When Ben Affleck appeared on Tuesday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to promote his new film “Air,” the host praised every one of the movie’s stars except Damon, who portrays Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro.
Affleck reminded Kimmel that Damon, his lifelong friend, was the lead.
“I understand you have your feuds and everything, but Matt is a friend of mine,” Affleck told Kimmel. “Honest to God, it would mean a lot to me if you just asked him one question about the movie. I can get him on the phone.”
Kimmel agreed to the favor as Damon appeared behind him via video conference.
“I’m on the show!” exulted Damon, who’d been bumped from recent scheduled appearances. “Zoom style!”
True to his word, Kimmel asked Damon a genuine question about how he approaches portraying a real person, as opposed to a fictional character. Damon, taken aback by Kimmel’s sincerity, began answering.
That’s when the video call started cutting out.
As the charade continued, Kimmel plastered video filters across Damon’s face, including a mohawk and a lion’s mane. When Kimmel’s special effects made him resemble a hot dog, Damon summoned his Oscar-winning talent to appear genuinely infuriated.
“Why don’t you take your ‘real’ question and your little show and shove it up your big hairy ass,” Damon screamed at Kimmel as the call disconnected.
Tuesday’s segment was part of a longstanding bit Kimmel conceived in the mid-2000s. Kimmel told NPR in 2013 that he had such a bad show one night that he decided to joke: “I want to apologize to Matt Damon. We ran out of time.”
Kimmel added Damon was just the “first name that popped into my head” and now “people laugh every time” he says his name.
“Repeating the same joke every single night, you’d think eventually people would get tired of it,” Kimmel told NPR, “but they don’t.”
