The Office (2005 TV series): Difference between revisions
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It has been much better received than most American remakes and become one of the most acclaimed comedies on TV today, winning accolades in particular for the performances of Carell and the rest of the cast. The US version also spawned ''[[Parks and Recreation]]''.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Aborted Arc]]: Current showrunner Paul Lieberstein has admitted that Jim's {{spoiler|demotion back to Assistant Regional Manager, after being promoted half a season earlier}} was a result of poor audience response to the change and Dwight's resulting plot to {{spoiler|seriously get him fired}}. This meant that the Ryan-Dwight alliance established at the end of "Scott's Tots" lead to nothing, as the Jim plot ended four episodes later.
** Similarly, Season 4 was clearly setting up a Jim-yearns-for-more arc (probably to mirror the major [[Character Development]] arc Pam had gone through the year before) but the season was cut short due to the writer's strike.
** The romance between Dwight and Isabella is another example. The last episode she appeared in left it looking like they were simpatico.
* [[Above the Influence]]: Pam would've done anything with Jim (and even kisses him before he can react) in "The Dundies", but Jim just makes sure she gets her ride home.
** Jim also displays this in "After Hours", when Kathy makes unwelcome advances towards him: Avoiding her, inviting Stanley to join them, tricking Dwight into the room, gently rebuffing her, and finally asking her to leave outright.
* [[Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male]]: Jan and Michael's sexual relationship is very clearly exploitive and would easily be [[Dude, Not Funny]] if their [[Stealth Pun|positions were reversed]]. However, we really only hear his side of things, and he appears to dish out as much as he gets in "The Dinner Party". In the end, while it's played for laughs, the abuse is not portrayed as "okay". They both spar verbally, but physically Jan is shown to clearly be the aggressor, starting with "forgetting" the [[Safe Word]] and culminating with Michael declining to press charges and police advising him to leave his condo to stay with Dwight after she breaks his prized flat-screen TV with one of his Dundee in a rage.
* [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]: The documentary format can raise the question of just how long these people are going to keep filming before they have a finished product. And if it's a TV show in-universe as well, apparently none of the characters actually watch it. Fans tend to let it go for the sake of the jokes.
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** Andy tearing his scrotum. It SOUNDS funny...
** Meredith getting bit by a rabid bat. The rabies was diagnosed... after Michael hit her with his car and cracked her pelvis.
** Andy's doing a Parkour high jump right on top of an ''empty''
** Andy's bloody nipples during the rabies fundraising race.
* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: Oscar described Ryan's illegal maneuvering as such:
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** Michael's ''Blair Witch'' style new hiree introduction video.
* [[Batman Gambit]]:
** How Pam manages to get a new job in the office in Season
** Michael goading Dwight into using the information from the notes he stole into losing his biggest client to the Michael Scott Paper Company.
* [[Beach Episode]]: ...sort of.
* [[The Beard]]: Oscar's [[Gaydar]] helps him to realize that Angela is [[The Beard]] for her new politician boyfriend. Pam, meanwhile, denies that this trope even exists.
* [[Benevolent Boss]]: Michael likes to think of himself as being one of these.
** Jo Bennett also seems to qualify.
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** Again Michael, this time when being counseled for the public spanking of his nephew. He was apparently probed by Alf and raised by wolves. He was twenty-five years old before he saw his first human being.
* [[Board Game]]: An old Board Game adaptation of the [[CBS]] show ''[[Dallas]]'' is sold by Kevin to Andy in "Garage Sale", and leads to a subplot in the episode.
* [[Booby Trap]]: When Dwight is in Tallahassee and looks like he's about to be promoted and stay, the office decides to find out what's in the box he left marked "treasure". Fearing it might be booby trapped they get the most insane person in the office (Creed) to open it. When he does the only thing that seems to be inside is a picture of everyone there. At first, they're touched but then a dart suddenly shoots out and up into the ceiling. Dwight TH's innocently that he had no idea it was rigged with a poison dart!
* [[Book Ends]]: Holly Flax first appears in the episode "Goodbye, Toby". Her last appearance (to date) is in "Goodbye, Michael".
* [[Bowling for Ratings]]: Where Ryan is recruited for The Michael Scott Paper Company.
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** Earlier episodes suggest Kelly isn't as dumb as she acts, given the winks and eyebrow-raises she makes to the camera after particularly clueless statements.
* [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick]]: An actual food-related example with Dwight's machine during "Secret Santa".
* [[Break the Cutie]]: Erin Hannon in "Secretary's Day". So apparently, you can pretend to fire her, make fun of her behind her back, and smuggle a flock of geese into her car, but tell her that her boyfriend used to date another co-worker and you're [[Deader Than Dead]].
** Some of those other events did seem to upset her. But what probably [[Berserk Button|sent her over the edge]] was that it was Angela, the antithesis of Erin.
* [[Brick Joke]]: In "Casual Friday", Dwight sends out an innocuous looking memo with a secret message. He gleefully reveals to the camera that the invisible ink is actually urine. When Michael asks him to send a second one around, we see Dwight preparing the second memo by using Ryan's coffee mug.
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* [[Brilliant but Lazy]]: Jim.
** Once news of impending bankruptcy surfaced he matter-of-factly tells the camera that he only screws around when things are going well.
* [[Broken Aesop]]: One of the things that Pam learns during her [[Character Development]] arc in Season Three is the importance of taking risks when you're unsatisfied with the current state of your career... except that the risks she takes, such as art school, joining the Michael Scott Paper Company, trying to be a salesperson, keep turning out not to be worth it and [[Unfortunate Implications|get her disliked by other members of the cast]]. She does [[Failure Is the Only Option|as badly as people say she will.]] And with the addition of [[Foil|Erin, who makes the best of the receptionist job that Pam doesn't think much of]], it's starting to look like the best option would have been to adjust perspective on the whole thing. Arguably justified since teaching life lessons is probably way down on the show's list of priorities; it's all about comedy.
** YMMV. This is all part and parcel with her larger lesson about taking risks, which works out [[They Do|pretty well for her.]]
** Arguably, the old Pam wouldn't have been able to do things like con her way {{spoiler|into her job as Office Manager}} without having pushed herself to go through those experiences.
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* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]: Dwight, Michael, and Jim (to a lesser extent) are only tolerated by management because of their sales records.
** Jim's rapport with customers was implied to be the main reason Dunder Mifflin keep promoting him.
* [[The Bus Came Back]]: For several characters. Roy, Karen, Todd Packer... one entire episode was focused on Michael revisiting all his old girlfriends.
* [[The Butler Did It]]: Inverted by Dwight. When he ends up as the Butler character in a murder mystery dinner party game, he immediately turns into the [[Munchkin]] hard-ass detective and starts [[Perp Sweating]] every other character.
* [[Butt Monkey]]: Dwight, re: his relationship with Jim. Jim has next to no respect for Dwight, so Mr. Schrute routinely finds himself to be the go-to guy when Jim is bored and in a pranking mood. Dwight does, on rare occasion, get his own back.
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'''Michael''': Your advice was good, but Jan's was bigger.}}
** Several seasons later, Erin the new receptionist makes a new friend out of an old lady she meets in Florida. Erin tells the old lady that her boyfriend Andy rejected her, and the old lady answers with "With those gazongas?".
* [[California Doubling]]:
** Particularly [[Egregious]] example in "Goodbye, Michael" - Deangelo and Andy are seen driving down a typical Southern California boulevard and California-style street signs are clearly visible.
* [[Call Back]]: "Christmas Party" ends with a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Minor Moment of Heartwarming]] when Michael is invited to drinks at Poor Richard's with his co-workers; "E-Mail Surveillance" had focused on how much everyone in the office (and even everyone in Michael's improv class) would lie to avoid Michael following them to social events outside work.
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** Mirrored when {{spoiler|Michael proposes to Holly while the two are being drenched by fire sprinklers. Considering there was a discussion earlier in the episode about Jim and Pam's example above, one has to wonder whether or not that was intentional}}.
* [[Cavemen vs. Astronauts Debate]]: Is ''[[Hilary Swank]]'' hot or not?
* [[Celebrity Paradox]]: In the Season 4 episode "Money", Michael Scott critiques the film ''[[Live Free or Die Hard]]''. In Season
** Michael also mentions watching ''[[The Wire]]'' a season or two before they started taking notes from that show's casting director.
** With [[Will Ferrell]]'s guest run in Season 7, who in the ''Office''-verse stars in Michael's beloved ''[[A Night at the Roxbury]]''?
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* [[Gratuitous French]]: When tagging along to the Winnipeg business trip, Andy brushes up on his French which he practices profusely before leaving. There is virtually no one in Winnipeg who actually speaks French, most of the French-speaking Canadian population being concentrated in the eastern portion of Canada.
* [[Gratuitous Japanese]]/[[Did Not Do the Research]]: "Sempai" (先輩) does not mean a person is an assistant [[Running Gag|(to the)]] sensei. It is a term of respect used to refer to a superior or person of higher rank. The title is accurate given Dwight's rather high ranking in the dojo, however.
* [[Groin Attack]]: Andy manages to do this ''to himself'' when he tears his scrotum doing a split in "Niagara
** Not be outdone, Dwight, shortly thereafter in the episode "Murder", manages to ''sneak attack himself'' with a groin punch.
** When Sabre CEO Jo Bennet comes to Dunder-Mifflin, she brings her enormous Great Danes. They spend ''the entire episode'' with their faces jammed in Andy's crotch.
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* [[Le Parkour]]: Mocked in the Season Six premiere, when Andy, Dwight, and Michael "parkour" through the office. It's basically them jumping on furniture and kicking things over while [[Title Drop|shouting "parkour!"]]
* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Than the UK version.
** Not always. The Season Four episode "Dinner Party" was very, very dark for US network TV and Jan's relationship with
* [[Like a Weasel]]: Andy in season three.
* [[Literal Metaphor]]: "Gay Witch Hunt".
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* [[Living Prop]]: A number of the minor characters in the early episodes, especially the pilot, before they were really fleshed out. Most of the background cast from the different branches and the warehouse still qualify.
* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]
* [[Logic Bomb]]:
{{quote|'''Dwight:''' Jim is my enemy. But it turns out that Jim is also his own worst enemy. And the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So Jim...is actually my friend. ...''But.'' Because he is his own worst enemy, the enemy of my friend is my enemy, so actually Jim is my enemy... '''But.'''}}
* [[Lonely At the Top]]: Jim felt it during his stint as manager.
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** Jim realizing that ''he'' had to resolve the conflict between Dwight and Andy after they challenged each other to a duel over Angela.
{{quote|'''Jim:''' (to the camera) I have two choices. I could get more involved. Or I could just take the afternoon off. Leaving Dwight in charge. ''Oh god.''}}
** At the end of "Goodbye, Michael", there was a rare moment where Jim
{{quote|'''Dwight:''' Uh-oh.
''[Jim mournfully nods in agreement]''}}
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* [[The Peter Principle]]: Michael is the living embodiment of this. He used to be a great salesman; because of this, he was promoted, and ended up in a position for which he's absolutely unqualified.
* [[Pet the Dog]]: Michael and Dwight get these moments every now and then, in order to balance out their [[Jerkass]] personalities. And everyone in the office has had at least one, except for Creed.
* [[Pixellation]]: Used to hilarious effect in "
* [[Pointy-Haired Boss]]: Jan, Ryan, Charles, Deangelo. Double subverted with Michael. He seems like this at first, but it's later made clear that he's not only a very good salesman, he's the ''best salesman in the company's history''. It is then almost immediately made obvious that, despite his sales acumen, he is an absolutely ''terrible'' manager.
* [[Poirot Speak]]: Michael adopts the ridiculous "How you say?" mannerisms when speaking English to an English-speaking Canadian.
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** Michael does this a lot, though it's arguably [[Justified Trope|justified]] in that it's completely in character for him to do so.
** One episode has Kevin gushing over his shredder. The very first commercial of the next break was for the exact same shredder.
** Dwight and Jim both play ''[[Second Life]]'' in one episode. Reasonably accurate game footage is shown.
** "Dwight, do you want an Altoid?"
** Jim sucks at ''[[Call of Duty]]''.
** Countchoculitis.
** The 2005 Dundies Award Show is held at Chili's. Michael and Jan later take an important client there to work out a big sale.
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* [[Troperiffic]]: Michael's movie '[[Show Within a Show|Threat Level: Midnight]]'.
* [[True Art Is Angsty]]: Ryan's [http://www.thousandandonewords.com/ photo blog] is an in-universe example; it exists as a means for him to sound deep so that he can talk women into doing erotic photography. [[It's Not Porn, It's Art]], afterall.
* [[True Companions]]: By the
** The Michael Scott Paper Company were briefly shown as something like this after everything they went through together in that arc, but this faded away after the following episodes.
** Taken to its apex when {{spoiler|Michael proposed to Holly. After everything the staff has been through, you know their goodbye will be bittersweet}}.
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* [[Tyrant Takes the Helm]]: Charles Miner. When he's introduced he bullies Michael for no reason, and to cement his position he gets on to Jim for dressing too formally (he was wearing a tux as part of a social experiment) and to Dwight for not dressing formally ''enough'' (making him wear a white shirt with full-length sleeves instead of a short-sleeved yellow one).
** Deangelo Vickers shows a bit of this {{spoiler|during his extremely brief managerial reign}}.
** When Dwight becomes acting manager he forces everyone to use an antiquated and dangerous punch clock, staggers their lunches so everyone eats alone, changes everyone's title to Junior Employee and has everyone enter a twenty one digit code
*** Prior to that, Dwight has repeatedly shown a fondness and/or lobbied for Draconian policies in the office and whenever given any power he instantly imposes them. Which begs the question of who thinks it is a good idea to give him any in the first place.
* [[Un Entendre]]: From Michael and Dwight, of all people.
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* [[Weirdness Coupon]]: See [[Contractual Immortality]] above. The employees of the Scranton branch get a lot of leeway since they belong to the most successful branch, so they stay on in spite of some incredibly weird shenanigans.
* [[We Want Our Jerk Back]]: Played with twice with Dwight. Subverted the first time; he gets a concussion and is a lot more pleasant to be around. When they realize what's up, they have to take him to the hospital, and it's clear that everyone (and especially Pam) will miss "nice Dwight" when he's gone. The second time, he quits, and things are a lot less smooth at the office without him, until Michael convinces him to come back.
** And for Michael when is he is replaced by Charles Miner in Season
* [[Wham! Episode]]: "New Boss".
** "Special Project".
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** Pause... "98% sure."
*** In the same episode, Michael refers to [[Ben Franklin]] as one of our most popular Presidents.
** When Michael hides the Sabre leads from the sales teams and organizes a scavenger hunt to teach them a lesson, Jim's first clue is "look under the first american president." Jim looks in the parking lot and finds his next clue under a ''Ford Lincoln
* [[You Fail Logic Forever]]: After Meredith is hospitalized (Michael hit her with his car), Angela's cat dies (Dwight murdered it because it was "weak"), and Pam's computer crashes (she was downloading porn), Michael comes to the honest conclusion that Toby is Satan, and has placed a curse upon [[The Office]].
** It's pretty safe to say that 90-99% of Michael's thought process falls under this trope.
{{quote|'''Jim:''' I've been studying Michael for years and I've condensed what I've learned into this chart. (holds up pie chart) "How Michael Spends His Time." You can see we have "procrastinating," and "distracting others," and this tiny sliver here, (points to a pencil thick line) is "critical thinking." I made it bigger. So that you could see it.}}
* [[You Fail Mathematics Forever]]: Michael believes 47+9=53... after he goes through it on paper.
** Kevin's mental math leading him to conclude Pam weighs 230 pounds. Or pretty much any math he does, really. It explains a lot that Michael confesses to Erin in "Scott's Tots" that Kevin had applied to the warehouse, but Michael [[Horrible Judge of Character|had a good feeling about Kevin as an accountant.]]
*** Kevin's spelling is equally bad as he proves in the Cookie Monster parody plot:
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