Paul Rudd Pranks Conan With His ‘Mac and Me’ Clip For the Final Time
For almost 20 years, every single time Paul Rudd has appeared on Conan O’Brien’s various talk shows, he has pranked the host and the audience. Rudd would set up a clip from whatever movie or TV show he was there to promote, but when they’d cut to the clip, he’d instead show the same scene from the infamous E.T. ripoff Mac and Me. Sometimes he’d show the clip multiple times in a single appearance. It’s been going on like this for literally decades, across three different talk shows, first Late Night With Conan O’Brien, then The Tonight Show, and finally his current Conan series on TBS.
So with Conan coming to the end of its run this week, things simply wouldn’t be complete without a final appearance by Rudd and Mac and Me. Sure enough, Rudd made a surprise pop-in during Conan’s interview with Bill Hader. He was talking about the worst sketch he ever participated in at Saturday Night Live, and blamed its failure on Paul Rudd and his inability to do an Ed Burns impression when who should show up but Rudd himself to set the record straight. You can imagine what happened next:
For posterity’s sake, here’s the very first Mac and Me prank:
And here are just some of the many times Rudd showed the clip on Conan:
Fare thee well, Paul Rudd Mac and Me clip. May a flight of creepy puppet angels sing thee to thy rest. We will never forget you. The final episode of Conan airs this Thursday, June 24 with special guest Jack Black. We expect it to be a wild time. Maybe not Paul Rudd Mac and Me clip wild, but still plenty fun.