A day in the life: What are we laughing at when we watch The Office, a series that is available on all platforms?

Here’s the paradox: at the peak of cancellation culture, the wrong The Office is the favorite series on streaming services. streaming. This month it returned to Netflix (where it was the most viewed in the US in 2020) but, curiously, it is still available in the catalog of other platforms such as HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Star+ D Paramount+, with no plans to be filmed. The series is everywhere.

It was born in the UK in 2001 and we owe it to Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant to create it. Eventually, “OfficeThis is a mockumentary film that follows the office life of a group of Wernham Hogg paper company employees led by David Brent (Ricky Gervais), a flamboyant comedian boss who plays pranks on his employees. the version was barely enough for two parts because the international takeoff of fiction came years later, in the United States.

Under the watchful eye of producer Greg Daniels (who came up with Kings of the Hill), Gervais’ comedy took a new turn in 2005. British program”, which he spoke about in 2020 showrunner a Guardianthe other eight had to take elements from the format sitcom The American (sitcom) is in danger of being almost cancelled, as screenwriter Michael Schur admitted in the same interview.

However, some essence of the original remains. This was facilitated by the presence of Gervais and Merchant, who acted as writers and producers, who, together with the rosary of other writers, managed to make subtle and intelligent humor open new horizons on the small screen. An influence that has left its mark on other productions and that we can see today, for example, in series such as Severance. So it felt “against the current”Office“In his day, as screenwriter and actor B. J. Novak once remarked, “not only was there no studio audience, there wasn’t even music.”

“Office”, a series with layers

A new version “Office”charged the ink. Supporting actors such as Jim Halpert (John Krasinski), Pam Beasley (Jenna Fischer), Dwight Schrute (Rainne Wilson) and others got the opportunity to develop their own storylines. And the main role went to Steve Carell, who gave life Michael Scott, head of the Scranton, Pennsylvania (USA) branch of the Dunder Mifflin paper company, who subjects his workers to reprehensible jokes because of their racism, machismo and blatant homophobia.

“Michael Scott’s character in the first season is off-putting, and the big success of the American version was to smooth it out while still retaining awkward moments,” journalist Diego Pajares Herrada said of the matter. RPP news. “He makes fun of fat people, old people too, but The Office is rich in this because it puts the discussion on the table: do they do this to provoke or to laugh?” he thought. And in this ambiguity, sometimes bordering on the reprehensible, lies its complexity and at the same time its charm.

For a member of the “Entendí Esa Referencia” podcast, topics that “Officeproposals can be the source of the most intense debate: from choosing their best cold opening (snippets that appear at the start of each episode that the show has mastered) to found positions created by the charming (to some unbearable) Jim and Pam. “Magic”Officeis the fact that you can analyze so many layers in a comedy with such a simple premise: office life,” he said. amazing,” as Jim Halpert said in his memorable finale.

The charm of ordinary things

Although in the first seasonsOfficeconceived as a realistic series, the situations that take place in Dunder Mifflin tend to be taken to the point of absurdity. This is a fiction in which the entire office, for example, sacredly buries a dead bird. good with behavior Michael Scott D Dwight Schrute, intensifies in the later installments when the characters start to look cartoonish (like Kevin Malone, played by Brian Baumgartner) and the plots go crazy. There is a call to nonsense and “shrinking”.

But there is an element of satire in the background that allows us to bring out our social failings. “‘Office“as a reflection of every spectator,” wrote Pajares Errada. In that sense, perhaps this era that cancels politically incorrect content is the best time to capture what the show is telling us underneath its surface, that Billie Eilish seen 14 times. Recent article in Atlantic Oceanfor example, pointed out that the current ultra-conservatism can be explained by Dwight, an employee who loves guns, a misogynist, racist, ignoramus, who we can shamelessly laugh at every time Jim makes a bad joke.

“Perhaps they wanted to take it to the extreme to ridicule what the average American believes. This is a series of reverse humor,” said Pajares Herrada. And yet, his characters are more than archetypes (or stereotypes, how to look). Well, although the most reprehensible carry with them the buffoon’s investiture, they are also the object of adoration and empathy. character Steve Carell clearly reflects this: we can dismiss Michael Scott, but at the same time recognize him as a person who genuinely cares about his employees, whom he considers his family.

Despite their erratic path, the characters in “Office“Eventually they find a channel and develop over the course of nine seasons. Already anticipated since the second part, where the pessimistic tone of the first part disappeared, a light of hope illuminates the lives of these office workers who sit in their cubicles day after day, they must put up with their boss’s humor, but also with their own. “Beauty is in ordinary things, isn’t that the point?” Pam says towards the end of the series. That’s where the comedy is, this is the place where the mind tickles, it happens. And we just laugh. Out loud.

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