The 2004 cult classic EuroTrip is likely best remembered for its all-time cameo from Matt Damon. The Oscar winner is shocking as Donny, a tattooed and pierced punk rocker. At a graduation party, Donny reveals, through the power of music, that he is cuckolding the main character Scott via the now iconic song "Scotty Doesn't Know." Despite the subject matter, the catchy tune just puts a smile on your face. "Scotty Doesn't Know" is so powerful in fact that it actually helped a woman in a dire situation, as Nick Cloutman, of the band Lustra that wrote and performed the song explained:
One of the more memorable stories we were approached with, there was this girl, I want to say in the Midwest or Indiana. It was her friend contacting us. She said her friend was in a car with some other people to get pizza and the car got t-boned. This girl was dragged out the car by paramedics and was put on a stretcher and ultimately went into a coma. But as she was slipping into this coma, her phone started ringing and she had the 'Scotty Doesn't Know' ringtone. In her dazed state she started singing along to it. It's one of those things where you don't consider you're going to be attached to something that has this positive meaning for people.
This must have been pretty weird for Lustra to hear, that someone was singing one of their songs after just being in a bad car accident. To be in such a traumatic situation and still be compelled to sing along to a ringtone is pretty wild. It was quite serendipitous for her phone to play at that time, and give her something to cling to. She was dazed and going in to a coma, so it may not have even been a conscious decision to sing along but just something that happened.
She may have been in shock but hopefully hearing "Scotty Doesn't Know" while in that situation gave her some level of distraction and comfort. As Nick Cloutman said, the song has a positive meaning for people and apparently that extends even to the most unlikely of situations. This is just one of the fascinating details revealed in Uproxx's oral history of the song that chronicles its creation and even the alternate version.
Earworms are powerful things and "Scotty Doesn't Know" belongs in the most potent tier of catchy songs. When you hear it you just have to sing along, as the girl in the car accident did, and perhaps many of you did as soon as you clicked on this article. To hear the song again and see one of Matt Damon's most legendary cameos, check out the video below:
It's amazing how "Scotty Doesn't Know" has both been elevated beyond EuroTrip, while also driving more people to seek out that movie and thus further cementing its cult classic status and stories like this one just add to its legacy. It may have come up short at the box office, but EuroTrip has struck a major chord in the years since, largely aided by a fantastic cameo and an incredibly catchy song. Although his cameo in EuroTrip is perhaps his most memorable, it certainly wasn't the last time we saw Matt Damon showing up where he is least expected. He made a positively hilarious cameo in Thor: Ragnarok last year and he was completely unrecognizable in Deadpool 2. Those, plus his popping up in Kevin Smith films has led to an always open question of where will Matt Damon show up next.
To see what 2018 movies are coming to theaters that may or may not have cameos, check out our release calendar. For all the latest on what Scotty doesn't know and the power of music, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.
