Thursday, May 16, 2019

The Future is Humor

The Office, a mockumentary based on Ricky Gervais’ sitcom The Office UK is an American 21st century television classic. While the show mainly takes place in the office of Dunder Mifflin, the show encapsulates almost every type of comedy and reaches a wide range of audiences. Depending on the episode the office uses all three types of comedy. Some episodes are very far fetched such as a sting operation on fellow competitors, this episode would be classified under the subcategory of farce, while other episodes might be considered a romantic comedy weather it be between Jim and Pam or Dwight and Angela. Many different times throughout the show these couples struggle or are separated but eventually end up back together. The most prevalent subcategory although, is satirical comedy which is seen in the vast majority of the show. 

The Office is known for its all different types of humor whether it be “hard to watch” comedy in which we as the audience know how awful the situation is yet we continue to watch knowing the outcome of the sheer stupidity. A prime example of this is when dwight purposely stages a fire at the office to test the employee's “safety awareness”. Along with this the Office has many Comic Heros, the main one being Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell. While at times he has good intentions, he can be racist, sexist, homophobic, and flat out immoral, and maybe just maybe a wee bit funny. He truly seems to care about the people around him and uses humor as his mode of expressing this. 

While he starts the show as the manager of the Scranton Branch he eventually creates his own paper company but because of his own hubris he lands right back where he started working alongside his employees at dunder mifflin. The show really encapsulates how humor is a necessary part of life. We are all human; there are good days and bad, we have our ups and downs, we lose people and meet new ones, but at the end of the day it's up to us to bring laughter and joy into the people around us lives.

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