Conan O’Brien's office kept 'foodie' club a secret, so he set a 'cake' trap to catch them

We’ve all heard the saying “sharing is caring,” but when it comes to food, not everyone is on board. Some people prefer to enjoy their favorite meals in peace—without the risk of others swooping in for a bite. That’s exactly what happened behind the scenes of Late Night with Conan O’Brien when staff members secretly formed an exclusive foodie club. Their mission? To get first dibs on the delicious treats sent in by fans from across the country—without their boss knowing.

However, Conan O’Brien soon caught wind of their sneaky operation. In a widely shared video from Team Coco on YouTube, the now 61-year-old comedian decided to take matters into his own hands. The hilarious segment, originally featured on Conan on TBS, shows O’Brien announcing that it was his duty to keep his co-workers in check—and what followed was pure comedic gold.

“Since I'm the boss, I feel that I'm the one who needs to address these injustices and keep everything in the workplace nice and fair,” O’Brien quipped as he unveiled his plan to expose the secret foodie club. He noted that the mad dash for fan-sent treats had left some staff members empty-handed, so he decided to set a trap. His bait? A massive ice cream cake, accompanied by cookies and fresh fruit, strategically placed in the conference room.

To lure in the guilty parties, O’Brien crafted a tempting email to be forwarded to the private list: “Our friends at E sent over an awesome-looking ice cream cake and some tasty snacks. Will go fast. Looks delicious! 2nd Floor Conference Room, now!” As expected, his plan worked like a charm. Hidden cameras captured the unsuspecting staff indulging in what they thought was a secret feast—only to realize they had walked right into their boss’s elaborate sting operation.

The host then decided to address his staff members by initially acting clueless about what was happening. Among the three co-workers, Sharon Hardy, who happened to be the first to join the feast, responded, “I was told there was cake.” “You were told there was cake? You were told in an email that went out to everybody on staff?” O’Brien shot back at his co-worker. After some back and forth between the two, Hardy admitted that she was among the few staff members who were alerted about it. When asked if she felt guilty about being tipped off before everyone else, the employee acknowledged that she had continued enjoying the privilege despite feeling a little bad at the same time. At this point, another recently prompted worker intervened: “There was a time when I was not on the list, and I'm glad I'm on the list now.” To which the TV presenter wittily offered a counter, retorting, “You're just glad that you're in a lifeboat. You don't care about the other souls in the water.”

Additionally, when the employees were asked about “the friends at E,” they had no idea. Hardy ended up spitting a portion of cake onto O’Brien’s shirt while trying to justify his actions. “You call yourselves the foodies? Well, that's what the email list is called. Foodies, you just spit. Sharon, you're in such deep trouble right now,” the host jokingly retorted again. The seven-minute comical footage ended with the TV personality confronting some other employees who later in the day showed up at the same conference room. It managed to draw widespread attention on social media, garnering 30,357,365 views since first being posted in May 2016. Among the countless reactions, @moses9426 expressed, “I'm just rooting for that one guy who's just happy that he's on the list.” “I love how Sharon continues to eat the cake as she's talking to Conan,” @Meepoth added.