Viewers of the Irish-language soap opera Ros na Rún are in for a surprise later this month when Conan O’Brien makes an appearance in the show’s titular fictional town.
According to the show’s producers, O’Brien plays a feisty balloon delivery man who pays a visit to the local pub where he gets into a heated exchange with its owner, a fan-favorite character named Tadhg.
The former late-night host’s cameo on the soap was taped in January and is featured in his new Max series Conan O’Brien Must Go, which sees him travel to a different foreign country each episode.
O’Brien worked with a linguistics coach to learn the Irish language (also known as Gaeilge), but the results are to be determined. While the soap’s producer, Marion Ní Loingsigh, has described his performance as “a perfect delivery of Gaeilge,” O’Brien himself is bracing us for the worst.
“I apologize in advance for inadvertently butchering my mother tongue,” the Irish American host said in a statement shared by the Ros na Rún’s producers.
O’Brien has gone down this road before. When he visited Armenia for an episode of his TBS series Conan Without Borders, he booked a role on the Armenian soap “Other Soul.”
In 2016, he did the same for South Korean soap One More Happy Ending. In 2017, he brought his dramatic chops to the Mexican telenovela Mi Adorable Maldición. And in 2018, he was an extra on the Italian soap Un posto al sole.
Ros na Rún has been on the air since 1996. O’Brien’s episode of the soap will debut April 30th on Ireland’s TG4 network, but the Conan O’Brien Must Go episode it features in is out tomorrow, April 18th on Max.
