Vengeance (II) (2022)
B.J. Novak: Ben Manalowitz
Photos
Quotes
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Quentin Sellers : You're a playlist guy.
Ben Manalowitz : What does that mean?
Quentin Sellers : When some computer recommends you a bunch of songs based on your favorites and a bunch more--based on your favorites of those. Right. So you're listening to a bunch of music that, I mean, you genuinely like...
Ben Manalowitz : Yeah.
Quentin Sellers : ...but you have no idea who sings it. Now, these playlists? It's like the dating app for music. You're not hearing other people's voices. You're just hearing your voice get played back to you. How are you supposed to fall in love? Art used to be in charge of us. You used to buy a whole album not even knowing what songs would be on it. Now we have everything on demand. At your fingertips. In pieces. You think half the people that are posting quotes from Oscar Wilde have ever actually read one of his plays?
Ben Manalowitz : No.
Quentin Sellers : Or posting photos of Audrey Hepburn have actually seen the film it's from?
Ben Manalowitz : No.
Quentin Sellers : Not a chance, right?
Ben Manalowitz : What is that about, huh?
Quentin Sellers : It's the same in culture as it is in archaeology. When a civilization collapses, only the tiniest fragments remain. But we can built it up again.
Ben Manalowitz : How?
Quentin Sellers : Make recordings. Real people. Not what people think they already know and want to hear. Real people. Not some generic stereotype or generic song. Real people.
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Ty Shaw : This is the most, uh, wretched, godforsaken stretch of land on the face of the earth. And I'd never leave.
Ben Manalowitz : Yeah. That's how I feel about Twitter.
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Ben Manalowitz : Would you like coffee?
Jasmine : Yes.
Ben Manalowitz : How do you take it?
Jasmine : In the mouth.
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Ben Manalowitz : You know, um... There's some things I'm good at. I'm good at asking the right questions. I'm good at getting people to talk. And I'm especially good at drawing thematic connections between seemingly disparate elements and using that to illustrate a larger point or theory. So, whoever or whatever is responsible for what happened to Abilene, I will find this person or this generalized societal force, and I will define it. I'll define it.
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[repeated line]
Ben Manalowitz : A hundred percent.
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Quentin Sellers : Your story proves the defining truth of our time.
Ben Manalowitz : Which is what?
Quentin Sellers : Everything means everything, so nothing means anything.
Ben Manalowitz : Some things mean something.
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Ben Manalowitz : You were right, Eloise. I was the story. A self-absorbed know-it-all thinks he's gonna figure out the meaning of America, and all he learns is how empty he is. I was the one living a myth. They say you regret the things you don't do. I didn't love.
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Ben Manalowitz : Do you ever find wonder, if you did find something deeper with somebody, if that would somehow be more meaningful?
John : I do, sometimes. Like right now, I'm casually dating, like, six or seven different women. But I do wonder, deep down, what it would be like to seriously date two or three.
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Sharon Shaw : Bless your heart.
Ben Manalowitz : OK, you know what? I know what that means. So, bless your heart, and bless your heart, and bless your heart, you can all go bless yourselves!
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Ben Manalowitz : I don't understand you people.
Paris Shaw : 'You people' is a micro-agression.
Ben Manalowitz : My apologies. Y'all.
Paris Shaw : 'Y'all' is a cultural appropriation.
Ben Manalowitz : Paris, you accusing someone of cultural appropriation is cultural appropriation.
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El Stupido Shaw : I'm scared.
Ben Manalowitz : What are you scared of?
El Stupido Shaw : Ghosts.
Ben Manalowitz : Ghosts aren't real.
El Stupido Shaw : If they're not real, how come everyone knows what they are?
Ben Manalowitz : They're real as an idea, but they're not real, real. That's what's scary about ghosts, that they aren't real. If ghosts were real they wouldn't be scary at all, right? We would just smile and say, "Hi, ghosts!"
El Stupido Shaw : Hi ghosts!
Ben Manalowitz : Hi ghost! Wouldn't that be cool? If when someone wasn't there anymore there was still a little piece of them that could surprise you sometimes?
El Stupido Shaw : Yeah.
Ben Manalowitz : But there's not, there's nothing. And that's what's scary about ghosts. That the little piece of someone that feels like it might still be there isn't there at all. Do you feel better?
El Stupido Shaw : No.
Ben Manalowitz : Me neither.
