S03E01 - Founder Friendly

No: 19  |  Season: 3   Episode: 1  |  Air Date: 24-Apr-16  |  Ratings: 1.86

Summary

After being fired as CEO, Richard faces the decision to accept the diminished role of CTO, or leave Pied Piper altogether. A faithful Jared arranges other job opportunities for Richard, including a position with "Flutterbeam", however Richard is further disappointed when he finds out he would be programming a "Mustache" app. When Erlich meets the new CEO, "Action" Jack Barker, Barker impresses Erlich. Meanwhile, Dinesh and Gilfoyle weigh their options, whether to be faithful to Richard or to go out on their own. At Hooli, Gavin Belson admits failure by firing the entire Nucleus Division, and then arranges to give BigHead a $20 million payout to ensure his confidentiality about Hooli business matters.

Director and Writers

Director: Mike Judge
Written by: Dan O'Keefe

Quotes

Erlich: Jared, clear this. Get all the smoke out of it. Otherwise, it damages the device.
Jared: Umm...
Erlich: Don't be a pussy.

Richard: Did I just hit a deer?
Erlich: No, goddamn it! Fucking Stanford Robotics.

Stanford Student: They killed the Bam-bot.
Erlich: Fuck your Bam-bot!

Erlich: At least the actual Judas had the courtesy to kill himself after betraying his leader, Jesus Christ. He's the CEO of the world. Ever heard of him?
Monica: Got it. Went to Catholic school.
Erlich: Really? How long?

Jared: Looks like he started a foundation in his mother's name to cure cancer.
Erlich: Yeah, how's that going?
Richard: Yeah. I bet his mother's dead.

Erlich: Monica, excuse how high I am, but are the uniforms in Catholic schools as low-cut as they are online?
Monica: Fuck off.

Gavin Belson: Failure is growth. Failure is learning. But sometimes failure is just failure. I think... I'm sorry. I didn't think it would be this hard. But goodbyes are always hard, especially when I am the one saying goodbye. Today, effective immediately, I, Gavin Belson, founder and CEO of Hooli, am forced to officially say goodbye to the entire Nucleus division. All Nucleus personnel will be given proper notice and terminated. But make no mistake. Though they're the ones leaving, it is I who must remain and bear the heavy burden of their failure.

Big Head: Uh... Denpok? Can I have your Big Gulp?

Gilfoyle: What if we use like a dictionary patch? To compress all the nice-guy stuff.
Dinesh: Like an acronym.
Gilfoyle: Exactly. "Richard is great, but you know"... R-I-G-B-Y.
Dinesh: Rigby.
Gilfoyle: Rigby is all the nice-guy stuff.

Richard: Some of these companies are pretty good. Flutterbeam's like really good.
Jared: Of course it is. They all are. You're the belle of the ball, and these are all your swains, hoping for a glimpse of ankle.

(Enters the Raviga offices)
Erlich: Ah. The nest wherein the asp doth coil.

Erlich: I just spent the last 16 hours cherry-picking Friars Roasts for the premium old-man jokes. Essentially, I'm going to beat him to death with his own titanium hips. Not just for me, but for Richard.

Erlich: Jack Barker, aka Action Jack. We meet at last. Erlich Bachman.
Jack Barker: Mr. Bachman. Pleasure to finally meet you. I'm a big fan.
Erlich: Oh, really? Of what? Metamucil? Polio? The phonograph? A nice piece of fish? Segregated water fountains? Senior citizen discounts at Perkins Family restaurants? Erectile dysfunction because of corroded penile arteries? Deviled eggs as an entree? Liking Ike?
Jack Barker: No. None of those, Mr. Bachman. I am a fan of yours. Have been ever since you were at the helm of Aviato.
Erlich: You know Aviato?
Jack Barker: Yes. Aviato.
Erlich: My Aviato?
Jack Barker: Is there any other Aviato?
Erlich: Well, legally, there cannot be.

Erlich: Is that a poppy seed muffin?
Jack Barker: Yes, sir.
Erlich: Well, Poppy wants one 'cause Mommy already got hers.

Gavin Belson: You know, our annual individual performance reviews showed a 20 percent incidence of sub-standard work. So essentially, one out of every five Hooli team members deserve to be fired.

Jared: Well, your pumpedness makes me pumped.

Erlich: This guy is real, okay, Richard? With his managerial skills and your talent as an engineer, we could be talking about the D-word here.
Richard: Dick?
Erlich: No. Decacorn. A company that's valued over $10 billion before its initial public offering.

Erlich: Richard, I'm not asking you to spoon with the guy or even fork him. What I'm asking for...
Jared: What is that?
Erlich: Forking is when you use your dick and your two legs to stab him in the lower torso.

Gilfoyle: Well, we are now living in a post-Rigby world.

Flutterbeam Founder: We're using a crappy plug-in, so the latency is bad. You turn too fast, that mustache is on your ear. But with your help, we think we can cut our 'stache lag to just... 20 milliseconds motion-to-photon in... nine months? Just in time for Movember.

Pete Monahan: It began as a innocent celebration of our arbitration victory. I ordered a kombucha, which I did not realize contained alcohol. It was described to me as a healthy, organic tea. Next thing I knew, I was 70 miles away, wrapped naked in a blanket, shaking off a meth high, and facing charges for attacking a police horse with a shovel.

Pete Monahan: Okay. I would red-line it, but... I'm not allowed to have a pencil.

Pete Monahan: Mustaches?
Richard: Yes. Doesn't necessarily have to stop at people. They can put mustaches on their pets, too. It's actually pretty fun.
Pete Monahan: So, soon you'll be putting mustaches on cats and dogs and... snakes.
Richard: Snakes, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a little tricky because they don't have a philtrum, so finding an anchor point for that mustache is actually... gonna be quite of a technological challenge.

Hooli HR Guy: You will not discuss anything you did at Hooli at all, in perpetuity, throughout the universe.
Big Head: I didn't really do anything at Hooli, so...
Hooli HR Guy: Good. You're getting the hang of it already.

Music

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

"Nobody Speak" by DJ Shadow (feat. Run The Jewels) (End-credits music.)

Notes and Trivia

RIGBY stands for "Richard is great, but y'know".

Ficitious "Action" Jack Barker actually has a web site: http://coderag-dev.weareglow.com/looking-back-at-action-jack/

The code Gilfolyle and Dinesh have up on the screen is a real program. When compiled it outputs the text "DREAM_ON_ASSHOLES".

Changes to the title animation for this episode were the addition of car service Lyft, Alphabet now hovers atop the Google logo, Amazon drones can be seen flying overhead making deliveries, car company Tesla was added and Soylent trucks can be seen moving through the city.

Each of the mustache variants had a corresponding sound effect:
Tom Selleck - "Aloha"
Fu Manchu - A gong
John Waters - ??
Alex Trebek - "What is a mustache"
Hitler - "Achtung"
Sam Elliot - "Howdy"

Although Jimmy O. Yang (Jian Yang) is credited for this episode, he did not appear.

The writer of this episode, Dan O'Keefe, was nominated for an Emmy award for "Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series".

The director of this episode, Mike Judge, was nominated for an Emmy award for "Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series".

Goofs

None

Locations

None

Cast

StarringThomas MiddleditchRichard Hendricks
StarringT.J. MillerErlich Bachman
StarringJosh BrenerNelson 'Big Head' Bighetti
StarringMartin StarrBertram Gilfoyle
StarringKumail NanjianiDinesh Chugtai
StarringAmanda CrewMonica Hall
StarringZach WoodsJared Dunn
StarringMatt RossGavin Belson
StarringSuzanne CryerLaurie Bream
StarringJimmy O. YangJian Yang
Guest StarringJill AlexanderPatrice
Guest StarringAly MawjiNaveen Dutt
Guest StarringScott PrendergastScott
Guest StarringRogelio RamosRogelio Ramos
Guest StarringBrian TichnellJason
Guest StarringBen FeldmanRon LaFlamme
Guest StarringMatt McCoyPete Monahan
Guest StarringGabriel TigermanGary Irving
Guest StarringStephen TobolowskyJack Barker
Guest StarringBernard WhiteDenpok (Spiritual Advisor)
Co-StarringEmily ChangHerself (Bloomberg Reporter)
Co-StarringWillis ChungStanford Robotics Student
Co-StarringCate CohenMelinda
Co-StarringDustyn GulledgeEvan
Co-StarringArthur KengAlan
Co-StarringMariano MendozaPrison Guard
Co-StarringCasey O'FarrellPete
Co-StarringDiallo RiddlePaul
Co-StarringSkyler SeymourFlutterbeam Founder #1
Co-StarringAlex SkinnerFlutterbeam Founder #2
Co-StarringDavid StorchHooli Lawyer
Co-StarringBrad StoneHimself (Bloomberg Reporter)