When you get beyond the cocktails and the costumes and the showy emotional breakdowns, what makes any given episode of Mad Men memorable is the dialogue. Matthew Weiner and his staff are particularly wonderful at crafting one-liners — funny quips, penetrating realizations, earth-shattering statements that cause time to stop and personalities to crumble. This season, we’ll be keeping track of which characters get each episode’s five best lines, assigning points to winners, and posting a cumulative leader board to determine Season 5’s pithiest mad man (or woman). The results of last night’s episode — in which we met a promising new contender, semi-stereotypical Jewish copywriter Michael Ginsberg — are after the jump.
1. Michael: That’s what they said about Mein Kampf: “The kid really has a voice.”
2. Teenage Rolling Stones fan (to Don): None of you want any of us to have a good time because you never did.
3. Roger: Baked beans and The Rolling Stones: a client’s idea if I ever saw one.
4. Megan (to Don, dressed in a business suit to meet The Rolling Stones): You’re so square you’ve got corners.
5. Roger: I want you to bring me a good-looking version of Don.
Season 5 scoreboard Michael Ginsberg: 5 Bobby Draper: 5 Roger Sterling: 4 Teenage Rolling Stones fan: 4 Stan Rizzo: 4 Megan Draper: 3 Civil rights protester: 3 Pete Campbell: 2