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6 Reasons That Pretty Much Everyone Loves Matt Damon

My dad loves Matt Damon. This is particularly noteworthy to me because he is a man who expresses little to no enthusiasm for contemporary movies or television. He enjoys things like Law and Order reruns and televised sports and playing Bejeweled while listening to country music. He doesn’t even say outright that he likes, I mean loves, Matt Damon, but any time Matt Damon shows up in a trailer for something, he will say “Hmm, that looks pretty good.” I was recently at the movies with him and he saw the poster for Elysium and asked me what it was about. I don’t remember my dad ever asking me what a movie was about before in my life. Maybe The Informant.

5) All his stuff with Kimmel

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Matt Damon

Like many people, my familiarity with most late night talk shows is informed almost exclusively by the material that ends up going viral: certain Letterman rants, Conan’s hilarious reviews of video games or interviews with children, Fallon’s song parodies, and Jimmy Kimmel’s impressively produced and comedically brilliant taped sketches.

Anyone who was remotely active on the internet five years ago will remember the “feud” between Kimmel and Damon, with Damon being shockingly convincing in expressing outrage about being bumped from Kimmel’s show. And then there was Sarah Silverman’s music video admission to then-boyfriend Kimmel, “I’m F**king Matt Damon” and Kimmel’s response to Damon, “I’m F**king Ben Affleck.” It was a historic moment for viral late night YouTube videos.

They’ve proceeded to team up together on digital sketches like a Bourne Ultimatum parody featuring Kimmel’s sidekick Guillermo, and on another viral sketch from the show, “The Handsome Men’s Club.” Their relationship perhaps reached its apex when Damon took over the entire Jimmy Kimmel show for one night. Somehow they’ve formed a wholly unexpected comedy duo, like Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake, or Kristen Wiig and Jon Hamm. It’s hard not to love Damon after seeing this stuff.