# The Ben Stiller Appreciation Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2001, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ben-stiller-appreciation-thread/89860 "2001-10-26T20:52:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ben-stiller-appreciation-thread/89860/1 "2001-10-26T20:52:32Z")
What are some of your favorite Ben Stiller moments? (Note: the ejaculate earing doesn’t count — it’s a given.) One that I really like is when he breaks his girlfriend’s dad’s mom’s urn with a champaign cork in _Meet the Parents_. Here’s an interesting twist: imagine _Seinfeld_ with Stiller instead of Seinfeld. Wouldn’t that have been great!? ---
**Author:** ![Eternal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@Eternal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eternal)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ben-stiller-appreciation-thread/89860/2 "2001-10-26T23:24:42Z")
Remember that show he had? It was funny some times. Also I liked when Jimmy Kimmel called him gay at his father’s Roast. Other than that I don’t really associate him with funny. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ben-stiller-appreciation-thread/89860/3 "2001-10-26T23:30:21Z")
Jerry Stiller was quite enough of the Stiller clan in that show. I love him, but Jerry stays! That said, I loved the Ben Stiller show. I still chuckle at the skit, B- Time Traveler. I liked Ben in Friends as Rachel’s screaming date. His best scene in MTP was when he was at the light at gives the “I am watching you” finger sign to DeNiro. As the crazy nursing home attendent in Happy Gilmore. ---
**Author:** ![Sumac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Sumac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sumac)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ben-stiller-appreciation-thread/89860/4 "2001-10-26T23:32:53Z")
I “appreciate” the fact that he’s not in more films! Wasn’t his dad in Seinfeld? One Stiller’s enough. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ben-stiller-appreciation-thread/89860/5 "2001-10-27T03:32:13Z")
I’ve been thinking about starting a “Zoolander” thread, but this will do instead. (SPOILERS!!!) My wife and I went to the movie without much in the way of expectations, and I found myself laughing hard through most of it. It’s a silly, loopy picture that tries its damnest to keep us entertained, and it works! Jerry’s a hoot as Zoo’s agent at “Balls Models.” I’d like to see it again just to catch all the lines (my wife wants to catch all the fashions). Some of the best lines can’t be repeated accurately because a lot of the humor is in Zoo’s attempt to form a coherent thought. Take when Mubutu presents him with a model of the center Zoo wants to build, and Zoo knocks it off saying it has to be larger . . . it has to be . . . (strainstrainstrain watch sweat pop off his forehead) “AT LEAST THREE TIMES LARGER.” Then there’s the Orange Frappichino party that ends in the tragic gasoline fight and I won’t say more about that because I found it sick and very very funny. (OTOH, I hatedhatedhated “Feel This Book” which he co-wrote with Janeann Garofalo. Boy did that suck tart apples up the anus. But this movie was great.) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ben-stiller-appreciation-thread/89860/6 "2001-10-27T05:20:13Z")
I think _Mystery Men_ was excellent and undeservedly underrated. And I liked Stiller playing a relatively straight role in _The Zero Effect_. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ben-stiller-appreciation-thread/89860/7 "2001-10-27T10:47:55Z")
Could one of you Stiller-philes help me out here: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=95341](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=95341) Thanks. Enquiring minds really wanna know. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ben-stiller-appreciation-thread/89860/8 "2001-10-27T16:15:01Z")
The old Ben Stiller Show was hilarious. I liked his parody of Last of the Mohicans. Stiller as Daniel Day Lewis was hawking an exercise treadmill. You had to be there. ---
**Author:** ![Tretiak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Tretiak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tretiak)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ben-stiller-appreciation-thread/89860/9 "2001-10-27T16:46:06Z")
I think he is best when he does min-movies or mockumentaries, mainly with MTV. This is also like his RV show. Last year he did a bit on preparing N’Sync for the SUper Bowl halftime. Best line… “That N’Sucked!” ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ben-stiller-appreciation-thread/89860/10 "2001-10-28T01:59:39Z")
I used to watch his old show back in '95 when it was rerun on MTV. I don’t remember a lot about it except that I often laughed so hard I couldn’t breathe. One thing I do remember was Stiller as the Pig-Latin Lover, a typical Latin lothario stereotype who spoke in Pig Latin. The thing was, Stiller can speak in Pig Latin faster than most people can speak in English. They were doing a variety show and had Rip Taylor and Susan Anton as guest stars, just like those actualy variety show specials they had in the 80’s. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![justinh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@justinh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justinh)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2001, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ben-stiller-appreciation-thread/89860/11 "2001-10-29T21:24:36Z")
Is this the “appreciate that there isn’t anybody worse than he is” society? I appreciate that he isnt in as many movies as Pauly Shore. or Roxanne. ---
**Author:** ![Zanshin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e274bd/32.png) [@Zanshin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zanshin)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2001, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ben-stiller-appreciation-thread/89860/12 "2001-10-29T21:47:39Z")
HERETICS! HERETICS, I tell ya! I’m a big Ben Stiller fan. But let me say right off, he has some of the worst luck picking movies to star in. “Zoolander”? God, if that movie doesn’t look absolutely horrible. But for every “Zoolander” or “There’s Something about Mary”, there’s a “Your Friends and Neighbors” or “Mystery Men” to take its place. He does a great job playing the self-conscious, no-confidence Everyman. (He was so wheedling and whining in YFaN that he made me cringe.) I think he’s really talented, but needs to be a little more consistent with the quality of the movies he stars in. “Don’t correct me. That sickens me.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2001, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ben-stiller-appreciation-thread/89860/13 "2001-10-29T22:57:33Z")
the ben stiller show was way funny. the pig latin lover is hysterical. the best, tho, is the U2 parody, with reuben kincaid as the disgruntled former manager and the boffo cereal commercial ‘one bowl’, sung to ‘one love.’ brill.