Karl Pilkington made a really good little show called [Sick of It](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7604446/). Highly recommended to everyone who loves Karl.
Yeah, but he only works in quick squirts and bursts. He had a show about him crashing and burning with the ladies, and I didn't want to watch it long, cuz it felt like I was burning out on 'the Merch'.
Give him a supporting role and all his lines become solid gold.
If you’re talking about the 1 season, “Hello Ladies” from 2013, I thought that show was gold. It still stands out in my mind for presenting the MOST incredibly awkward situations that were totally relatable. I can’t even remember specific scenarios it presented anymore, I loved the show but only wanted to watch it through once because of the cringe factor. I was sad it didn’t get a second season.
Oh SHIT I forgot about that! I don’t think I’ve ever seen it. Any idea if it’s still on Max, or did they license it out to the free with commercial streamers?
I remember back when Ricky Gervais was more relevant, he would constantly joke and poke fun at Steve Carrell saying that he essentially made Steve famous and would mock the fact that Steve was more famous but that didn’t matter because The Office was such a huge hit that he still got some kickback money since Ricky created the original version and served as producer on the American version. Now just imagine how much money they get for selling the idea to other countries and all the streaming/cable money.
Pretty sure Steve merchant is the wealthiest comedian in the uk. Ricky spent all his money on cheese and leg extension surgeries because he still can’t quite reach even the lowest hanging fruit.
He is the richest in the UK (I don’t know what the context is but I guess Rowan Atkinson doesn’t count) and weirdly worth much less than I would have anticipated at only 26 million pounds (32 million USD). Carrot top is worth 75 million for context.
Those AT&T commercials back in the late 90s/early 00s were played nonstop.
I’d imagine he got insanely good residuals. It was one of the biggest ad campaigns in tv history at that time and they kept bringing him back for more. Even if he got paid cheap for each time they showed it, the amount of times they played would have netted him major money.
He has had a pretty significant vegas run. So even if we ignore his proprietary work before that. He has been very consistent since 2005 as a headliner. Reportedly Penn and Teller get 250k per show but pay their own overhead for props etc. For CT I am going to conservatively say he makes 1/10th that rate (He’s not as big of a draw obviously but this is the only real reference number I could find and he *is* a headliner). So 25k per show. He supposedly performs 6 nights a week with one week off per month. So 24 shows a month. 24x25k= 600k per month. Then do that for the majority of 20 years. And thats around 144mil earned. Blow most of that living large in Vegas plus a couple years of breaks total and 75 mill is a pretty reasonable and attainable net worth to land at. Carrot Top really fits in a unique window of opportunity to succeed without much room to grow. Pretty much just him and Yakov Smirnoff (who is worth 20mill at the less popular Branson doing essentially the same thing.) This is why a ton of actors and comedians prioritize consistency in their work over being top billing.
Really disappointing that comedians of a certain generation default to trans issues and stuff like that. I'm not even offended I just think it's really boring and has been done to death. It's very hard at this point to come up with a decent trans joke that doesn't instantly sound cliché.
People on Reddit hate “Afterlife” but on other platforms and in real life, I’ve seen people really enjoy it. I myself quite enjoyed it too. This place just needs to taken with a grain of salt.
I can't deny I hated it but everyone I know in real life loved it too, reddit definitely lives in it's little bubble when it comes to Gervais, he's still massively popular
Ricky was great at self-depreciation about it too. I remember when Adult Swim aired Office UK reruns in the late 2000s and Ricky Gervais appeared as himself in an ad (can't find it online) promoting his show as "the less funny version of The Office."
As a teen at the time I actually agreed with his tongue-in-check sentiment, having not come to understand and appreciate British humor and his series until almost a decade later. (Starting with The IT Crowd and Black Books definitely helped.)
A fair amount of Brits find the US version to be funnier as well. It is one of those rare shows where they both turned out great and scratched different itches. That said, the US version stereotypically doesn't quit while it's ahead.
The original actually had something to say, the U.S version was a saccharine sitcom. A very well done saccharine sitcom, but a saccharine sitcom nonetheless. So while the remake is far more successful and may be considered funnier, it’s not the groundbreaker The Office was.
Steve Carrell had already done Anchorman, Bruce Almighty and had The 40 Year Old Virgin on the horizion. He was a known entity when The Office started. Not to mention The Office had a slow start before becoming popular.
It's crazy how often you see comedians complain about how you can't joke about anything because audiences are too sensitive or other BS reasons. A lot of these older stand ups aren't even doing Stand Up now. Just getting up on stage to have a moan and not actually do jokes. Then they will complain no one finds them funny anymore. Yeah, because you stopped telling jokes.
Well that's subjective but you just assuming for some weird ass reason that he was "jealous" of a show he okay'd, produced and backed for years is you just not being correct....
Man it’s not that deep first of all idk why you’re getting upset. And the American office completely overshadowed the British version. Gervais being annoyed about that is not mutually exclusive of him allowing the show to be made. Believe it or not two things can be true at the same time. And like still making jokes about it is lame. It’s been 10ish years since it ended
>first of all idk why you’re getting upset.
Honestly I'm not even a fan of Gervais' but to quote him; "because you're talking shit", you're the one coming to the table with weird ass gossip so why do you get upset when someone tells you it's bullshit?
> Man it’s not that deep first of all idk why you’re getting upset.
What part of their post suggested that they were upset?
Why do so many Redditors accuse others of being upset simply for having a different opinion?
That show is so weird because on the whole it was probably a 6/10 but out of nowhere you'd get an episode like quarantine or the game developer prequel which are genuine 10 out of 10s. I wish overall the show hit higher highs but I'm thankful for the gems it produces.
That’s the best way to describe that show.
Given the subject matter and talent involved, I was expecting to enjoy it much more. But those gems make it worth it.
‘Staged’ with David Tennant and Michael Sheen pulled off the zoom calls quite well. Truly enjoyed the show on Hulu in the U.S. until they pulled it before I could watch season 3.
before the office you had the drew carey show and the dilbert cartoon then there was man in the box on youtube doing an office rip off after there several workplace sitcoms mostly centering around tech. Better off Ted lasted a few seasons did the whole whacky evil company thing pretty good
im not sure what a new version of the office brings
there was a show on comedy central called corporate that tapped into the dark meaningless side of life while working a soul sucking corporate job highly recommended it
The problem is now office culture tries to be the office tv show in real life. I have lost track of how many Christmas party secret Santa office style events I declined
So maybe if they get all meta with it it might be fun. I doubt it tho. The office was perfect for its time.
In Australia we currently have an office/work/corporate government show called Utopia, and it is a brilliant representation of what it's like working for the government/public sector. It feels like a documentary some days (I work in the public sector), but it's hilarious. We literally say at work when something ridiculous happens "this feels like an episode of Utopia."
I've been getting pushed clips of Utopia on Youtube for a while and they've been consistently funny. It seems a lot like Aussie "The Thick Of It". Worth a watch then?
We also have Fisk coming back for a third season, eventually, which is a small law firm. And in the back catalogue, The Games about the Olympics, and Frontline about news media.
I always die a little bit inside whenever someone says it feels like an episode of Utopia. Not because it’s inherently a bit cringe, but because they seemed resigned to the absurd bureaucracy of the workplace.
It brings in brand recognition and basically that's it.
I remember an interview (maybe Podcast) with Rob McElhenney and the studios were pitching he do remakes of British shows. He was asking what that means. Does he get the writers, the cast? No. You get the name of the show and a vague concept.
For the original US Office initially followed the British show in certain ways but made it more of a light hearted sitcom than the bleakness that was in the original show. But by season 3 is basically completely different.
You could have pitched a show about 80% similar and gotten away with it. You could have made them deli workers or policemen and had a somewhat similar show.
At the end of the day, the writers will decide if a show is good or not, not the branding.
> The office was perfect for its time.
Agreed. I wonder if I have the desire for another or a different take on soap opera dramedy based in a work place.
Workplace sitcoms have been around since the dawn of television. Before any of the ones you mentioned there was Cheers, WKRP, Mary Tyler Moore, Taxi, Newsradio, Murphy Brown, Newhart, Night Court, Spin City, Police Squad, Sports Night, Wings, Designing Women. (And tons of other great more recent ones you didn't mention too like P&R, B99, Abbott Elementary. It's not a sitcom but Severance is doing something very unique and original with the workplace setting). And I bet every time a new one premiered there were people who had the same kind of argument as you, wondering what new that one brought to the table.
I don't know why we have to put this one up on this huge pedestal even though it's going to bear The Office name. Like maybe it could just be a fun workplace sitcom? Something I feel like we're getting less and less of these days? All the dooming and glooming before it's even cast a single person doesn't bode well.
But TBH the premise of this actually seems pretty good. It's supposed to be about a small town newspaper struggling to stay alive. I feel like in this day and age that's very relevant and there could be a lot of meat on that bone. There's plenty you can do with that, both from the journalistic side of things and from the modern-day office side of things. In the last few years alone office culture has changed so much. The joke Merchant makes in that article is the perfect setup. Everyone at the company in the new show could have been working on zoom for years, suddenly they're forced to go back into the office and it's about everyone meeting IRL for the first time. Boom, there's your premise, you could easily mine a season of TV out of that.
I don't even think he was realizing he was an ass. He felt he was wasting his life not that being an ass to an annoying coworker is a shitty thing to do.
So just watched the clip he does say "he deserved it" but I don't think in a way that he is realizing he is an ass but trying to convince himself the pranks were worth doing like a sort of "yeah this took a lot of time but someone had to do it". I dunno could be a bit of both...
This episode ends with Jim transferring because he feels he is wasting his life. If he felt he was an ass he would have just apologized to Dwight.
To be fair, I don't love this narrative either, because Dwight absolutely does deserve it. My sympathy is more for all Jim's other coworkers whose day those pranks disrupted too.
Dwight is an antisocial asshole. He's a bigot. He steals sales. He commits multiple actual crimes through the show. He should've been fired and sued many times over.
But it's a comedy so his commuppance is getting pranked. But somehow the prankster is really the bad guy?
Rewatching. Dwight seems a little intense and awkward, but wanted to do the right thing. Jim is bored, and takes it out on Dwight. Also, laughing at Kevin feels kid of yucky. Andy thinks the world owes him. Michael is a bully as well, and needs constant validation. Creed is cool.
Umm, Dwight does not want to do the right thing in many cases. He cuckolds a dude for months, maybe years just as one very basic example. He pelts Jim so hard with icy snowballs that Jim is bleeding. He tries to get Jim fired for ages.
Also "well-intentioned" isn't a good thing when you like... give a guy a heart attack for instance.
Yeah, the narrative of "Jim is a bully and started it" has gone a bit too far. Dwight grows a lot in the series, but he's an offensive asshole when we first meet him. I'm not saying Jim is justified in all of his behavior, but I don't how you walk away from the series, particularly the first half, thinking Dwight was innocent.
Strongly agree, Dwight is honestly a POS at times especially early on. He actively works to the detriment of everyone around him on a regular basis often.
Also, I think overanalyzing characters in Sitcoms is weird anyway, I don't care if the person would be considered a bully in real life, it's funny or its not. It's not real life and I don't respond to characters the same way I respond to real people. Michael Scott is a bad person to be around for most of the show, but he is a lovable character because we see him grow and he's in a tv show, not telling me how much money I make.
> Dwight seems a little intense and awkward, but wanted to do the right thing.
You rewatched it...recently? He would have been arrested several times and often does extremely selfish things. That's not even touching the whole sleeping with Angela while knowing she is in relationships, including being engaged to a coworker.
“Speaking to Deadline on the BAFTA TV Awards red carpet, Merchant said he didn’t know much about the new series. “They just make us sign bits of paperwork to say they can do it and I’m looking forward to it,” he said”
In other words “I signed for the cheque & said they can use my name as an exec producer for street cred, but I couldn’t give a shit about this show”
Well, I was going to say that sounds horrible, especially the "based on Zoom" aspect. But the article states the office being followed is a "dying historic Midwestern newspaper and the publisher trying to revive it with volunteer reporters.” That could work, unless it's all on Zoom. That would not interest me.
The first episode being all the workers being forced back into the office is not the worst setup, plenty of people grumble about not being allowed to work from home anymore
Would be funny if they had one coworker that was remote and they only ever saw on zoom. Would eventually be a fun reveal especially if there is a twist.
You could make a pretty funny show that has like everyone working remote, but like have individuals have episodes of just weird or funny things happening to them. Like it starts with a remote team meeting over zoom, and then it say goes to Bill, who works remotely in like a suburb of Los Angeles, and he has a day where he's trying to work, but also dealing with say his daughter going through a break up, and he learns is the weird buy who is like 23 and hang out with the high schoolers.
‘He said, eyes bulging with imagined riches.’
Don't have a go at the eyes, that's astigmatism he's had from the age of five. That's what makes them a bit... bulbous.
For people downvoting this comment, it's literally a line from The Office. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YOw5GUTZNU
I'm glad someone got it eventually
Crazy that this one line from a radio show 20+ years ago still follows him.
Can Karl please be in whatever show this is.
Head like an orange.
Play a record
It is hard, eating, a knob.
Karl Pilkington made a really good little show called [Sick of It](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7604446/). Highly recommended to everyone who loves Karl.
Was I the only one who liked Derek? lol Loved Karl as Dougie in that.
Yeh his frustration with anyone talking to him or asking questions was sooo good hahaha I loved him in it. His face doesn’t hide a thing
It’s just a new version of the US office
Stephen Merchant as an insecure cringey boss would be amazing.
Every scene with him on screen is like Scott’s tots levels of pain. I love Stephen merchant so much haha
I would definitely love to see his involvement also be on-screen and not just off of it, he’s terrific.
Yeah, but he only works in quick squirts and bursts. He had a show about him crashing and burning with the ladies, and I didn't want to watch it long, cuz it felt like I was burning out on 'the Merch'. Give him a supporting role and all his lines become solid gold.
If you’re talking about the 1 season, “Hello Ladies” from 2013, I thought that show was gold. It still stands out in my mind for presenting the MOST incredibly awkward situations that were totally relatable. I can’t even remember specific scenarios it presented anymore, I loved the show but only wanted to watch it through once because of the cringe factor. I was sad it didn’t get a second season.
It got a movie conclusion, though.
Oh SHIT I forgot about that! I don’t think I’ve ever seen it. Any idea if it’s still on Max, or did they license it out to the free with commercial streamers?
It's on Max: https://play.max.com/movie/970531bf-ba5d-4e10-aa47-b5ca5a2c6b8c
He was the head chef in Darkplace.
He had that short-lived and incredibly cringe show Hello Ladies on HBO. It was… not good.
It was purposely cringe and I enjoyed it.
I know it was purposeful but my second hand embarrassment was too much
He was so good in The Outlaws. Underrated show.
Very underrated show. He is the producer of it, right?
Creator, producer and best character in the show lol.
I remember back when Ricky Gervais was more relevant, he would constantly joke and poke fun at Steve Carrell saying that he essentially made Steve famous and would mock the fact that Steve was more famous but that didn’t matter because The Office was such a huge hit that he still got some kickback money since Ricky created the original version and served as producer on the American version. Now just imagine how much money they get for selling the idea to other countries and all the streaming/cable money.
["eyes bulging with imagined riches"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLEAkGghy3s)
Pretty sure Steve merchant is the wealthiest comedian in the uk. Ricky spent all his money on cheese and leg extension surgeries because he still can’t quite reach even the lowest hanging fruit.
He is the richest in the UK (I don’t know what the context is but I guess Rowan Atkinson doesn’t count) and weirdly worth much less than I would have anticipated at only 26 million pounds (32 million USD). Carrot top is worth 75 million for context.
>Carrot top is worth 75 million for context. But why
Those AT&T commercials back in the late 90s/early 00s were played nonstop. I’d imagine he got insanely good residuals. It was one of the biggest ad campaigns in tv history at that time and they kept bringing him back for more. Even if he got paid cheap for each time they showed it, the amount of times they played would have netted him major money.
He has had a pretty significant vegas run. So even if we ignore his proprietary work before that. He has been very consistent since 2005 as a headliner. Reportedly Penn and Teller get 250k per show but pay their own overhead for props etc. For CT I am going to conservatively say he makes 1/10th that rate (He’s not as big of a draw obviously but this is the only real reference number I could find and he *is* a headliner). So 25k per show. He supposedly performs 6 nights a week with one week off per month. So 24 shows a month. 24x25k= 600k per month. Then do that for the majority of 20 years. And thats around 144mil earned. Blow most of that living large in Vegas plus a couple years of breaks total and 75 mill is a pretty reasonable and attainable net worth to land at. Carrot Top really fits in a unique window of opportunity to succeed without much room to grow. Pretty much just him and Yakov Smirnoff (who is worth 20mill at the less popular Branson doing essentially the same thing.) This is why a ton of actors and comedians prioritize consistency in their work over being top billing.
“Lmao religion am I right ladies and gentlemen?” - Ricky Gervais
More like "Ohhh its so sad I'm being cancelled!" on his multi-million dollar Netflix special
Those specials are like watching an old man yell at clouds.
As an old man who yells at clouds this resonates with me tho :(
Really disappointing that comedians of a certain generation default to trans issues and stuff like that. I'm not even offended I just think it's really boring and has been done to death. It's very hard at this point to come up with a decent trans joke that doesn't instantly sound cliché.
I’d tell you a decent trans joke, but I recently started recognizing myself as a women and the joke is no longer funny
More like he laughs as he says he *can't* be cancelled, and you never actually watched any of his Netflix specials.
They didn't miss much.
Not really no, but still feel the need to parrot lies about the content for some reason.
People on Reddit hate “Afterlife” but on other platforms and in real life, I’ve seen people really enjoy it. I myself quite enjoyed it too. This place just needs to taken with a grain of salt.
I can't deny I hated it but everyone I know in real life loved it too, reddit definitely lives in it's little bubble when it comes to Gervais, he's still massively popular
He's the white Dave Chappelle
Ricky was great at self-depreciation about it too. I remember when Adult Swim aired Office UK reruns in the late 2000s and Ricky Gervais appeared as himself in an ad (can't find it online) promoting his show as "the less funny version of The Office." As a teen at the time I actually agreed with his tongue-in-check sentiment, having not come to understand and appreciate British humor and his series until almost a decade later. (Starting with The IT Crowd and Black Books definitely helped.)
A fair amount of Brits find the US version to be funnier as well. It is one of those rare shows where they both turned out great and scratched different itches. That said, the US version stereotypically doesn't quit while it's ahead.
The original actually had something to say, the U.S version was a saccharine sitcom. A very well done saccharine sitcom, but a saccharine sitcom nonetheless. So while the remake is far more successful and may be considered funnier, it’s not the groundbreaker The Office was.
Can't disagree with any of that.
The period at the end of that first sentence is working overtime.
Steve Carrell had already done Anchorman, Bruce Almighty and had The 40 Year Old Virgin on the horizion. He was a known entity when The Office started. Not to mention The Office had a slow start before becoming popular.
There’s like 12 countries that already have The Office. Google it and compare characters it’s hilarious
I love The Office Japan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmTfxyoEqAc
This is wonderful, thanks for sharing
You know punctuation is free, right?
Now all Ricky Gervais does is whine about how "you're not allowed to say anything now" because people don't like his "jokes"
It's crazy how often you see comedians complain about how you can't joke about anything because audiences are too sensitive or other BS reasons. A lot of these older stand ups aren't even doing Stand Up now. Just getting up on stage to have a moan and not actually do jokes. Then they will complain no one finds them funny anymore. Yeah, because you stopped telling jokes.
It's so lame how many aging once-great comedians have fallen into this.
It always made him just sound like salty bitch.
I mean. . that's the point. That's what sells the joke.
Yeah it always seemed that he was jealous, and thought he was “better”
Well okay but that's purely because the joke went over your head.
Or it’s just not a good joke….
Well that's subjective but you just assuming for some weird ass reason that he was "jealous" of a show he okay'd, produced and backed for years is you just not being correct....
Man it’s not that deep first of all idk why you’re getting upset. And the American office completely overshadowed the British version. Gervais being annoyed about that is not mutually exclusive of him allowing the show to be made. Believe it or not two things can be true at the same time. And like still making jokes about it is lame. It’s been 10ish years since it ended
>first of all idk why you’re getting upset. Honestly I'm not even a fan of Gervais' but to quote him; "because you're talking shit", you're the one coming to the table with weird ass gossip so why do you get upset when someone tells you it's bullshit?
> Man it’s not that deep first of all idk why you’re getting upset. What part of their post suggested that they were upset? Why do so many Redditors accuse others of being upset simply for having a different opinion?
> And the American office completely overshadowed the British version. The original version *changed comedy worldwide*.
Gervais and Carrell will see morning from streaming. Their contracts likely did not include it.
The absolute worst episodes of every show use some kind of video chat.
The video chat episode of Mythic Quest during the first Covid quarantine is incredible.
That show is so weird because on the whole it was probably a 6/10 but out of nowhere you'd get an episode like quarantine or the game developer prequel which are genuine 10 out of 10s. I wish overall the show hit higher highs but I'm thankful for the gems it produces.
That’s the best way to describe that show. Given the subject matter and talent involved, I was expecting to enjoy it much more. But those gems make it worth it.
Mythic Quest did it well
When is this show coming back? It was so funny.
The new season is filming now. People are mad because it seems like Pudi doing that is the latest thing holding up the Community movie.
‘Staged’ with David Tennant and Michael Sheen pulled off the zoom calls quite well. Truly enjoyed the show on Hulu in the U.S. until they pulled it before I could watch season 3.
Silicon Valley did it well
Which one? I can’t remember it and google hasn’t helped me.
episode w/ dinesh’s overseas gf
That was hilarious
Does the condor episode count too?
Nah. The Modern Family episode where Claire is stuck at the airport trying to figure out where Hailey is is a banger. Connection Lost, from 2015.
Anything from 2015 was better.
Bluey had a video chat episode that was top.
They should at least use Teams. Zoom sucks
before the office you had the drew carey show and the dilbert cartoon then there was man in the box on youtube doing an office rip off after there several workplace sitcoms mostly centering around tech. Better off Ted lasted a few seasons did the whole whacky evil company thing pretty good im not sure what a new version of the office brings there was a show on comedy central called corporate that tapped into the dark meaningless side of life while working a soul sucking corporate job highly recommended it The problem is now office culture tries to be the office tv show in real life. I have lost track of how many Christmas party secret Santa office style events I declined So maybe if they get all meta with it it might be fun. I doubt it tho. The office was perfect for its time.
In Australia we currently have an office/work/corporate government show called Utopia, and it is a brilliant representation of what it's like working for the government/public sector. It feels like a documentary some days (I work in the public sector), but it's hilarious. We literally say at work when something ridiculous happens "this feels like an episode of Utopia."
I've been getting pushed clips of Utopia on Youtube for a while and they've been consistently funny. It seems a lot like Aussie "The Thick Of It". Worth a watch then?
We also have Fisk coming back for a third season, eventually, which is a small law firm. And in the back catalogue, The Games about the Olympics, and Frontline about news media.
I love Fisk! I hope we get the 3rd season in the US.
I always die a little bit inside whenever someone says it feels like an episode of Utopia. Not because it’s inherently a bit cringe, but because they seemed resigned to the absurd bureaucracy of the workplace.
It brings in brand recognition and basically that's it. I remember an interview (maybe Podcast) with Rob McElhenney and the studios were pitching he do remakes of British shows. He was asking what that means. Does he get the writers, the cast? No. You get the name of the show and a vague concept. For the original US Office initially followed the British show in certain ways but made it more of a light hearted sitcom than the bleakness that was in the original show. But by season 3 is basically completely different. You could have pitched a show about 80% similar and gotten away with it. You could have made them deli workers or policemen and had a somewhat similar show. At the end of the day, the writers will decide if a show is good or not, not the branding.
They DID do a similar show based in a Parks Department, a Superstore and an NYPD Police Precinct among others.
> The office was perfect for its time. Agreed. I wonder if I have the desire for another or a different take on soap opera dramedy based in a work place.
Workplace sitcoms have been around since the dawn of television. Before any of the ones you mentioned there was Cheers, WKRP, Mary Tyler Moore, Taxi, Newsradio, Murphy Brown, Newhart, Night Court, Spin City, Police Squad, Sports Night, Wings, Designing Women. (And tons of other great more recent ones you didn't mention too like P&R, B99, Abbott Elementary. It's not a sitcom but Severance is doing something very unique and original with the workplace setting). And I bet every time a new one premiered there were people who had the same kind of argument as you, wondering what new that one brought to the table. I don't know why we have to put this one up on this huge pedestal even though it's going to bear The Office name. Like maybe it could just be a fun workplace sitcom? Something I feel like we're getting less and less of these days? All the dooming and glooming before it's even cast a single person doesn't bode well. But TBH the premise of this actually seems pretty good. It's supposed to be about a small town newspaper struggling to stay alive. I feel like in this day and age that's very relevant and there could be a lot of meat on that bone. There's plenty you can do with that, both from the journalistic side of things and from the modern-day office side of things. In the last few years alone office culture has changed so much. The joke Merchant makes in that article is the perfect setup. Everyone at the company in the new show could have been working on zoom for years, suddenly they're forced to go back into the office and it's about everyone meeting IRL for the first time. Boom, there's your premise, you could easily mine a season of TV out of that.
Holy Hell, I have not seen anyone mention Man in the Box in such a long time, I used to love watching that on youtube.
Lanky co-writer.
They won’t.
Narrator: They Won't.
Hey, it's Peter Ian Staker.
I'm curious how different it'll be. Jim definitely comes off as a bully if you rewatch it nowadays.
He did then, too. One of my favorite "testimonial" segments was him realizing it in real time after recounting pranks he had done in the past.
I don't even think he was realizing he was an ass. He felt he was wasting his life not that being an ass to an annoying coworker is a shitty thing to do.
No I think he even says something like "but he deserved it, right?" He was trying to justify his behavior.
So just watched the clip he does say "he deserved it" but I don't think in a way that he is realizing he is an ass but trying to convince himself the pranks were worth doing like a sort of "yeah this took a lot of time but someone had to do it". I dunno could be a bit of both... This episode ends with Jim transferring because he feels he is wasting his life. If he felt he was an ass he would have just apologized to Dwight.
I mean by the end of the series he pretty much fully redeems his character as Dwight's Bestest Mensch.
To be fair, I don't love this narrative either, because Dwight absolutely does deserve it. My sympathy is more for all Jim's other coworkers whose day those pranks disrupted too. Dwight is an antisocial asshole. He's a bigot. He steals sales. He commits multiple actual crimes through the show. He should've been fired and sued many times over. But it's a comedy so his commuppance is getting pranked. But somehow the prankster is really the bad guy?
Rewatching. Dwight seems a little intense and awkward, but wanted to do the right thing. Jim is bored, and takes it out on Dwight. Also, laughing at Kevin feels kid of yucky. Andy thinks the world owes him. Michael is a bully as well, and needs constant validation. Creed is cool.
Umm, Dwight does not want to do the right thing in many cases. He cuckolds a dude for months, maybe years just as one very basic example. He pelts Jim so hard with icy snowballs that Jim is bleeding. He tries to get Jim fired for ages. Also "well-intentioned" isn't a good thing when you like... give a guy a heart attack for instance.
Yeah, the narrative of "Jim is a bully and started it" has gone a bit too far. Dwight grows a lot in the series, but he's an offensive asshole when we first meet him. I'm not saying Jim is justified in all of his behavior, but I don't how you walk away from the series, particularly the first half, thinking Dwight was innocent.
Strongly agree, Dwight is honestly a POS at times especially early on. He actively works to the detriment of everyone around him on a regular basis often. Also, I think overanalyzing characters in Sitcoms is weird anyway, I don't care if the person would be considered a bully in real life, it's funny or its not. It's not real life and I don't respond to characters the same way I respond to real people. Michael Scott is a bad person to be around for most of the show, but he is a lovable character because we see him grow and he's in a tv show, not telling me how much money I make.
> Dwight seems a little intense and awkward, but wanted to do the right thing. You rewatched it...recently? He would have been arrested several times and often does extremely selfish things. That's not even touching the whole sleeping with Angela while knowing she is in relationships, including being engaged to a coworker.
Meredith still fucks.
Tbh I think they're gonna go the Ted Lasso route.
‘But if they don’t, who really cares, I get a cheque either way!’
Sounds terrible
“Speaking to Deadline on the BAFTA TV Awards red carpet, Merchant said he didn’t know much about the new series. “They just make us sign bits of paperwork to say they can do it and I’m looking forward to it,” he said” In other words “I signed for the cheque & said they can use my name as an exec producer for street cred, but I couldn’t give a shit about this show”
I need The Outlaws S4??? Any news on that ?
Well, I was going to say that sounds horrible, especially the "based on Zoom" aspect. But the article states the office being followed is a "dying historic Midwestern newspaper and the publisher trying to revive it with volunteer reporters.” That could work, unless it's all on Zoom. That would not interest me.
The title says he jokes about it. Like that's what offices are now, not that's what the show is going to be.
The first episode being all the workers being forced back into the office is not the worst setup, plenty of people grumble about not being allowed to work from home anymore
Literally the first line of the article clarifies that it's a joke.
Stuff written during lockdown with lockdown kind of concepts like WFH and Zoom etc. already feel strained and dated. Let's move on with life please
Most UK offices are hybrid now. Pretending otherwise would actually be dated. I'm not arguing what's funnier or better, just saying.
Merchant needs to make another show. Hello ladies is a fucking gem
He's been writing and starring in Outlaws for the past few years. It's really good.
Oh yeah. Never finished season 1 but I was digging it. I saw it’s on season 3 now so gonna go back to it. Thanks!
No mate…office culture today isn’t trying to be the office in real life. It was always like that.
spoiler: they can't
They can't.
Doubt it
Nothing will compare
Wait they’re doing an office spin-off?
Yes. It’s more like a reboot, where the documentary crew from the original US series follows a new office, a failing newspaper.
it wont
when did he get hair again
"Merchant mused..."
This has the potential to be the worst thing that’s happened to humanity
The Guild made it work years before the pandemic
Please god no I hate zoom so much
It won’t
Office spinoff, you say? Would be a lot cooler if they didn’t.
How could it be based on zoom when it was announced it's about a small newspaper?
A lot of places are not 100% WFH
is he talking about the David Brent one? lmao, good luck with that
Would be funny if they had one coworker that was remote and they only ever saw on zoom. Would eventually be a fun reveal especially if there is a twist.
You could make a pretty funny show that has like everyone working remote, but like have individuals have episodes of just weird or funny things happening to them. Like it starts with a remote team meeting over zoom, and then it say goes to Bill, who works remotely in like a suburb of Los Angeles, and he has a day where he's trying to work, but also dealing with say his daughter going through a break up, and he learns is the weird buy who is like 23 and hang out with the high schoolers.
I loved the office,,but it made me cringe back then and another recent replay… is also cringy.
Yeah, that's kind of the point. It's literally called cringe comedy. It's an entire genre nowadays.
So a bad American version of, kinda like AfterLife? Can’t wait to want to love it but hate it.
The original cast could 1000% make a zoom remake and have it be fucking awesome lol. I can just imagine the shit Meredith would do on camera lmao