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Bluth Family Chicken Dance
Every cult favorite show or movie has almost by definition an active online fan community, and Arrested Development, which returns this weekend for a fourth season on Netflix, is no exception. Although its third season ended way back in 2006, there are still folks eagerly GIF-ing their favorite best moments, memeing the best catch-phrases, and mashing up the show with everything from Breaking Bad to Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby. And for good reason: the Bluths are internet gold.
Why? Well, for one Arrested Development is packed full of dry, ironic one-liners--the nature tongue of the internet. Thanks to the biting jokes of creator Mitchell Hurwitz and his team (see: Lucille Bluth's "What's Spanish for 'I know you speak English'?") and characters are as colorful as any Scumbag Steve or Good Guy Greg, the memes and fan art pretty much make themselves.
The Tumblr mashups are diverse, combining the images and dialogue of the Bluths with everything from Mad Men to 2011's Thor to Downton Abbey. One of our favorites is Arrested Westeros, which combines quotes from Arrested Development with images from Game of Thrones and even received Twitter praise from Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz.
The show has also inspired its own dedicated memes like Success Steve Holt, which uses the image of Gob Bluth's long-lost and overly self-confident son Steve Holt to relay excitement over just about anything (see this video for context), and – as Hummel mentioned – the catchphrase "I have made a huge mistake," which was uttered multiple times throughout the series' initial run from 2003 to 2006 on Fox.
The show inspired non-internet art as well--so much of it that Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles held an exhibit last year dedicated to artist's representations of classic Bluth moments. (See artist Ian Glaubinger's Bluth Family Chicken Dance from the exhibit above.) Development lends itself to artistic interpretation, show curator Jensen Karp said, because it is "one of those rare occasions when a sitcom didn't talk down to them" – something that made the show an artistic achievement in its own right.
"When it came time to tribute it, it wasn't difficult to create art that's based on art itself," Karp said in an email to Wired. "The characters are so bright and vibrant, artists were foaming at the mouth to create portraits."
With 15 new episodes on the way via Netflix there's likely to be a whole new crop of quotable lines, dances (chicken or otherwise), and Gob Bluth GIFs are on the way. Karp said Gallery 1988 would be open to another show if artists keep making interpretations and Hummel is ready to whip up more memes. However, the Netflix all-you-can-eat model and Hurwitz' plan to have a season that can be watched in any order does create some issues in the always-on blog world.
"I'm tentatively thinking I'm going to take it one week at a time, rather like how the A.V. Club reviewed House of Cards – that gives people some time to get familiar with the new season of AD without dumping it all on them at once," Hummel said. "Of course, I may lose all willpower on the 26th, so there's that..."
While we wait for the next batch of LOLs to arrive, here's a handy guide to all of the great fan art, memes, and other creations that the first three seasons brought.
Above image courtesy Gallery 1988
