Matt Damon vs Jimmy Kimmel: how a two-decade feud became Hollywood’s longest-running joke

Some feuds burn careers to the ground. Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon built a 20-year running bit out of one. It started as a throwaway line, turned into a late-night soap opera, and now keeps popping back up every time Damon does something big — like, say, rolling out a movie called The Odyssey and literally climbing out of a Trojan horse. This is one of those rare Hollywood gags that actually gets funnier the longer it runs.

So, how did this fake feud actually start?

Back in 2003, Kimmel was trying to juice a rough episode of his brand-new show — the kind with guests you politely call "up-and-coming." On the fly, he ended the night by apologizing to a star who was never booked in the first place, just to land a bigger laugh and keep viewers coming back.

"I want to apologize to Matt Damon. We ran out of time."

Picking Damon — an A-lister — made the gag ridiculous in the best way. The audience latched on, and Kimmel kept doing it.

Damon joins the bit

Eventually Damon leaned into the joke. In 2006, he finally sat down on Kimmel's couch... and was promptly "cut" because, once again, the show had allegedly run out of time. From there, the antics escalated: Sarah Silverman — Kimmel's then-girlfriend — dropped a viral video that turned the pretend beef into an internet event, and Kimmel fired back with his own response video. Damon later went nuclear (comedically) by hijacking the entire show in 2013 and hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! himself.

When the gag broke out of late-night

• Damon crashed the Emmys to clown Kimmel after a loss.
• Kimmel tried to play Damon off with the orchestra at the Oscars.
• During the 2024 Academy Awards, Messi the dog — yes, the canine star — targeted Damon's Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
• By 2026, Damon was literally emerging from a giant Trojan horse to promote The Odyssey. Subtle? Not the point.

Important context: this is not Bette vs. Joan

Real Hollywood grudges can be nasty — think Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, or Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Kimmel and Damon borrowed the word "feud" and left the rest. Off-camera, they are unapologetically tight.

Off-screen, they are very much friends

The bit introduced them; real life did the bonding. Damon asked Kimmel to officiate his vow renewal with Luciana Barroso. He turned up for Kimmel's wedding to Molly McNearney. Their families run in the same circle with Ben Affleck, John Krasinski, and Emily Blunt. During the 2023 writers strike, Damon and Affleck even offered to cover salaries for Kimmel's late-night staff. And at one point, Kimmel helped Damon through a scary choking incident — then, true to form, joked about how it looked afterward. Two decades of televised insults, backed by actual loyalty.

Why it is back in the headlines now

The Odyssey is everywhere, Damon is doing the press-and-stunts thing (see: Trojan horse), and people are once again googling him and his family. So the greatest late-night running joke of the century is making the rounds again. And honestly, it deserves it. Most TV shticks die on impact. This one grew up, got a sense of timing, and learned how to crash the Emmys.