Judd Apatow responds to Paul Rudd’s bizarre Conan O’Brien talk show bit and shares a funny story from the campaign tour for This Is 40 from 2012.
Judd Apatow responds Paul Rudd‘s engagement in a bizarre talk show and shares a story about the actor from This is 40. Since 2004, Rudd has continued with the same prank on earlier late nights talk show host, Conan O’Brien. Each time Rudd visited the show to promote a film, instead of showing a clip from the film, as is the tradition, the actor would show a clip from the critically acclaimed 1988 film, Mac and meof a young boy in a wheelchair whizzing down a hill and out of a cliff.
O’Brien, who is currently in development on a new HBO Max show, recently had Rudd as a guest on his popular podcast, Conan O’Brien needs a friend. The actor whose next MCU project, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, is currently in the midst of post-production, went on to describe his latest project, a new Audible show, to O’Brien before asking to play a clip of it. That the project Rudd describedwas, however, completely invented and was just a setup to play again Mac and me clips to a confused O’Brien.
In response to a tweet from the official Team Coco Twitter account showing a video of Rudd’s latest podcast prank, Apatow shares his own thoughts on Rudd’s involvement in Mac and me little. Apatow explains that in the promotion of This is 40he”begged“Rudd for not doing it and playing an actual clip from the film. Rudd agreed, writes Apatow, but then went on to play Mac and me cut anyway. Apatow writes that he now “respectsRudd’s lifelong commitment to such a bizarre prank. See Apatow’s tweet below:
I asked Paul not to do this when he was promoting This Is 40 because we needed the right clip that was shown and pressed. He said ok. Then he did it anyway. I respect that now. Lifelong commitment to bizarre jokes is rare and should be admired by all citizens. https://t.co/2SHUvoSg0o
– Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) March 30, 2022
Click here to see the original tweet.
While Rudd defied Apatow’s wishes for his This is 40 appearance on Conan, the actor does not do the same prank on other talk shows, which means that the promotion of the film was probably not influenced too much. Apatow is reportedly working on a script for a sequel to This is 40 called This is 50, which would make him reunite with Rudd again. Although the release of This is 50 still a while away, it seems likely that when you promote the film, no matter what O’Brien’s new HBO Max show will be called, audiences will once again see the clip from Mac and me.
Rudd’s dedication to his Mac and me bit is certainly unshakable. After first debuting it on Late night with Conan O’Brien in 2004, the actor’s latest stunt suggests that he will also do so on a podcast when given the chance, though, as O’Brien amusingly says, “It’s a visual joke“If anything, Rudd pulls in his Mac and me joke on a podcast is even more fun because it is so unexpected. Fans definitely seem to get a kick out of it Rudd‘s commitment to bit, and it looks like Apatow does too!
Source: Judd Apatow/ Twitter
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