George Oscar "G.O.B." Bluth II

George Oscar "G.O.B." Bluth II is a fictional character on the television series Arrested Development. He is portrayed by Will Arnett. G.O.B. (usually written as "Gob", and is said like "Jobe") is the eldest Bluth son, and is an unsuccessful professional magician who is often used by his father George Bluth Sr. to undermine his brother's control of the family business.

Fictional biography

His name — derived from his initials, much like John Ellis "Jeb" Bush's — is pronounced like the biblical figure, Job (pronounced [ʤoʊb], rhymes with lobe). By trade he is a part-time magician, and was formerly a stripper, working as one of the "Hot Cops". G.O.B. is arrogant and self-centered, but much of the time this appears to hide his own insecurities which include how unintelligent he really is. Not without a sense of theatrics, he speaks in an intense, melodramatic tone, even in ordinary conversation. A womanizer, he is often involved in multiple relationships at a time. Despite being extremely self-assured, he often makes the realization too late that he has "made a huge mistake". He also has a tendency to carelessly blurt out information that he was supposed to have kept secret. Whenever he does this and the person he's speaking to repeats the statement as a question, he replies quickly and quietly with "I don't think so." Another peculiar idiosyncrasy of G.O.B. is his chicken dance, something he loves to do when taunting people, or calling them out for being scared. Unfortunately, his dance actually bears no resemblance to a real chicken. On a trip to Mexico, G.O.B. accidentally insults the locals, for whom the chicken dance is perceived as a grave insult. Furthermore, he is unable to deny having had sex with anyone that he has never had sex with, even when it would allow him to quickly and easily break off his marriage to a woman he married for a dare. George Sr. paid little attention to G.O.B. as a child and has no respect for him as an adult, leaving G.O.B. starved for affection (a fact George Sr. exploits to get G.O.B. to do what he wants). His mother openly hates him. He cares deeply for Michael, craving his younger brother's respect almost as much as his father's, but has an adversarial relationship with him because Michael gets all the attention and responsibility, especially in business. On several occasions, G.O.B. and Michael have realized that their rivalry has been nurtured by their father and mother's manipulations (leading to one conversation: G.O.B: "You don't hate me, mom hates me. You kinda like me." Michael: "Yeah I do kinda like you.") and vow to be better brothers to one another, but G.O.B.'s own self-centeredness often undermines his good intentions in this area (and most others). G.O.B. insists that his magic feats be referred to as "illusions", not "tricks," because as he says "a trick is something a whore does for money." (He occasionally forgets this, and calls them "tricks" anyway.) He is a founding member of the "Magicians' Alliance", a group that was formed to preserve magicians' secrets, but he was later blackballed by them for unwittingly revealing how one of his illusions was performed (on a local news broadcast). He once made the family's $700,000 yacht disappear (by sinking it) as part of a magic act during a spring break show. He is also the original creator and inspiration for the Mr. Bananagrabber character. Although he retains most of the rights to the character, he gave away the animation rights to Michael. It was later made into an animated TV series that became an infrequent background joke. He also briefly had a ventriloquist act with a stereotypical African-American doll named Franklin, who quickly became a character of his own throughout the series; they recorded a CD called Franklin Comes Alive, which had racist undertones that G.O.B. was completely unaware of. He is known for incorporating over-the-top theatrics into his magic shows, including pyrotechnics, dance routines, and wind machines. He plays Europe's "The Final Countdown" before almost all of his major illusions (such as making the family yacht disappear or escaping from a coffin). It is also his ring tone. (The song has become known within the Arrested Development fanbase as G.O.B's "theme.") He is frequently seen throughout the series getting around on a Segway which has a pouch that says "G.O.B." on it. In the second season he became president of the Bluth Company; however, it has been suggested that he wields no real power and that his brother Michael is still in charge. G.O.B. continuously tries to make this seem untrue by rejecting Michael's suggestions in front of employees or stockholders. G.O.B. claims in private that he just likes "having a title, and an office... and a paycheck." G.O.B. is known to be the womanizer of the Bluth family and is frequently sought by George Michael when he needs something his father will not give him. He also enjoys making love to women while having music sung by himself in the background. Eventually, G.O.B. discovers that he is the father of the teenage jock Steve Holt. Though at first he was afraid of this discovery and not willing to confront his son, G.O.B. soon comes to terms with his son and becomes prepared to take on the role of a father.

See also

• List of Arrested Development characters