Paul Rudd, the Hollywood Dorian Gray, has been a staple on Conan O’Brien’s late-night shows for decades. Over the years, from Anchorman to Ant-Man, Rudd has ended every visit with a video prank featuring a clip from the cringe-worthy E.T. rip-off MAC AND ME. After introducing a clip, a scene from the McDonald’s-funded kid’s movie would play. Shortly thereafter, the camera would return to Conan’s face looking very non-plussed. With Conan’s late-night career coming to an end this month, Rudd paid one last visit to deliver some wheelchair alien goodness.
Rudd’s final spot on the late-night show happened while Conan and Andy Richter were interviewing Saturday Night Live alum, Bill Hader. Rudd emerged from behind the stage dressed in a tuxedo and immediately began embarrassing Hader with a story about an unused SNL sketch gone bad. Rudd says that the sketch, which focused on Ed Burns, was declared by Lorne Michaels as “the worst received sketch of all time.” It’s only after embarrassing Hader that Rudd says he’s willing to share footage from the dress rehearsal. As the clip begins to play, Rudd straight up Rick Rolls Conan again by showing a hilarious clip from 1988’s Mac and Me. This is the ninth time that Rudd has pulled this stunt on Conan, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that some jokes never get old.
You can watch the full clip of Rudd being a scamp on Conan below:
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“It’s been about 25 years of you coming on the show and you would always say ‘I’ve got a clip.’ … I would be convinced I would see the real clip,” O’Brien wailed in response. “You’re such a genuinely nice person, and you would say, ‘This movie is really important to me. I put my own money into this, and I really care about this.’ And then you pull that shit every time!”
This is truly the end of an era, folks. I hope that Rudd will find a way to haunt Conan with this clip even though O’Brien’s late-night tenure is coming to an end. Actually, Conan will probably have nightmares about this clip for years. In that way and more, Rudd’s work here is done. I salute you, Mr. Rudd. You and your modern-day Ponce de Leon ways.
