Everyone’s favorite Irishwoman, The Bear actress Ayo Edebiri, celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by sharing a picture with actual Irish actor Paul Mescal. According to Today.com, the post is the actor’s latest nod to the internet’s recent running joke that she has intimate ties to the European country.
“Happy St Paddy’s,” she captioned a snap of her and Mescal laughing on a staircase on Instagram Stories. Edebiri also made sure to include a shamrock emoji.
Confused by the ongoing joke? Read on for a timeline of the internet’s speculations that Edebiri is Irish.
It all started in March 2023
The online comedy bit started in March 2023, when Edebiri joked about being from Ireland while talking to movies and TV review site Letterboxd at South by Southwest.
“I lived in Ireland for about four months and I got really in character and I was on all fours for four months and it was really painful, but beautiful as well, and it was probably the most beautiful part of my career,” Edebiri said playfully in a sporadic Irish accent.
Later she added, “I’m happy for everybody going to the Oscars, even though I deserved the nomination more than anybody else because I was, obviously, a donkey for four months.”
The gag continued, with Edebiri joking that she was the “dialect coach” on The Departed.
“I taught everyone how to say the word microprocessors in the funniest way possible, and I did an amazing job,” she wrote.
The internet gets involved shortly thereafter
It didn’t take long for social media users on X, formerly known as Twitter, to latch onto Edebiri’s faux Irish roots.
Edebiri continues to perpetuate the gag
The joke has persisted for a year, largely due to Edebiri stardom’s and her continuation of the gag. During award season, which saw her win major awards in January, the actor referenced Ireland and the joke about her Irish lineage on several occasions.
“Shout out to my people,” Edebiri told Entertainment Tonight while on the Emmy’s red carpet. “Shout out to Derry, shout out to Cork, shout out to Killarney, shout out to Dublin.”
She also shouted out the European nation while accepting the award for best actress in a comedy at the Critics’ Choice Award on Jan. 13, per the The Hollywood Reporter.
“I want to thank my real family, I don’t know if they have CW abroad. To everybody in Boston, Barbados, Nigeria, Ireland in many ways,” she said during her speech.“Thank you so much.”
The comedian was born in Boston and has a Barbadian mother and Nigerian father.
