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December 14, 2008
"IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW THAT GUY."
Last week I spent a half hour of my life involved with something brutal, intense, and sad. An unpleasant thirty minutes comprised of people with failed lives, carrying on meaningless tasks in a season that is supposed to be "the most wonderful time of the year." At very few moments during this time did I laugh, even though I was clearly supposed to. When I watched, for instance, a broken and ridiculous woman explaining that she is not only addicted to alcohol but also pornography, and a stupid man sing a love song to a woman who everyone knows is cheating on him, the people who framed this wanted me to laugh. Why? Because there was a sitar involved?
You have probably realized by now that I'm talking about an episode of THE OFFICE, which if you did not see, was primarily about a failed intervention and a fat woman's fury. The latter, I'll admit, was mildly amusing to watch Big Bertha bark absurd orders about a Moroccan Christmas and hummus to a miserable fundamentalist shrew. But I felt bad about this; Phyllis' vision of happiness is so easy to mock, and Angela's prior meanness is supposed to make me desire her comeuppance. But this is mean-spirited, and I suppose on a show like this, I'm supposed to be intimately familiar with the characters and their histories to immediately recognize inside jokes that have two year old referents. A Moroccan Christmas party an office that sells paper is funny, and a woman's hair catching on fire is funny, but when that woman's hair catches on fire and she is given an intervention that highlights that she is a bitter failure of an alcoholic, only to see her refusing treatment, I don't find that funny.
Maybe its hypocritical, but I like my alcoholics to be lovable, good-time Charlies whose failures highlight their excess rather than their pathos. The kind of lovable goon that Victor McLaglen played in John Ford movies; Otis from ANDY GRIFFITH; Barney from THE SIMPSONS. I never felt these were belittling alcoholism so much as providing us with someone who is kind of in on the joke anyway; a drunk can be funny without offending the unargued principle that alcoholism is bad.
But the American version of THE OFFICE is compelled to provide us with a hyper-real vision of Americana, and its humor comes in highlighting the kind of stuff that recognizes what a dour existence of drudgery this world really is. However, in between that is the kind of humor familiar to fans of much less trenchant and evolved programming like PERFECT STRANGERS and ALF. When Jim wraps Dwight's office furniture in wrapping paper (kind of), it is akin to Balki doing a dance of joy. When Michael tries to drag a kicking and screaming Meredith into a rehab center, I don't think it fits the format of a thirty-minute sitcom. Question: is THE OFFICE part of a project to revolutionize the sitcom, the reform it of its goofy, disposable past, the cure it of its Cosby-inspired impetus to both delight and teach valuable moral lessons? Follow-up: If so, what is the value of this? Another follow-up? If so, is it working?
When Andy Bernard plays a stupid song to his deeply beloved fiancé, who is a miserable shrew and who is cheating on him, are we laughing because we know what heartbreaking failure will follow? Because recent efforts have been made to humanize Andy, and to show that he may be a horrible dork but he is also a decent human being who desires to be a romantic and love a woman who does not love him back. As a pretty horrible Woody Allen movie pointed out, when framed differently - that's tragedy. And THE OFFICE wants us to revel a bit in that tragedy maybe because, as Homer Simpson once put it, "It's funny because I don't know that guy."
THE OFFICE is trying to do too much. It is a heavy dose of bitterness sweetened by inspired moments of slapstick. I realize that Dwight's scheme of selling xmas toys at double the price is involved in a complex relationship between that character's scripted personality and a critique of consumer culture. But I prefer moments where Jim is making funny phone calls, rather than ten minutes that just reiterates how damn pathetic everyone is.
Will I continue to watch THE OFFICE? Probably, because it is easier to keep up with television shows than it has ever been in the history of the medium. I don't have to start a tape, don't have to rewind a tape, don't have to cancel my Thursday plans (which, as you might guess, are . . . my DVR does these thing for me.
| By Andytown | 11:46 AM
Comments
Andy,
I'm not sure what your history with the office has been, whether you've watched the whole show from the beginning or not. I do know that we've talked about it a few times in the past, but I only bring that up to observe that the longevity of one's commitment to a show seems to affect the way one views the direction in which a show moves.
That being said, I'm not sure that the Office is really a comedy anymore. Is it funny? I think so. But I'm not sure that this is the main intention. The show seems to have taken a turn after the writer's strike, beginning with the "Dinner Party" episode.
I think it's become more of a realist drama, and sometimes, we may feel like it's making too much light of some pretty heavy issues (Meridith's alcoholism) because the show refuses to tell us how we should feel about anything at all. We simply watch, and when we see things happening that on any other show would be highlighted by music and long dramatic pauses and low lighting and whatever else, it makes us feel uncomfortable, maybe because it's just a little too real. We may not know that guy, but we've all been in some situation like that, where the moment doesn't quite fit the crisis, and we just feel weird about it. So maybe we laugh, more from the fact that we just don't know what else to do than the humor of the situation.
Some people like this, some don't, but what The Office understands is that the big moments in life don't quite fit the bill - they don't come full circle, and it's pretty damn weird.
There's only one other show that I've ever seen accomplish this. Summer Heights High. It's on HBO. I think it's only going to be a one season thing, but you should watch it. Chris Lilley is a genius - it might actually be better than The Office, but I can't say for sure.
We'll talk.
Posted by: Joseph McDaniel at December 27, 2008 6:06 PM
Hey, I kind of liked Melinda & Melinda...I think of it as My Dinner with Andre II: the Speculative Years.
Posted by: Nate Underland at December 28, 2008 12:11 PM