S01E03 - Articles of Incorporation

No: 3  |  Season: 1   Episode: 3  |  Air Date: 20-Apr-14  |  Ratings: 1.62

Summary

After they discover the Pied Piper name is already being used by a local irrigation company, Richard attempts to legally acquire the name. In their own attempt to resolve the problem, Jared, Dinesh and Gilfoyle brainstorm new names for the company, while Erlich decides to ingest hallucinogenic drugs and embark on a "vision quest" to discover new name possibilities. Meanwhile at Raviga, Peter Gregory becomes inexplicably obsessed with fast food and instructs his assistant to purchase one of each item on the Burger King menu. Surprisingly, after sampling the Burger King fare, he is able to make a remarkably shrewd business decision.

Director and Writers

Director: Tricia Brock
Written by: Matteo Borghese & Rob Turbovsky

Quotes

Richard: Since when do we have an intern program?
Erlich: We don't. And when Keith finds that out, it's going to be a very valuable business lesson for him.

Dinesh: You know who else is Canadian? Justin Bieber. The Hitler of music.
(later)
Jared: Hitler actually played the bassoon. So technically Hitler was the Hitler of music.

Jared: Hey, Dinesh. Dinesh. I'm on the phone with the bank and they say they need an extra form for your payroll, because of your visa?
Dinesh: Visa? What visa? I'm a fucking US citizen.
Jared: (on phone) I have Dinesh Chugtai here, and he's pretty irate because... Oh, I see. Bertram Gilfoyle is the foreign national. Citizen of Canada. Okay, thank you.
Dinesh: You're Canadian?
Gilfoyle: Your "borders" are merely a construct. I prefer to think of myself as a citizen of the world.
Jared: Do you mind just sending them the form so they know you're here legally?
Gilfoyle: Yes, I mind. And also I may not be. To wit, maybe you could make out my checks to cash? Or bitcoin.
Dinesh: I didn't know I was working with an illegal.
Gilfoyle: The irony.

Dinesh: Inferior products win out all the time.
Gilfoyle: Like Jesus over Satan.
Dinesh: I was going to say VHS over Beta.

Richard: We love the name Pied Piper. It's a classic fairy tale.
Jared: Well, I looked it up. It's about a predatory flautist who murders children in a cave.
Gilfoyle: It has all of that going for it, Richard, and I still hate it.

Jared: My name's only Jared because Gavin called me that on my first day. My real name is Donald.

Erlich: What is that atrocity? What are we, an Irish pornography company? I thought we were gonna replace the name "Pied Piper". I thought it was a Place Holder.
Dinesh: "PlaceHolder" would honestly be a better name than Pied Piper.

Gavin Belson: If we can make your audio and video files smaller, we can make cancer smaller. And hunger. And... AIDS.

Erlich: Richard, a name defines a company. It has to be something primal, something that you can scream out during intercourse. Like Aviato.
Dinesh: Uuuuber!
Gilfoyle: Gooooogle!
Dinesh: Huuuuuulu!
Richard: Exactly, right. (makes a sex pose) Pied Piper!
Erlich: I'm so sorry. Your voice doesn't really reach that register when you ejaculate, does it?
Richard: No, it's just, everyone was doing it, I was just chiming in.

Astraphile Manager: As we discussed, our North Carolina plant went sideways. So we need 15 million now or we'll have to shut down.
Peter Gregory: Have any of you ever eaten at "Burger King"?

Arnold: I'm thinking about getting in another line of work anyway. All these foreigners coming over here, putting pieces of shit like that (points at the server farm building) all over the good farmland around here. All so people can sit around, stare at their phones all day. Nobody jerks off to magazines any more.

Erlich: Where's Richard? Why isn't he in here for this?
Dinesh: I think he was out back, wishing he'd taken the ten million dollars.
Gilfoyle: No, I just saw him in his room, wishing he had taken the ten million dollars.

Dinesh: It looks like a guy sucking a dick, with another dick tucked behind his ear for later. Like a snack dick.

Dinesh: You know "smiler" is also something that guys call women's assholes.

Jared: What about, "Dwarfism 2.0"?
Gilfoyle: Where's "Dwarfism 1.0"?
Jared: Just in the world.
Dinesh: (sad) Oh.

Richard: (talking to Arnold on the phone) We had a handshake deal. And that may not mean a lot to you, but where I come from, that means a whole lot. Ok, you agreed to sell me that name for a thousand dollars. So let me ask you this? Are you an honest man or are you a goddamn liar? (pause) Ok. Yes, same address? Good, yeah, great. See you then.
Dinesh: Dude, that was fucking badass. What did he say?
Richard: He said he was gonna get in his truck, drive down here and beat the living shit out of me.
Dinesh: Why did you say that was your address? - Say any other address.

Jared: If you keep screaming your name, it forces the assailant to acknowledge you as a human.

Erlich: Sysbit Digital Solutions. Integrating open data spaces.Yeah. TechBitData Solution Systems. Creating unique cross platform technologies. Technologies. Technolo-Jesus. Oh, fuck!

Erlich: Infotrode Cloud-based, disruptive platforms. Disrupting the cloud through I said cloud twice, shit. Making the world a better place through cross-platform business facing cloud There's that shit! There's that cloud again! Info-trode, Info-trode!? What the fuck is Info-trode? What is that? It's all just fucking meaningless words! Ok. No, no, no Making the world a better place. Making the world a better place. Making the world a better place...

Peter: Is there cumin in this barbecue sauce?
Evan: I will definitely find out.

Gilfoyle: Dinesh wouldn't shut the hell up, so we finally went to the visa office. Took me five minutes.
Dinesh: Took me five years. They asked me about Al-Qaeda, like, 14 times. He literally got it while I was still looking for parking.

Erlich: Time is a sphere, and I have been reincarnated during the same time period in which I exist.

Music

"Stretch Your Face" by Tobacco (Opening title music)

"Hey Lover" by Blake Mills (End-credits music.)

Notes and Trivia

When the "Burger King" scenes were filmed the prop team had to make several trips to Burger King as the day went on, just so everything continued to look fresh. Apparently, the food dries out quickly, and then it doesn't look right.

When Peter Gregory decides he is going to invest in sesame seeds, the writers are likely making a reference to a real-world situation involving Bill Gates and peas.

Writer Dan O'Keefe had originally come up with the line about the logo looking like a guy "sucking a dick". However, it was Kumail Nanjiani who improvved the part about the "snack dick".

According to the DVD commentary, the Burger King plotline was based on a "very prominent Hollywood director" who had asked everyone if they'd ever eaten Burger King, and then had his assistant go out and buy one of each item on the menu.

According to the DVD commentary, when Richard and Erlich are speaking on the phone, Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) and Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) are actually playing a real game of "Call of Duty" in the background.

According to Mike Judge, the Burger King plotline was not a case of product placement.

To prepare for the scene where they are brainstorming names, production forced Zach Woods to write the entire list of names on the whiteboard in his own handwriting for continuity.

The writers got the idea of the characters repeatedly saying their names from "Silence of the Lambs", where the mother purposefully repeats her daughter's name in an attempt to humanize her in the eyes of the kidnapper.

When Erlich is brainstorming new names for the company he mentions "Infotrode". Many fans of Mike Judge's work have pointed out that this name is very similar to the name "Initrode", which was a rival company to "Initech", the company featured in the Mike Judge movie "Office Space".

Goofs

In this episode, Peter Gregory pretends he has never heard of Burger King before. However, in the first episode of the series he actually tells Richard, "Go work at Burger King.", when Richard met him on the street after Peter's TED Talk.

Locations

The establishing shot of the outside of the "Raviga" offices were taken at the Woodbury University School of Business, Burbank Campus, 7500 North Glenoaks Boulevard, Burbank, CA.

The "BevMo!" store where Richard purchases the margarita maker is actually located at 6520 Canoga Ave, Canoga Park, Los Angeles, CA 91303.

Cast

StarringThomas MiddleditchRichard Hendricks
StarringT.J. MillerErlich Bachman
StarringJosh BrenerNelson 'Big Head' Bighetti (credit only)
StarringMartin StarrBertram Gilfoyle
StarringKumail NanjianiDinesh Chugtai
StarringChristopher Evan WelchPeter Gregory
StarringAmanda CrewMonica Hall
StarringZach WoodsDonald 'Jared' Dunn
Co-StarringJuliocesar ChavezRogilio
Co-StarringDustyn GulledgeEvan
Co-StarringKaren JamesKelsey
Co-StarringJim LauDelivery Guy
Co-StarringAnil MargsahayamAstraphile Manager
Co-StarringJimmy O. YangJian Yang (as Jimmy Ouyang)
Guest StarringEugene CorderoJamie (BevMo! Sales Clerk)
Guest StarringAdam LustickAstraphile Manager
Guest StarringCasey SanderArnold Garris
WithMatt RossGavin Belson