MovieChat Forums > The Office (2005) Discussion > Am I the only one who just does not get ...

Am I the only one who just does not get this show?


I watch it and it just seems so boring and trivial ... I can never get into it or care about it. What am I missing?

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No, you're not. I don't get it either, although, to be fair, I haven't seen many episodes.

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It means more to viewers who have lived and worked in these type of mid-level corporate hellhole jobs. I'm not much of a fan but after hearing so many colleagues from work encourage me to watch it I finally relented. It does touch on many absurd aspects of corporate culture and if you appreciate Steve Carell's brand of humor from his other comedies then this show can work for you. It really didn't for me as I find Carell to vanilla and straightforward for my tastes.

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Thanks for your rational and sensible reply.

I get what you said, but I guess I find nothing funny or entertaining about the whole incompetent corporate life ... maybe because this show does not have any of the real viciousness of what goes on in office life. It is like how Hogan's Heroes never showed the real evil of the Nazis ... I could never get into that either.

I've mostly enjoyed Steve Carrell's choice in movies starting with the 30 Year Old Virgin, and he has the guts to really play some assholes in movies too. American corporate life is at the heart of a lot of other dysfunctional stuff in the country, which is I guess why I find there is nothing deep, messaging, moralistis, or that this series has to say to anyone ... it's just mindless stupid, like Hogan's Heroes or T-Troop, or even McHale's Navy. At least a show like Gilligan's Island had the good sense to try to be funny and silly.

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I've just watched parts of it. As I say I just cannot find it interesting or funny, so I guess I am one of those people. But I just wondered what is it that makes it so popular for some?

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I tried watching the British original and it was just too much cringe and cultural humor I didn't really get. I'm much more familiar with American culture, but I tend to dislike American adaptations so I skipped that one.

I did watch and enjoy the Israeli adaptation greatly. From what I've read, it follows the original pretty closely, but it was perfectly localized imo.

That's been my experience.
Either way, there're always people who don't like so called "universally acclaimed" shows/movies and that's just fine.

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I think the reason you might not get the show is not having seen many episodes or the character development that occurs from S101 to the finale. The other reason, like other users are saying is the show's awkward moment style of humor. When it first started, there were a lot of times where long pauses of awkward silence made the show. Characters' misunderstanding of people, societal norms, and stereotyping ("I don't care if you are gay, straight or overweight.") make up the bulk of humor in this show. I think that the quote I previously mentioned perfectly describes the intent of the writers for The Office. Michael believes that being overweight is somehow grouped in with sexuality. That style humor is the main point of the show.

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I didn’t get this show until I started working in an office. Granted, this show is an exaggeration of what it’s like in an office, but I do see the realism. I look around my office and see who the Jim, Dwight, Michael etc are.

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The humor of this show is very deadpan, irreverent, and offensive (like, the characters who are offensive are intentionally that way - we're not supposed to agree with them but their ridiculousness is supposed to be funny).

If you don't like this kind of humor, you probably won't like this show. I loved Parks and Recreation so I thought I would like this show, but it's pretty different despite having the similar mockumentary format. It took me two seasons of The Office to actually start liking any of the characters besides Pam, Jim, and Oscar.

I absolutely hated Michael, I get that he is supposed to be dense and awkward but he was downright selfish and cruel at times. After 2-3 seasons he started to get somewhat likable while still staying clueless.

The offensiveness did bother me at first, but I reminded myself that the show was not promoting this kind of thing, it was meant to be outrageous. If you can get used to this kind of humor, it can be extremely funny. The actors' facial expressions and nuances really make for some laugh-out-loud moments.

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>> I absolutely hated Michael, I get that he is supposed to be dense and awkward but he was downright selfish and cruel at times.

Yes, that is how I felt. I don't think that shit is funny. What do you mean when you say the show was supposed to be outrageous ... because when I think of the word outrage, I guess I am not educated, inspired, entertained or whatever by outrage.

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I started like you. I just didn't get. What the heck? Where's the humor? It's so boring and mundane, and there's so much injected romance and all that. And the first season is basically mostly a copy of the UK show anyway, and not as interestingly done - Dwight seemed a definite downgrade from the UK equivalent, and Jim is just annoying, where the UK-equivalent was at least somewhat relatable and sympathetic.

So I watched it multiple seasons.. didn't get it.

So I watched it again... didn't really get it, although a couple of scenes seemed slightly humorous this time.

It took me perhaps four times to really started getting it - I had to be familiar with the characters, I had to know what to expect, and I had to start seeing and listening with more focus to see the sometimes INCREDIBLY subtle humor, like Michael simply mispronouncing words funnily, and how to connect that to his character's quirks and personality and motivations and all that.

I never got into the whole 'pam+jim'-romance crap, but Michael started striking me as more and more unpredictable and interesting character every time I watched. This guy says all kinds of truths and weird things you never expect anyone to usually say.

And every time I watch, I notice some tiny piece of humor I never noticed before, and sometimes it makes me laugh out loud. "Escape Goat", I never noticed that before!

Michael is the most politically incorrect character I've seen in TV shows for a long time, and yet everyone likes him, because he has genuinely good intentions and unselfish motivation - his 'offensive' nature comes purely from his ignorance and being 'out of touch' - a bit like a grandfather using 'offensive' slurs to refer to people, because that's what they did during the war.

And you can either accept it or find it hilarious, but you can never really change his 'set ways' of speaking, and everyone understands you can't really do anything about it beyond that.

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I am not completely sure I still 'get' the show, but at least now I can recognize the humor and find it funny - I didn't even know it was there the first few viewings, but now I am finding more and more of it.

It might not be for everyone, but at least I started finding it more and more funny the more I stuck with it - finally it started opening up to me, and now I am glad I didn't give up.

Toby is the epitome of 'boredom', to the extreme that it becomes funny. Creed is an enigma, a mystery, a really crazy old guy we all hope we won't become, and some of the things he says are actually funny if you think about someone saying that in real life in the situation, etc.

Going over a few characters..

I never found phyllis interesting, funny or useful in any way - but she's not completely annoying, either.

Andy is -extremely- annoying, to the point that I can no longer watch any scene with him in it - I just have to skip it every time (ESPECIALLY when he 'sings' or 'plays an instrument', holy macril).

I think most of the actors are kind of ugly, so there's nothing visually that pleasing about them. I don't know what to make of Ryan, he seems to be a selfish egomaniacal drug addict, hell-bent on destroying himself and everyone around him, so I can't relate to him or feel much sympathy to him.

To be frank, Michael's innocence, quirks, and relatable motivations are the core reson why I watch this nowadays. He's just more human than most people around him. It's very rare that he's annoying (like when he always uses a 'gun' in the improvisation scenes and such), and he always delivers something absurd, weird, funny or charmingly innocent.

He actually makes you think about the world a bit in a different light. Maybe not a lot, but sometimes, just a little bit.

It's a relatively entertaining show - Dwight is a bit of a nuisance, but without him, nothing that much would be happening, I guess. He's like a catalyst for many events.

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I think the purpose of Oscar is basically to be the 'straight man' to Michael's wackiness - which is of course ironic, considering what the character is depicted as in this show.

Stanley is a bit irritating and useless character - he speaks and moves slowly and boringly, so I don't really like him much - but his conflicts with Michael are sometimes interesting, and he's not too annoying.

Angela is really annoying - but that's of course realistic. That archetype blonde exists in real life, and we have probably all met her.

Kevin is a sad case, because he started off as someone kind of competent, winning in poker and everything - and I get frustrated with the whole chili thing - so much trouble wasted in a few seconds - and then suddenly, he was made into a cartoonishly stupid, incompetent moron that can't even recite the alphabet! Agh, I wish they hadn't.

I kind of like the thin boss man of Saber - I don't care for the dog-owning boss woman, though (his boss). He's an incompetent and powerless wuss and all, but there's something interesting about him, call it screen-charisma or something if you wish.

I think the actor could easily play a superpowerful character that gets everyone to obey him without him ever raising his voice or doing anything special - like, inner strength, etc.

The indian girl is kind of 'token character' at first, that doesn't do anything memorable - then she suddenly becomes some kind of weird valley girl that eats and breathes pop culture and celebrities. I don't know how she stays employed.

Jim and Pam are both annoying, boring and pretty useless in my opinion, but the show revolves around their lives anyway for some reason.

The other branch people are not written very well - Andy being really annoying, and the woman just basically being Jim's love interest and contributing nothing too special (and then suddenly getting a big raise, becoming Michael's direct competition and whatnot).

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So once you really analyze and familiarize yourself with the characters and what the show really is, it can be very entertaining and funny at times. But the humor is subtle, and the delivery is deadpan and a bit weird, and you have to work out -why- something is funny, it's not always offered to you on a silver platter.

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Thanks for trying to explain this. There is something about it I don't like. If I think of the British guy, Ricky Gervais, it's like him. Sometimes I can really appreciate his humor. I though the movie ... The Invention of Lying ... or something like that was really funny, but the Office I see it trying to be funny, or cute, or coming from above ... but it just rubs me the wrong way. I usually like Steve Carrell when he was not over-exposed, but for some reason not so much now. It reminds me of something trying to be like a flat Fawlty Towers.

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