Mandy Patinkin would like Ted Cruz, who quotes The Princess Bride more often than an awkward middle-schooler trying to pick up girls at his first dance, to please cut it out. In an interview with the New York Times, the man behind Inigo Montoya said that he’s tired of the presidential candidate and oversize-suit model misusing references to the classic film. “Since he quotes all the lines from The Princess Bride and certainly all of my character, Inigo Montoya’s, lines, I would like to know why he doesn’t quote my favorite line?†Patinkin said. That line? “I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it’s over, I don’t know what to do with the rest of my life.â€
Cruz likes to pull out his stable of Princess Bride impressions to build arguments about everything from health care to the Iraq War (excepting the whole “never get involved in a land war in Asia†point) and, second to his deeply awkward attempt at Billy Crystal, Cruz’s favorite impression is of Patinkin’s character. His fans have even made a popular meme of Cruz’s head superimposed on Montoya’s body. Patinkin would like that to stop, too: “They Photoshopped his face right over my face!†Pantikin told the Times. “I said, ‘How can I stop this?’’ If only there were a way to stop people from using memes, Mandy. The world would be truly be a better place.