Get ready for a wild ride as we uncover a hilarious joke that has been going on for years! Paul Rudd, the prankster extraordinaire, has a long-standing gag with talk show host Conan O'Brien that will leave you in stitches.
Rudd, a frequent guest on O'Brien's shows, from "Late Night" to "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend," always had a unique way of promoting his projects. Instead of the usual 15-30 second clip, he'd pull a fast one and show a bizarre scene from a different movie altogether! Imagine Conan's surprise when Rudd, with a straight face, introduced a clip from "Mac and Me," a 1988 film that's an outrageous knockoff of Steven Spielberg's classic, "E.T.".
The clip? Well, it's a doozy! It shows the film's protagonist, Eric, rolling uncontrollably down a hill in his wheelchair, leading to a dramatic fall off a cliff. But wait, there's more! Enter Mac, an alien puppet that looks like a hairless, elderly mogwai, popping up right after Eric's splashdown. It's a wild, violent, and hilarious scene that Rudd has used to prank Conan multiple times over the years.
But here's where it gets controversial... "Mac and Me" is not just any knockoff. It's a film with a unique connection to a famous fast-food chain. The alien, Mac, is named after McDonald's, and the film is essentially one big, extended commercial for the restaurant. Ronald McDonald even makes an appearance and narrates the film's teasers! It's a bold move that has sparked rumors of McDonald's funding the film, though the truth is slightly different.
And this is the part most people miss... buried in this bizarre film is a young Jennifer Aniston, making her acting debut as a background extra. She's there, watching breakdancers in a McDonald's, a far cry from her later roles in hits like "Friends" and "Leprechaun."
