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 star of “The Bear” shared the origin story of how the running joke that she’s of Irish descent began and how her publicist thought she was having a mental breakdown because of her dedication to the bit.
“I remember talking about this with a friend. I was like, ‘My favorite type of joke lowkey might be a lie.’ Like, something where it’s almost not even funny, it’s mostly just funny to me,” Edebiri told Conan O’Brien during her guest spot.
O’Brien applauded Edebiri for finding a way to keep the joke going without it turning stale. It stems from a conversation the actress and comedian had during a red carpet interview with Letterboxd in March 2023 at South by Southwest. While joking that she played the donkey in “The Banshees of Inisherin,” she slipped into an Irish accent while sharing that she lived in Ireland for four years and “really got into character.”
Since then, Edebiri has kept the joke alive during awards acceptance speeches and during interviews, often shouting out her support for various locales in the country.
Edebiri recalled Monday spying her publicist in the corner of her eye at that first SXSW interview visibly confused by exactly what she was doing.
“I remember in that moment I saw my PR. She was at the corner of my eye and she was kind of like, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no,’ because I was just, it was nonsense,” Edebiri said. “It was just me being like, oh yeah I was up in Ireland and I was kind of chilling and she was like, ‘OK, mental breakdown on the horizon.’ I don’t know, it just kept going. But then other Irish people too have been like, ‘What’s up?!’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, what’s up.’”
Watch the full interview below:
The joke has brought Edebiri lots of support from the Irish community, a type of backing O’Brien — who actually is Irish — joked being envious of.
“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 shared. “You got a day in Boston and you’re revered by the Irish people. I am rightfully loathed by the Irish and never a day in Boston.”
Carrying on with the joke, Edebiri told her fellow comedian that maybe one day he too will gain the love and admiration of the Irish.
“I think your day could come is what I’ll say about that,” Edebiri said.
