One of the saddest realizations brought upon by the end of Conan O’Brien’s run on television as a late-night talk show was fact that fans would be losing one of the greatest running gags in media.
You see, every time Paul Rudd would go onto Conan’s show, the Ant-Man actor would somehow get the comedian to believe he was there to show a clip of his latest film. Considering his work spans from Clueless to Avengers: Endgame, how could any host not allow Rudd to show a clip? It’d be malpractice!
In reality, Rudd would only provide a clip from the 1988 film Mac and Me. And every single time, Conan O’Brien would fall for it. No matter how elaborate the set-up for the clip became, no matter how many times Rudd assured him this was for real, Lucy would pull the football away from Charlie Brown at the last second once again.
Now that O’Brien hosts a podcast, Rudd had to get a bit more creative to keep the bit going. Somehow, someway—in audio form!—the actor pulled it off.
In which Paul Rudd goes on Conan O’Brien’s podcast and continues the greatest running bit of all time. pic.twitter.com/U7h7YL3agg
— Nick de Semlyen (@NickdeSemlyen) March 29, 2022
Its absolutely incredible Rudd can continue to expose Conan’s gullibility. Truly an actor at the height of his powers. And just in case you’re a little suspicious over how easily this all comes together, you should know there’s more that happens behind the scenes before Rudd ever reaches this point.
“Every time, for years, I was convinced that I would see the real clip,” Conan told Rudd in June 2021. “Because you are a genuinely a nice person. And you would say, ‘this movie is really important to me’ and ‘I put my own money into this, and I really care about this,’ and then you’d pull that s*** every time.”
