Ben Hosley

*"Ben" redirects here. For a Ben guest, see Benji Samit; and for a Ben film, see Benedetta or Ben's Choice.*

## Appearances

### First Episode

In A Galaxy Far Far Away

**Benjamin "Ben" Hosley** (also known as ~~B~~**En Hosley**) (born June 24, 1985 8:43pm) is the producer of Blank Check with Griffin and David. He is a professional podcast producer, formerly for UCB Comedy and now for a variety of AudioBoom (Blank Check's main host site) podcasts.

## Biography

He grew up in New Jersey and has referred to himself then as "a bad kid," noting that he purposefully liked to annoy his father, friends' parents, and other adults. Since then he has led a life rich with experiences, particularly living in New York City, and has many stories to tell. A number of Burger Reports consist of stories from Ben's time working at --CENSORED-- a Manhattan dining establishment that was frequented by fame-o's.

Ben is a great fan of obsolete technology, and thrills whenever it is featured in a movie under discussion. Examples include the Apple Newton, old-fashioned computer monitors, fax machines, and the like. He also likes big things, soakin' wet things(slick flicks), and vaporwave. Recently however Ben has shifted to from preferring soakin' wet things to being a Dry Guy.

When the show first began Ben has said he was living in a windowless room and then would go in to work at the UCB and record in a windowless broom closet - all the while listening to #TheTwoFriends talk for hours about Star Wars nonsense. These days, though, things are better all around.

In the Benedetta episode it was revealed that Ben is related to a beatified dude: The Blessèd Michael J. McGivney, and if there's a second miracle Ben will get to go to the Vatican.

### Personal Life

Ben is the proud cat-dad to Pig. He lives with his girlfriend Nelly at The Hosoleum.

Fans of Ben refer to themselves as Hoz-Hogs.

## Ben's Choice

*Main article: Ben's Choice.*
As a palate cleanser in between miniseries, the podcast sometimes records a "Ben's Choice" episode in which they ask Ben to choose a movie, usually one he saw frequently growing up, that will shake things up a bit as compared to their discussions of auteur director filmographies. In these episodes Ben takes over the role of host, and Griffin and David become his extremely talkative guests. See the Standalones miniseries page or the Episodes master listing for more info.

## Other Ventures

Ben's interests are wide and include things like bones and chains. He is also the creative force behind Blank Check Pictures. Ben is also occasionally a guest and producer on other podcasts. For more information on those appearances, see Outside Podcast Appearances.

### Music

He hosts a vaporwave based online radio show on kpiss.fm called **ＶＡＰＯＲ** on Tuesdays at 10PM EST. Since 2020 he has released a yearly Slow Christmas vaporwave holiday album. His production company is called Bone Sound, Inc. and their slogan is simply "KLONK!"

### Fashion

Ben has experimented with burying jeans, which he is selling as part of his fashion line called Congratulations.

## Nicknames

Ben is known for having a variety of nicknames mostly given to him by co-host Griffin Newman. As part of his contract as Chip Smith's advocate, he gave up the B in his name rendering him ~~B~~En Hosley. The B was returned at some point after March Madness 2022 when he returned from the Moon. In the All That Jazz episode, guest Lin-Manuel Miranda did an improvised rap of his nicknames as a birthday present.

### General Nicknames

* **Producer Ben** - originated at 0:07:32 of episode 1, In A Galaxy Far Far Away, as an initial title bestowed by Griffin. "Back in the saddle with Producer Ben."
* **Prodoer Ben** - originated at 0:01:47 of episode 2, The Royalty of Naboo, explained in a later episode as "because he's a professional do-er, the Pro-doer." May have originally been the result of a typo in the credits for The Chris Gethard Show some time prior, as "Produer."
* **The Benducer** - first given at 0:01:36 of episode 5, Our Performance Review.
* **The Poet Laureate** - originated at 0:56:27 of episode 6, A Profile Of Jar Jar Binks And The Gungans, after Ben gave a particularly eloquent question prompt to the hosts.
* **The Meatlover** - originated at 0:07:55 of episode 88, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, after Ben noted that he'd ordered a meatlover's pizza to eat at the screening of the film.
* **The Tiebreaker** - originated at 0:03:33 of episode 5, Our Performance Review, due to Ben's assigned role as the difference maker in the event of any 1-1 tie between the hosts in the acting performance review.
* **The Fart Detective** - originated at 1:04:52 of episode 86, Toruk: The First Flight, after a recount of Ben's investigations into an extraordinary odor at the concession stands during intermission at the performance.
* **Our Finest Film Critic** - originated at 0:33:08 of episode 55, The Matrix Reloaded, following the revelation of what Ben's favorite thing about the film was.
* **The Peeper** - originated at 0:02:17 of episode 28, A Broken Heart, as a way to highlight the fact of Ben looking on while the podcast recorded with guest Sonia Saraiya.
* **Birthday Benny** - originated at 0:05:40 of episode 14, The Mysterious Planet Kamino, on the occasion of recording on Ben's actual birthday.
* **Hello Fennel** - originated at 0:01:41 of episode 5, Our Performance Review, as a malapropism by Ben. "It was like 'fellas' and 'gentlemen' all wrapped up into one."
* ***Not*** **Professor Crispy** - originated at 0:07:00 of episode 42, Unbreakable. Ben had been bragging up how crisp the audio sounded before the show, so Griffin proposed Professor Crispy. The name was swiftly rejected by Ben and David but since then it has been consistently used - only in the negative.
* **The Fuckmaster** - originated at 1:08:20 of episode 50, The Visit*.* Griffin tongue-twisted "if they see you on the streets" into "if they see you in the sheets," which inspired him to coin the new nickname.
* **Dirt-Bike Benny** - originated at 0:49:32 of episode 79, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. While discussing Ben's childhood similarities to bad-kid character John Connor, Griffin was absolutely *delighted* to hear that Ben had a dirt-bike when he was a kid too.
* **White-Hot Benny** - originated at 1:24:39 of episode 70, Elizabethtown, after Ben's, like, 27th consecutive joke hit big and David noted that Ben was really on fire that day.
* **Soakin' Wet Benny** - originated at 0:34:05 of episode 78, The Abyss, after David observed that "this was a wet movie for ya."
* **The Hoz** - first given (?) at 0:36:43 of episode 13, Unrest In The Galactic Senate. Griffin states at 1:36:16 of Signs that guest hosts Murf Meyer and Diana Kolsky are the ones who originally came up with the nickname for Ben.
* **Mr. Positive** - originated at 0:00:37 of episode 15, The Angst of Anakin Skywalker, after Ben assertively and positively stepped in to introduce the episode while the hosts played "microphone chicken."
* **Mr. Hositive** - originated at 0:02:22 of episode 71, We Bought A Zoo, as a portmanteau of 'The Hoz' and 'Mr. Positive' as suggested by friend of the show Patrick Cotnoir, nominally "for the sake of time expediency."
* **Close Personal Friend of Dan Lewis** - originated at 0:12:39 of episode 99, Catch Me If You Can, after Ben related an IMDB trivia fact about Daniel Day-Lewis and referred to him colloquially as Dan Lewis. Ben first calls Daniel Day-Lewis, "Dan Lewis", at 1:48:40 of the Elizabethtown episode. Also mentioning he just, "knows him like that."
* **The Voice Of Reason** - originated at 1:02:25 of episode 134, The Hurt Locker, and coined by Sonia Saraiya when she said that Ben was supposed to be the "voice of reason" on the show and help corral an out-of-control comedy bit. First used as an actual nickname at 0:21:10 of episode #143, RoboCop.
* **The Booker** - originated at 0:03:10 in episode 146, The Third Annual Blank Check Awards and given by Joe Reid.
* **Santa Hoz** - a seasonal nickname, bestowed at 0:01:18 of episode 36, Return of the Podcast. This nickname has rarely been used since that holiday season.
* **The Commish** - short for The Commissioner, which is also used as a variant on the name. Originated at 0:24:45 of episode 169 Incredibles 2, when Ben began to institute a new policy of showing cards similar to soccer/football (or maybe not) to penalize the hosts for not staying on track. See Card System for an accounting of cards issued. Ben readopted The Commish as a nickname during the 2023 March Madness Preview for his role as tournament commissioner.
* **Wishful Ben** - given to him in the Beyond the Lights episode by Ayo Edebiri.
* **Hosleywood** - Given in the Dark Star episode by Griffin in honor of Ben going Hollywood
* **The Futzer** - originated at 0:03:50 in the Evil Dead II episode. Given by Griffin since Ben had to continually futz with the wires and cords for the recording setup.
* **Producer En** - originated during March Madness 2022 when he signed over the B to Chip Smith as part of his employment contract on the moon.
* **The Base Stealer** - given in the For Love of the Game episode at 0:12:40. He *loved* stealing bases, even though he was not particularly good at it. He *had* to try. He *had* to slide.
* **The Mind Warrior** - given in the 2001: A Space Odyssey episode at 0:30:07. Self applied nickname for his ability to power through a bad trip.
* **The Class Act** - self-applied and styled with his full name as Benjamin "The Class Act" Hosley in the 2023 March Madness Update 1.
* **River Tramp** - given by John Hodgman in the College/Steamboat Bill, Jr. episode at 1:46:15.
* **Bad Boy 2.0**, **Mr. Earring**, **Lord Studlington** - all given at the end of the The Moon Is...the Sun's Dream/Trio episode in honor of Ben's Bad Boy 2.0 era and his new earring.
* **The Beneral** - given in the The Moon Is...the Sun's Dream/Trio episode in honor of *The General*, Rosario Dawson's pubic zone, and Ben's role in keeping things on track.
* **Ol' Blue Eyes** - given during the Ocean's 11 Commentary episode in honor of his fellow Garden Stater Frank 'ring-a-ding-ding' Sinatra.

### Miniseries Nicknames

He has graduated to certain titles at the end of each miniseries. These include:

* **Producer Ben Kenobi** - After The Phantom Menace trilogy. A combination of a previous nickname and the name of a character in the Star Wars movies.
* **Kylo Ben** - After The Force Awakens. A play on the name of the character Kylo Ren in the movie.
* **Ben Night Shyamalan** - After the M. Night Shyamylan miniseries. A play on the director's name.
* **Bense8** - After The Wachowskis miniseries. A play on Sense8, the Netflix television series.
* **Say Bennything...** - After the Cameron Crowe miniseries. A play on Say Anything..., the director's 1989 feature debut. The ellipsis is usually verbalized by Griffin as "dot, dot, dot". It was originally decided via fan vote on Twitter that Ben's nickname for this series was to be Benny Lane. However, during the Ben introduction on episode 79 Terminator 2: Judgment Day episode Griffin unilaterally changed it to one of the other options, Say Bennything...
* **Aliben$** - After the James Cameron mini-series. A play on Aliens, Cameron's 1986 sequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien. Is usually said on the podcast as "Alibens with a dollar sign" in reference to the famous story of Cameron pitching Aliens to 20th Century Fox by writing "Alien" on a whiteboard, then putting an "S" next to it indicating there will be more than one alien, and then drawing a line over the S turning it into a dollar sign indicating that the movie will be profitable.
* **War Hoz** - After the Steven Spielberg miniseries. A play on the title of the 2011 film War Horse.
* **Prodoer Bane** - After the Christopher Nolan miniseries. A play on both the character Bane from The Dark Knight Rises and Ben's other nickname "Prodoer Ben".
* **Ben-19: The Fennelmaker** - After the Katheryn Bigelow miniseries. A play on K-19: The Widowmaker, the 2001 submarine drama. There was initially a fan movement for the nickname to be "Osama Ben Hosley" in reference to Zero Dark Thirty, Bigelow's 2012 war drama about the hunt and assassination of terrorist Osama Bin Laden but after much protest from Ben, who understandably did not want to be associated with him, it was decided to discard any Osama-related nickname suggestions.
* **Robohoz** - After the Paul Verhoeven miniseries. A play on the movie and title character RoboCop, Verhoeven's 1987 sci-fi satire and prior nickname "The Hoz."
* **Benglish** - After the James L. Brooks miniseries. A play on the title of the 2004 movie Spanglish, which was a movie that Ben liked a great deal and compared to a Tom Waits song. This nickname was not arrived at until the middle of the next miniseries.
* **Mr. Bencredible** - After the Brad Bird miniseries. A play on the character Mr. Incredible from the movie The Incredibles and Incredibles 2. Somewhat unusually this nickname was inadvertently revealed during a standalone episode before the conclusion of the miniseries, due to the fractured recording schedule and the banking of months' worth of episodes in advance.
* **Eat Drink Ben Hosley** - After the Ang Lee miniseries. A play on the title of Lee's third feature film, Eat Drink Man Woman.
* **The Hozliday** - After the Nancy Meyers miniseries. A play on the title of Meyer's fourth solo directorial effort The Holiday.
* **BeetleVapeJuice** - After the Tim Burton miniseries. A play on Beetlejuice and Ben's documented love of vaping.
* **Public Benemies** - After the Michael Man miniseries. A play on the film Public Enemies.
* **Hausicaa of the Ditch of the Jersey -** After the Hayao Miyazaki miniseries. A play on Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and an homage to Ben's affinity for ditches and Jersey upbringing.
* **Stop Making Benz** - After the Jonathan Demme miniseries. A play on the film Stop Making Sense.
* **Ben: Pig is His Kitty** - After the George Miller miniseries. A play on Babe: Pig in the City and Ben's kitty Pig. Ben was originally given the nickname **Hoz: Pig in the City** but it was later amended in the Sympathy for Lady Vengeance episode.
* **Ben Hosley Met Sally...** - After the Nora Ephron miniseries. A play on When Harry Met Sally....
* **The Secret Life of Benz** - After the Gina Prince-Bythewood miniseries. A play on The Secret Life of Bees.
* **Ben to the Hosley Part III** - After the Robert Zemeckis miniseries. A play on Back to the Future Part III. Given as part of a spree of hastily decided nicknames to power through the backlog during The Moon Is...the Sun's Dream/Trio episode.
* **The Great Mouse Fart Detective** — After the Musker & Clements miniseries. A play on The Great Mouse Detective *and* his previous Fart Detective moniker.
* **The Hozbreak Kid** — After the Elaine May miniseries. A play on The Heartbreak Kid.
* **Benz n The Hoz** — After the John Singleton miniseries. A play on Boyz n the Hood, and the second consecutive nickname taking its inspiration from the same film that inspired the miniseries title.
* **Benscape From New Hoz** — After the John Carpenter miniseries. A play on Escape from New York.
* **Bronco Hosley** — After the Jane Campion miniseries. Coined by Richard Lawson, it's a play on the unseen yet enigmatic Character Bronco Henry in The Power of the Dog. In The Evil Dead episode, Griffin incorrectly remembers it as **Bronco Benny** which is idk fine? But not as strong as Bronco Hosley.
* **Hoz the Great and Powerful** — After the Sam Raimi miniseries. A play on the film (that doesn't exist) Oz the Great and Powerful. Revealed in the Sweet Charity episode, where Griffin advocated for Spider-Ben 3 Hosley in an homage to Ben's sweaty miniseries title suggestion, but it was immediately rejected.
* **All That Hozz** - After the Bob Fosse miniseries. A play on All That Jazz. This and the following five were assigned during the aforementioned nickname spree.
* **HOS-9000** - After the Stanley Kubrick miniseries. A play on HAL-9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
* **Bone Sound Daddy** - After the Henry Selick miniseries. A play on the line 'Nice work, Bone Daddy' from The Nightmare Before Christmas and a nod to Ben's production company Bone Sound Inc.
* **B2 Benspotting** - After the Danny Boyle miniseries. A play on T2 Trainspotting.
* **Scumbum Jr.** - After the Buster Keaton miniseries. A play on Sherlock Jr.
* **Sympathy for Mr. Bengeance** - After the Park Chan-wook miniseries. A play on Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.
* **Ben Mankiewicz**, or **Seᗺen** - After the David Fincher miniseries. The first is a play on Mank and also real-life Mank and TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, the second is a play on Se7en.

### Nicknames from Other Podcasts

* **Bad Boy Bully Ben** from The Flop House, Episode 375: Short Circuit 2 @ 0:24:25 after he described all scientists as lame nerds who do homework.

### Rejected Nicknames

Some nicknames have been proposed and rejected or for some reason didn't take. These include:

* **Produery Ben** - rejected in the Politics episode.
* **The Cutie** - given by Jen Aniston, as relayed in The Matrix episode, but was rejected by Griffin as not a nickname, just who he is.
* **Benny Lane** - the original rejected miniseries nickname. Following the Cameron Crowe miniseries, they had a poll on twitter to decide the new nickname. This was chosen, but rejected in favor of **Say Bennything...**
* **Standing Ben** - Rejected during the Bridge of Spies episode.
* ***Not* A Temperature Queen** - in the Following episode, he made fun of Griffin for being a temperature queen. That perfectly set up Griff for the nickname, which was immediately rejected.
* **Osama Ben Hosley (alt. Usama Ben Laden)** - I mean... sort of self-explanatory why it was rejected. Proposed during the Kathryn Bigelow miniseries.
* **Doctor Crunchy** - A parallel to **Professor Krispy**, this nickname was pre-abandoned in the Avatar episode.
* **Fun Ben** - Pitched in the Flesh + Blood episode, in a response to the abject unpleasantness of the film. He vowed to have more fun and to be kind to people.
* **The Peach Eater** - rejected during The Third Annual Blank Check Awards, referencing the much-lauded film of that year *Call Me by Your Name*.
* **Ben and Women Can't Be Friends** - suggested in the Nora Ephron miniseries, based on the premise of When Harry Met Sally… Rejected because obviously Ben and women *can* be friends.

## References

1. ↑ @blankcheckpod on Twitter: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIRTHDAY BENNY". Retrieved April 6, 2022.
2. ↑ @blankcheck (2021-12-13). This is @benhosley’s blessed ancestor - Father Michael McGivney.... Twitter. Retrieved on October 23, 2023.
3. ↑ u/pageus. In reference to Ben's mention.... Reddit. Retrieved on September 2, 2022. “In reference to Ben's mention of it in today's episode, here is the heads up display in MK11. It then switches to "Titles" with all his miniseries nicknames”