The flamethrower instructor is quite nonplussed at Rick asking if there's any way to make it less hot. This isn't too far off from how Leonardo DiCaprio actually reacted to it.
Bruce: My hands are registered as lethal weapons. I accidentally kill you in a fight... I go to jail. Cliff:Anybody kills anybody in a fight, they go to jail. It’s called manslaughter.
Cliff reflects on the fact that no one will hire him to be a stuntman, then remembers the reason for this is because he got into a fight with Bruce Lee on the set of The Green Hornet, a show Lee was starring in and that Cliff was allowed to work on only after Rick argued for his involvement. He then laughs to himself, saying "Fair enough."
Charles Manson's awkward little wave when he sees Cliff watching him. Might double as Nightmare Fuel considering that he was just casing the Polanski residence, as well as the fact that he is... well, who he is.
Any time we see a clip from Rick's cancelled show Bounty Law, a faithful spoof of Western serials, the most notable example being one where his character, Jake Cahill, brings a recently slain bounty into the nearest town to collect a reward, only to be informed by the local lawman that the man he killed happens to be the son of the man who runs the town, complete with an ominous close-up on the protagonist's face as the show fades to commercial.
Martin Schwarz rubbing in Rick's career status as The Heavy for newer, brighter TV stars.
Rick throwing a tantrum in his trailer over screwing up his lines.
In the middle of it, he begins ranting at his reflection that he's going to quit drinking or he'll blow his own brains out. Immediate cut to him taking a swig from his flask, then suddenly realizing what he's doing and throwing the flask out the trailer door.
Pussycat abruptly halting her little dance for Cliff after seeing an approaching cop car, then immediately shouting "FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKIN' PIG!" after the car has driven by. Cliff can't hide his amusement.
As he discusses how Steve McQueen was cast for the lead role in The Great Escape over him, Rick begins imagining himself in the movie while trying to act unfazed about not getting the part.
When she finally allows him to see George Spahn, Squeaky Fromme warns Cliff that George might be hard to wake up, since she "fucked his brains out" earlier.
When Cliff meets George Spahn and finds him alive, if blind, Cliff asks if Squeaky is the redhead in the next room.
George Spahn: I'm BLIND! How the fuck do I know what color her hair is?!
Cliff tripping balls off a cigarette dipped in acid.
What's especially funny is how he came into possession of the acid cigarette. He was evidently just sitting in his car on the streets of L.A. when some hippie girl came up to him and offered the cigarette apropos of nothing. And he bought it off her for fifty cents.
Rick's drunkenly confronting and ranting at the Manson Family when he hears them outside in their car loudly playing music with a busted exhaust making noise, insulting them in between taking large gulps from his blender of margarita mix.
Rick Dalton: You fuckin' hippies came up here to smoke dope on a dark road, huh? [...] The hell are you looking at, you little ginger-haired fucker?
The last 20 minutes of the film can easily be this due to the massive Mood Whiplash. Rather than the expected, grisly ending of the cultists killing Sharon and her friends, they're instead butchered by Cliff and Rick in an incredibly over-the-top fashion, up to and including a flamethrower.
To elaborate, Tex gets bitten in the groin by Cliff's dog Brandy before Cliff stomps his face in, Katie/Patricia Krenwinkel gets her head smashed all across the room by Cliff, and Sadie/Susan Atkins gets a full can of dog food smashed against her face before Brandy chomps into her as well. She is still alive as she stumbles into the yard covered in blood, heads toward Rick flailing and screaming... and falls straight into the pool. Then Rick gets the flamethrower from the shed and torches her.
After managing to free his groin from Brandy's jaws, Tex actually recovers fairly quickly and whips out a knife. Only for Cliff to simply grab his arm in its stabbing motion and force Tex to stab himself in the leg.
The scene right before the home invasion, where Tex Watson is completely starstruck upon realizing the guy who just cussed him out in front of the Polanskis' front gate was Rick Dalton.
Sadie is not amused by Tex and Katie nerding out over Rick Dalton, and less so when Katie is annoyed that she's never heard of him.
Sadie: I'm sorry I don't know the name of every fascist on TV in the '50s!
The scene of Brandy jumping on the bedroom door, obviously asking Francesca to let her in to sleep with her, is an abrupt shift from her previous shot mauling Sadie.
The shot of Tex pointing his gun at Cliff and Cliff mirroring him perfectly with a finger gun. Then they both laugh about it, Cliff genuinely due to the high, and Tex nervously at the crazy man who apparently has no fear of guns being pointed at him.
Before all hell breaks loose, Cliff remembers seeing the Manson Family cultists at Spahn Ranch.
Cliff:[to "Katie"] I don't know your name, but I do remember that hair. [to "Sadie"] And you, I remember your white little face. [to "Tex"] And you were on a horsey! Yeah... you are? Tex: I'm the Devil. And I'm here to do the Devil's business! Cliff:...Nah, it was dumber than that. Something like Rex. Sadie: Come on, shoot him, Tex! Cliff: Tex!
Rick, for his part, has had no idea about the dramatic confrontation occurring in his living room, and has been drunkenly zoning out listening to music while sitting in a floating chair in his pool and drinking margaritas. So it is naturally a bit of a shock for him when a blood-soaked Sadie suddenly smashes through the window screaming insanely and waving a gun around.
After the above, the police are taking statements. Cliff paraphrases Tex's line about doing the "Devil's business" and mangles it so badly the cops are audibly amused ("'I'm the Devil, and I'm here to do some devil shit.' Now that might not be verbatim."). Meanwhile, Francesca is ranting in high-speed Italian while a put-upon-looking cop is obviously wondering how to explain that he can't understand a word she's been saying.
The only thing more darkly hilarious than Cliff and Rick's killing of the Manson Family cultists is Rick's bewildered explanation of what happened to Jay Sebring afterward, describing how he killed Susan "Sadie" Atkins with a "flamethrower I keep in my tool shed."
Jay Sebring: Is everyone okay? Rick Dalton: Well, the fuckin' hippies aren't. That's for goddamn sure.
A funny moment comes from Jay as he immediately guesses that it was Rick's flamethrower from The 14 Fists of McCluskey and geeks out over the fact Rick actually torched someone in real life.
During the credits, we see Rick during his Bounty Law days filming an ad for Red Apple cigarettes. As soon as the filming stops, he starts complaining about how shitty the cigarettes taste and how his cardboard cutout has a double chin.
During Rick's Italian career, one of the films he made is a knockoff James Bond flick that features Rick's character jumping a bridge in a car. Except that for no reason whatsoever, the screen pauses mid-jump and an arrow pointing to the car reading "Cliff" appears with a little "ding!"
Trudy, Rick's child actor co-star on Lancer, who bounces between precocious (and slightly insufferable) serious actor (not actress) and, well, a rather adorable eight-year-old kid.
When she and Rick first meet, she's reading a massive book. Rick politely asks if it would be disturbing for him to sit next to her and read as well. She replies that as long as he doesn't bother her, he can. Soon after, she gets bored reading her book and proceeds to badger him with questions about the Western he's trying to read.
Rick also asks if she's had lunch. Trudy replies that she has a scene immediately after lunch and so is abstaining from eating, and proceeds to deliver a lengthy monologue about the importance of striving for excellence in her art that suggests she's thought more about the craft of acting as a child than Rick Dalton has in his entire decades-long career. Rick is appropriately bemused at this.
Trudy's book, it turns out, is a biography of Walt Disney. She proceeds to enthusiastically intone about his once-in-a-generation level genius with the same seriousness and intensity that grown-up film nerds might discuss the work of Fellini or Kubrick.
After their scene together, Rick makes a point of making sure that Trudy wasn't hurt when he threw her to the floor as part of the scene. In response, Trudy excitedly points out the padding she's wearing under her dress. She also claims that she practices throwing herself onto the ground at home, even when she doesn't have roles that call for it, apparently just on the chance that it'll come in handy.
Sharon trying to get into The Wrecking Crew for free, because she stars in it. The girl at the counter responds to a photo with "that's the girl from Valley of the Dolls" — and Sharon looks quite put out before admitting that's her (in real life she felt the movie was terrible and only did it because she knew it would be a hit).
When the owner needs clarification on which girl from Valley of the Dolls, Sharon reminds him "the one who ends up doing dirty movies". She wasn't in the dark about her status as Best Known for the Fanservice.
There's a short scene where Sharon and her friends go out for dinner on That Night, but the potential ominousness of the moment is slightly undercut when they notice a movie premiere down the street, realise it's for a porn movie, and spend a few minutes marvelling about how even pornos get movie premieres.
