Although he’d been around the acting world since 2005 and was already successful as a model when his breakout role in Step Up came around, Channing Tatum’s wicked dance moves, athletic body, and good looks made him and the film an instant hit. It was immediately apparent that a new star was born, and it wasn’t hard to see why.
His raunchy appeal among his many, mostly female fans, has always been especially pronounced since he has all the attributes necessary to be a male sex symbol. As his fame and allure grew, details soon emerged that he once used to work as a male stripper in his younger days, adding to his already seductive reputation as a great dancer.
Being a stripper certainly made sense given the combination of his physical prowess and slick dance skills. That tantalizing bit of information sparked the idea for him to make a film based on his experiences. That film gave rise to the Magic Mikefilm trilogy which unsurprisingly became a huge hit.
Mostly known for their appeal that features racy male stripper dance scenes and provocative themes, the films also built a story around their obvious kink. Apart from Mike Lane’s moves, he’s also known for his funny quips and raunchy lines. Here’s a look back at his best quotes across all three of the Magic Mike films.
10 “Why is easy: women, money, and a good time.”
The context of this line is easy to understand. It came when Mike was once asked why he chose stripping. His answer is typically slick and to the point, though also completely understandable. It also tends to expose a double standard society has had for a long time when it comes to the profession in general.
Since the rise of Chippendales in the late ’70s, the popularity of male stripping has grown exponentially, and it’s now become an acceptable profession for male dancers. However, while female strippers have been around a lot longer, in the past, it has often been viewed as a degrading or sleazy way to earn money when women did it. On the other hand, for men, as Mike’s answer proves, it’s still seen as a cool, win-win way to have a good time and earn money too.
9 “Good, because I do!”
This quote makes for one hilariously racy line once the context of it is known. The scene comes as Mike and a friend agree to do a private show for a college girl pledging for a sorority. Dressed as a cop, Mike begins his usual banter by role-playing a cop who’s checking on a complaint about loud noise and underage drinking.
He then asks a common question that cops often do when questioning suspects before an arrest; whether the person has anything sharp on her that he can stick himself with. When the client replies “No,” his response is, “Good, because I do!”
The line is a typically sleazy one, laced with the provocative humor that goes with the job and preempts the moment the show begins. The scene was from Magic Mike and the client’s name was Kim, one of the few memorable characters who returned for cameos in the third film, Magic Mike’s Last Dance.
8 “Nothing’s wrong with me because cookies are awesome.”
Channing Tatum’s slow drawling voice and the calm smoothness with which he often delivers lines in his films is one of the main reasons why X-Men fans were gutted when his Gambit movie never happened. That famously easy-going delivery of his is also why he can make even the most mundane lines funny, and why Channing Tatum movies often have hilarious moments.
In this scene from Magic Mike XXL, he and Zoe (Amber Heard) are having a chat about why she’s sitting alone and eating cake when “fireworks” are about to go off. That turns into some funny banter as she offers him a piece of it, and he refuses, saying he’s a “cookie guy.”
Zoe is shocked since it’s a red velvet cake, although Mike quips that he would prefer Oreos any day over it, to which she responds, “What is wrong with you?” Mike’s answer, with Tatum’s delivery, made the line a hilarious one that depicted how playfully funny he could often be.
7 “Oh, you don’t wanna know what I have to do for twenties.”
One of Mike’s funnier lines, this one was from when he tried to explain the stripper lifestyle to his love interest in the first film. It comes as she notes that there are a lot of one-dollar bills in his cash stash. He responds that there should be some fives in there as well, to which she asks, about twenties.
His answer is dripping with a suggestive tone that makes it that much funnier since it brings up obvious curiosity over some of the crazy requests he must have gotten from clients over the years. As the films depict, as much as Mike does see his dancing as a job, that job often comes with plenty of wild moments that can quickly get out of hand too.
6 “Welcome to the Crazy Club, kid.”
In the first film, the character Adam whom Mike takes under his wing into the world of male stripping became a fan favorite among the many dancers in the film. Adam also represented the dark side of the profession and its synonymity with partying, drugs, and a life of excess.
Adam later falls prey to all of these temptations as he immerses himself into this world and starts to lose himself in it in the process. However, long before that, he was just a naive kid when Mike first takes him to the now-famous Club Xquisite in the movie. His reaction when he sees just how raucous the place can get is priceless.
5 “You Bangy?”
Given the Magic Mike films’ main hook, it made sense that the characters were always going to have crude senses of humor too. Mike’s group of friends were all male strippers themselves and often epitomized this with their banter, and the way they all hung out like a troop of fraternity bros.
This kind of immature and funny manner in which they spoke to each other sometimes even extended to provocative conversations. This one came as Mike’s hilarious way of asking if Richie (Joe Manganiello) got lucky with a woman he was with. What makes it more interesting is that the line was reportedly improvised by Channing Tatum during the scene, but became one of his memorable catchphrases from it.
4 “You say jump, I say which bed.”
Magic Mike’s Last Dance saw Mike hook up with Max, a provocative character who lures him to London with an enticing proposition. While she initially pays him a huge sum for a single lap dance, she later also requests that he accompany her to London for a month to choreograph a special show for a production she’s overseeing at the theater she received from her divorce.
The pair share some very racy and steamy moments together. The film also notes that Mike is in his forties now and looking to permanently put his career as a dancer behind him. However, given his more mature outlook these days, it made sense to have a love interest that could match it this time.
In that sense, Salma Hayek provided the perfect provocateur for the part, since she’s also no stranger to having spent much of her career typecast as a sex symbol.
3 “That is your goal, you’ve gotta go in there and make her smile.”
In Magic Mike XXL, there’s a memorable scene after Mike joins up with some of his old friends and goes on a road trip with them. Most of them take MDMA on the trip and Mike suggests that they should think about improvising new routines. While the others are skeptical, he gives them a speech about being male entertainers and coerces Richie to do an improvised dance for the cashier lady at a store.
Challenging him to get in there and make her smile sets up one of the most memorable scenes in all the films. The cashier at first seems oblivious to Richie’s presence, then unimpressed, and shocked as he literally starts dancing shirtless in the storewhile the rest of the gang stand outside the window and cheer him on. The scene ends perfectly when the cashier, initially stony-faced, eventually gives in and cracks a smile at his performance.
2 “I don’t really f*** with vegetables.”
It’s no secret that Magic Mike’s personality in the film and his raunchiness extends far beyond his dancing and stripping. Often seen in his humor, generally in how much he cusses when he speaks, and the deliberately provocative things he says, his suggestive lines often make for the most memorable ones in the films.
In this scene from Magic Mike’s Last Dance, he and Max are eating together, and he begins picking the cucumbers off his sandwich — not really a controversial thing to do. However, Mike being Mike, says this line as he does it, underscoring the humorous side of the character once again, in the typically provocative style of the films.
1 “No one’s believed in me like your mom has.”
Shortly after meeting Max and hearing about her proposition in Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Mike meets her teenage daughter Zadie. Zadie is initially skeptical of him as she believes her mom is just going through another attempt to reinvent herself again. However, despite his raunchy past, Mike and Max begin to share a genuine connection as the film goes on. This line summed up the growing affection Mike begins to have for her.
Despite her initially seeming like a woman just trying to live out her fantasies, like Mike, there’s a lot more to her character than just smuttiness. The film acts as a final bow for Mike who has grown a lot as a character and a person across the three films, and through the last one, brings to a close what has been a hugely successful trilogy for Channing Tatum — though his ardent fans will likely hope it isn’t really the last Magic Mike film he’ll make.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
