Paul Rudd has been trolling Conan O’Brien with a clip from the terrible 1988 movie Mac and Me. Why? Here’s the Paul Rudd Mac And Me prank explained.
Since 2004, Paul Rudd has been trolling Conan O’Brien with a clip from a 1988 box office disaster called Mac and Me. Rudd is a frequent guest on Conan’s late-night talk show and like many talk show guests, he always brings a clip from his latest film or project to share with the audience.
Rudd will tease the audience with something like an exclusive scene from the final episode of Friends or a clip from one of his movies like The 40-Year-Old Virgin or Anchorman. But instead of showing his “exclusive” clip, Rudd will instead play a ridiculous scene from the movie Mac And Me of a boy in a wheelchair falling off a cliff. It’s the same Paul Rudd Mac And Me joke every time he’s on Conan. Rudd will set up a clip for Conan and the audience, but instead, he’ll play the scene from Mac And Me.
Conan’s audience always delights at seeing the scene. And Conan’s fake frustration just adds to the moment. The long-running joke is the equivalent of a “Rick Roll”, but Rudd has been doing this joke long before Rickrolling was a thing. Maybe we should call it a Paul Rudd Roll Mac And Me Roll?
The First Paul Rudd Mac And Me Prank
The “Paul Rudd Mac And Me” joke first began when Rudd was promoting the final episode of the hit NBC TV show Friends. Rudd played the love interest of Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) in the series and was bragging to Conan that he had an exclusive clip from the final episode. Everyone, including Conan, was very excited. Here’s a segment from Rudd’s February 6, 2004, appearance on NBC’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”. Skip to 3:20 to see the Mac And Me clip.
Paul Rudd Mac And Me Compilation From His Conan Appearances
Over the years, Paul Rudd has played the same exact joke on Conan. He always sets up a clip but instead plays the scene from Mac And Me. Here’s a Paul Rudd Mac And Me compilation of most of his appearances on Conan’s late-night shows.
The Paul Rudd Mac And Me Joke Being Explained To Chris Evans
What does Rudd’s costars in the Marvel films think of the joke? Here’s a clip of Rudd explaining the joke to Chris Evans, the actor who plays Captain America.
Paul Rudd’s EXCLUSIVE “Ant-Man” Clip
While other movie studios looked the other way and let the long-running “Mac And Me” joke play out, Disney was different. Rudd and Conan talked about the Marvel movie machine and how Disney wouldn’t allow him to show the same scene from Mac And Me. So while promoting the Marvel film Ant-Man, Rudd finally played a different clip after all these years.
Offical Mac And Me Trailer
We’re not sure what the creators of the film Mac And Me think about all of this. The mostly forgotten film from 1988 certainly keeps getting an extra boost of publicity from Rudd’s appearances on Conan. If you haven’t seen Mac And Me before, it’s basically a bad ripoff of Steven Spielberg‘s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). How bad? It has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
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