What In The World Is Happening With Jeff Garlin’s Character On ‘The Goldbergs’ In This Scene?

Following Jeff Garlin‘s exit from The Goldbergs after a series of on-set misconduct allegations came to light, the producers addressed fan concerns by revealing that Garlin’s absence would be handled through creative use of his stand-in, previously unused footage, and a little bit of CGI wizardry. However, the production wanted to make it clear at the time that it would not use deep fake technology, but it does admit that it has dabbled with face-swapping in the past. Via Variety:

While there could be a number of options for the creative team to address the situation, Variety has learned that the plan for now is that Garlin will indeed appear in the rest of the season — by using off-camera dialogue pulled from earlier episodes and unused takes, as well as previously shot images of Garlin. There won’t be deep fake images, nor any face replacement: But Garlin will continue to appear in some form for now, which means the actor will continue to be paid, even though he technically won’t be working.

Now, that report was from December. Whether the production held firm on not using fake replacement is up for debate, because here’s a look at the final product posted by journalist Noel Murray, and it’s pretty bad.

“They should either cancel The Goldbergs or kill off Jeff Garlin’s character because the workarounds they’ve been using this season ain’t working,” Murray tweeted along with a scene that shows Garlin on the opposite side of the room with no other characters around him, horrifyingly inserted into shots like a wax statue, or just cut off from the shoulders up to hide the use of a stand-in. It’s… not great.

As the clip went viral, naturally, people had some thoughts about this unholy monstrosity:

(Via Noel Murray on Twitter)