If there’s one thing we know about Ayo Edebiri, it’s that she’s Irish – but not really.
On Monday’s episode of “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” “The Bear” star shared the origin story of how the joke that she’s of Irish descent started and how her publicist thought she was having a mental breakdown because of her dedication to the part.
“I remember talking about this with a friend. I was like, ‘My favorite kind of Lowkey joke might be a lie.’ Like, something where it’s almost not even funny, it’s just funny to me,” Edebiri told Conan O’Brien during his guest spot.
O’Brien applauded Edebiri for finding a way to keep the joke going without it getting stale. It stems from a conversation the actress and comedian had during a red carpet interview with Letterboxd in March 2023 in the South West. While joking that she played the donkey in “The Banshees of Inisherin,” she slipped into an Irish accent and shared that she lived in Ireland for four years and “really got into character.”
Since then, Edebiri has kept the joke alive during award acceptance speeches and during interviews, often shouting his support for various venues in the country.
Edebiri remembered Monday spying her publicist out of the corner of her eye in that first SXSW interview, visibly confused by exactly what she was doing.
“I remember that moment I saw my PR. She was in the corner of my eye and she was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no,’ because I was just, it was absurd,” Edebiri said. “It was just me, oh, yeah, I was in Ireland and I got kind of creepy and she was like, ‘OK, mental breakdown on the horizon.’ I don’t know, it just kept going. And I’m like, ‘Yeah, what’s going on.'”
Watch the full interview below:
The joke brought a lot of support from the Irish community, a kind of support O’Brien – who is actually Irish – joked enviously.
“Now it’s resonated so much that the people of Ireland have accepted you as one of their own, which they won’t do to me,” O’Brien shared. “You have a day in Boston and you’re revered by the Irish people. I’m rightfully detested by the Irish and never a day in Boston.”
Continuing with the joke, Edebiri told his comedian that perhaps one day he too will earn the love and admiration of the Irish.
“I think your day could come is what I’ll say about that,” Edebiri said.
