Rob Lowe is certainly not the first to get late night’s two Jimmys confused, but coming as it did during an appearance on last night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, you can bet Kimmel took him to task for it.
The moment came as Kimmel demanded that Lowe reveal which team he’s rooting for in this Sunday’s Super Bowl. (Lowe would seem to be an equal opportunity football fan, photographed at various times sporting hats and jerseys for rival teams, leading him at one point to simply opt for a non-denominational hat with the NFL logo on it.)
“I am a bipartisan man, Jimmy Fallon,” Lowe responded. “I am bringing this country together,” he went on, not even realizing his slip-up.
“Did you just call me Jimmy Fallon?” Kimmel asked, as his house band Cleto and the Cletones scored the moment with some improvised dramatic music.
A guilty Lowe covered his mouth and looked around the studio. “You can’t even pick a Jimmy!” Kimmel shouted, prompting a laughing Lowe to go for a high-five.
The sting of the misnaming still apparently strong, Kimmel rejected Lowe’s attempt. “I’m not high-fiving you,” he joked. “Put that hand down.”
Playing off of Lowe’s allegiance to seemingly all sports teams, Kimmel then gifted the actor with a hat that read simply “talk show.”
“That’s amazing… because I like both Jimmys,” Lowe pointed out.
Both Fallon and Kimmel are frequently confused with one another, with each host describing fans referring to them by the wrong name. During an interview with LateNighter’s Bill Carter last year shortly after Kimmel hosted the Oscars, Fallon described receiving several congratulatory email messages from show-biz friends that were meant for Kimmel. (The View‘s Joy Behar later confessed to being one of those friends.)
Back in 2019, the two Jimmys even taped a bit together where they offered tips on how viewers could tell the two apart. Perhaps it should be required viewing for any guest on either of their shows:
