Paul Rudd Somehow Managed To Bring Back Classic Prank On Conan O’Brien’s Podcast

Paul Rudd has managed to bring back an age-old hilarious prank on Conan O'Brien during a recent podcast appearance.

Anytime Conan O'Brien talks to Paul Rudd, he's bound to hear the scream of one word: "Eric!"

For the past 20 years, The 40-Year-Old Virgin star has been fooling O'Brien with the ol' bait-and-switch.

Every time he comes onto his talk show, Rudd comes armed with a 'clip' - not from the film he's promoting, whether it's This Is 40, Anchorman 2 or Ant-Man, but from Mac and Me, an appalling rip-off of E.T.

Orion Pictures

The 1988 movie, released six years after Steven Spielberg's classic, follows a young boy who befriends an alien trying to get back to his family.

Rudd doesn't star in the film, nor does he have any real affiliation with it - he just clearly finds it really funny, and he's gone to great lengths to share the same clip on O'Brien's shows. Hilariously, the host always fails to see it coming.

In fairness, Rudd's mischief is fairly elaborate, especially after managing to pull off the gag on O'Brien's new podcast.

During his recent appearance, the actor started spinning a detailed ruse about an Audible podcast he'd been working on with his friend Dan Etheridge. "It's been really kind of great because I don't normally get the opportunity to work on my own things like that," he says.

"I'm usually a hired gun. But it's been fun, and I've been working on it and recording it with my friends."

The show boasted an all-star cast, including Adam Scott, Ken Marino, and Celia Watson, and followed Rudd as a down-on-his-luck publicist who falls in love with a New Orleans woman working in a craft store.

After spending around three minutes of walking O'Brien through the new project, he reveals he brought a clip. "We’ve recorded it... if you want to play a little bit of it," he says. "Sure!" O'Brien replies.

And that's when Rudd gets his delicious moment. In an instant, the young boy in the wheelchair is speeding towards the edge of a cliff, and a young girl screams his name. He plummets into the water, and the horrid alien awakens from his slumber.

"Oh for Christ’s sake!" O'Brien shouts, laughing. "Why? Why? You can't do this on a podcast! That's why I didn't see it coming! It's a visual joke!"

Of course, Rudd is just delighted, but it gets even better. "Was there any truth to anything you said in the setup?" O'Brien asks him. "No, none of that was true," he replies.

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