Inside References and Running Jokes

Star Wars quotes

These are quotes said by by characters in the movies that stood out to the hosts and have become incorporated into the SWM universe.

Long time

Old Ben hasn't heard the name of Obi-Wan in a long time. A long time.

You'll Be Dead!

Dr. Evazan accosts Luke in the Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine:

Dr. Evazan: "You'd best watch yourself. I have the death sentence on twelve systems."

Luke: "I'll be careful."

Dr. Evazan: "You'll be dead!"

This is one of Tony Consiglio's favorite quotes (see Minute 46). If anyone starts a sentence with "You'll be (doing something)," you answer with "You'll be dead!"

'94'

When Han Solo tells Obi-Wan where they would be meeting (docking bay 94), Kenobi repeats it in a particular way that stuck out to Pete. Now whenever he is given a direction, such as "Take exit 12" he will repeat it à la Ben Kenobi, and then say "94", thereby forgetting the direction immediately. So if someone says "94" you say "94" back.

From time to time

This is one of those "secret Star Wars quotes" which Pete is able to use without people necessarily knowing he's quoting Star Wars. As a follow up to his previous statement about the slim chances that Han and Luke would survive the frigid Hoth night, C-3PO meekly adds that R2 (who may or may not be the one who placed the odds of their survival at 725:1) has been known to make mistakes. From time to time.

Too old

After retiring to his summer hut on Dagobah, Yoda was pretty much done with training Jedi. When Luke Skywalker showed up to try to get him to come out of retirement, Yoda tried to get rid of him by using the excuse that Luke was "too old. Too old to begin the training." This is one Alex quotes all the time whenever something is too old.

From a certain point of view

When Luke asks Ben why he lied to him about Darth Vader being his father, having said instead that Vader killed his father, Ben says that when Anakin "was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force ... he ceased to be the Jedi Anakin Skywalker and 'became' Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So, what I told you was true... from a certain point of view." Pete and Alex had already outed Obi-Wan as a lying, deceitful, manipulative, murderous psychopath (right from his first appearances in Star Wars Minute); so "from a certain point of view" was clearly a euphemistic cop-out to cover up being caught in a lie. They now use it to justify outrageous claims and explain plot holes.

Deck Officer

Another "quote" that stuck in Pete's mind was from The Empire Strikes Back (see minute 8). When Han Solo is berating the Deck Lieutenant Tamizander Rey, he shouts "Deck Officer?! Deck Officer!"

• Deck Officer
• Deck Officer

What's a 'duck?'

This is from the novelization of the original Star Wars. While Kenobi is talking to Luke about what a great pilot his father was, he mentions that although some of the traits that make a good pilot may be inherited, others must be learned, just as a duck must be taught to swim:

Kenobi: "I understand you are quite a pilot yourself. Piloting and navigation aren’t hereditary, but a number of the things that can combine to make a good small-ship pilot are. Those you may have inherited. Still, even a duck has to be taught to swim."

Luke: "What’s a duck?"

Kenobi: "Never mind."

Luke can almost be forgiven for not knowing what a duck is, if not for the fact that, according to wookieepedia, they can be found all over the Galaxy. The hosts have therefore attributed Luke's ignorance of ducks to a degree of cluelessness about life in general.

SEBULBA!!

Several times during the podrace, fans of the Dug racer Sebulba shout his name as he passes. So now this is something Pete says all the time (see TPM Minute 62). It has even been made into a shirt[1]. This was referenced in an 8-DAY-GREEDO call during TPM Minute 81.

Sehhhhnate

Among the many words that the Nemoideans say with their unusual accents, one that the hosts have singled out is "Senate." This has been adapted to the pronunciation of "seven" as "Sehhhhvehn" (TPM Minute 7)

Other References

Can you come back tomorrow?

During a normal week (as opposed to an All-Star Week) of recording, the same guest will appear 5 days in a row. The hosts like to pretend that the guests returns to the studio each day to record the next segment of the podcast, when in fact all 5 minutes are recorded back to back. This was nodded to during ESB minute 16. The joke carries over to welcoming the guest back when they "return" to record the rest of that week's minutes.

Closing the show

Since early in the original Star Wars Minute, Pete and Alex have attempted to say the show closing "Star Wars Minute" in unison, but have almost never succeeded in doing so. This has become a running gag that was addressed by Asterios Kokkinos during the live episode Empire Minute 111: The Green Cross Code Man.
This has carried over into closing SWM:WE, where the hosts are unable to say "Star Wars Minute...Weekend Edition" in sync.
An additional running gag is that whenever anyone on the show says the show closer (regardless of context), the hosts (usually Alex) will pretend that the show has actually ended, even if that would make the episode less than a minute long.

Sorry, Pete

Pete is known for his hatred of the Prequels, to the point where Alex felt the need to apologize whenever they were brought up.
Now that they have decided to do the Prequels after all, guest Joe Dator started to apologize to Pete for bringing up the Original Trilogy. Alex has considered apologizing any time The Force is brought up, because of Pete's belief that The Force does not exist.

Raise your right hand

Around Pete's office, so many Star Wars and Simpsons references get flung around, they've had to develop a system to distinguish quotes from regular speech. It involves raising a hand while doing the quote so the listener will know which is being referenced and can either laugh along or safely ignore it. The problem with this system is nobody seems to remember which hand is for Simpsons reference and which is for Star Wars.

You can cut that out

Often someone on the show trips on their words or they have to look up a piece of trivia. One of the hosts (usually Alex) will ask Pete to cut that bit out of the show. The fact that we know this means that the bit was not in fact cut out, and this has become something of a running joke. It was revealed in the Live Listener Q&A that Pete, who does the editing, rarely cuts things out of the show.

What does it smell like?

A question Alex is always asking about things in the Star Wars universe. It has become a running theme in SWM.
Examples:

• The Death Star smells like fear.
• Cloud City smells either like a casino or like farts (from all the beldon gas).
• George Lucas smells like chicken sandwiches (as was revealed in ROTJ Minute 98).
• Qui Gon's "Defiance" smells like burlap and hair grease.
• The Sandcrawler smells like WD-40 and poop (Star Wars Minute 44: The Weak-Minded).

Spoilers

In case a theoretical person who is listening to the podcast has not seen the movies (somehow), the hosts helpfully alert the listener to potential spoilers. Since it is very unlikely someone would listen who wasn't already a fan of Star Wars, this is mostly done facetiously.
Now that they have begun covering The Phantom Menace, they have more or less stopped doing this, as any potential spoilers have "happened already" (since TPM came out after the Original Trilogy).

Don't talk about the toys

A big part of Alex and Pete's memories of Star Wars come from their enjoyment of Star Wars toys. Some viewers have expressed frustration with what they consider to be too much "toy talk." This has not stopped the hosts and guests from discussing their toy memories, but it has caused them to bring up how people hate it when they talk about the toys each time they do.

Is Kenny Baker in there?

In the Original Trilogy, the R2-D2 robot is operated from inside by little person actor Kenny Baker[2], but not all the time. In particular, when you see the three-legged R2-D2 (rather than the two-legged variety) he is normally operated by remote control. This led Joe Dator to pose the eternal question, "is Kenny Baker in there?" He asked this question about the R2-D2 robot, the C-3PO suit (which would be strange), and even about Kenny Baker himself to see if he would come out of his shell. In The Force Awakens, Kenny is credited as a performance consultant[3], rather than playing R2-D2.

Who were they in Superman?

A surprising number of the background players in Star Wars movies also acted together in other movies or franchises, to the point where you almost can't be a minor character without having acted in one of the following:

• Superman
• Superman II
• Dr. Who
• James Bond

Alex's pet peeve

Alex's pet peeve is when the expanded Star Wars universe (EU) uses the fate or actions of one character in the movies to completely define that character and, even worse, the character's entire race. Alex raises this peeve in a number of podcast episodes including:

• SWM 50: Greedo has a bad day, gets shot and dies - which then defines him and his entire race as incompetent bounty hunters.

Ben orchestrating the events on Tatooine in Star Wars

Alex and Pete have a theory, relating to the events on Tatooine in the original Star Wars movie, that Ben orchestrated the whole thing to ensure that Luke would travel with him to Alderaan. They provide strong evidence to support this in a number of podcast episodes including:

• SWM 59

Chewbacca getting out of his life debt

Alex and Pete have a theory that, in the original trilogy, its possible that Chewbacca is not trying all that hard to protect or save Han Solo on the basis that if Han dies then Chewbacca's life debt to him will come to an end. This is raised in a number of podcast episodes including:

• SWM 54.

Goooooaal!!

In Jabba's palace, there is an alien mollusk living on the wall with a long tongue that nearly licks C-3PO. His name is Ghoel, which sounds like "goal." Pete likes to shout his name like a football announcer.

The Naboo Movie

Before they agreed to do The Phantom Menace Minute, every time Pete and Alex would mention the name of the movie, something would go wrong technically with recording the podcast, and so they took to calling it "The Naboo Movie" the way professional thespians refer to the Shakespeare play Macbeth as "The Scottish Play".

That's what Shmi said

In scenes where Anakin's mother appears, whenever anybody uses the pronoun "she" to refer to her (starting with TPM Minute 58), they will replace it with her name ("Shmi"). So instead of saying "He said, she said" they will say "he said, Shmi said." This was taken to extremes in an 8-DAY-GREEDO call from former guest of the show Dan Telfer from TPM Minute 73.

Wrong show

The guys also hosted a podcast called Alphabeatical where they discussed the Beatles catalog alphabetically. Occasionally, one of the hosts will drop a reference to the Beatles, which is from the wrong show. This has now extended to any other podcasts referenced: in particular ones that the hosts have appeared on.

Legend has it

This started with former guest of the show Jordan White who works on the Marvel Star Wars comics, which are officially canon. All former Expanded Universe titles have been rebranded as "Star Wars Legends." Now, when you want to refer to something from the EU, say "legend has it that..."

Staring at the french horn

Staring... at the french horn. This came from SWM:WE 17.

Jek Porkins Memorial Sexology theme

Pete and Alex ask Tony Thaxton and his band to play the theme and then comment on their performance afterwards, implying that it's played live every week.

Gun That Shoots Lightsabers

Whenever the conversation leans towards lightsabers with a gimmick, Pete always brings up what he believes to be the ultimate weapon in the Star Wars universe: a gun that shoots lightsabers.

Execucisor

Yes, it may be SPELT Executor, but it's PRONOUNCED Execucisor. Didn't you know?