Please, Mitchell Hurwitz, Pack the ‘Arrested Development’ Movie With Jokes Only We Understand

From the big-time Arrested Development fans at E! and “Page Six� (who knew?) comes word that Jason Bateman and Jeffrey Tambor have been contacted, by either Mitchell Hurwitz or Ron Howard, about possibly appearing in an Arrested Development movie. One imagines such a film could be helped through development by former AD cast member Michael Cera’s prominence in Oscar-nominated moneymaker Juno (not to mention a certain critically acclaimed box-office smash that makes There Will Be Blood look like Meet the Spartans).

Could this exciting news just be the setup for a financially disastrous, casual-viewer-alienating excursion into a world of obscure tropes that can only be fully understood by those who’ve watched all three seasons of Arrested Development multiple times? Good God, we hope so! After the jump, our list of the ten inside jokes we hope most to see carried over in an Arrested Development film — presented, of course, without explanation.

10. “Spicy club sauce.�

9. “I don’t understand the question, and I won’t respond to it.� (Also in this category: “If I wanted something your thumb touched, I would have ordered the inside of your ear.�)

8. Risky/Don’t Buy/Triple Sell

7. “Has anyone in this family even seen a chicken?�

6. “But where did the lighter fluid come from?�

5. “I’m afraid he’s gone.� (“Why couldn’t he have said, ‘He escaped’ or ‘The room is empty’?�)

4. Private detective Gene Parmesan.

te>Man with balloons: “Uh, I’ve got some bad news. I’m … Gene Parmesan! How you doing?

Lucille: “AAAH! He got me again!�

Gene Parmesan: “But I did overhear that he’s bleeding internally.�

3. “Her?� (also: “Ann-Hog,� “Plant,� “Egg,� “Plain.�)

2. Tobias, homosexual.

te>Tobias Fünke as Mrs. Featherbottom: “O-kay, who’d like a banger in the mouth?�

[confused stares]

“Right, I forgot, here in the States, you call it a sausage in the mouth.�

Michael: “We just call it a sausage.�

1. Lessons.

te>Michael: “You mean you taught me a lesson not to teach lessons?�

George Sr.: “It was my last lesson.�

—Ben Mathis-Lilley

—Ben Mathis-Lilley

Earlier: Michael Cera Thinks the Best of Everyone, Even Mitch Hurwitz