For years, Jimmy Kimmel has had a running joke where he apologizes at the end of each show for having to bump his last guest, Matt Damon, for running out of time. Damon’s been on the show multiple times to play off of that joke but never as an official guest. All that’s about to change next Thursday, January 24th, when the A-list actor is set to go in for his first official interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “May God help Damon if he dares show his stupid face,†Jimmy Kimmel said in an official statement. Matt Damon explained the origin of the joke to Parade a year ago:
“I asked [Jimmy Kimmel] what that was about. And he was like, ‘You want to know what happened? I was doing a particularly lame show; I think my guests were a ventriloquist and a guy in a monkey suit. We were wrapping it up, and there was a smattering of applause in the audience. I was having kind of a low moment, and I just said, ‘My apologies to Matt Damon; we ran out of time.’ My producer was right off camera and he doubled over laughing. It was just gallows humor. Nobody else got the joke. But it made us laugh, so we started doing it every night. I have no idea why I said you; it could have been anybody.’â€
Whatever Jimmy Kimmel has planned for Matt Damon’s first real appearance on his show, it should be pretty spectacular. In 2006, Kimmel had Damon on his primetime special (see below) and took so long introducing him that they ran out of time, resulting in a fake fight. Damon got revenge in 2008 recording the wildy-popular viral video “I’m Fucking Matt Damon†(also below) for the show with Kimmel’s then-girlfriend Sarah Silverman. Whatever happens next Thursday, let’s just hope Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon don’t patch things up and end this long-running fake feud.