Ben Hosley

Ben Hosley (@benhosley on Twitter) 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.

Fans of Ben may sometimes 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.

Music

He hosts a vaporwave based online radio show on kpiss.fm called ＶＡＰＯＲ on Tuesdays at 10PM EST. In 2020 he released a vaporwave holiday compilation album called untitled slow christmas compilation volume 1. He released a follow up in 2021 called Slow Xmas. His production company is called Bone Sound, Inc. and their slogan is simply "KLONK!"

Fashion

Ben has a fashion line called Congratulations. He has also experimented with burying jeans.

Nicknames

Ben is known for having a variety of nicknames mostly given to him by co-host Griffin Newman.

These include:

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.
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.
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

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.
BeetleVapeJuice - After the Tim Burton miniseries. A play on Beetlejuice and Ben's documented love of vaping.
The Hozliday - After the Nancy Meyers miniseries. A play on the title of Meyer's fourth solo directorial effort The Holiday.
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.
Stop Making Benz - After the Jonathan Demme miniseries. A play on the film Stop Making Sense.
Hoz: Pig in the City - After the George Miller miniseries. A play on Babe: Pig in the City.
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.
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 (open to punch up) — 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.

Rejected Nicknames

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

Not A Temperature Queen, Osama Ben Hosley (alt. Usama Ben Laden), Benny Lane, Produery Ben, Doctor Crunchy, Fun Ben, the Peach Eater, Ben and Women Can't Be Friends