Actor Danny McBride loves that viral video of him and Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes
After the Chiefs defeated the 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII, quarterback Patrick Mahomes was a guest on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and talked about the team’s celebratory party in Las Vegas.
A social-media user turned part of that Mahomes interview into a video mashup with Kenny Powers, the main character from the television show “Eastbound & Down.”
Here’s a description of that comedy, which ran from 2009-13, from IMDB: “Many years after he turned his back on his hometown, a burned-out major league ballplayer returns to teach Physical Education at his old middle school.”
Let’s just say Kenny Powers doesn’t lack for confidence, and that video mashup of Mahomes went viral with more than 12 million views.
Actor Danny McBride, who played Kenny Powers on the show, was on “Jimmy Kimmel LIve” on Tuesday night and talked about the viral video, which was made by X user Patrick Lyons.
“There’s a clip I want to ask you about, because it involves our show and it involves you, that has become very, very popular online,” Kimmel said. “I don’t know who put this together. But you’re familiar with the quarterback, Patrick Mahomes?”
McBride said: “Of course I am, yes.”
Kimmel asked: “And you’re aware of the comparisons that people make to you?”
“I have seen that,” McBride said and then mentioned his 13-year-old son Declan. “I think it was the first time I ever saw my son truly respect me was when he saw this clip.”
Kimmel suggested Mahomes might like the video and McBride responded: “Well, you know, champions recognize champions.”
Here is the viral video, which had a lot of curse words removed, and McBride and Kimmel talking about it.
Man behind the meme
Lyons, who lives in the New York borough of Queens, shared the inspiration for his viral video.
“I was scrolling Twitter late one night in February 2023 and saw someone tweet ‘Patrick Mahomes straight up sounds like Kenny Powers’ in relation to the KC QB’s recent Kimmel interview,” Lyons wrote in an email. “As an ‘Eastbound & Down’ mega fan, I instantly saw similarities between Mahomes’ description of the Chiefs’ post-Super Bowl party and a Powers monologue about (much more debaucherous) parties he used to throw.
“I decided to stitch them together despite having little to no video editing experience, and the rest is history.”
Lyons also learned an unfortunate lesson about social media after first sharing his video: People steal content and post it as their own.
“In the days following my original tweet, the video was shared a ton,” said Lyons, who is a music writer. “Travis Kelce retweeted me. But also, quite a few Instagram accounts with followings much larger than my own ripped my video and posted it without crediting me, which I’m almost certain is how it came to the attention of someone on Kimmel’s staff.
“It’s the nature of memes, right? As soon as you post it, it’s the Internet’s property, not yours. I can’t be too mad, but I wish I would’ve at least watermarked it!”
This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 9:36 AM.
