Harold Ramis’s mobster comedy sequel Analyze That (2002) leaned heavily into the hilarious comic friction between Robert De Niro’s volatile mob boss Paul Vitti and Billy Crystal’s exasperated psychiatrist Ben Sobel. Having built a multi-decade Hollywood legacy on icy, intimidating intensity in classics like Taxi Driver and Goodfellas, De Niro facing off against Crystal’s rapid-fire improvisational comedy was always a recipe for chaos. During the prison evaluation scene—where an incarcerated Vitti pretends to be completely catatonic and Sobel tests if he’s faking the breakdown—Crystal began relentlessly flicking his fingers and waving his hands just millimeters from De Niro’s eyes. De Niro held on with heroic concentration, maintaining a dead-eyed stare through several passes before a tiny cheek poke broke his resolve, causing the legendary method actor to burst into an uncontrollable grin and ruin the take.
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