Arrested Development is an incredibly clever and witty show, but what makes its writing stand out all the more is how consistently the series knows when to indulge in physical comedy. A physical gag can go a long way, especially when handled with focus. The long-running chicken dance gag works so well because it’s a portal into the minds of the characters.
It’s also hilarious seeing how warped everyone’s perception of a chicken is. Everyone presumably has their own chicken dance, but not every member of the Bluth family gets to dance for the cameras before Season 5’s end. All the same, the chicken dances shown stand out as some of the funniest moments in Arrested Development. Of course, we couldn’t help but rank them.
Tobias
Tobias’ “dance” is hard to define. He doesn’t dance and the scene isn’t framed in the same way the others are, but it’s also a clear reference to the chicken dance so it might as well be his own version. If nothing else, all logic dictates he’d utter the same “pa-caw” in a traditional chicken dance.
Tobias’ chicken dance is a sad sight, really. Hair plugs leak blood onto his face while he’s crudely dressed up like a chicken inside of a cage. Pathetic as it may be, it’s a perfect encapsulation of Tobias’ life by the third season. If anyone was going to reveal their chicken dance in such a dismal state, it’s Tobias.
George Michael
A dance interrupted is no dance at all, but credit must be given where credit is due. Even though George Michael was in matador pants — material well known to be difficult to do the dance in— he still attempts it for P-Hound. If this isn’t true, genuine friendship, what is? Only George Michael would go this far for someone like P-Hound.
In general, the two George Michael-centric episodes in Season 4 are some of the revival’s highlights. George Michael is such a loaded and layered character as an adult. The fact he’s in matador pants speaks volumes to the man he ends up becoming in between seasons. Now if only he could have finished that dance…
Michael
Michael actually has two versions of the dance and they’re not exactly compatible with each other. His first dance was interrupted during the original series’ run, but he was also driving and wouldn’t have been able to do it properly. Lindsay presumably hasn’t heard his dance before, though, as she comments that it’s a surprisingly good impression when Michael screams.
His second dance shows up in Season 5’s final episode where he performs his dance for Lucille Bluth before falling down the stair car. His chicken noises are noticeably different and he actually does do the dance this time around. Did the writers forget that Michael already performed some of his dance in Season 3, or is this a case of them simply not caring and opting for something funnier?
Lucille
The ever-elegant matriarch of the Bluth family, Lucille’s chicken dance is methodical and soft, moving as if her limbs were being guided by the sea’s many tides. To see a woman so refined move with as much fluidity can be breathtaking for any viewer. That she performs it to mock Michael in a family chicken dance only asserts herself as the head Bluth.
But does mother truly know best? Lucille first performed her chicken dance drunk at at the company office. Lucille’s the kind of character who does what she wants regardless of setting, though. She has no filter. If that means doing the chicken dance drunk, so be it. A life without the freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want is no life at all.
Gob’s Dance
There’s no beating the OG, Coke Classic. Gob’s dance set the foundation for all future chicken dances to follow. His physicality transcended simple cluck-based humor into an art form that would only get funnier with time. With timed claps and aggressively strange kicking, Gob represents the chicken in its rawest, most primal form.
Foolishly, Buster tries to break Gob’s spirits by claiming that chickens don’t clap, as if such knowledge matters in the grand scheme of things. Gob creates a dance-like rhythm, one that begs fans to clap and kick along with him. In general, Will Arnett is a fantastic physical actor. Gob’s writing is stellar, but Arnett’s commitment elevates Gob to one of television’s all time greatest characters.
Lindsay
Lindsay’s chicken dance takes the physicality of Gob’s chicken dance and takes things to the absolute extreme. Her legs move so intensely and with so much fluidity, it’s as if she could kick herself through the TV if she wanted to. Lindsay’s hand on her head actually does do a decent attempt at resembling a chicken even if her kicks are far too intense to be realistic.
Portia de Rossi deserves just as much praise for Lindsay as Will Arnett does for Gob. Lindsay’s quality as a character declined rather sharply in Seasons 4 and 5, but she’s one of the funniest characters in the show’s original run. De Rossi brings so much nuance to Lindsay, where she can be believably sympathetic and cartoonishly vile. Her chicken dance captures that well.
George’s Dance
Daddy really does do it best. George Sr.’s dance feels like an amalgamation of Gob, Lindsay, and Lucille’s. It has Gob’s strange erratic movements, Lindsay’s long stretches, and Lucille’s rhythmic gracefulness. Paired with George Sr.’s subtly powerful “coo-coo-ca-chaw” and there’s nothing that quite competes.
It’s hard to find any faults with the first three seasons of Arrested Development. So rarely do sitcom fathers engage with their children in a way that’s humorous in and out of universe. The Bluths are certainly terrible people at their core, but their family dynamic goes beyond snobbery and resentment. There’s real love there. Why else would everyone have their own weird chicken dance?
