In Baby Reindeer, Donny meets a writer on a show called “Cotton Mouth,” who ends up grooming him with the promise of helping his comedy career. In the final episode, it’s revealed there’s going to be a reboot of Cotton Mouth, which Darrien invites Donny to work on. Viewers are wondering if Cotton Mouth is real and where they can watch it.
Is Cotton Mouth from Baby Reindeer a real show?
In Baby Reindeer, Darrien works on a show named Cotton Mouth, but there’s no such thing in real life. Either Richard Gadd was referring to another show by using that name, or Darrien working on a comedy TV show was just a plot vehicle to show that he was a big shot in the entertainment world. The real Darrien could have just as easily been in charge of a club, playhouse, or any number of roles.
Gadd hasn’t revealed any info about the real Darrien, which leaves us with no clues as to what Cotton Mouth might be referring to. Donny doesn’t go into detail about the series, but there are a few things said about it:
It’s a sketch show.
It was popular at some point.
It ended or was canceled at one point.
It was rebooted.
However, looking at Richard Gadd’s real-life portfolio, nothing really fits the bill. Several parts of Baby Reindeer are embellished, such as Donny’s comedy career going poorly. In reality, during the period that Donny was portrayed as being a failure who played in empty pubs, Gadd was doing comedy in London’s Soho Theatre and winning awards.
So, it’s unlikely that Gadd’s “Cotton Mouth” was a comedy TV show. This is likely an allegory for something we couldn’t figure out with the meager clues available in Baby Reindeer. Gadd has made it clear that he doesn’t want Darrien identified, so it’s unlikely he would leave any details that would make him easy to find.
