I don’t think there has ever been a more exciting time to be a fan of Conan O’Brien than now, from his recent acclaimed Oscars hosting gig to the return of his Emmy-winning travel docuseries, Conan O’Brien Must Go (now streaming with a Max subscription), to when he received this year’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. That star-studded event (which you can watch with a Netflix subscription) brought back some of the best bits from O’Brien’s days hosting Late Night and beyond, including one that comes courtesy of Paul Rudd.
Longtime followers of O’Brien’s career know that anytime Rudd appears publicly in the comedian’s presence, they are likely going to see a clip from a movie called Mac and Me, which the star of the new A24 movie, Friendship, has indulged in pranking the comedian with for more than two decades. If you ask me, the clip’s emergence at the Mark Twain Prize ceremony is the most brilliantly funny instance of it yet. Before I explain why, allow me to dive into the history of this iconic recurring bit.
The History Of Paul Rudd's Mac And Me Prank On Conan O'Brien
It all started in 2004 when Rudd appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien to promote the series finale of Friends and claimed he got his hands on a clip from the highly anticipated episode. Instead, he introduces a scene from 1988’s Mac and Me, in which the wheelchair-using human protagonist, Eric (Jade Calegory), accidentally rolls down a hill and falls into a river quarry where he is spotted by the titular alien he later befriends.
Relive the history-making moment (or witness it for the first time) below:
It would soon become tradition for Rudd to surprise O’Brien with the clip from the critically reviled E.T. ripoff, forcing him to get more creative with how he would fool the host over time, such as when the actor spent minutes on O’Brien’s podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, describing a completely fake scripted podcast he had been working on as a set-up to play an audio-only version of the clip. Sometimes, he would even re-edit the clip to reference the project he came to promote, such as one time when the MCU’s Ant-Man appeared at the end.
During the final week of episodes for O’Brien’s TBS talk show, Conan, Rudd made a surprise appearance, seeming like he wanted to introduce a clip from his and Bill Hader’s failed Saturday Night Live sketch, only to show the Mac and Me bit. He would then double down by revealing he had previously considered showing an also bizarre scene from 1999’s Baby Geniuses and proceeded to introduce that clip instead… before playing the same clip once more. I used to think that was the funniest iteration of the prank… until now.
How Rudd Managed To Surprise Conan With The Clip At The Mark Twain Prize Ceremony
When O’Brien’s former sidekick, Andy Richter, took the Kennedy Center stage at the 2025 Mark Twain Prize ceremony, he introduced a new edition of a classic Late Night bit in which O’Brien would interview still images of celebrities with their mouths replaced by an actor speaking live, who was usually Robert Smigel. This time, the mouth behind images of Bill Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and James Mason was Rudd, who revealed himself after saying, as Mason, that he was introducing an AI-generated clip of the deceased actor being interviewed by O’Brien.
Of course, what we end up seeing instead is the now-famous clip from Mac and Me before cutting back to Rudd in a pre-recorded message in which he tells him it is becoming more of a challenge to surprise him with “that dumb clip.” He then delivers a genuine congratulatory speech before showing the scene a second time from what appears to be his own home theater.
I am not sure how Rudd is going to top that one. Perhaps, since some of us hoped the Mac and Me clip might appear at the 2025 Oscars, he can attempt to surprise O’Brien when he returns to host the ceremony in 2026.
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