Days after coming out as pansexual, Alanis Morissette named the man she says once questioned her sexuality, then rolled the clip of his head blowing up.
The California moment came during Morissette’s Los Angeles residency, Butterfly With a Machete: A Rock Traumedy, per InStyle, in front of a crowd packed with thousands of fans who did not see the punchline coming.
Morissette, 52, had been working through a list of people who criticized her over the years. Then she got to one that clearly still stung. “I’ve even had a guy ask me why I didn’t lead with my sexuality,” she said, before landing the name with perfect sarcasm: “Thank you, Ben Affleck.“
She did not stop at words. Morissette played a clip from Kevin Smith’s 1999 comedy Dogma, the film in which she played God and Affleck played Bartleby, a fallen angel. The scene she chose was the one in which Bartleby’s head explodes, per Parade. In the film, Affleck and Matt Damon play renegade angels trying to sneak back into heaven, and Morissette’s God barely says a word. Twenty-seven years after they shared the screen, the silent God finally got the last laugh, and she let the movie deliver it.
Morissette never described what Affleck said in any more detail, and the connection rests on her joke. But the timing made the message impossible to miss. Only days earlier, on the Handsome podcast, co-host Fortune Feimster asked whether her experiences with men had made her want to become a lesbian. She answered with four casual words: “I’m pansexual, so, yeah.” The announcement, which landed the same week as her new holiday album, Good Weather for Immaculate Conception, set off a wave of mockery online, including open homophobia, as TNS reported.
Her residency, a “traumedy” by its own title, is where she processes the noise. This week, Affleck became one of its punchlines.
Affleck, 54, has not responded publicly. This is a new kind of headline for him: an old conversation, resurrected in front of thousands, with a visual aid.
The Internet Split Again
Not everyone found the bit funny. The New York Post framed it as a “violent video” of Affleck’s head exploding, and the replies split fast. The wordplay crowd came first: “Isn’t it ironic? A little too ironic…” Affleck’s critics were thrilled: “Let the takedown begin. Ben Affleck has lasted 3 decades too long.” The skeptics questioned the timing: “Man this story would have completely relevant had it happened in 1997…” Another offered blunt career advice: “Girl just make more music and we will give you attention.” And, as with her coming out, the uglier corners of the thread turned homophobic again.
She once played God. This week, she played the one who settles scores.
