He really does.
Doug hates...
Candy wrappers, screaming babies, sticky seats with
Fifteen ads and popcorn kernels in his teeth
There's still not one that he won't see
'cause Doug Loves Movies!
—The theme song, by Hard 'n Phirm
Hey-hey-hey, everybody! Doug Loves Movies is a long-running movie trivia podcast hosted by Doug Benson, of Last Comic Standing and Super High Me fame.
Started in 2006 with a more-or-less weekly episode schedule, Doug gathers several guests together in front of a live audience to talk about movies (obviously), play movie trivia games for a fabulous prize bag (that they fill with their own prizes), and have a good time (usually). Since the guests tend to be well-known comics or show business folk, the prizes are actually awarded to an audience member that they are playing for, selected by the guests before the games begin.
Doug Loves Movies contains examples of:
- All or Nothing: Averted, sort of. While the winning audience member gets to keep the prize bag, the losers get to have someone or something of their choice be called a shithead by Doug.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: T-shirts are a common prize to find in the prize bag. At the very least, Doug will toss in a Doug Loves Movies shirt.
- Audience Participation: Played straight and averted. Audience members are highly encouraged to bring in name tags to be selected by a guest (usually a movie poster with the title changed to fit their name in) and will shout out both the show's name and the show's URL at certain points of the show, but are otherwise discouraged from shouting out during the rest of the show. Shouting out answers during the game show portion is a surefire way to get on Doug's bad side.
- Occasionally, Doug will bring several audience members onstage to play a quick movie game, with the winner becoming one of the guests for the rest of the show.
- Audience Surrogate: Sort of. Guests will pick an audience member to play for by selecting their name tag. If they win, their audience member gets the prize bag.
- Catchphrase: When it's time to start the games, Doug will announce "Let the games begin!" in his Bane voice.
- Prior to starting the games, he'll tell Bert Kreischer to turn the show off.
- Consolation Prize: Losing players get to have someone or something be called a shithead by Doug.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The show originally was called I Love Movies with Doug Benson, and only featured one guest instead of three or more.
- Eliminated from the Race: During The 12 Guests of Xmas, getting an answer wrong results in the guest being eliminated from the game.
- Holiday Mode: During December, the opening and ending theme songs are replaced with holiday versions recorded by Garfunkel and Oates.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: It's not uncommon for Doug or his guests to order drinks in the middle of the show.
- Life Lines: During the game Last Man Stanton, guests are allowed to call on the audience member they are playing for once.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Recurring guests "Mark Wahlberg"note and "Werner Herzog"note .
- Persona Non Grata: Director Onur Tukel. Twice. Likely Anne Heche as well.
- Pun-Based Title: Audience nametags are usually a pun of some sort involving their name and a movie title. Some nametags are clever and witty, others... aren't.
- Running Gag: Oh dear, where to start?
- Between 2011 and 2013, Doug would always give the year as 2-Ocean's 11/12/13.
- When plugging his website, Doug would always repeat the URL twice. Started turning into an Overly Long Gag when he started inserting beats in-between that got absurdly longer and longer every show. Nowadays, the audience repeats the URL the second time instead of Doug.
- Any donuts brought onstage will inevitably end up being flung into the audience at some point.
- Any time "Mark Wahlberg" is on the show, you can expect a lot of Donnie Wahlberg bashing.
- Speaking of, if the guests' banter starts to get out of control, Doug will yell the safe wordnote to try and bring them back in line.
- Any time a guest mentions their wife.
- MY WIFE!
- Rules Spiel: Doug explains the rules of each game before they start playing.
- Special Guest: While the show's guests tend to be comedians of some renown, it's not uncommon to see actors, actresses, directors, or other relatively-famous people show up to play. Notable names include Edgar Wright, Michael Rooker, Chris Evans, and even Danny Trejo.
- Speed Round: While it's usually played at the start of the game portion instead of the end, the game Live. Die. Repeat. falls under this trope. The rules? Be the first person to repeat the name of the movie Doug is saying.
- Spinoff: Doug Loves Minis, a short podcast (usually 10 minutes or so) featuring Doug talking about his upcoming events, reading iTunes reviews of his shows, and occasionally recordings of Doug Loves Movie games played at his stand-up shows.
- Tagline: The game Whose Tagline Is It Anyway? has guests trying to guess the title of a movie based on its tagline.
- Take That!: The shitheads announced at the end of the show, courtesy of the losing players.
- On a recent episode, Doug said that he was changing the name of a commonly-played game to the Bennington Tom Brady Game. The original title? The Bennington Adjusted for Inflation Game.
- Theme Tune: The opening and ending themes, recorded by Hard 'n Phirmnote .
- In December, this is replaced by a holiday-themed version recorded by Garfunkel and Oates.
- The Namesake: The game Last Man Stanton, which revolves around naming all the movies a certain actor/actress has appeared in, is named for prolific character actor Harry Dean Stanton, who appeared on the podcast and played a very early version of the game.
- The Leonard Maltin Game is named for film critic and recurring guest Leonard Maltin, writer of many, many movie guides.
- The Points Mean Nothing: Played with. Winning the early games only determines who gets to go first in the next game, nothing more. It's the final game that really determines who wins the prize bag.
- The Stoner: Doug Benson, obviously. You'll be hard-pressed to find an episode where he ISN'T noticeably high. His shows don't have a habit of starting around 4:20 p.m. for nothing.
Now it's time for Doug to watch another talkie
Eyes of gold, his viewing prowess makes him cocky
There's no room in his heart for you
'cause Doug Loves Movies!
