EXCLUSIVE: Succession director reveals best ad-lib joke was cut for being too funny

The joke would've appeared in the first episode of the new, final season.

A few months back, we interviewed director Mark Mylod in the lead-up to the release of his Golden Globes-nominated dark comedy The Menu. At the time, he was hard at work directing episodes of Succession Season 4, and we couldn't not ask him about how that was going. When asked about the single-best moment of ad-libbing by the show's incredible cast, Mylod didn't want to reveal anything at the time, as (A) the joke in question was from an episode that hadn't come out yet, (B) the show was still being shot, and (C) he wasn't sure what was and wasn't going to end up in the final cut of each episode. But now the first episode of Succession's final season is upon us, and we reached out to Mylod to see if he could fill us in on those killer jokes. The director generously revealed two ad-libbed lines that he considers the funniest in the show's run; the first was unfortunately cut from the episode, but the close runner-up is still in place.

Succession's best joke was removed from final cut

So we had specifically asked Mylod what did he reckon was the best ever joke made up by the cast on the spot, and unsurprisingly, it was via Kieran Culkin, aka Roman Roy. Mylod told us the following: "My favourite Kieran ad-lib was when we were shooting the first episode of season four in LA. The location was a huge billionaire's house in Bel Air filled with various art works. In one corner was a 7ft Giacometti-style bronze sculpture like this one…" Mylod sent JOE this image for context, so keep an eye out for it during your (re)watch of that first episode of the fourth season: Mylod continues: "The three siblings are in a heated argument when Kieran out of nowhere says, 'OK, let's ask cousin Greg', referring to the 7ft figure. Part of the reason I loved it so much was that our camera operator Ethan [Borsuk] instantly understood the ad-lib and swung his camera over and landed perfectly on the sculpture for the perfect comic reveal. Tragically it was way too funny for the tone of the scene but I’m hoping it will surface in some DVD extras collection at some point." "[The runner-up] is in the same episode when the sibs are boarding a noisy jet as Kerry calls them. The scripted line was something about 'We'd be able to hear her better if she took Dad's cock out of her mouth', at the end of the conversation and just as they're boarding, Kieran goes 'OK you can pop it back in now'. That one did make the final cut." You can check out our full chat with Mylod for The Menu below (that movie is available to watch on Disney+ right now), while Succession Season 4 will continue to debut new episodes each Monday at 2am on Sky Atlantic, or you can stream them with a NOW Entertainment Membership.

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