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That Time blink-182 Played Conan O'Brien Looking Beaten-Up

On the performance's 19th anniversary, Mark Hoppus remembers blink-182's unforgettable prank on Conan O'Brien.

That Time blink-182 Played Conan O'Brien Looking Beaten-Up
Words:
Emily Carter

Ever the jokesters, blink-182 have thrown things back 19 years to their 2001 performance of First Date on Conan O'Brien in which they turned up looking as though they'd been punched in the face.

In a video shared on Twitter on the show's 19th anniversary, @blink182italia posted the throwback comment: "On this day 19 years ago, blink-182 was playing on Late Night With Conan O'Brien! Mark, Tom, and Travis famously wore make-up to look all beaten up as a joke – but over the years a lot of people actually fell for it!" To which Mark Hoppus responded, "Our label believed it. They called our tour manager the next day like, 'What the hell happened?!'"

Read this: The 20 greatest blink-182 songs – ranked

In a 2014 interview with Kerrang!, the bassist also set the record straight in a fan Q&A, explaining: "It was a prank! Right before we went onstage, they were like, 'Right, blink, you're onstage in 10 minutes – go get made up.' So we go back there, and the make-up artists had this row of photos that she'd done, and some of them showed special effects. She put a black eye on me! The next morning, everyone was calling up, like, 'What happened to them? What the fuck actually happened to these guys?'"

Oops. Now, 19 years later, hopefully the message is finally getting out there to the masses that no-one beat blink-182 up – they were simply having us all on. Tsk tsk…

Watch the full performance of First Date below:

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