As the trial kicks off, the Guilty Guys throw the family for a loop. Lucille learns surprising news about Dusty. George-Michael plots a distraction.
Season finale pulls 44 jokes but lands below series average—character work carries the weight.
Directed by Troy Miller · Written by Hallie Cantor
WAR
38.7
Wins Above Replacement
“Saving For Arraignment Day” ranks #74 of 84 Arrested Development episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 76.5 — Great. The episode packs 44 scored jokes at 1.3 per minute, averaging 7.1 on craft and 6.6 on impact, with Lucille landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
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Top Jokes
Lucille: Mine's chained to a bench. So, in that sense, he's an overachiever.
Lucille Dark/Subversive Deadpan/Understatement Lucille Sr.: My God, when he was three years old, you still had him on a leash! I said, 'She's gonna make a murderer out of that one.'
Lucille Sr. Dark/Subversive Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Callback Gob: Mum's the word for 'severed human foot' in Chinese.
Guilty Guys: Your Honor, in the case of The State of California v. Buster Bluth, we'd like to enter a plea of... guilty.
Lucille: How rich is this sand hobo?
All Jokes — 44 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Lucille: A little more Magnum, PI, a little less Higgins.
Lucille Observational Character Comedy Lucille: Is that Stan Sitwell's eyebrow?
Lucille Visual Gag Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Lucille: Get that off your face, you horse's ass.
Lindsay: I mean, I'm just turning 14. And Michael is, too, because they're twins.
Lindsay Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Gob · Lucille Sr.: I'm Gob. Uh... Why did you name him that?
Lucille Sr.: Oh, please, you were never little. Your mother was never little.
Lucille: They didn't have one with a boy doing push-ups.
Lucille Sr.: Jack dumped me. He says he wants to start a clean slate on his 80th birthday.
Lucille Sr.: My God, when he was three years old, you still had him on a leash! I said, 'She's gonna make a murderer out of that one.'
Lucille Sr. Dark/Subversive Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Callback Lucille Sr.: Never too early to get Buster used to being in front of a judge.
CJ · George Sr. · Lucille: Actually, I'm Chuck's son. No. You're little CJ?
Buster: I'm growing dreads, Mother. Dreads right out of my head.
Buster Character Comedy Absurdist Lucille: Just because you have an African-American left hand, all of a sudden you're Ray Charles?
Lucille Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback Lucille: And I thought you Alibabaed one that was less... threatening.
Lucille Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy Narrator: The so-called Guilty Guys were a law firm whose record was so unblemished... they'd even been the subject of a reality show.
Narrator Irony/Sarcasm Meta/Self-Referential Narrator: The project, which was to show a single case over the span of a season... was abandoned early on by Netflix as not being binge-worthy.
Narrator Meta/Self-Referential Observational ★ Rewatch Barry: I'm gonna try and get a selfie with the G-Man.
Barry Character Comedy Observational George Sr.: They're going to be mildly displeased.
Narrator: George Michael felt bulldozed by the announcement.
Gob: Mum's the word for 'severed human foot' in Chinese.
Lucille: Mine's chained to a bench. So, in that sense, he's an overachiever.
Lucille Dark/Subversive Deadpan/Understatement Narrator: It was hard for anyone not to get caught up in the pageantry.
Guilty Guys: Your Honor, in the case of The State of California v. Buster Bluth, we'd like to enter a plea of... guilty.
Judge: Look at that. There is always a guy who wants to know what's going on. It's why I could never go to the movies with my father.
Judge Observational Character Comedy Barry: They've never technically won a case... but they've never lost a fee.
Barry Wordplay/Pun Observational Barry: she called for a mistrial
Barry Setup/Punchline Character Comedy George Sr.: I'm out of context again, aren't I?
George Michael: Oh, yeah. Yeah, we had to do some crazy vote-out thing where he... he forgot how voting worked. He voted for himself.
Maeby: You sound just like a slightly self-aware Aunt Lindsay.
Maeby Character Comedy Observational George Michael: Well, you sound just like a minimally-woke Uncle Michael.
Maeby · George Michael: But, hey, maybe you can get those dumb attorneys from that short Netflix show that's not on the air anymore. They canceled that?
George Michael: They canceled that?
Maeby: those dumb attorneys from that short Netflix show that's not on the air anymore
Maeby Meta/Self-Referential Callback Callback Dusty: Well, maybe, like, babies, but that's weird, because who likes babies?
Dusty Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Dusty: Right. That's why I chose the word 'weird.'
Dusty Deadpan/Understatement Awkward Silence Lucille 2 · Michael: It's Lucille Austero. I've been looking for you. I know you haven't forgotten...
Dusty: I just wasted an hour and a half working on an opening joke, till I realized that it's from Fast and Furious. It doesn't even work unless you're in a Camaro.
Dusty Observational Character Comedy Lucille: I... I'm talking about Buster.
Lucille Cringe/Discomfort Misdirection Dusty: I hate him! I hope he loses! I'm going to my fort!
Dusty Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Surfer: Hey! Locals only, brosef. Turista non grata, dude.
Surfer Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy George Sr.: Huh. That doesn't necessarily mean yours has to take the night off.
Staff member: Three guesses what she did to get on two.
Lucille: How rich is this sand hobo?
Tobias: You've taken all the fun out of the worst part of life.
Tobias Observational Deadpan/Understatement Top Episodes — Arrested Development
