Writer Dares Matthew Lillard to Punch Him, Matthew Lillard ACCEPTS

So a couple days ago, David Thorpe of the humor website Something Awful (dot com) thought it would be pretty funny to pick a fight with Matthew Lillard. Actually, David Thorpe was right; it is pretty funny.

First of all, way harsh, Tai. Who hates on Hackers? I mean, it stars a pre-nose job Angelina Jolie, Penn of Penn and Teller, Marc Anthony, an extremely babyfaced Jesse Bradford (Swimfan), and a jillion pairs of rollerblades.

But that is neither here nor there, because Mr. Thorpe is still throwing down the gauntlet:

Dear Matthew Lillard, actor,

This weekend, shortly after I got drunk and livetweeted the movie Hackers, you offered to pay one hundred dollars to punch me in the face.

Though I already accepted the offer over Twitter, I’d like to do so again, in front of God and the Internet and everybody: punch my face, Matthew Lillard. Punch me in my face and pay me.

And, just as I was writing this piece (!!!!!), Matthew Lillard actually agreed to the terms, kinda:

Salon’s entertainment writer Drew Grant points out that, although this is barely an Internet squabble, websites like Something Awful and Reddit have previously, successfully picked fights, all in the name of philanthropy:

While this could easily be written off as just a stupid Internet feud, remember that it was SomethingAwful that started the campaign to raise $10,000 for charity to get the lead singer of Smash Mouth to eat 24 eggs in one sitting. (Which will apparently be happening after all.)

Several years ago, someone borrowed Hackers from my DVD shelf and never returned it. I had always insisted it had been a gag gift, but once that disc was gone, man, did I miss it. A couple years passed, and finally—one gloomy, overcast Saturday spent sighing in the “Drama” aisle of a Virgin Megastore—I solemnly relented and bought Hackers again. It was literally the only movie I wanted to watch that day.

Anyway, that’s how I feel about Matthew Lillard. We can all roll our eyes at his dead-on impression of Shaggy Rogers, but if somebody ever stole Matthew Lillard from our DVD shelf, we’d miss him. We love Matthew Lillard. We love him.

Matthew Lillard just wrapped with filming his directorial debut, Fat Kid Rules the World.