All language subtitles for Why Arrested Development Was Even Smarter Than You Realize _ Michael Swaim_s Joke Math

Hey, brother!

Welcome to Joke Math, where I dissect
some of the funniest things of all time

until they aren't anymore.

It's kind of like revealing a magician's
trick.

Illusion, Michael.

Oh, sorry.

Revealing a magician's illusion.

The point is, the Alliance is not going
to be happy about this video.

Well, you're out. I'll be your host,
Michael.

And in case you didn't guess... Today
we're talking about Arrested

At the risk of offending my first love,
The Simpsons, A .D. might be the most

innovative sitcom written since we
switched from B .C. to... Oh hey!

I see what I did there. And you will
too!

as I break down 457 jokes and references
you probably missed and explain why

they're mathematically perfect.

And, in some cases, new types of jokes
I'm pretty sure didn't even exist

We'll talk comedy writing and medieval
professions and quantum computing. You

know, all the basics. And, yes, beads.

Beads? Beads.

Beads? Job's not on board. It's the
final countdown you'll ever need of

D analysis.

All right, Michael, you're up. Hi, it's
me again, the Honest Ads Guy, by which I

mean not Roger, but rather the creator
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which I'm sure is going to go over just
as well as New Coke.

Back to the thing.

In 2003, when Arrested Development
premiered, I was instantly hooked and

alone in the dorm common area all
freshman year to watch every episode

while everybody else was off humping. I
didn't have sex or drugs or pals.

What about business associates?

I had none.

I had arrested development.

I win.

The show is honestly a big reason I
chose to do this professionally.

I'm serious and I'm a professional.

That's fantastic.

And now to make this video.

I've stared at it so long, I'll probably
never laugh at it again.

Why must we destroy what we love? Just
to make my point, let's start with a

really wild one.

Then we'll do some more regular ones and
then ramp up to the most wild one at

the end, because the algorithm has
determined that's the structure of

like this.

Hey, you know the seven deadly sins?

Well, the blues aren't based around
those because that would be hacky, but

may just be based on the seven cardinal
virtues. The gallon to the sins goofus,

or goofus.

Each main character, except for one, and
we'll get to that, specifically and

consistently lacks one cardinal virtue
in particular.

Michael lacks humility.

Too proud?

What does this have to do with too
proud?

Actually, that part was kind of just for
you.

And Michael kicked himself for a pose he
thought would express humility to

Sanjeev. George Sr.

lacks charity, as we see him constantly
screwing people over with crooked

business deals.

That's what a comedy writer might call
his bag of tricks, or an asshole might

call his wheelhouse. Don't call it that.
I think ultimately it's because he's

afraid to express himself. Obviously the
whole cast are allowed to make other

jokes, but the central motor that drives
that character remains.

Lindsay lacks chastity. Not just in the
sense that she wears this shirt to

prison, but in her consistently falling
short of her own set moral goal with the

protests and whatnot.

And Lindsay discovered that the activism
that came out of her desire for

prettier hair really did boost her self
-esteem.

Hor! Job lacks temperance. That was a
freebie. Tobias lacks the patience

required to be either a doctor or an
actor, or even, as we'll get into later,

black American.

What? No time.

Lucia lacks kindness.

I don't care for Job.

While maybe lacks diligence.

always coasting through life. Hey,
maybe, maybe!

Okay,

so you can run faster than me, but you
can't make me work. And frankly, all of

them lack the ability to track any of
what I just said. Yes, we did it. We're

getting rid of the Ten Commandments.
Well, it's like the Ten Commandments

saying, you know, be true to thine own
self and to thine own self. Be true.

Savvy viewers may have noticed I skipped
someone, someone very key to the show.

Gene?

Just some idiot with balloons.

Oh, is it?

No, no. I mean George Michael Que Sera
Sera. Although he does develop into an

overtly sexual liar by the end of season
four, for most of A .D.'s runs, George

Michael is the Samwise. What I mean by
that is that the show presents Michael

the main character and the one keeping
them all together, yet his immediate

impulse every time the shit hits the
fan... is to bail and move to Arizona,

which in this and every case represents
hell. You guys have had your hands in

the company coffer for years, but
starting tomorrow, there is going to be

boss in town and you're all going to
have to start fending for yourselves.

You're all going to finally feel that
sweet sting of sweat in your eyes as

Buster. You can't do that on the
balcony, buddy. The true moral compass

show and the secret main character.

is George Michael.

You can tell because we genuinely care
what happens to him. And without him as

the glue, the family truly would fly
apart.

What the hell is going on with you
lately?

I wanted to watch Hindsight and you
weren't there. I want to pack up and

the family and you don't want to. Is it
this new girlfriend? No, it's because of

the family.

I like the family. I actually think the
true theme of the show is escaping a

toxic upbringing.

But the thing that it recognizes is it's
too late for Michael. It's the next

generation, the kids that still have a
chance.

This drives father and son further and
further apart until it climaxes in an

actual pop to the nose.

It's like we're identical.

Man, I swear I got chills the first time
I saw that scene.

Douche chill.

I can't believe they used that part.

So, like Sam to Michael's Frodo, George
Michael quietly carries the whole

fellowship on his back, which honestly
would make anyone slump when they

You're smart and beautiful and clicked
on my content, so you probably noticed

the Snoopy doghouse in the background
there, especially considering the title

the episode is Good Grief. But maybe you
didn't notice all the other Peanuts

connections throughout the series.

Lucille, which of course is Lucy Van
Pelt's full name, says good grief

constantly, just like in the middle of
her line. Look for it. Buster calls his

wiener his Linus. They even touched my
Charlie Brown. Plus, Buster Brown is a

famous name, and Charlie Brown's last
name is Brown.

I think. It's like the gang's all here.

Not Woodstock.

True. Not Woodstock. I'm just saying
someone on the AD team clearly loves

peanuts. In the same way I love Arrested
Development so much, I had these custom

prints made. Although I do keep them in
the room where I piss, so. I don't know.

I don't know what that means. I can't
imagine what that means. But we can

imagine a lot of stuff the names in the
show mean because the writers love

acronyms. That's when an author gives a
character a name that's a coded clue as

to their function in the story. Dickens
used to do it all the time. In his book

Hard Times, there's a teacher who helps
students grind so they can graduate

named Mr.

Grad Grind.

Similarly, in Arrested Development,
there's a character named Kitty who

literally represents pussy.

And no, I don't mean it in the friendly
British way. Fighting for your country.

You're such a pussy. Seriously, Kitty's
motivation in the show is to get sperm

inside of her so she can become
pregnant, and her favorite place to meet

Señor Tadpole. Come on!

George Sr.

was in Mexico with his escape accomplice
and ex -secretary, Kitty.

It must be my unconscious desire to have
a baby. If you need me, I will be at

Senior Tadpole's having a margarita made
in my mouth. You might have thought

Titty was meant to rhyme with Titty, and
that would have been reasonable.

Bring break!

Can we please have one conversation
that's not about my rack, Michael?

But it's definitely a pussy reference.

And that's not even mentioning that the
sperm cooler has Saddam H. on it

backwards, and that my rack line is a
stealth IRAC sound -alike. My rack,

Michael? Honestly, there's just too much
to touch on, so let's stick to names

for now. Maybe, may be a Bluth, but she
may not, and her alter ego is named

Shirley. Anne Veal was raised in a box.

Miss Barely is barely an ethics teacher.
I don't know, I mean, they just threw

this cloth at me after Mr. Daniels had a
stroke.

Cindy Light Balloon is part of a thing
that involves putting hidden microphones

in lights and her balloons.

How we doing?

We have video?

Testing, one, two.

Tobias' last name is Funke, the German
word for spark, so he's essentially Dr.

Sparkle. Oh, no, sorry, he gave up his
medical license, so I guess he's Mr.

Sparkle. Huh?

Mr. Sparkle! Mr. Sparkle!

Konnichiwa. Speaking of which, here's
the voice of Homer Simpson, Dan

Castellaneta, nailing his guest spot on
Arrested Development as Dr.

Stein, who ends up pulling several
Frankenstein -like surgeries.

Wasn't so inflamed.

Dough. I knew it. Rita!

Turned out to be Rita... that. Really?

What they were going for?

Okay, I guess I don't stand behind every
Arrested Development joke.

Go home, you terrorists!

How stupid do you have to be to say
something like that?

You're not wanted here!

No. No good.

But what is real good is the title
Arrested Development itself.

Not only does it obviously refer to
George Sr.

being a developer who's arrested, and
the thing I said before about how each

character who's not George Michael is
fundamentally stunted in one dimension

their humanity, but...

I'm pretty sure it's also a meta
reference to the sitcom structure

I had to help out your grandfather and
then I had to vow that I would never

your grandfather again. Pretty much a
normal day for me. The defining trait of

sitcom structure is that a bunch of wild
stuff happens and then everything snaps

back to normal at the end so we can do
it again next week. It's arrested

development. That's how thoughtful this
team is. I really believe that. That's

how smart these people are. That
doesn't... Make Arrested Development

objectively funny because that's not a
thing. But it does introduce a level of

information -rich complexity that
rewards close viewing in a way I didn't

experience on film again until the movie
Get Out. I love cracking codes and

seeing how that unlocks layers of jokes
that I never knew were there. Sometimes

I just like to think.

Take my thoughts.

That's my whole thing, too. Take the
kitty thing again, which makes this

line a perfect encapsulation of how his
destiny in the series is to always date

but never find lasting love.

Hey, Dad.

Are you sure you're going to be okay
without Kitty?

Don't you worry.

She'll turn up. I don't have time for a
relationship. This is important.

And because these writers do operate at
that level, I'm going to pitch one more

set of acronyms I think... are in there,
but I certainly can't prove it. These

two cops are named Taylor and Carter.

A tailor makes clothes, and a Carter
drives horses.

A clothes horse is something you use to
air out dirty laundry, which is the

cop's exact function in the show re
-Maggie Leiser's whole scheme.

I knew she was up to something.

She said she doesn't know who the father
is.

In a funny way, neither do we. We just
gave her a mixed cocktail.

Two parts tailor, two parts Carter. I
don't know.

I don't know. You be the judge.

My name is Judge.

Whose name is Judge? My name is... Okay.
That's a silly name. That's enough.

Judge. My name... Stop. I mean, amazing
bit. One of the best. But we have more

secret jokes to cover. I mean, should
the guy in the $85 outfit not cover

jokes so you can do a joke?

Should... Should... Should... Should...
Should... Should... Should... It

works with jobs.

Two, Buster is a cartographer because
he's so sheltered. Much like Linus, the

blue blanket of a map is his comfort,
and he'd rather imagine the outside

than actually experience it. Obviously
this blue part here is the land.

But names and jobs are just cool bells
and whistles.

Let's dive into why the show felt so
unique at the time and some of the joke

math innovations it made. If you don't
already know, it's loosely based on the

show Soap, a send -up of soap operas
that featured a gay guy living with his

mean mom and a brother who has a
ventriloquist act with a dummy whose

many shades darker than his own that one
musta - ask, is this racist?

Let me give that oatmeal some brown
sugar.

To which the answer is yes. But, you
gotta admit, the puzzle pieces are

strikingly similar.

Well, I thought we decided that was like
stealing.

Is that where we landed on that?

Soap stood out by genre bending at a
time that was rarely done.

And Arrested Development succeeds for
similar reasons.

In the early 2000s, The comedy landscape
was dominated by single -cam,

documentary -style improv like Judd
Apatow movies, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and

Office. The vibe at the time was that we
were all very excited to make sitcoms

feel real.

and like we were just a fly on the wall
watching people be casually funny. Gonna

take a nap. See you in 10 hours.

That was a natural reaction to the
sitcoms that came right before that,

which felt very play -like or farcical
and artificial in that sense.

Arrested Development hybridized those
two ideas to make something pretty

at the time, a weekly mockumentary.

It's shot like it's real, like all those
other shows, yet it constantly breaks

that reality to draw your attention to
the very fact that this is a made -up

show, which it knows you know it knows
you know. It reminds you that there are

no cameras allowed in my courtroom.

Somehow, Arrested Development can often
fashion a hilarious joke out of nothing

more than a character describing exactly
what's happening in the very moment

they're saying that line.

Some list of rules handed down to us
from on high. Watch your head.

47. Okay, there's still three whistles
left out there. Who's got the whistle?

He kept one.

There's a good example of this.

I'm hurting cats.

That's okay. It's more important to show
how we make the show than to actually

make it. What I'm calling you is a
television actor.

That joke works even if you don't know
who James Lipton is. But of course it

hits harder if you do, inviting you to
connect the show to as many neurons as

possible. An astounding number of celebs
appear as themselves.

Conan O 'Brien, Andy Richter, Judge
Reinhold, William Hung, Carl Weathers,

Alley, Ron Howard, Dave Attell, and
more.

And look! Sam Richardson!

I used to be in stuff with that guy. Not
anymore, though.

Not anymore.

Hey, you know what? Let's call him. You
what old Sam's up to.

Nope, nothing blocked. Straight to
voicemail. To cheer me up and get the

back on track, here are some of the meta
jokes in Arrested Development you might

have missed.

In couples counseling, Tobias and guest
star Bob Odenkirk perform roleplay

despite his wife being the one who
should obviously be doing that. In other

words, they put on a mister show.

Nellie Bluth was played by Jason
Bateman's real -life sister Justine

which makes all of their scenes
intentionally creepy and echoes the

Michael arc. That's the joke!

On the joke.

On the joke. And Michael felt a
connection like he'd never felt with

his family. But I might be your sister,
remember?

Well, she was.

Marry me.

It's weird on so many levels.

If you're my age, you probably noticed
when Henry Winkler did his classic

move from the Ron Howard starring show
Happy Days in the Mirror. But did you

notice when he literally jumped the
shark? Or, the hardest to catch of all,

fact that the character Fonzie was
replaced by the character Chachi on

Days in order to you younger with the
audience.

And Scott Baio, who plays Blah Blah
Blah, who replaces Barry as the family

lawyer, played Chachi.

I love it. I love Chachi. That's another
joke.

This is not the first time I've been
brought in to replace Barry Zuckerkorn.

think I can do for you everything he
did.

Plus, skew younger. The reason Michael
was in a Peter Pan musical isn't just

the Captain Hook -buster connection, but
also because he has Peter Pan syndrome,

defined by psychologists.

as never -grown adults who seem unable
to mature.

Ba -ba -ba -boom.

And speaking of Buster, you might
already know that in this shot, he's

recreating a famous Buster Keaton stunt.

But did you know that in this shot, he's
recreating a famous stunt by one of

Buster Keaton's contemporaries, Harold
Lloyd?

And... Just like Buster, Harold Lloyd
was holding on with a prosthetic hand

because he was actually missing his
right thumb and forefinger in real life.

Boom goes the reference mite.

Nerds rejoice.

Comedy nerds eat all your tasty treats.

Oh, isn't that nice? He took the time.
That sort of joke where what's happening

on screen literalizes a metaphor or a
saying is something...

I had encountered rarely, if at all,
before Arrested Development and found

thrilling. The living classic pageant
and Orange County tradition consists of

live representations of classic works of
art. The Bluth family has participated

not only as a patron, but as an integral
part of its most popular exhibit.

They're like puns, but with concepts or
images, like here's Tobias, who's been

presented as a black cat in this episode
so far, playing a game of cat and mouse

with what he thinks is a blind person
who's forced to navigate using her other

senses, like a bat, which she then
employs, reversing the game until

shows up with a dog. Later in court, he
even throws the book at her.

Objection! Why do you think the last
vestige of the Bluth Largest is a stair

car? It's because all these people have
left are uphill battles that lead

nowhere.

Some of them are crazy subtle. Take this
cut from George Michael's line to

George Sr.

in prison literally trying to clean up a
mess before it becomes a sentence.

What do you say?

Well, if I clean it up, it's not really
a sentence.

And so George Sr. made another call.

Kitty's on the loose. I need you to make
something disappear for me. But that's

not the joke format the show is most
famous for. That would be the long con.

Like Anyang.

Anyang. Anyang. Anyang. Anyang. There
are a lot of these.

Buster's claw hand was foreshadowed way
before his hand was bitten off by a

loose seal, which is the one that most
people noticed first.

My hand chair!

I had one in my room!

I wonder where that went.

It went right there. I never thought I'd
miss a hand so much. Even minor crimes

are punishable by brutally chopping off
the offender's hand.

No ring?

And then a seal bites off his hand.

There were some other pretty obvious
ones, too. They said my father was here.

Did they?

But even the obvious ones were paired
with supporting bits that were a lot

subtler, like the fact that both Oscar
and Buster have a tendency to drug their

respective Lucille.

I thought maybe you could help me get
some weed.

It's not for me. It's for Lucille, too,
my girlfriend. Mom is very stressed out,

and she needs something that I can't
give her.

Um, maybe a little afternoon delight.

In order to make those big reveals come
together so satisfyingly, the writers

did what we sometimes call laying pipe,
because comedy writers have no need for

sex euphemisms, as they don't have it.
Laying pipe is setting up an arc for

later, and there's a bunch of these
throughout that you may have missed,

particularly the ones that were never
paid off.

Sudden Valley eventually collapses into
a sinkhole is an easy one. You know,

Sudden Valley conjures up the image of a
sinkhole. Or you might have noticed all

the ostrich imagery swirling around
Lucille Ostero. But did you know the

she has vertigo in the first place is
because in real life, ostriches whirl

around like idiots when they want to
mate. And she's always horny for one of

blues boys.

Then there's the popular theory that
Tobias isn't actually gay, but black.

quietly and consider how ridiculous that
statement was. Not that those things

are mutually exclusive, but that makes
way for Job to be secretly gay and

overcompensating for it. Let's take the
Tobias piece first.

I don't suppose he'd be interested in
catering an affair with me.

Well, when you get a full guest list,
let me know. I am surprised, though,

she's going after somebody so similar to
my own type.

She's a regular Freddie Wilson, that
one. I don't know that reference.

No, I don't either.

It's this guy.

People hear the name Tobias, they think
big black guy.

Well, obviously, I'm not a big guy.

I'm not a Carl Weathers, for example.
No, he's not. But his season four rival,

Herbert Love, is.

And he's also bald with glasses, almost
like he's a reflection of the man inside

Tobias, who is also depicted as black on
the cover of his book with that title.

Here's a note he just signed.

T, which now that he's not a doctor,
would of course make him Mr.

T. Plus, how much funnier would it be if
it turned out he wasn't gay and just

was terrible at phrasing? Doesn't that
feel like the kind of subversion this

show might do? Maybe he just can't have
sex anymore because he's on Xanatab and

Temacil, which have strikingly similar
side effects.

Xanatab may cause dry mouth, hair loss,
an overly alert feeling, and in some

cases may diminish your sex drive.

Xanatab. Temacil.

Decrease your sex drive.

Honestly,

the idea that he can't orgasm due to
medication and that's what's undermining

his marriage to a highly sexual woman
and forcing him to hide his true self is

sort of woven into all his I sound so
gay lines too, like a secret code of

meaning underneath the original double
entendre. Might as well keep this makeup

on since it takes so long to get off.

It's a triple entendre, folks. Plus, If
Tobias was black, that would totally

explain why white power Bill hates him
so much. Of course, he's not just black.

Sometimes Tobias is black and blue.

And I don't mean his ego's bruised, but
that too.

I mean, this is a man with a penchant
for changing his skin color. Huh?

What?

Oh! Tobias also conflates being gay with
gender -bending and cross -dressing

over the course of the series, something
his analogous character in Soap was

accused of doing by the queer community.

I'm so glad you came. I was hoping for
more women. Although, whether that was

intentional satire or lazy 2000s
lampshading, hard to say. I honestly

there was a version of this joke pitched
where they eventually reveal that

Tobias is a trans black woman. Mr. F.

if you will. Tobias Funke, you're Mr.

F. He, she, what's the difference?

Oh, here, here. In the dark, it all
looks the same. And Tobias was having

first book reading. And for the ease of
the reader, I have changed all the

gender -related pronouns, he, she, to
the masculine he.

Speaking of conflating gender identity
and sexual orientation, I should

apologize for calling Job gay earlier,
when what I actually mean is I think

probably pan.

Both in the sexual sense and in the
sense that he's a naughty little goat

Job will have sex at anything.

And the natural climax of this game is
when he has sex with himself in season

four. But he's not comfortable with his
sexual feelings. Which is why Job is

constantly lying about having lots of
sex. And just generally wildly

overcompensating all the time. To the
point that he can't even have sex with

woman who plays his wife.

Amy Poehler, Will Arnett's real -life
wife.

When he's not trying to grab a banana,

get into a poof, or infiltrate the
gothic asshole.

Job is usually saying and doing stuff
like this.

I f***ed the business model.

Actually, they just made out. Yeah, she
had all kinds of orgasms. I better get

back to the wife.

Not a lot of complaints, if you know
what I mean.

Please, I'm from the girl.

And if you'll be so kind as to expose
your breasts.

No, no, no, no, no, no. You know, that
kitty is starting to sound pretty damn

sexy to me.

Maybe I thought I was Lindsay.

Anyway. Yeah. He's a man, Michael.

He needs a woman.

I had sex last night.

But he really didn't.

Believe it or

not, none of this, none of this is what
impresses me most about Arrested D's

writing. To explain the true leap
forward in joke math here, I have to

back to The Simpsons. The Simpsons
didn't invent subversion or undermining

long shot, but that show did raise the
craft to an art form. Nearly every

statement in the show is immediately
proven false or otherwise undermined by

next line or moment, to the point that
Marge can even make a joke about that

happening. This house is not an
embarrassment.

Usually when I say something like that,
something extremely embarrassing

happens. I'm going to say goodnight
before it does. Goodnight. In a world

that show is already dominant and
nailing that format of joke so hard that

shows are complaining about it on their
show, how can you write a truly

innovative joke? In the case of The
Simpsons, Something the creators have

about a lot is disjointing place.

A Simpsons plot is less structured than
a normal sitcom and reserves the right

to cut to any established character in
Springfield at any time. You can cut

right from Homer setting something up to
Professor Frank across town to deliver

the punchline. It makes Springfield feel
alive and effortlessly funny.

It's also way more achievable for an
animated show, where you don't have to

for every new location you secure.

So what's a live -action mockumentary to
do?

Well, Arrested Development also knows
how to do the classic undermine, often

bluntly as is joke mathematically
possible.

You're a good brother, Michael.

You're a horrible brother, Michael. Get
me out there.

I want you to stay in.

Nana wasn't on that yacht. She's fine.

She's been dead for six months. My dad
in no way is talking about business from

prison. Excuse me. Your father's calling
from prison. He wants to talk to you

about the land deal you made with his
brother.

What is better than hanging out with
family?

Yeah, it's my mother.

Okay, this is what I told Tobias you'd
do.

Say what you will about him. At least
he's happy for me.

Where are you off to on this glorious
Sunday afternoon?

She won't tell me. I'm going to audition
for a play.

A family?

Nothing else matters.

Michael! That's Mom. Hi.

No, Michael. He mailed the letter.
That's not the point.

Job had not mailed the letter. That is a
lie. A bald -faced lie.

Job was lying. But they also do the
opposite of undermining quite a bit,

someone exemplifies something so fully
that that makes us laugh. Lindsay's a

combative, entitled princess?

I should hire somebody to kick your ass
for that. That's right.

Duh. Nothing going on upstairs.

Michael. It just seems like every time
we want to be together, your father...

Hey, guys.

What's going on? Why is the banana stand
closed?

Man, it's almost like they turned The
Simpsons upside down. But where Arrested

Development really stands out is that it
disjoints time.

repeatedly and aggressively.

They also do so in a few different ways,
many of which we just covered. Because

we're dealing with time instead of
space, these jokes reward flexing your

skills instead of your observational
powers.

Most, if not all jokes, rely on setting
up a little surprise or info gap for

you. A left turn that you have to leap
over and make the connection yourself.

You want your audience to suddenly get
it.

and to have that feeling click in.

A joke is a puzzle in that way.

The feeling of figuring something out is
key to what makes human beings laugh.

It feels good when that stuff passes
across our brain desk.

And Arrested Development found ways to
hit joke brain pathways that I never

I had.

Meta jokes are one thing, which reward
your ability to view the material

two lenses at once.

The one where everyone's playing a part
and we suspend our disbelief.

and the one where you know that it's all
made up and they're actors with real

lives and involved in real situations
they can also joke about. Another are

those long cons and iterative callbacks,
which reward a long memory. The more

details of the show you can hold in your
head at once, the more lore, the harder

those reveals and turns are going to
hit. The last kind of joke I want to

at, and the one that most impresses me
to this day, is what I'm going to call a

mad fold -out.

At the risk of pissing off my crack
superiors. If you didn't know, here's

Simpsons again explaining what that is.

What kind of slime would I marry?

I don't understand.

It's one of those Mad Magazine fold
-ins.

Of course, in that version, you start
with one thing, then fold it in on

deleting information to create another.

Arrested Development does the opposite.

using editing to land one joke, then
unfold the time to reveal two jokes,

sometimes unfold that to reveal four
jokes.

It's so cool.

A very simple example would be the one
in the pilot, where Lindsay first makes

this joke. Good grief.

Not all homosexuals are flamboyant.

Oh my God, I have the exact same blouse.
It's a standard, normal joke.

But what makes A .D. unique is that we
revisit that scene again later with the

new understanding that Tobias is
literally on the boat she's looking at

a blouse he borrowed from her closet.

Good grief.

Not all homosexuals are flamboyant.

Oh my God, I have the exact same blouse.
It's like how Seinfeld episodes always

used to come together at the end. Or how
Frasier and other sitcom farces rely so

heavily on chance.

But instead of always moving forward in
time and relying simply on your ability

to keep the story in your head, memory
retention, Arrested D fold -out jokes

reward your ability to revise and
rewrite your memories. A whole other

skill entirely.

I can't fully get into it right now, but
if you know about how memories are

stored, you probably know that they're
less like tapes and more like stories

that we repeat to ourselves.

meaning changes can and do crop up over
time. Joe Blue had just been told by his

father to go to work for his younger
brother.

And then thanks for the birthday card
that I never got from you for the last

years.

Rewriting and revising memories is a
core human thing for the brain to learn

do. So by landing jokes that reward
specifically that action, Arrested

Development is to make you feel like
you're experiencing something fresh that

you haven't before.

You know, Dad, that attitude might be
why you're alone all the time. The way

treat people... What about you?

I didn't even hear from you for your
entire childhood. And then thanks for

birthday card that I never got from you
for the last 40 years. It's hard to

explain, but here's an example from
season four that's literally Job

something. Bad example.

If you were ashamed of being in love
with a man, then I might say something

like, homo much?

It's not that. I said bad example.

Bad example, if you were ashamed of
being in love with a man, suddenly

discovered these new feelings, something
that you only allowed to happen because

you thought he was gay, and you were
hoping to exact revenge, but then you

out he was straight, that you wanted to
get even.

So maybe you put a mask on someone and
then tried to convince yourself that the

sex you were about to have was with
yourself, but it turned out to be him,

all you ended up doing was proving that
your feelings were real.

Then I might say something like, homo
much?

It's not that.

I said bad example. That joke can only
work if you disjoint time using editing

and if the audience goes through the
action of revising their memory of the

first time they watched it through.
Plus, at the writing stage, those

edge pieces that we saw had to work as a
standalone sitcom joke, but then fold

out and work again as another joke.

That means a line that was a punchline
is now both a punchline and a setup to

the new punchline. When traditionally, a
sitcom line is only tasked with being a

setup, a punchline, or a topper
additional punchline that correlates to

initial setup. So they're creating these
little joke beats that serve two

traditional sitcom functions.

At once.

You take this home, throw it in a pot,
add some broth, a potato.

Baby, you got a stew going.

That's mind -blowing to me.

That's like how the whole reason quantum
computers are so powerful is that they

take advantage of superpositions. The
innate ability for very small things in

the universe to paradoxically be, or at
least potentially be, multiple things at

once. Watch my show Future Proof for
more on all that.

And although it does have weaknesses,
Season four of Arrested Development

definitely kept that superposition
quantum evolution going.

And I think it's pretty underrated for
that reason. Shout out Paul Rust.

Season five, I wouldn't know.

Didn't watch it. Never saw it.

Favorite show of all time?

Blew it off. I don't want these.

I wonder why it got canceled.

Hello, friend. Thanks for watching that
epic length video. It had my whole heart

in it. If it resonated with you, I'd
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