Does anybody watch “The Office” with Steve Carrell as Michael, the wildly inappropriate, totally insensitive boss who thinks he’s nothing but always appropriate and always sensitive? I just started getting into this show. And I know there’s the original British version, but I’ve never seen it and I kind of want to, but then I don’t, because how can I like them BOTH? Is that even possible? Wouldn’t I love one and hate the other?? Would it be …. cheating on the one with the other?? I don’t know! Oh, the dilemma!
The rhythms on the show are so … odd. There’s no laugh track and characters talk to the camera and the tension of the employees is in itself a character on the show. The horror is that Michael has no idea he’s horrible but everyone else does, of course. You wouldn’t think the tension would be funny, but it IS. And Steve Carrell is just brilliant — just won the Golden Globe.
Some snippets from tonight’s show. I wrote these out mostly so I’ll remember the moment. I don’t know if they’ll be funny to you at ALL; the humor is so much in the face and the tone, but to me these little exchanges tonight were hysterical:
Michael (to a Hooter’s waitress): I will have the chicken breast without the chicken.
Waitress (pausing, exasperated): Is that what you really want?
Michael: No, I’ll ….. have the gourmet hot dog.
Waitress (all brusque, stomping off): Great.
Then later —
Michael (to camera): Okay! They took my expense account away from me because I spent $80 at a magic shop. But it was for BUSINESS. I wanted to impress potential clients. Hey — I put a cigarette into a freakin’ quarter! They almost bought from us, ‘kay?!
I adore The Office. I don’t think there’s any doubt as to why Steve Carrel won the Golden Globe. It’s fantastic.
I have yet to see the British version, but I have become fiercely loyal to this one. It’s my second favorite comedy right behind the show it follows — My Name is Earl.
Cullen, I know. I love that Steve Carrell.
Did you see the Christmas one — with the Secret Santa gift exchange that Michael turned into “okay, YANKEE SWAP!” because he openly hated his oven mitt? I was cringeing with embarrassment and howling with laughter at the same time!
And the $20 spending limit — Michael goes out and buys a freakin’ Ipod for his Secret Santa, but when he turns it into Yankee Swap, everyone wants the Ipod, of course, and not the oven mitt he’s just blatantly trying to dump.
(Oh — and when he talks to the camera, something like, “My gift said I care for you an Ipod’s worth. So her gift says I care for you a HOMEMADE OVEN MITT’S WORTH?!” Dying.)
And the shots of the woman who handmade the mitt for him — it was actually tragic.
Later when the party has finally gone horribly awry, he’s saying to the camera, “Well, happy birthday, Jesus. Sorry your party is so LAME.”
SO funny. Hysterical. I’m laughing just remembering it.
It can be amazingly poignant as well. The Halloween episode. Michael’s spending the entire show trying to hook up with someone and do something, but in the last 30 seconds of the show you see him in his new townhouse (nearly empty) and he’s looking so forlorn. Then some kids come to the door and he’s just BIGGER THAN LIFE! So happy to pass out candy and just have some kind of human connection. The kind that he just lacks the ability to make normally.
I immediately blogged that moment. I had watched the show kind of on the fence until that moment. I mean, I loved Steve Carrell, but was undecided about the show. But that moment cemented what I think I had really already known — it’s an amazing show.
Now, what do you feel about Earl?
Oh, Cullen, see how I’d danced around that before? By talking VERY FAST about something else? Well, I think I’m just gonna keep dancin’ …. 😉
Well … I guess the funniest show on TV can’t be funny to everybody. 😉
An actor on that show reminds me of someone I don’t like; it’s just that.
No worries. Each to their own and all that. I’ve always loved Jason Lee. AND, I spent a lot of time around that “white trash” mentality that the show portrays every time my family went back home for the holidays.
We watched the original British version and have followed the American version since the very beginning.
The British version is *funny*… but in a painful, searing sort of way that makes one cringe. I was afraid of watching the American version because of this. I had hoped it wouldn’t be so hard to look at.
At first, the American version was *okay*… then it started to pick up speed (much like “Seinfeld”, “Friends”, insert legendary, blockbuster sit-com *here*).
NOW they are at full stride and really feeling their characters, putting them in classic, perfect, INCREDIBLE sitautions with impeccable dialogue.
I think they really broke loose from the pack with the episode featuring the office-party-where-there-wasn’t-supposed-to-be-alcohol-but-Micheal-snuck-out-and-got-it-anyway. When the redhead proclaimed her New Year’s resolution was to be a “weekend only” drinker, I knew they were onto something. But at the end, when the camera pans to her naked, in Michael’s office… The shock — and then Michael’s PERFECT, DEAD-PAN reaction took me over the edge as a die-hard “Office” fan.
This is the ONLY show on television that makes me CACKLE… OUT LOUD.
LOVE IT!
I have the last 2 episodes saved indefinitely for Tef. He hasn’t seen them yet. I can’t deny him the ooey-gooey-Osacar-isn’t-really-sick goodness.
I’ve been really good, too. Haven’t said a WORD. But he did hear me cackling and snorting from upstairs.
My favorite episode to date is the one where Michael burns his foot and Dwight gets a concussion.
The scene where Dwight hits the telephone pole and then pukes on his car shouldn’t be funny. But it is.
And the “look” exchanged b/n Dwight and Blondie.
“That’s unacceptable.”
“You’re right. That IS unnacceptable.”
I’m giggling just thinking about it. Just perfect.
And Dwight being totally CLUELESS about Oscar. TOTALLY.
Tef’s favorite quote is a classic Dwight from last season: “She has perfect bosoms, too. Oh, no it’s not for me. We Shrewds produce thirsty babies.”
He almost wet himself.