Earlier this month, Ellen DeGeneres pulled a hilarious prank on Matt Lauer—thanks to her clever editing team—making it appear as if the Today show host was wearing a Fifty Shades of Grey S&M style ensemble while interviewing the film's stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan.
And not only did the joke produce a whole lotta laughs, but it also caused some problems for the 57-year-old television anchor, leading him to scold his prankster pal during his appearance on Thursday's The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
"I have not yet decided if we are on speaking terms," the veteran journalist said as he took a seat. "Thank you for helping me make so many new friends, Ellen."
DeGeneres then proceeded to show the audience the "doctored" clip, which she insists they only edited "just a little bit," leading to an eruption of laughter.
"I have never been so popular with certain fringe groups in our society. I've made a lot of new friends, so thank you very much," Lauer said. "So to the people like @RoughandReady and @IveBeenaVeryBadGirl, I just want to say, thank you very much for your kind tweets."
We can only imagine the messages he received...
"I understand, because I watched you talk about it on the show, that there were people who actually believed that that was what you wore," DeGeneres said.
"I landed at LAX a couple of days ago, and my driver got in the car and said, 'I just have to know, was it Ellen's idea or your idea?'" he admitted. "And I said 'Oh, you mean the Fifty Shades thing?...It was pure Ellen's idea'"
His driver's response?
"'How did she convince you to dress like that?'
"I think the problem is, and we've talked about this in the past," Lauer continued, "I've done some stupid things on Halloween so I think people think, 'I probably would dress like that.' But you can't believe how many people tweeted me and said, 'You're supposed to be a journalist! How can you dress in leather, especially S&M?' So thank you, you're really to thank."
"You're welcome," DeGeneres replied before the conversation turned to the topic of Ellen's similar stunt with Al Roker.
"Did he gain Twitter followers also?" DeGeneres asked.
"I think he probably did, even though Al kind of had those followers anyway," Lauer quipped in response before adding, "Revenge is a dish best served cold, we decided."
Better watch out, Ellen!