With Irish TV finally airing Conan O’Brien’s bit part on a long-running soap that he taped when he was visiting the country for his Max travel series back in January, the reviews are coming in and so far they’re… lukewarm.
O’Brien worked with a linguistics coach to prepare for his part in Ros na Rún, as the characters on the show speak the Irish language (also known as Gaeilge).
In the scene, O’Brien plays a delivery man dropping off balloons at the bar of the show’s lead character, Tadhg. When Tadhg refuses to pay for the delivery, a heated exchange ensues before O’Brien storms out—but Ros na Rún makes sure to cap off the scene with one final shot at O’Brien.
“I don’t know which had more hot air,” Tadhg says. “The balloons or the ginger man.”
Although those who’ve watched Conan O’Brien Must Go’s Ireland episode will have already seen much of O’Brien’s performance, it was only Tuesday night that regular viewers of Ros na Rún were introduced to O’Brien’s balloon delivery man. So far, the reaction seems more tentative than glowing—at least if The Irish Times’ review is any indication.
On one hand, the paper’s reviewer found O’Brien’s cameo to be “a broad performance” featuring a merely “passable” accent, noting that the host “seems vaguely aware of what he is saying.”
But given how much O’Brien enjoys being the butt of the joke, the compliment he’ll likely be most proud of in the review is this one: “If you didn’t recognise the former talk show host, you might wonder where TG4 had sourced an Irish-speaker with an American accent. However, he does not disgrace himself.”
