‘Certified young person’ Paul Rudd is begging you to wear a mask, fam
Leave it to 2020 to be the year national treasure Paul Rudd finally starts showing his age.
The famously ageless actor recently partnered with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday for a hilarious PSA urging “us millennials” to wear face coverings amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
But rather than successfully relating to the youth of today, Rudd channeled the goofy dads of yesterday while delivering lines such as, “Apparently a lot of COVID is transmitted by us millennials — no cap,” with cringeworthy charm.
“What up, dudes?” the Marvel star says, holding a skateboard and sporting a sideways NY snapback hat, yellow hoodie and giant headphones around his neck.
“Paul Rudd, here — actor and certified young person. A few days ago, I was talking on the iPhone with my homie, Gov. Cuomo, and he’s just going off about how us millennials need to wear masks. ... So Cuoms asked me — he’s like, ‘Paul, you gotta help. What are you, like, 26?’ And I didn’t correct him.”
Rudd is actually 51 years old (!!), if you can believe it, and things only get weirder from there.
”So fam, let’s real talk,” Rudd continues. “Masks, they’re totally beast. Slide that into your DMs and Twitch it. Vibe check: Yas, queens like ourselves, we want to go to bars. We want to drink, hook up, do our TikToks. I get it. I’m not gonna preach at you like some celebrity. This is a convo, where I talk, and you shut up and wear your mask.”
At one point in the two-minute clip, Rudd even pretends to dial Gen-Z pop phenom Billie Eilish, whom he calls “my bae” and wants to “stan” for wearing her mask. (In social-media speak, to “stan” means to devote one’s energy to worshipping a particular thing or celebrity on the internet and beyond.)
“Yo, listen, hypebeasts,” he says. “Masks protect you and your dank squad, because caring about other people is the new not caring about other people. Now that’s fit. Want a challenge? How ‘bout a stop-the-pandemic challenge? What about that? What about a save-grandma challenge? That fun enough for you?”
Ironically, the most relatable part of the PSA comes when the “Ant-Man” actor drops the out-of-touch dad act altogether and just starts desperately shouting at people to use personal protective equipment for their own and others’ safety.
In Netflix’s “Living with Yourself,” Paul Rudd plays Miles, a man who takes drastic action to improve himself. The actor knows the feeling.
“It’s all I ask is that you wear your mask,” he says. “Please, wear your mask. Just wear a mask. Just wear a mask! It’s easy. It’s simple. Please, it’s not hard! People are dying. Hundreds of thousands of people are dying, and it’s preventable. It’s preventable! Just wear a mask! I shouldn’t have to make it fun. It’s science! It’s science.”
And, as a bonus for those who stick around to the very end of the clip, Rudd also re-creates his viral “Look at us” meme from Sean Evans’ hit “Hot Ones” YouTube series — with a pandemic-era twist.
“Hey, hey, look at us,” Rudd says, while pretending to eat hot wings through a blue surgical mask. “We gotta yeet this virus.”
Suffice it to say the absurd stunt achieved the intended effect, amassing more than 310,000 views on YouTube as of Tuesday morning, plus nearly 5 million on Twitter. The video has also been shared widely by many of Rudd’s Hollywood peers, including Evans, Mindy Kaling, Mark Ruffalo and John Boyega.
“I hope Paul Rudd never dies,” Kaling tweeted. Same.
See more reactions to Rudd’s PSA below.
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
