Funny / Win Ben Stein's Money

• An awful lot of the question categories.
• In the season 2 debut, in the final round:
  Ben: Could you explain it to the group please, Jimmy?
  Jimmy: Only if you give me a little tongue, baby.
  Ben: (briefly walking away) All right, forget it.
  Jimmy: Come on, I missed you, give me some sugar!... Such a tease.
  • When it's Ben's turn, he has to beat Carolyn's score of 2 correct answers:
  Ben: I shall do my best. I take all challenges seriously.
  Jimmy: Yeah, wah wah wah.
• Due to a brief technical glitch at the start of the 7/1/98 episode, the $5,000 on the board briefly reads as "$50 0", causing a double take from Ben when he notices it. He decides to sweeten the pot by offering to get them a good deal on merchandise with the $500.
  Jimmy: You're not trying to lure hookers, Ben. These are contestants.
• In an early episode, a contestant began his answers with "What is..." three times. This is before they implemented the dunce cap gag, so Ben and Jimmy just repeatedly chastised him for it.
  Contestant: (in the third instance) What is Netherlands.
  Ben: Okay, this is unbelievable. This is unbelievable!
  Jimmy: We need a hammer or something to beat you with!... It's wrong anyway.
• Devin/Mary/Brian episode, one of the categories "Kiss My Asp". Devin picks that one, adding "Jimmy" to the start of it. Before reading the question:
  Ben: You in trouble if you talk to my bitch like that.
  Devin: I'm just talkin' about Jimmy!
  • In the same episode, Ben does his "Anyone? Anyone?" shtick when nobody buzzes in.
  • In the second round, one question was about which author wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Ben buzzed in: "Dick."
  Jimmy: Hey screw you, asshole. (audience cheers) Oh, I see. Philip Dick. I thought it was personal.
• In the first Ben Stein Cup episode:
  Ben: Why have I done this? Call me a freakin' lunatic. (audience replies: "You're a freakin' lunatic!") Yeah, you're probably right.
  • The third round has the first few questions with no right answers, finally causing Jimmy to observe:
  Jimmy: What happened to you guys over the break?
  Ben: All right, stop mocking us, Jimmy! We're only human!
  Jimmy: This is the goddamn tournament of champions! You haven't gotten one question right yet!
  • Jimmy's nickname for Ben before the final round: Dr. Spankensperm.
• The Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? parody episode:
  • Dramatic music plays before every category selection, during every question and after every correct answer. Ben gets tired of it very quickly, repeatedly yelling to the sound crew to stop "the frickin' music".
  • Jimmy uses a fog machine. Ben jokes: "Didn't I warn you about those pastrami sandwiches?"
  • Jimmy explaining the "lifelines" (see main entry for transcript).
  • "Chopsticks" plays during the dramatic music when Ben phones a friend.
  • Jimmy in the final round: "It'd be nice if we could just give out checks like they do on that show so I don't have to wheel out this goddamn safe every day."
• Anytime Ben gets a question wrong in the final round, only to realize the right answer after being told "no" and snapping his fingers in frustration.
  • The final "audition one of Jimmy's relatives" episode had Ben protesting a wrong answer twice during the Best of Ten:
  Jimmy: Gaelic refers to a group of languages native to Ireland, the Isle of Man and what other country?
  Ben: Wales.
  Jimmy: No.
  Ben: (practically jumping out of his chair) Yes!
  (...)
  Jimmy: Who was considered to be the first Christian martyr?
  Ben: Uh, Christ.
  Jimmy: No.
  Ben: Yes!
• The Chuck/Carol/Kurt episode had one of the strangest audience reactions to the category names — one category was called "Hither and Jann Wenner", prompting what a combination of woos, oohs, and boos.
• The episode with Michael the mortician, who was surprisingly hyper and excited. The hosts were so amused by him that even though he was knocked out of the first round, they decided to keep him around for the rest of the show, letting him read the categories. When Ben began to read his usual spiel at the end, Michael jumped on Ben's back.
• This bit in the Jim/Emily/Aaron episode:
  Jimmy: Aaron hates plants, I understand. And why?
  Aaron: Something to do.
• In the Rob/Kris/Gene episode, there's a tie at the end of the first round, so Ben went on to explain the tiebreaker rules. He over-explains it to the point that Jimmy yawns twice.
• In the Robb/Audrey/Peter episode, Jimmy accidentally says Ben's $10,000 instead of $5,000 goes home with Robb if he wins, which he quickly walks back:
  Jimmy: He's too cheap for that.