Mac and Meis considered one of theworst sci-fi moviesever made, but it resulted in an iconic joke that never gets old. Tackling the story of four aliens transported to earth by one of NASA’s machines, they escape the government base and three flee to the desert, while the fourth takes cover in a minivan. This results in a 12-year-old boy,Eric (Jade Calegory) and his alien friend, Mac going on an adventure. With a disastrously low 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s difficult to sellMac and Meeven just for nostalgia.
One now very infamous scene inMac and Mehas become associated with one very specific ongoingjoke between the iconic Conan O’Brien and Paul Rudd.Rudd has tricked O’Brien with a repeated clipof a hilariously peculiar-looking alien reacting to a child in a wheelchair plummeting off a cliff across his various late-night talk shows. More recently, the bit was ingeniously carried onto the comedian’s current podcast,Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. This long-running gag was initiated in 2004 and continues to be just as hilarious today as it was 20 years ago.
Paul Rudd’s Mac and Me Bit With Conan O’Brien Makes The Movie Worth It
Mac and Me Is One Of Paul Rudd’s Favorite Movies
Conan O’Brien and Paul Rudd have been close friends for several years, making Rudd’s prank even funnier—the origins of the gag stem from Rudd’s first appearance onConan O’Brien’sLate Nightshow. Regardless of what project Rudd appears to promote, the star lines up the same clip ofMac and Meto share with the host and the audience. After two decades,the talk show host came to expect the joke onConanandLate Night, which only makes the payoff for the 2020 prank on Conan O’Brien’s podcast even better.
TheMac and Megag onConan O’Brien Needs a Friendrelies on audio alone, which technically shouldn’t work in its presentation, but the familiar music before the panicked cry for “Eric!“massively extends the joke’s shelf lifeand, somehow, is even funnier in an audio format. O’Brien jokes, “you may’t do that on a podcast! That’s why I didn’t see it coming! […] It’s a visual joke. It’s an audio medium.” Rudd himself has admitted that he “never imagined” the bit would last so long.
Thanks to Paul Rudd, who found an ingenious way to appear inseason 4 ofOnly Murders In The Buildingand his outstanding sense of humor, hisMac and Mebit with Conan O’Brien remains one of the entertainment industry’s funniest moments, making the movie worth the watch. The hilarious 20-second clip alone is enough for audiences to seek out the 1988 movie in its entirety, to see how the full run compares, and to understand just how bizarre Rudd and O’Brien exclaim this movie truly is.
The Alien And Boy Friendship Is Almost Shot-For-Shot
The 1988 movie is a parody of Steven Spielberg’s classic,E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Asthe biggest movie of all time in 1982, there were expectations that Spielberg’s movie would inspire other features. Directed by Stewart Raffill,Mac and Meas one of those, but considering its story’s execution, it was an understandable flop.
Mac and Mehas a 95-minute runtime and features quite blatant excessive product placement for McDonald’s. Many of thissci-fi movie’s bad scenesare shot in McDonald’s locations, but arguably the biggest scene in the movie, a dance sequence that is filled with children, was filmed at the fast food chain in California, which is closed to the public and solely used for shooting TV commercials.
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Raffill attempted to outline some minor distinctions between the two projects. Most importantly, Mac appears to be a more competent life force than E.T. is. For a start, Mac can ride a bike, and the alien has a family with whom he reunites at the end of the movie when the aliens are awarded legal residency in the United States. Almost everything else about the badly executed movie replicatesE.T., the Extra-Terrestrialalmost shot for shot inMac and Me.
From the themes of friendship to the presentation of its main characters, the 1988 duplicate replicatesE.T.’s features almost exactly.
From the themes of friendship to the presentation of its main characters, the 1988 duplicate replicatesE.T.’s features almost exactly. The friendship between the alien and the young child is a huge premise for both movies, andMac and Meincludes a, not quite as iconic, dress-up scene, a chase scene, and several government spies, all of which makeE.T.’s entire charm.
