Here’s how Michael McDonald felt about ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ ‘Yah Mo B There’ joke

Michael McDonald is letting everyone know that he has the ability to laugh at himself.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the Doobie Brothers singer tells the magazine how he felt about a scene in the 2005 Judd Apatow-directed movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin that basically makes fun of him.

In the scene in question, Paul Rudd loses it on his boss Jane Lynch after video of McDonald performing “Yah Mo B There,” his 1983 duet with James Ingram, keeps playing on the TV sets in their electronics store.

“If I hear ‘Yah Mo B There’ one more time, I’m going to yah mo burn this place to the ground,” he says in frustration.

“I have to be honest, I thought it was hysterical,” McDonald tells the mag. “When you get to a certain point in your career and your music becomes less relevant, your pathetic comic value might come in handy. And that was that moment for me.” 

But it seems Rudd may have felt bad about making fun of McDonald.

“Paul Rudd actually stopped me in the airport, and we were both rushing to different flights,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer shares. “And he goes, ‘I hope you weren’t offended by my performance in The 40-Year-Old Virgin.’ And I said, ‘Absolutely not. It was great. I still laugh about it when I think about it.’”