As the pandemic rages on, war rages in Europe and celebrities smack each other on national TV, we don’t feel like we have much to rely on. Except that Paul Rudd never ages – and continues to torment Conan O’Brien.
The ‘Ant-Man’ star appeared on Earwolf’s ‘Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend’ podcast on Sunday and pulled off a prank that – as always – made it on people who had been around the joke for a long time , eliciting a giggle.
Basically, Rudd got O’Brien to play a clip from the 1988 ET knockoff Mac and Me, a notoriously stinky film whose place in pop culture Rudd almost single-handedly keeps alive these days.
Rudd brought the cheesy clip from “Mac and Me” — a film about a young wheelchair user who forms a touching friendship with an alien that’s definitely not based on any creatures from an earlier, more well-known film — to O’Brien’s various shows for almost 20 years. It all started in 2004 when Rudd showed the clip while appearing on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” to discuss the upcoming “Friends” finale, according to Newsweek. Rudd offered to play a short segment from the very last “Friends”. Of course, that wasn’t what he played.
“There are a lot of surprises in the last episode,” Rudd said dryly after the clip ended. “It was quite emotional.”
It has since become a running gag, with Rudd O’Brien regularly showing off the video after offering to play a clip from the project he recently appeared in.
This time Rudd expertly prepared the prank and spoke passionately and at length about a new project of his – an Audible series starring Adam Scott, Ken Marino and Celia Weston. After about 20 minutes, Rudd asked if O’Brien wanted him to “play a little bit of it”.
“For sure!” said O’Brien, taking the bait.
The boys had a computer screen in their room, and when O’Brien’s producer shot the Mac and Me clip, he realized he’d been duped once again.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” he moaned.
“Why? Why! … You can’t do that on a podcast! That’s why I didn’t see it coming!” O’Brien stuttered as the clip continued. “It’s a visual joke!”
In fact, it turns out you can do that on a podcast — because Rudd did it. And, well, YouTube exists and luckily her interview was recorded (above).
O’Brien later admitted he didn’t see the prank coming at all.
“You just heard the ‘Mac and Me’ clip took me by surprise, to be honest,” he told listeners. “I swear on my life.”
best part? Rudd said he completely made up the Audible series, which he talked about for a good chunk of the interview.
“None of that was true,” Rudd said mischievously.
“The joke continues,” O’Brien murmured.