Did anybody else watch “NBC’s brilliant, new-hit comedy” The Office last night? If not, no matter what else you happened to be doing with your time, chances are it was much more entertaining than sitting through thirty minutes of this sorry excuse for a sitcom. Just a hint, guys: when your audience looks forward to the commercials, you’re doing something wrong…
I mean, seriously, have we been focusing so much on “reality tv” that nobody can write a decent 1/2 hour comedy anymore? The Office to me seemed like the quisessential example of why inside jokes are only funny, well, inside. I can see where these guys were trying to come from, as I know just how hilarious it is to see the copier repair guy show up, flirt with the ladies of the floor for an hour, and then leave without actually fixing the copier, but I also know that dead stare that you get when you attempt to relay the joke to friends and family outside of the office — this show consistently maintained the dead stare feeling from opening to credits. Sorry guys – funny concept, but you should’ve watched Office Space a couple more times before committing anything to paper.
For those who haven’t seen it, that jello bit that has been in the promos was pretty amusing, but that’s about the extent of it. Save yourself 29 minutes and 30 seconds of disappointment and flip over to the UPN after the commercial airs. I can’t believe I just encouraged people to change the channel to UPN…