And Rudd is even on board with the idea: “I’m just happy that I could bring that to you in your final moments.”

Conan O’Brien hopes Paul Rudd does this classic prank to him on his deathbed: ‘It’s going to bring me a lot of joy’

And Rudd is even on board with the idea: "I'm just happy that I could bring that to you in your final moments."

By Lauren Huff

Lauren Huff

Lauren Huff is an award-winning journalist and staff writer at ** with over 12 years of experience covering all facets of the entertainment industry.

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December 31, 2025 4:33 p.m. ET

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Conan O'Brien and Paul Rudd on 'Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend'. Credit:

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Conan O'Brien knows what he wants his final moments of life to be — and he wants Paul Rudd to be there.

Yes, when the comedian takes his final breath, he's hoping the *Ant-Man* star will be there to pull his *Mac and Me* prank one last time.

As longtime fans of the two may recall, the prank first started in 2004, when Rudd appeared on *Late Night With Conan O’Brien* to promote the then-upcoming series finale of *Friends*. Rudd was there to debut an exclusive clip from the episode, but instead, he played a clip from the 1988 film *Mac and Me*, in which Eric (Jade Calegory) goes careening off a cliff in a wheelchair.

Rudd has kept up the bit many times over the years, and even resurrected it again this week on O'Brien's podcast, *Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend*. This time around, Rudd was supposed to share a snippet of his new film, *Anaconda*, but per usual, shared the clip of Eric instead.

Paul Rudd on 'Late Night With Conan O'Brien'.

Meghan Sinclair/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Despite teasing Rudd mercilessly for his lack of effort this time around, O'Brien suggested on the podcast a scenario in which he'd still welcome the gag even 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,'" O'Brien explained.

He continued, “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], and it's going to make me really happy."

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At this point, Rudd said he was "so touched" to be included, and praised O'Brien for the ingenuity. On a roll, the former late-night host then suggested a variation of the scenario, in which Rudd gets the fictional doctor in on it, and Rudd, the doctor, and O'Brien all look at his medical scans together.

"And then he'll be showing me, and then at some point — because I hope this is not for a long time, I'm just going to say that — but it's going to be some sophisticated scan where they show you in real time," O'Brien explained. "'This is where we did the scan and you can see here and this is where the disease was.' And then it's going to start to flicker a little bit, and it's going to turn into [the *Mac and Me* clip]."

He concluded: “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.”

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