When George Michael is a rejected by a private school due to the family's reputation, Michael hires a publicist from his gym who he's been flirting with to change the public perspective of the Bluths. Meanwhile, Tobias is sent to Boston to reclaim his medical license.
Season 1's lowest-impact episode relies on cringe over density, underperforming its 59-joke setup.
Directed by Lee Shallat Chemel · Written by Courtney Lilly
WAR
46.9
Wins Above Replacement
“Public Relations” ranks #79 of 84 Arrested Development episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 75.1 — Great. The episode packs 59 scored jokes at 2.3 per minute, averaging 7.0 on craft and 6.5 on impact, with Michael landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
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Top Jokes
Gob · News anchor: And don't edit this for your broadcast so it looks like I'm screaming... 'I killed Earl Milford.' / Startling confession, tonight at 11:00.
Gob · Narrator: Although he was spectacularly quiet in there. / You can always tell a Milford man.
Gob · Narrator: Although he was spectacularly quiet in there. You can always tell a Milford man.
Jessie: So the two months on the bike, that was, what, for my health?
Jessie Setup/Punchline Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Callback Lucille: I don't understand the question, and I won't respond to it.
Lucille Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch All Jokes — 59 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Narrator · Woman: Milford School credo: children should be 'neither seen nor heard' - Woman.
Lucille: I don't understand the question, and I won't respond to it.
Lucille Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Lindsay: I'd like my old life back.
Lindsay Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Lucille: Everything I've said about you can be covered with makeup and a lie about a thyroid problem.
Lucille Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Klimpy's waitress: Sorry, Lindsay. There goes your dessert.
Narrator · Buster: Buster so excelled at being neither seen nor heard that he remained at the school undetected for a full two semesters after he was supposed to graduate.
Restaurant worker · Lucille: Is this your onion? / Yes. / What's in the foil? / Nothing. It's a ball of foil for my son.
Michael · Jessie: Race you to the top of the hill. / I'll race you to the top of the hill. / I brought a picnic lunch.
Michael: My relations are already a little too public.
Michael: She's a cutie. She's a little cutie pie. But I never really noticed.
Michael Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Gob · Lindsay · Lucille: I have a job. / Kiss ass. / Well, we were all thinking it.
Gob · Lucille: Kiss ass. Well, we were all thinking it.
Michael · George Michael · Michael: When did you get a job? / At the banana stand. / Oh! Duh. I thought you meant like a plumber or something.
Lindsay: Yeah. Who doesn't love the Jews?
Lindsay Dark/Subversive Irony/Sarcasm Lucille: Who doesn't love the Jews?
Lucille Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Tobias · Michael: Well, that certainly leaves me out. / She... She said single.
George Sr.: to the jackal as to an oxen. Did it get a laugh?
Lindsay: You know that he's only had sex with, like, four women, right?
Lindsay Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Tobias · Michael · Jessie · Tobias: I truly believe that the universe wants me to be an actor and not a doctor. I'm just waiting for a sign. / Here's your cash. / Universal Shuttle picks you up at 8:00. / Any sign, really.
George Sr.: Not wag our genitals at one another to make a point.
Narrator: You can always tell a Milford man.
Narrator Visual Gag Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Tobias: Why would anybody pay more than $12 to go to the airport?
Tobias Character Comedy Setup/Punchline Tobias · Carl Weathers: You are Carl Weathers, the actor. / I went to San Francisco to attend your stage fighting workshop. / But you never showed up. / I got bumped from that flight.
Tobias: You are Carl Weathers, the actor.
Tobias Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Carl Weathers: Hell, they'll give you $300 if you get bumped. It's this crazy loophole in the system that the wrong guy discovered.
Carl Weathers · Tobias · Carl Weathers: $1,100 is exactly what I charge for acting classes. / No, it isn't! / Yeah.
Carl Weathers · Tobias: $1,100 is exactly what I charge for acting classes. - No, it isn't! - Yeah.
Tobias: Universe, you've done it again.
Tobias Callback Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Callback Elderly person · Gob: A tomb? / Or box. Box is... fine.
Gob · Audience member: What? / He's gone.
Lindsay · Lindsay: Wow! This Cloudmir's making me think fuzzy. I have almost no judgment at all. / 'Only one with a real job.'
Michael · Jessie · Michael: A date? This is a date now? I thought this was just business. / Can't it be a little bit of both? / How will I know which part of it is business?
Michael: Show me business again.
George Michael: So when those guys kept saying, 'Hey, you, boy,' that was me? I was the boy?
George Michael · George Michael: Oh, yeah, I tried that earlier. I think it's still hooked up to the prison. / So when those guys kept saying, 'Hey, you, boy,' that was me? I was the boy?
George Michael · Maeby: You and I are so different. It's like we're not even related. / That'd be amazing.
Michael · George Michael: Bluth boys. / Bluth boys.
Jessie: So the two months on the bike, that was, what, for my health?
Jessie Setup/Punchline Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Callback Michael: No. I was just saying your name as you walked away. I didn't... I have no follow-up.
Michael Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Gob · Michael: Murder. - Who died? - My career.
Gob · Narrator: Although he was spectacularly quiet in there. / You can always tell a Milford man.
Gob · Narrator: Although he was spectacularly quiet in there. You can always tell a Milford man.
Tobias: I don't know if I'm cut out to be a... a De Niro... or a Regis or a Pinkett-Smith or what have you.
Tobias Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Tobias: I don't know if I'm cut out to be a... a De Niro or a Regis or a Pinkett-Smith or what have you.
Tobias Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Carl Weathers: Your wife works in a restaurant? Do they get a shift meal... or do they just pay half-price on select menu items?
Gob · News anchor: And don't edit this for your broadcast so it looks like I'm screaming... 'I killed Earl Milford.' / Startling confession, tonight at 11:00.
Earl Milford · Gob · Earl Milford: Don't send me back. They abuse us. It's not pleasant. / Earl, I have to take you back. It's the only way to clear my name. / You'll have a new name: Hero.
Earl Milford · Gob: Hero. / That could work for me.
Earl Milford · Gob: You'll have a new name: Hero. - Hero. - That could work for me.
Jessie: Daddy lost his shot at happy, and it's all your fault, Opie.
Jessie Character Comedy Dark/Subversive George Michael: She kind of reminds me of my mother.
Random man: You're married to Carl Weathers?
Carl Weathers: I buy all my cars at police auction.
Michael · Jessie: I don't need my son reading about us in the paper. / Oh, you and your son. Stop using him as an excuse for everything you do.
Lucille Physical/Slapstick Character Comedy George Michael: I didn't want to go to that school, and Jessie's a psycho.
George Michael · Michael · George Michael: Four women, that is kind of sad. / All right. Thank you. / I know you got married in college, but that was your sophomore year. You had your whole freshman year to...
Gob: He's resting, so... Oh.
Gob Visual Gag Dark/Subversive Gob: He's resting, so... Oh. Pick a card. Oh, boy.
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