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| Williams, Damon, Kimmel and Garcia: bound and gagged |
For ten years and over 1200 shows, Jimmy Kimmel has been goofing on Matt Damon. They were engaged in a showbiz tradition as old as Jack Benny and Fred Allen or W.C. Fields and Charlie McCarthy and even further back into radio days–a feud.
Unlike Letterman and Leno, it was a pretend feud. (Although even those two old troupers, from time to time, have turned their real animosity into comedy gold.)
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| Best. Kimmel. Ever. |
Regular viewers know the set-up. Every single night, Kimmel would end his show with the gag that he was all out of time and then would dismissively apologize to Damon, supposedly steaming in the green room. (Watch Damon getting bumped over and over again here.)
It all boiled over Thursday night into one of the most hilarious, star-packed hours ever in late night. Damon duct taped Kimmel and subjected him to Jimmy Kimmel Sucks, a hijacked version of the regular ABC talk show. The amount of planning that had to go into lining up close to a dozen wildly diverse big name guests: Robin Williams, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Sheryl Crow, Ben Affleck, Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Andy Garcia, Demi Moore and even Kimmel’s old girlfriend, Sarah Silverman.
Hard to know where to begin with the highlights: Kidman dry-humping Kimmel duck taped to a chair; Garcia fearlessly filling in for Guillermo; Witherspoon wandering in off Hollywood Boulevard with two bags full of booze.
Bravo to Kimmel for throwing format and ego out the window and cranking up the star power. Hollywood guests must love to go on his show knowing they are there to play.
The only drawbacks to last night were not seeing Kimmel bluntly ask Crow what was up with Lance Armstrong, or seeing him squirm next to ever unpredictable Silverman. Watch Matt Damon’s revenge here.
Still, Damon and Company put on a hell of a show (especially for that lucky studio audience) and provided more proof that ABC’s decision to advance Jimmy Kimmel Live to 11:35 was exactly the right move.
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| Only awkward moment: nobody seemed really sure if that was Demi Moore |
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| The star power never quit as more and more A-Listers crammed the couch |
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| Audiences got a better view than this of Kidman’s prime asset
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1 Comment
Kidman’s prime asset? Her husbands?