, “Mollie, I’m sorry, but we have to get nontraditional here.” Damn, go off, polyamorous cowboy!

And it doesn’t stop there. We learn that “the term ‘swinging’ is old,” actually, and now it’s “called being ‘part of the lifestyle,’” and also that being “part of the lifestyle” has saved his marriage. We learn that Middleditch has “been to some weird parties” where, he explains, “I’ve seen some butts, I’ve seen some tits,” and that sometimes he is a “ravenous little monster.”

Sure, there is something to reading a self-identified “pretty vanilla, probably cis-hetero” man talk openly about how he interacts with other men in this lawless swinger frontier. “I’ve totally gotten to the point where I can see a dick and just be like, ‘Nice hog, buddy,’” he muses at one point, to which I say, earnestly, that’s a lovely sentiment.

We can’t know exactly what goes on beyond closed doors for Middleditch and Mollie beyond what he says in the interview (which is, to reiterate, a lot), but Middleditch comes off so wildly un-self-aware when discussing her. At one point, he says that she “doesn’t get that” fans want to sleep with him, and asks, “Where do I fit in?” He also describes himself as the “gas” and her as the “brakes” in their setup, and offhandedly notes that his wife is “more private” about their lifestyle, which is something he has to “juggle,” right before implying to the interviewer that they’ve been to an Eyes Wide Shut–style party.

Middleditch claims that he and Mollie are writing a comedy series about their swinging lifestyle, and I for one am extremely curious about Mollie’s side of things. Hopefully, at least one episode is called “My Husband’s Polyamorous Journey Including Our Trip to the Club With Godzilla Writers.”

Who Knew There Was This Much to Say About Swinging