It’s the prank that is more than a quarter of a century old — and Conan O’Brien is still not tired of the joke. So much so, he expects Paul Rudd to perform the gag as he shuffles off his mortal coil.
For those catching up, when Rudd appears on O’Brien’s shows to promote a movie, he dupes the presenter with a clip from Mac and Me, the 1988 science fiction caper. The prank started in February 2004, when Rudd teased O’Brien with what he thought would be an exclusive look at the Friends finale. Instead, he got the clip of Mac and Me‘s Eric falling off a cliff in a wheelchair.
Rudd repeated the joke this week on Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, the podcast on which the Clueless actor appeared to promote Anaconda. Rudd didn’t disappoint, but O’Brien detected that his heart was not in it.
“This is the least you’ve tried ever,” O’Brien roared. “Is there part of you that just hates yourself when you’re doing the fake setup now?” Rudd replied: “Are you kidding me? Absolutely. Hate it when I set it up. Hate it when I’m sitting watching.”
O’Brien said, however, that he would welcome Rudd performing the prank on his deathbed. “I’ll be in the hospital, and you’ll be visiting me, and I won’t have long, and they’ll say, ‘[He’s] in a lot of pain, but he’s pretty good right now.’
“And you’ll come in to say, ‘Hi,’ and I know you’re going to do a thing where I’m kind of in and out, but I’m there, and I’m so happy to see you, and then you’re going to say, ‘I just got good news from your doctor … they did a scan, and they actually can’t find any of the disease in the area … take a look at the scan.’ And it’s going to be that [clip].”
O’Brien continued: “It’s going to bring me a lot of joy, and then I’ll pass away.” Rudd replied: “I’m just happy that I could bring that to you in your final moments.”