Previously, On Arrested Development

NPR's guide to the running gags from the show.

Maeby

Maeby is terrible at math

Maeby might be Hollywood's third youngest movie executive, but math is not her strong suit.

  • Occurrence of a joke
  • Joke in the background
  • Foreshadowing
  • Combined joke

5 episodes feature this joke:

Season 1

  • 2: Top Banana

    Maeby doesn't quite understand how the process of stealing money from the banana stand should work.

  • 10: Pier Pressure

    Maeby gets a crocodile in math. This is widely reputed to be representative of poor performance.

  • 17: Altar Egos

    Maeby is paying George Michael to do her homework but has no idea how many $20s are in $200.

Season 4

  • 12: Senoritis

    Donnie Richter labels Maeby an "Algetard."

    Maeby can't tell if she got a 43 or a 34 on her algebra exam.

    The kids on the bus can't get the number of beers correct in "99 bottles of beer on the wall."

    Maeby estimates she's been faking death for an hour and a half; the narrator indicates it's been seven minutes.

  • 13: It Gets Better

    When George Michael is deciding to tutor Maeby in Algebra, her latest grade is reported as, "an Elvis Presley head."

    Maeby doesn't get George Michael's come-on line because she doesn't know what it means to "solve for x."

    George Michael: "I'm not 100 percent finished with it." Maeby: "How finished are you with it? 200 percent? 500 percent?

Sources: Joke data compiled by Adam Cole / NPR. Episode metadata from The TVDB via a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States (CC BY 3.0 US) license.