Gotcha! Ellen DeGeneres revived her epic prank war with Matt Lauer with a simple — but very effective — scare.
The Today show cohost, 59, appeared as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show for the episode airing Thursday, May 4. During the sit-down, the duo chatted about their recent milestones — Lauer’s 20 years on the Today show and the 20th anniversary of DeGeneres’ coming-out on the sitcom Ellen. They also discussed that they’re both turning 60 soon.
Finally, the conversation turned to Lauer and his cohost Savannah Guthrie’s differing taste in music. “Savannah has much more of — I don’t want to say hippie mentality — but it’s all melancholy acoustic guitar jam, and the lyrics are all about, ‘someone broke my heart.’ So we go in in the morning, when we get into the studio, we often grab our phones. We have a playlist and she’ll play a song, and everybody will die. Then I’ll play a song, and we get up dancing.”
Suddenly, a Guthrie impersonator in a floral shift dress jumped out of a side table and screamed right at the NBC star before sprinting off screen. Lauer shrieked and jumped out of his chair. “Oh god!” he yelled.
Lauer paced around the studio shaking his head while DeGeneres cracked up at the prank. “It’s so petty. It’s so childish,” he said. “You promised. Now I wet my suit. It’s the only suit I have, and I’m wearing your underwear in this suit. What is the deal with you?”
DeGeneres added, “That was one of my favorites. That was my favorite so far.”
The pair’s long-running prank war started back in 2015. DeGeneres has made high-tech digital alterations to several of Lauer’s interviews and appearances. She had him shirtless interviewing the 50 Shades of Grey stars and walking the Met Gala red carpet in his underwear. Lauer got revenge by filling the comedian’s car with thousands of ping-pong balls.
