Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The Office
Because I have become familiar with a couple of the actors, I have again tried to give The Office (UK) a fair shake, and once again I gave up after a few episodes of series One. The show is sometimes funny, but most of the time it's just painful to watch. Like, painfully, toe-curlingly embarrassing. Can somebody explain the appeal?
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21 comments:
For me the appeal is in the virtuosity. It is mainly Ricky Gervais' performance and his impeccable timing. But the timing in the show overall is flawless.
Gervais' lines and monologues are like Jeff Beck guitar solos. Fantastic control of tension, dynamics and ... timing.
Compared to U.S. TV comedy I find it more subtle and much more sophisticated. None of it is underlined - you need to figure it out yourself, and look for the "good bits" in smaller details. But once you get it, the effect is huge.
I tried to watch the U.S. version and didn't get it at all. None of that which makes the original version great (for me at least) was present.
However, I remember when The Office first aired here and I started watching the first episode, I was baffled too. At first I thought it was a serious document. But before the first episode was over it did hit me.
Watch Ricky Gervais' stand-up piece on creationism. Maybe the different setting helps you get in on his character.
Richy is very creative but for me does not equal Benny Hill.
great times
I can explain it easily: It's not funny. For one thing, it's not exactly realistic - no boss would ever be that clueless, that incompetent. The Office is many things, but subtle and sophisticated it is not.
I've only seen the American version, and my reaction is almost exactly the same as yours.
The show is well-made, but for me, it's torture to watch it. I seem to identify with the boss, played by Steve Carell. He tries so hard to be well-liked, and he fails miserably. I recognize all his faults in myself -- in a milder form, I hope.
"To see ourselves as others see us" is not a gift, I suspect, but a curse.
Anyone who thinks "no boss would be ... that incompetent" hasn't worked where I have. Really: I mean that literally. I find that the characters in "The Office," especially the authority figures, are actually MORE capable in the fictional version, than I generally experience in the real version.
But that doesn't mean I like watching the show. Sure, I "get" the joke. They're all idiots, they're all trapped with each other, they all have rabid insecurities that they foist onto one another. So what?
I can recognize some degree of accomplishment in the show(s) -- either the American or British versions, though I have to say that the British one seems to be mildly better drama, in the sense of a through-line to an episode.
But I just don't want to invite these annoying people into my living room. To the contrary, I find the annoying people on "Seinfeld" (for example) to be both innocuous and annoying -- people who can come into my life, make me laugh, and then disappear. They might (sometimes) teach me something, even, about my own foibles and discrepancies. The annoying people in "The Office" should just die now, and never come back. Please DON'T visit me.
I guess it's the pathetic fallacy. Like writing a novel which centers on a very very boring legal procedure, in which you run the serious risk of making your novel very very boring. In my opinion, Stephen Vizinczey made this very mistake in his second major work, "The Innocent Millionaire," which is the coming-of-age story of a socially isolated young man who gets fascinated with sunken treasure, finds a real ship in the Caribbean, and then experiences the lawyers and corrupt bureaucrats taking it all away from him. I "get" the story, the coming-of-age, the linking of moral and social edification, the tragedy. But I don't want to READ the damn bureaucratic legal discourse, the decisions handed down by the minor mid-level appeals court of some tin-pot island Commonwealth. "Heretofore adjudicated on this the fourteenth day of March, year of Our Lord ..." blah blah. That's not a good novel, is it?
I just watched Gervais' creationism video on YooToob. He is certainly funny, with that kind of "ok let me explain it to you (but I'm not really bright enough to do that)" which is a staple of British stand-up. I don't think he compares to Benny Hill -- though he seems to be of similar phenotype, at least in the face -- as much as, for example, to Eddie Izzard. Those two both use the "willful stupe" character to great effect, though Izzard's is a little less stupe and a little less willful to go along with it, than Gervais's.
I frankly can't imagine Gervais performing any role other than the one he already is playing: this very stand-up character, whether doing "explain the Bible" or "run an office." Each way, the joke's the same -- this guy doesn't get it but he's in charge anyway. And that, to me, is a very valid comment about the shape of modern workplaces and about the mental processes of modern creationists.
It seems to me that Ricky Gervais is not as bright as Eddie Izzard, but rather more... mean spirited. Another time I saw him, he knocked the Vicar of Dibley just for a joke. I like that show a lot more than The Office.
I agree about Seinfeld. It took me a long while to get used to that show, because of the unpleasant characters, but at I got used to it, because it at least is funny and entertaining.
I didn't find Gervais to be funny in "Night at the Museum" either. To me he's not a funny guy. It's a bit disheartening to hear that there are bosses out even less competent than Gervais' character (the American version isn't as bad; he at least appears to get some work done).
I, too, get the joke, I just don't think it's funny. A lot of people have this bizarre idea that anyone who doesn't like what they like must be an idiot. Somehow I don't think that a person needs to be a member of Mensa to understand a show like The Office.
As for Seinfeld, I loved it because of the unpleasant, self-obsessed characters, the same reason I love Curb Your Enthusiasm. They say and do shit that most of us (I hope) would not do, but occasionally want to. I read in an interview with Larry David he said that he finds his character liberating because he can say the things he usually can't say in real life.
I'm with you here Eolake, I just don't find "The Office" funny. I do find it embarrassing and tedious. And for the record I've known my share of all of the characters in the show. I obviously don't get the core joke at the centre of the whole premise of the programme. So, no, I can't enlighten you any further.
Eddie Izzard, on the other hand, makes my howl with laughter until my sides ache. It's the flights of fancy that his imagination takes you on from every day stuff. That little twist that says: yeah we're all basically daft, but so what? Sit back and enjoy the ride.
Yes, Izzard is amazing. Rampant flights of fancy, gotta love it.
OK, so some like the office, some don't. I was just afraid I was alone, seeing as how it's won awards and so on.
What Michael sez...
I haven't seen the US version, but I find in the UK version, though Brent may well desire to be well liked, he is not likable, not by a long shot.
Ricky Gervais on Letterman 2007-01-23
and 2007-05-16 (Comedy genious!)
Here's a clip from Rick Gervais' new show, Extras (OMG! Funniest man alive!)
Oh yeah, he was on Extras. I pretty much felt the same way about that show. It exercised my toe-curling muscles more than my abdominals.
genious => genius
Here he is on Comedy Connections.
Here's a full length version of the Comedy Connections show (the above link is for a shorter clip).
This is a BBC document about the show, The Office (U.K.) It discusses the show's appeal, among other things.
Document ==> documentary.
Not easy being green, or bilingual. :)
Ricky Gervais, unfunniest man alive! Unfunniest-->embarrassingly unfunniest
Anonymous said...
"no boss would ever be that clueless, that incompetent."
Believe me, it's VERY possible. Dilbert doesn't always exagerate things.
It's nice when you can laugh at it because it's a fiction for a change, and not your actual professional life.
Michael Burton said...
"To see ourselves as others see us" is not a gift, I suspect, but a curse.
It depends what you do with this... talent, for lack of a better word. You can use it as a tool to try and improve yourself. :-)
Final Identity said...
"But I just don't want to invite these annoying people into my living room."
This is precisely why I never even tried to watch ER. The trailers were enough for me to know I had lived that kind of stressful atmosphere quite enough in real life.
I bet very few Vietnam or Iraq veterans enjoy war movies...
"Another time I saw him, he knocked the Vicar of Dibley just for a joke."
I'd love people to knock me just for a joke. Provided the joke is good. Here at home we do that all the time. Of course, the joke is taken much more seriously than the knocking. "One should always have great respect for fun." ;-)
Heck, sometimes I'll make a second post with another name just because I've thought of a good joke that knocks me.
"I just don't think it's funny. A lot of people have this bizarre idea that anyone who doesn't like what they like must be an idiot."
Certainly not. Humour is a very personal thing, ane one can never amuse EVERYBODY. Why, I could tell you many long, boring stories...
But only if I receive unanimous request! Which I know won't happen. :-D
"Somehow I don't think that a person needs to be a member of Mensa to understand a show like The Office."
Yes, I've read your well-documented article in Scientific American on that topic, and I found your sociology theorems very solid. The Nobel committee still has to confirm it, but I do believe you are correct in your deductions.
As the Higgs Boson would say... if it existed, HA HA HA! Get it? "If it exists"?
Yes, I've read your well-documented article in Scientific American on that topic, and I found your sociology theorems very solid.
Thank you. I didn't think anyone read it, and I worked my ass off on it.
The uneasy thing about watching "The Office" is how much it reminds me of Brits. Just the way they are (nearly) always talking soto voce, making eye contact in non confrontational ways, and always gossiping about each other. It reminds me of college/uni and work in the UK. Frighteningly real.
I do find they've put the "worst" personalities together, but then, they are the ones who make themselves felt in reality too.
I was surprised the US one wasn't just an Americanization, but it looked like a clone of the UK one. Remember watching the American remake of "Max Headroom - 20 Minutes Into the Future" after seeing the UK original?
A similar show to "The Office" in the talking heads interview/fly on the wall mockumentary way, but far funnier is "Creature Comforts".
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