Kunal Nayyar tries to avoid a weird moment on 'The Ellen Show' but only makes it worse: "That's not..."
Over the years, Kunal Nayyar has had some super awkward interviews! During a 2017 appearance on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show', Nayyar shared some of his on-set habits, and Ellen DeGeneres recalled an incident where she was behind him on the set of 'The Big Bang Theory'. DeGeneres told Nayyar, "I'm so glad you're here because I was behind you. I drove in the other day, and I was behind you and you had a very fancy car and I was like, I wonder who that is and then, the hand comes out. And a tour cart was passing and I see everybody freak out and everything and so I still didn't know who it was and then that same fancy car is coming towards yesterday and then, waving to a tour cart that happened to be there and then, I'm just in my Porsche and then you just wave to the Porsche and I was like you wave to everybody."
As per Story Pick, DeGeneres asked Nayyar, "Did you know it was me?" "I thought it was someone famous, didn't know it was you," Nayyar admitted. DeGeneres laughed, adding, "Because I saw you wave... and then I waved, I think then you realized." "Just two seconds, a few seconds late I realized who it was, and it was too late because I didn't know what to do. I panicked, and I just drove off," Nayyar explained. The audience burst into laughter as DeGeneres responded, "Right." She then asked, "Do you just wave at everybody?" Nayyar revealed, “I like waving at the tour carts because all those people have come from so far away and they want to see some of the actors and so I wave at them."
He added, "I like to be friendly, you know but you know, a funny thing that happens is so these tour carts are all around the studio, as you know. So sometimes I'll step out to eat a sandwich and right around the corner, a tour cart would creep. It's like a safari and you can hear the tour guide, 'That's Kunal Nayyar in his natural element.' Like eating a peanut butter, jelly sandwich. Don’t spook him. No sudden movements." Soon after, Nayyar made an unexpected move—picking up a sandwich from a tray and taking a bite.
DeGeneres quipped, "You're going to have one? I don't even know if it's real." At first, Nayyar struggled to get the bite in, but he kept chewing with a smile on his face. In the end, it turned out the sandwich wasn’t real. DeGeneres told Nayyar, "That may have been a mistake," as per The Things. However, Nayyar simply called the fake sandwich "delicious." Amused, DeGeneres added, "I love the commitment to it. It's like that plastic fruit bowl. That's just—that's not real, and yet you're going to eat it." Nayyar explained that he didn’t want to be rude, prompting DeGeneres to joke, "Well, okay, you'll be sick from not being rude."
Nayyar found himself in an awkward situation, unsure of what to do. As he continued eating the sandwich, he remarked, "It's my commitment to eating it. I'm fascinating myself." Despite the challenge, he managed to take a bite of the fake sandwich without needing a drink. It seemed he was genuinely hungry and had assumed the items on the tray were real. Safe to say, Nayyar will probably think twice before grabbing a sandwich next time.
