Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell celebrate not-Thanksgiving by eating Jimmy Fallon's fake food
You can't just put out delicious-looking, possibly poisonous prop food when they're around
Look, the holidays are stressful for everybody. Even when your Tonight Show interview isn’t technically taped on the actual holiday, as The Shrink Next Door costars Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd repeatedly and cheekily revealed on Thursday’s Thanksgiving night episode. Ferrell, chit-chatting with Rudd and Jimmy Fallon about turkey-cooking methods, lamented that Fallon won’t be able to use Rudd’s air-fryer advice until, “Next year—since it’s Thanksgiving tonight.”
Ferrell also gave some warm and sincere Thanksgiving thanks to the Tonight Show in-studio audience who were definitely giving up their family gatherings along with Fallon and two of the biggest stars in the world so they could tape yet another promotional appearance. And not, say, pre-taping their PR tour stop the day before and banking the appearance so that NBC could pretend that the network wasn’t taking the holiday off.
But not everything about Ferrell and Rudd’s “Thanksgiving” interview was fake. Oh, wait, it pretty much was, as, after Fallon offered up the prop gourds decorating his desk for a holiday toast, Rudd, committed to every possible bit that he is, took an enormous bite right through whatever lacquer was coating his proffered winter squash. It looked like the sweet dumpling squash varietal, which is noted for its sweet potato-esque flavor and edible skin, although perhaps Rudd, who spit his mouthful of chemically treated gourd-guts into Fallon’s hankie, would disagree. Ferrell, prepared to outdo his frequent partner in comedy, ultimately bailed on the prospect of chomping into an entire, glazed-with-preservatives pumpkin, as Fallon noted, alarmedly, “It’s poison!”
You don’t want to kill your guests, even for a killer bit. And, if Ferrell and newly crowned sexy man Rudd (Ferrell claims he turned the People magazine honor down) went back to the prop food joke well continually throughout their segments (Ferrell checking if dipping his styrofoam cranberries in his water mug made them any more palatable), who could blame them? After all, it was 100 percent actually Thanksgiving night. We all do a little unhealthy stress eating around the holidays.
The Shrink Next Door is streaming now on Apple TV Plus.