Green Day decided to have a little fun with their acceptance speech at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, using the time on stage to paraphrase and reference a speech from the 1997 film “Boogie Nights.”
The band, which won for alternative artist of the year, got up on stage to accept the award, with band leader Billie Joe Armstrong taking the podium alongside Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt.
“Wow. I don’t know what to say,” said Armstrong as his band mates stifled laughs behind him. “I guess the only thing I can say is, I’ll keep rocking and rolling to keep making music and better songs. You know it seems we make these records and sometimes they’re considered filthy by some people. But I don’t think that’s true. This music we make can make people feel better. They can help, they really can, and I really believe that. So we can always do better, so I’m going to keep trying if you guys keep trying. Let’s keep rocking and rolling.”
For those who didn’t pick up on it, the speech was a tweaked version of Mark Wahlberg’s dialogue from “Boogie Nights,” when his character Dirk Diggler accepts one of his various accolades at an adult award show. Like Armstrong, he began his speech with “Wow, I don’t know what to say.” From there, it was a relatively allegiant beat-for-beat interpretation of the speech.
And if it truly went over heads, Green Day posted a side-by-side of their speech with its source of inspiration. Watch the clip below: