CNN
—
Conan O’Brien loves a good bit. Ayo Edebiri has given him a great one.
“The Bear” star began a joke back in March 2023 at the South by Southwest in which she pretended to be Irish. Edebiri kept it up, claiming she played the role of Jenny the donkey in the Ireland-set film, “The Banshees of Inisherin.”
“I wanted to congratulate you, because you started this joke which you improvised, a joke about being Irish, and then you kept going,” O’Brien told Edebiri during a recent conversation on his “Conan O’ Brien Needs a Friend” podcast.
“There’s this crucial point where a joke either becomes like, ‘Okay that’s enough, I’ve done it enough, I should stop,’ or you double, triple, and quadruple down on it and refuse to let it go, which you did,” he continued. “Now it has resonated so much that the people of Ireland have accepted you as one of their own, which they will not do with me.”
O’Brien said he has the opposite impact with the people of Ireland.
“I am this figure of great shame in Ireland,” he quipped.
“But you, you got a day in Boston, and you’re revered by the Irish people,” he said. “I am rightfully loathed by the Irish and never a day in Boston.”
Edebiri explained how it all came about.
“I remember talking about this with a friend. I was like, ‘My favorite type of joke low-key might be a lie,’” she said. “Like, something where it’s almost not even funny, it’s mostly just funny to me.”
Edebiri, who like O’Brien is from Boston, tried to encourage him and said, “I think your day could come.”