John Mulaney has come under fire for a very controversial joke about the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa. The pair were found dead in their Santa Fe home in February, along with one of their dogs, after Betsy succumbed to a rare hantavirus and Gene died from heart disease and advanced Alzheimer’s.

On Wednesday (April 24), US comedian Mulaney targeted the investigation into their deaths on his show Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney. Referencing a headline about dinosaurs, he said on the Netflix show: “Scientists are now like, ‘We believe dinosaurs were killed 66 million years ago by an asteroid’. Stop. You don’t know that. We don’t even know how Gene Hackman and his wife died, and we found their whole bodies with full clothes on, one week after the event.

“How about that Santa Fe police? ‘Uh, hello. Press conference No. 470. We now believe that a rat bit Mrs. Hackman, turning her hands into mummy hands.’ Just slow down. You don’t know what happened.”

One Reddit user branded the comments “sickening”, writing: “Just me thinking the Gene Hackman bit was just a tad sickening…” But others were quick to defend the comedian, with one arguing: “Only John could get away with a Gene Hackman joke this soon!”

The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office released images and bodycam footage from inside the Hackman mansion, showing outbuildings infested with rodents and overflowing bins on the $4million property. Blood – thought to be unrelated to the couple’s death – was also found in one of the beds.

Gene died at the age of 95, with his official cause of death being hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with Alzheimer’s disease as a significant contributing factor. He is thought to have died around a week after his wife, who was 65.

Their dog, Zinna, who had been crated at the time of Betsy’s death due to a medical procedure, likely died of starvation and dehydration, while two other dogs thankfully survived.