The feud has garnered nationwide coverage since 2005, when Kimmel ended a season 3 episode of his show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, by jokingly saying "Apologies to Matt Damon, but we ran out of time" when Damon was not scheduled to be on the show at all.
As a result, Damon began cussing at the host and stormed off the stage, with many fans believing the interaction to be genuine.
[3] The segment, titled "I'm Fucking Matt Damon", won a Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.
Eventually, a small chair was brought out and Damon's cast mates were coaxed into adding jibes.
[10] On a Kimmel episode following Super Bowl LI in 2017, Damon once again "snuck" onto the show's set, this time posing as New England Patriots player Tom Brady.
[11] During a 2017 interview with Good Morning America, Kimmel, who was set to host that year's Academy Awards, stated that he hoped Damon would not receive the award for Best Picture, for which the film Manchester By The Sea, produced by Damon, had been nominated.
[16] The same year, after Kimmel's comedy club opened in Las Vegas, the host made reference to the long-running feud in an interview, saying "I'd love to see [Damon] do standup.
[17] In 2023, Kimmel, once again set to host that year's Oscars, stated "I'm thrilled that [Damon] won't show.
"[19] While promoting Air in 2023, Affleck, the film's director, made an appearance on Kimmel in which he attempted to unite the two celebrities by making a FaceTime call to Damon.
[21] Near the end of that year's broadcast, just before rolling the final credits, Messi the dog, who appeared in the Oscar-nominated film Anatomy of a Fall, was shown appearing to urinate on Damon's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
This has resulted in many articles explaining the feud and some fans wondering whether the rivalry is legitimate.
[24] Despite this, the pair have, on certain occasions, dropped the act and revealed themselves as friends, leading many to dub the two as "frenemies".