Seasons one through three of “Arrested Development” were notorious for its recurring gags and references, and the same can certainly be said of the new fourth season. The show has overwhelmingly contributed to the 21st-century pop culture lexicon; the chicken dance, maritime law, and many more things will never have the same meaning again. A five-person team at NPR even put together an interactive webpage tracking every piece of humor from the series. New comedy elements were introduced in the new season, including the Bluths not knowing how to tip, the phrase “hot mess” being used as an insult, and a mysterious ostrich randomly appearing in Lucille’s apartment. However, the real joy lies in the retelling and reworking of old jokes. Tobias dropping his classic “How… are you?” line and George Sr. swearing about his missing socks (previously his missing Glisten) are just some of the many examples of this in season four.
Mark Sappenfield
Dear Reader,
About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:
“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”
If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.
But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.
The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.
We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”
If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.
