Can You Finish The Movie Quote? w/ Ben Shapiro

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Ben Shapiro Show

Episode: Can You Finish The Movie Quote? w/ Ben Shapiro

Date: November 1, 2025
Host: Ben Shapiro (The Daily Wire)
Featured Guests: Sam, Phil, Greg

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Overview

This fun, rapid-fire episode centers on Ben Shapiro and his staff competing in a movie quote challenge. Guided by Sam, Phil, and Greg, Ben’s encyclopedic movie memory is put to the test as they quiz each other on classics, comedies, and cult favorites. The environment is playful and geeky, overflowing with quick banter, pop culture knowledge, and affectionate riffs on great movies. The conversation naturally veers into commentary on actors, films, and the shifting landscape of what’s “acceptable” humor in cinema.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Warm-Up and First Movie Quote (Zoolander)

• [00:00–01:28]
  • Sam sets up the game, Ben quickly nails the well-known “What is this? A center for ants?” quote from Zoolander.
  • The group spirals into quoting more lines, especially referencing "the black lung" and “Merman. Merman.”
• Notable Insight:
  • “That’s so quotable, too.” — Ben [01:26]
  • Affection for Zoolander’s high rewatchability and iconic lines.

Back to the Future (The Time Machine Quote)

• [01:46–02:39]
  • Phil presents: “Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me you built a time machine out of a … ?”
  • Sam quickly finishes, “Out of a DeLorean?” leading to a discussion on the family-friendliness and tone of the trilogy.
• Discussion: Ranking the “Back to the Future” films, with Sam noting:
  • “Two is so dark… You can’t show it to kids until they’re a little bit older.” — Sam [02:02]
  • Preference debates on which sequel is superior.

Meet the Parents (Milk Anything with Nipples)

• [02:39–03:04]
  • Ben gives the cue: “You can milk anything with…”
  • Sam, sheepishly: “Nipples. Could you milk me?”
  • They riff and repeat the sequence, quoting De Niro and Stiller in quick succession.
  • Conversation about Robert De Niro’s trajectory:
    • “This is the last gasp of Robert De Niro right here… Like, he had multiple career iterations…” — Sam [03:06]

Casablanca (Play It, Sam)

• [03:55–05:45]
  • Phil: “Play it, Sam. Play it as…”
  • Sam struggles momentarily, then nails it: "As Time Goes By."
  • Deep dive into “Casablanca”—casting trivia, favorite performances, and classic scenes.
  • “Unbelievable script. Unbelievable script.” — Sam [04:40]
  • Highlighting how rarely Sam rewatches movies but has seen Casablanca a dozen times.

Dr. Strangelove (War Room)

• [05:45–06:42]
  • Phil: “Gentlemen, you can’t fight here…”
  • Sam: “This is the war room.”
  • Quick praise for Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, musings on Kubrick’s hit-or-miss filmography.
  • “Kubrick is super hit or miss for me. He makes some, like, fabulous movies. And then there’s some stuff that’s just a mess.” — Sam [06:00]
  • Ben mentions “Paths of Glory” and “Full Metal Jacket” as standout Kubrick films.

Silence of the Lambs (Fava Beans)

• [08:14–09:23]
  • Ben, in-character: “I ate his liver with some fava beans…” (with the classic tongue slurp).
  • Sam tries for accuracy with Anthony Hopkins’ line and offers mild criticism of the film’s overrated status despite Hopkins’ iconic role.
  • “Should not have won best Picture that year… Silence of the Lamb is a little bit overrated.” — Sam [08:42]
  • Trivia: Hopkins’ performance is famously brief for an Oscar winner.

Cool Runnings (Bobsled Time)

• [09:29–10:08]
  • Ben cues the quote: “Feel the rhythm. Feel the rhythm. Get on up. It’s…”
  • Sam and crew recall: “bobsled time!” and banter about Jamaican accents, John Candy’s legacy, and memorable lines.
  • “That’s like my childhood Cool Runnings.” — Sam [10:12]

Airplane! (I Speak Jive)

• [10:35–11:30]
  • Ben cues: “Oh, stewardess, I speak jive.”
  • The group reenacts the scene, laughing about lines and explaining the casting joke (Beaver Cleaver’s mom).
  • Sam laments current sensitivities:
    • “It was a better country when we could make these kinds of jokes. It just was…” — Sam [11:11]
  • Reference to Blazing Saddles and its fearless social satire.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• [01:26] Ben: “That’s so quotable, too.” (Zoolander)
• [02:02] Sam: “That movie’s fantastic… But two is so dark…”
• [03:06] Sam: “This is like last gasp of Robert De Niro right here.”
• [04:40] Sam: “Unbelievable script. Unbelievable script.” (Casablanca)
• [06:00] Sam: “Kubrick is super hit or miss for me…”
• [08:42] Sam: “Should not have won best picture that year. …It’s a little bit overrated.” (Silence of the Lambs)
• [10:12] Sam: “That’s like my childhood Cool Runnings.”
• [11:11] Sam: “It was a better country when we could make these kinds of jokes. It just was…”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Zoolander/Ants Quote: 00:59–01:28
• Back to the Future: 01:46–02:39
• Meet the Parents: 02:39–03:04
• Casablanca: 03:55–05:45
• Dr. Strangelove: 05:54–06:42
• Silence of the Lambs: 08:14–09:23
• Cool Runnings: 09:29–10:08
• Airplane! & Blazing Saddles: 10:35–11:30

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Tone and Style

The episode is upbeat, nerdy, nostalgic, and irreverent. The group riffs affectionately off of each other's pop culture knowledge, occasionally veering into deeper film analysis or social commentary, but always returning to brisk, good-humored banter.

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Final Thoughts

For movie lovers and longtime fans, this episode is a warm, witty, and quote-packed romp through comedy gold, cult classics, and revered cinema. The episode offers not just nostalgia and laughs, but insights into why these quotes and films endure and how comedy, film culture, and even actors’ careers have evolved over the years.

Transcript

[Sam]

Sam. All right, folks, today we're going to delve into a specialty of mine. Movie quotes. I've seen many, many, many, many movies. And so my staff, my producers, the people who keep this show actually running, they're going to test me on movie quotes. I'm gonna have to finish the movie quotes. We'll see how well I do.

[Ben]

Okay, Ben. So pretty obvious how this works. A little test one. Let's try. What is this a center for?

[Sam]

Ants.

[Ben]

Ants.

[Sam]

Ants.

[Ben]

Ants.

[Sam]

Ants. Ants. Ants. Ants.

[Ben]

Ants.

[Sam]

Ants. Ants. What is this a center for? Ants. It has to be at least three times this big.

[Ben]

That's so quotable, too.

[Sam]

Oh, my gosh.

[Ben]

I think I have the black lung.

[Sam]

The black lung. Pop. Merman. Merman. Wetness is the essence of beauty.

[Phil]

Let's just do quotes from that movie.

[Sam]

Oh, my gosh. The whole time in Zoolander 2. Ew.

[Ben]

All right, Phil. Take away.

[Phil]

All right, here's the first one. Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me you built a time machine out of a blank DeLorean?

[Sam]

Are you telling me that you built a time machine out of DeLorean? Out of a DeLorean?

[Ben]

So good.

[Sam]

It's. That movie's fantastic. Fantastic. One and one. One and one and three are great. Two. Two is good. But two is so dark. Like, the. The part in the future is so dark and so kind of bizarre that you can't show it to kids until they're a little bit older. Like, you can get away. There's some kind of risque stuff in one, but you can get away with it because it kind of goes over their heads. And three is just kind of family friendly. They're great. They're great movies.

[Phil]

I think two is better than three.

[Sam]

There's a case. Last half of two is fantastic. Like when he gets back to 1955. That. That part is great. Stuff in the future is kind of weak.

[Ben]

Number three. Oh, yeah. You can milk anything with blank.

[Sam]

You're gonna make me say this?

[Phil]

Yep.

[Sam]

Milk anything with nipples. Could you milk me?

[Ben]

I have nipples.

[Phil]

Can you milk me?

[Sam]

Greg? Yeah.

[Ben]

I had no idea you could milk a cat.

[Sam]

Oh, yeah. You can milk anything with nipples.

[Greg]

I have nipples, Greg.

[Sam]

Could you milk me?

[Ben]

This is when we liked Robert De Niro.

[Sam]

This is like last. This is like last gasp of Robert De Niro right here. Like, he had multiple career iterations, and this was kind of like the last good version of Robert De Niro. You talking to me? He's been in some other stuff, like Killers of the Flower Moon, where he's fine. But like the comedy version where he kind of became a parody of himself. This happens to a lot of them, by the way, like Al Pacino. Same kind of thing happened where Al Pacino had, like, amazing early iteration and then Shouty Al, as Michael Knowles is fond of calling him, and then it turned into comedic Shouty Al. She got a great ass. And, like, De Niro kind of went through a similar trajectory. Think Knowles is a better actor than Pacino or. It's about equal. A brutal. A brutal rip, Jake. Wow. Just coming in off the top rope to unknowles right there.

[Ben]

Number four. Play it, Sam. Play it as blink.

[Sam]

Play it, Sam. Play it. I mean, this is from Casablanca, but it's. But it's. It's.

[Ben]

Play it, Sam. Play as.

[Sam]

Oh, play on the. The song is actually playing in my head now. What's the name of the song? Why? Why is it. Oh, my gosh, I'm getting old. As time goes by. Wow. Wow.

[Ben]

Nice play.

[Sam]

As time goes By. Well, I can't remember it myself. I'm a little rusty. I love this movie so much.

[Ben]

I'll hum it for you.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Ben]

You said yesterday one of the greatest movies ever.

[Sam]

Unbelievable script. Unbelievable script. So actually, the Humphrey Bogart part in this movie, which is one of his most iconic parts, obviously it was originally supposed to be played by Ronald Reagan. Missed me. And there's a case to be made that the Reagan casting might have been better. Bogart is darker. But one of the big problems with the movie is Paul Henry, who is her husband in the film. Paul Henry is the same age as Humphrey Bogart, probably better looking than Humphrey Bogart, and she's supposed to kind of like Humphrey Bogart over Paul Henry, which is kind of weird because Paul Henry is much more heroic in the film. The Lamars Ayaz scene in this film is, like, legitimately one of the great scenes in the history of movies. It's so good. Claude Rains is fabulous. I love this movie. I can quote, I've probably seen Casablanca, I don't know, 10 times. I don't rewatch movies very often. But what. What a fabulous film. What a truly fabulous movie. We started playing that clip and your entire demeanor just locked. Oh, dude, I love that movie so much. Every. Like, you got Peter Lorre in a bit part, and he gets killed in the first, like, five minutes of the film. And Peter Lorre is a terrific actor. Like. Like, the cast on this film is just unbelievable. Like, really great.

[Phil]

I think you're more excited now than.

[Sam]

You were on a last night I was. Oh, my gosh. If I had an excuse to, like, watch Casablanca clubs, I'm there all day long.

[Phil]

All right, next one. Gentlemen, you can't fight here.

[Sam]

This is the war room. This is the war room.

[Phil]

Nice. Nice.

[Sam]

Yeah. Peter Sellers is classic Peter Sellers. Peter Sellers plays, like, four parts, I think. Four parts, yeah. Right. This is it. This is so Kubrick. Kubrick is super hit or miss for me. He makes some, like, fabulous movies. And then there's some stuff that's just a mess. This is. It's such a good movie. Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room. George C. Scott also. I love George C. Scott. He's a terrific actor. The one who's tackling him there is. You recognize him from Patton? Where you going, General Berlin. I'm gonna personally shoot that paper hanging son of a bitch.

[Phil]

I didn't know what your opinion of this movie would be. When I picked this quote, I was like, he could either hate this movie or he would think it's really good.

[Sam]

I mean, it's brilliant. I mean, the politics are very. It's a very left wing movie. Yeah, but it's. But it's. It's still quite brilliant. What's your favorite Kubrick film? Paths of Glory, probably. The first half of Full Metal Jacket is dynamite. This. It's actually two really good movies, but don't belong kind of in the same movie. Sort of like the first half of it is just extraordinary. We'll get to more of me crushing these movie quotes. First. It's often said that freedom isn't free. And it's true. Freedom does have to be defended. But what isn't said enough is that online freedom, well, that has to be defended as well. Not by military force, of course, but by technological force. Encryption. Strong encryption can protect your right to privacy online and defend you from hackers. So how do you get this encryption? With ExpressVPN, Internet providers track and sell your data. Hackers prey on public WI fi. Governments monitor your every move online with ExpressVPN. Their powerful encryption reroutes 100% of your online activity through secure servers, making your data invisible to prying eyes. I use ExpressVPN all the time. You see me traveling a lot. I'm outside of my beautiful new studios, and that means I'm using public wifi. And you know what? On public WI fi, I don't feel secure unless I'm using my ExpressVPN. And you don't have to take my word for how secure it is. They invited the world's top auditors, PwC and KPMG, to verify their revolutionary trusted server technology. It's the only system that physically cannot store your data because it runs entirely on volatile memory. While other companies profit from invading your privacy, ExpressVPN goes the extra mile to protect it. Find out how you can get up to four extra months by scanning that QR code on screen, clicking the link in the description box below, or by heading on over to expressvpn.com Benyt number 6.

[Ben]

I ate his liver with some fava beans. Yes, the lip quiver really got you.

[Sam]

I appreciate that. Savvy. Actually tried to read it exactly the way that Anthony Hopkins plays it.

[Ben]

I have a Jody Foster impression. I know there's snakes on that plane.

[Sam]

I have had it with these monkey fighting snakes on this Monday to Friday plane. That's pretty good. I like that. That's good cinema.

[Ben]

Anyway, let's see some actual cinema.

[Sam]

A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. So creepy movie. Should not have won best Picture that year. I'm on the minority side that believes Silence of the Lamb is a little bit overrated. How dare you. Anthony Hopkins is terrific and he won best supporting actor. I believe in this movie. It is one of the. If I'm not mistaken, this is one of the shortest performances ever to win a best supporting actor nod. He's only in the movie, I think for 10 minutes.

[Ben]

What's next? You don't want to do this one, Phil. You changed the quote on me and everything.

[Phil]

No, you gotta do this one in the accent too.

[Ben]

Feel the rhythm. Feel the rhythm. Get on up. It's blank.

[Sam]

I would have not known this. I don't know this one.

[Ben]

How about Jamaica Haza?

[Sam]

Some people, they say we can't. Oh, there we go. Now we got it.

[Phil]

Finally, a real Jamaican accent maker has a.

[Sam]

What a bobsled team. Come on. Okay. This classic John Candy. This good stuff. It's bobsled time. Yeah. There we go.

[Ben]

Hey. What a feel good movie.

[Sam]

Yeah. I mean, the famous line, of course, and the one that you should quote if you're going to quote Cole Runnings is I'm going to draw a line down the middle of your head, make it look like a butt. How about I beat your butt right now? How about I draw a line down the middle of your head so it looks like a butt? Oh, remember that line? That's true. It's a good, fun movie. That's like my childhood Cool runnings number eight.

[Ben]

Oh, stewardess, I speak jive. You love that movie, too.

[Sam]

Airplane is phenomenal. There are certain scenes that you certainly cannot show your children. There are a couple of scenes in this movie that I've shown my kids.

[Ben]

I'm sorry, I don't understand.

[Sam]

Cutie say can't.

[Greg]

Hey, oh, stewardess, I speak jive.

[Sam]

As Beaver Cleaver's mom. By the way, that's the joke. That's the lady who plays Beaver Cleaver's.

[Greg]

Mom in great pain, and he wants to know if you can help him.

[Ben]

All right, would you tell him to just relax? And I'll be back as soon as I can with some medicine.

[Sam]

There we go. We're going to get to cut me some slapjack in a second.

[Greg]

Just hang. Lose blood. She gonna catch up on the rebound on the mid side.

[Sam]

And he says something to her and she gets pissed. She goes, cut me some slack, Jack. Oh, my God. By the way, this is a. I'm sorry. It was a better country when we could make these kinds of jokes. It just was like. I understand that, like, everyone gets very offended now, but if people could take this when we were, like, 10 years removed from Jim Crow for real, then.

[Ben]

Like Blazing Saddles.

[Sam]

Yeah, exactly. Hey, where are the white women at? Like, and the movie's making fun of racism. It's not. It's not a racist movie, but it's got so many. Like, the jokes are. And it makes fun of everybody. Right? There's the. There's the Jewish sports heroes thing. Remember, like, where it's like, I have a. I want some reading material. Like, a short piece of reading material. How about a pamphlet? Jewish Sports Heroes. Great. Jewish sports heroes. And it's this big.