Well I haven't been here in a few days because I got tired about talking about my current topic, The Office, and really saying nothing at all. Here on the home front the girls' two rooms got painted by my mom and dad (I'm spoiled; actually it was a gift to the girls with matching comforters), some of the gardens and flower beds are less weedy and I've done a little more school work.
Now let's finish these this business about Jim and Pam and their office cohorts. Meredith, could anyone be that inappropriate at the office and not be fired? Well, Meredith can. My favorite episodes that, for me, exemplify her behavior are as follows. In one episode, Meredith the alcoholic lights her hair on fire at an office party and is too drunk to notice. Michael, later in the episode attempts to drag her, practically by the hair, to a rehab centre only to find out that you can't drop someone off their. I think he comes in to tell them that he has a "deposit" or something. Second, in the episode where they have casual Friday, Meredith the inappropriate wears a very short dress (which is probably just a skirt). When Toby asks her to pull it down to extend the length the result is not pretty. Actually, I assume it's not pretty because the top half of her is blurred out.
Angela, conservative, right wing, Angela. Her office parties are about as lame as mine, though I do not share her obsession with "The Little Drummer Boy."
Hey, The Office is on right now!
Anyway, I watched an episode the other day where Angela said that the clothes at Gap Kids were too racy so she goes to a doll store to order clothes for large, colonial dolls. I am a pretty conservative person myself and this seems a little over the top even to me. Her conservative nature takes a little holiday when it comes to Dwight.
I really wanted to save Dwight for last because he is the most exaggerated of all the characters in the office but everything I write about Angela leads me to him. Angela might have great lines about colonial clothing, but Dwight's dead-pan one-liners really top anyone else's in the entire show. One of my favourites occurs in the episode where Dwight shows the audience all the weapons he has hidden around the office and says he thinks it is "better to be accidentally hurt by someone you know than to be hurt on purpose by someone you don't know." I relish Dwight's "wisdom." I think I already mentioned the episode where he lights the office on fire to teach the office workers a lesson about fire safety.
I never realized how under-qualified Kevin was for his position until lately. I heard the other accountants speak of his inadequate numerical intelligence but in one episode, Michael intimate that Kevin actually came in to the office looking for a job in the warehouse but Michael saw potential in him, apparently a lot of potential because he hired him to work in the book-keeping department on the spot. There is the episode where someone convinces Holly, a replacement when Toby takes a vacation, that Kevin is mentally handicapped. Let's just say it's not really a stretch for her to believe it.
Finally (I think) Andy, I sort of understand Andy and I actually think that he harmonizes fairly well which is sort of lame on my part but I spent a lot of hours in the "music hallway" at school in position as one of the school "artsies" in high school. So what, I had some musical talent. I'm no American Idol but .... He's really over the top and proves so in a dance off at Jim and Pam's wedding when he severs his nether regions when attempting a "banana split" move. His obsession (at his age) with his college singing group is a little weird.
Maybe these things happen in real life. Maybe office employees could be this strange or this stereotyped. All in the same office? In reality would a boss really hire someone to work as an accountant when they have no training? Could someone really be the quality assurance manager when their own quality is not assured? Would someone start the office on fire and only get reprimanded and lose his position as safety manager? Could a boss, oblivious to his own racist, sexist . . . attitude, actions and comments really run the most productive office in the entire company? Perhaps, but I contend that most of the characters are exaggerated versions of the real life counterparts that give us the ability to laugh despite the fact that in some small and weird ways ways they resemble people with whom we work, live or spend time.
Except for Jim and Pam.
As major characters, their lives are rather ordinary. They live. They work. They fall in love, despite the chaos of the office and the small disturbances of the office employees in the wedding plans. And, like many of us want to, they escape everything to be by themselves and to get married in front of strangers in the presence of a boat Captain, next to Niagra Falls. Then they share their second wedding with the friends and family. I cry every time.
And then I laugh when everyone dances up the aisle, Kevin knocks over the flowers and Dwight kicks a bridesmaid in the face.
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