Lin Manuel Miranda On ‘Billy On The Street’ Is Pure, Unadulterated Joy

Billy Eichner, Lin Manuel Miranda Image by Getty/Forward Montage

By Jenny Singer December 13, 2018

On Thursdays in the winter, all we want is half-a-dozen golden retriever puppies, a bowl of warm drinking chocolate, and human rights and a social safety net for all.

But until those things can arrive, this video of “Hamilton” creator and “Moana” composer Lin Manuel Miranda joining Jewish comic Billy Eichner to hug random New Yorkers will be enough. This is truly the most likable men have ever been.

Miranda and Eichner dropped their “Billy On The Street” collaboration on Thursday morning and it is truly the closest we can come to seeing God in our midst. Watch it if you like: joy, warmth, love, nodding, hugs, New York, peace on earth, and the glory of creation.

Best line: “Speaking of Vietnam, he’s in ‘Marry Poppins Returns.’”

Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO