Lead Blog Post on The Office
In my opinion The Office is the best comedy T.V show that has ever aired on T.V. Even though it started in the early 2000s, The Office has become even more popular recently. The Dunder Mifflin Paper company workers are being filmed by a crew everyday for a documentary and they interview the characters too. This is one of the aspects out of many that makes the show so unique.
The show mostly takes place in their office which probably isn’t that surprising. If you’ve never watched the show you’re probably thinking how boring it probably is, but you would be wrong. There is constant craziness happening in the office and it is anything but a typical workplace. One scene that helps describe this is the episode “Stress Relief” where Dwight starts a fire so everyone can follow the fire procedure he taught them. After a long time of no one noticing the smoke, the office turns into pure chaos, Stress Relief Episode.
The characters on the show are the best part. First, Michael Scott is the boss of the company, but we are left wondering how he even got to be manager. Michael is constantly cracking jokes that are just very cringy, and he acts like a child. This is why his character is pretty clearly an example of the superiority theory. We feel superior to Michael because we aren’t even the manager of a company and still act more mature than he is in our own lives. One example that truly makes us feel superior to Michael Scott is when he manages to drive into a lake, Michael Drives into Lake Clip. Michael is following a GPS and thinks it wants him to drive into a lake. Michael literally drives into the lake even after Dwight tells him the GPS is wrong. This is just a typical Michael Scott thing to do. The main reason we feel superior to Michael is because we feel so much smarter than him for knowing that we wouldn’t just drive into a lake and can follow simple GPS directions.
The superiority we feel to Michael does not essentially cause us to look down on him though, because we still love him as a character. This is how the superiority theory usually works with T.V show characters because we feel smarter than them, but we still love them and enjoy laughing at all their mistakes. The superiority theory may be seen as degrading towards people, but I feel that with T.V show characters this isn’t the case and sometimes makes us love the characters even more. You could probably easily classify a theory of humor for each character on The Office.
Something else interesting about the show is that it does contain some jokes that could be frowned on by people in today’s society. In a recent interview by Carell he explained that The Office probably couldn’t come back for a reboot because a lot of the jokes made on the show would be too controversial today. Michael Scott makes many inappropriate jokes, but that’s what makes him who he is. This could tie into the relief theory because the jokes he makes about Oscar being gay or “That’s what she said” poke at people’s emotions, but we find ourselves laughing at these jokes even more because we really aren’t supposed to. I do agree though that some people could not handle certain jokes on The Office today. If you are even considering starting The Office, I would definitely recommend it if you want a show that you find yourself laughing at the whole time.
The show mostly takes place in their office which probably isn’t that surprising. If you’ve never watched the show you’re probably thinking how boring it probably is, but you would be wrong. There is constant craziness happening in the office and it is anything but a typical workplace. One scene that helps describe this is the episode “Stress Relief” where Dwight starts a fire so everyone can follow the fire procedure he taught them. After a long time of no one noticing the smoke, the office turns into pure chaos, Stress Relief Episode.
The characters on the show are the best part. First, Michael Scott is the boss of the company, but we are left wondering how he even got to be manager. Michael is constantly cracking jokes that are just very cringy, and he acts like a child. This is why his character is pretty clearly an example of the superiority theory. We feel superior to Michael because we aren’t even the manager of a company and still act more mature than he is in our own lives. One example that truly makes us feel superior to Michael Scott is when he manages to drive into a lake, Michael Drives into Lake Clip. Michael is following a GPS and thinks it wants him to drive into a lake. Michael literally drives into the lake even after Dwight tells him the GPS is wrong. This is just a typical Michael Scott thing to do. The main reason we feel superior to Michael is because we feel so much smarter than him for knowing that we wouldn’t just drive into a lake and can follow simple GPS directions.
The superiority we feel to Michael does not essentially cause us to look down on him though, because we still love him as a character. This is how the superiority theory usually works with T.V show characters because we feel smarter than them, but we still love them and enjoy laughing at all their mistakes. The superiority theory may be seen as degrading towards people, but I feel that with T.V show characters this isn’t the case and sometimes makes us love the characters even more. You could probably easily classify a theory of humor for each character on The Office.
Something else interesting about the show is that it does contain some jokes that could be frowned on by people in today’s society. In a recent interview by Carell he explained that The Office probably couldn’t come back for a reboot because a lot of the jokes made on the show would be too controversial today. Michael Scott makes many inappropriate jokes, but that’s what makes him who he is. This could tie into the relief theory because the jokes he makes about Oscar being gay or “That’s what she said” poke at people’s emotions, but we find ourselves laughing at these jokes even more because we really aren’t supposed to. I do agree though that some people could not handle certain jokes on The Office today. If you are even considering starting The Office, I would definitely recommend it if you want a show that you find yourself laughing at the whole time.
I always say the office as making fun of typical bad bosses who make these sorts of inappropriate jokes. at the same time, it's also true that it is a comedy that both pokes fun at inappropriate work place behavior, as well as over sensitivity to this behavior. In that sense, you are right that even in the last ten years, we have shifted toward a moment where it is not nearly as acceptable to mock people for being sensitive to such behavior.
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