The IT Crowd: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"I'm told my father was particularly proud of the IT department, run by a [[Plucky Office Girl|dynamic go-getter]], a [[Genius Ditz|genius]], and a [[My Friends and Zoidberg|man from Ireland]]."''|'''Douglas Reynholm''', ''The IT Crowd'' }}

'''''The IT Crowd''''' was a British [[Sitcom]] with four seasons between 2006 and 2013, written by Graham Linehan (of ''[[Father Ted]]'' and ''[[Black Books]]'' fame), set in the fictitious Reynholm Industries, a prominent London-based corporation filled with "[[The Beautiful Elite|a lot of sexy people]] [[One-Hour Work Week|not doing much work]] and [[Everybody Has Lots of Sex|having affairs]]"." Unfortunately for them, the "standard nerds" who make up the IT Department are not part of this glamorous world. Consigned to the squalid basement, they're looked down upon and disregarded by everyone else despite their skills keeping the entire place running smoothly.

The series debuted in 2006 and is still ongoing. It focuses on the team of Roy (Chris O'Dowd), the surly and slovenly comic book fan; Moss (Richard Ayoade), a naive, innocently tactless and stereotypically geeky mother's boy; and the new manager Jen (Katherine Parkinson), a twitchy career-woman who, despite her complete lack of technical understanding and computer know-how, ''almost'' possesses a valuable ability the two geeks sorely lack -- social skills.

* [[A-Team Montage]]: The pilot episode uses this - with the''[[The A-Team]]'' music included as a [[Brick Joke]] since Denholm had mentioned the A-Team earlier when telling the IT Department how much he loved teams.

** In one episode, when recommendedrecommending a restaurant called "Messy Joe's" to Jen, Moss pronounces it "Meh-SEE-joes", causing Jen to think it was an Italian restaurant.

{{quote|'''Douglas:''' It's like being tazedtased in the balls, onlyexcept painful.}}

'''Jen''': Wait a minute... "The Elders of the Internet?" The ''Elders'' of the Internet (''excitedly'') know who I am?! }}

* [[Bedmate Reveal]]: The end of Series One1.

** Cuke from the same episode. "It“It's like heaven in a can!"” (oddly enough, later episodes just referenced Coke instead of Cuke).

*** Played straight and averted simultaneously in the same episode when Roy orders a "Bacardi“Bacardi and Cuke"Cuke” at the bar.

** Jitter from seriesSeries four4.

** "''Calamity Jen"'' probably has the most obvious examples.

** In the third series, Jen sues Douglas for sexual harassment. During the settlement meeting Jen is wearing a large pair of sunglasses that cover her eyes entirely causing Douglas to accuse her of sleeping at one point which she immediately denies. In the last episode of seriesSeries four4, when Douglas' wife is divorcing him, she wears a similar pair of sunglasses to the settlement meeting. During the meeting Douglas suggests she is wearing the glasses to hide her fear, but it's then revealed she's actually just asleep.

** The plot of ''"The Haunting of Bill Crouse''" is briefly mentioned in the episode ''"The Speech".''

'''Jen:''' "No, everyone thought I was dead." }}

* [[Brilliant but Lazy]]: Roy's entire work-ethic. In one episode, he hooked up a tape-recorder to the phone with his side of the conversation ''[[The Tape Knew You Would Say That|pre-recorded]]'', simply so he didn't have to bother answering the same old inane IT questions again and again.

* [[British Brevity]]: Like most UK comedy shows, the show only has only has six 30thirty-minute episodes per season. It will endended in 20122013 after four seasons and aan hour-long special.

* [[Call Back]]: Douglas asks Moss to call 999 in Series 3, to which he responds that that isn't the number anymore, and starts to sing the [[Ridiculously Long Phone Number|jingle from Series 1, Episode 2]]. "0118 999 88199 9119 725... 3".

** "Have you tried sticking it up your arse?" {{spoiler|(Accidentally said by Roy to his own mother.)}}

{{quote|''I came here to drink milk... and kick ass. And I've just finished my milk.''}}

* [[Chew Toy]] / [[Butt Monkey]]: Roy, who's arguably the most notoriously unlucky of the cast, qualifies as either of these, depending on how sympathetically he's portrayed in any of the episodes.

** Jen shouts a string of mostly profanity at a Japanese executive after he stomps on her injured foot by mistake. The executive is confused for a bit . . . until his interpreter begins to [[Crowning Moment of Funny|repeat the tirade for him in Japanese]]. [[Played for Laughs]] even more in that all the cursing by Jen was bleeped out - to the characters and not just the audience, as it is revealed one of Denholm's subordinates was slamming a big red "Profanity Button" on the wall at every cuss word. Denholm follows this up by immediately turning to Jen and shouting "You fucked up!" at her, which the subordinate is too late to bleep out.

** The "Did you see that ludicrous display last night?" conversation makes a comeback in seriesSeries 4.

** A minor one, when Jen applies for a new job, she references that she knows and is a fan of Guided By Voices, a band she admits she wouldn't know if she wasn't at the IT. This is a nod to the song "Game of Pricks", by the same band, that appears at the end of the episode "The Dinner Party episode".

** "Reynholm vs. Reynholm" has a bunch, including a reference to Douglas's fight with his transsexual ex-girlfriend, Roy testifying about getting kissed on the bottom, and {{spoiler|the return of Richmond.}}.

* [[Courtroom Antics]]: Including a fake heart attack {{spoiler|from Douglas}}, a jury of [[The Comically Serious]], and a sex tape based on ''[[Star Trek]]'' {{spoiler|also from Douglas}}.

** Graham Linehan appears in the chaos at the end of Jen's Employee of the Month speech, as a member of the Mariachi band in the episode "Fifty-Fifty,", and the "Blind Irish Sorcerer" from "Men Without Women.".

* [[A Day in the Limelight]]: The seasonSeries 4 finale "Reynholm vs Reynholm" focuses primarily on Douglas - while Jen is still heavily featured, Roy and Moss have only very brief appearances.

** Also, in "Italian forFor Beginners", Moss [[Not Really a Birth Scene|giving birth]] to an iPhone.

* [[Fail O'Suckyname]]: Peter File. Say it outloud. Now say it outloud with a strong britishBritish accent.

* [[Fake-Out Make-Out]]: See also, [[Crowning Moment of Funny]].

* [[The Fun in Funeral]] -: Douglas burst into his father's funeral, [[Incoming Ham|ran up the aisle screaming]] '''''"FATHERRRRRRRRR!"''''' and got into a slap fight with [[The Vicar]]. This was after Roy's phone went off in his pocket making him think he'd had a heart attack, and Moss had compared the death to losing a pen.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: In 4x1Series 4 Episode 1 ("Jen theThe Fredo"), the visiting out-of-town businessmen say "Eiffel Tower" a few times while high-fiving. "Eiffel Tower" can mean a high five in a different context.

* [[Gilligan Cut]]: In "Are We Not Men?", Roy promises Moss he won't go in too deep pretending to be a football fan. Cut to them attending a match.

** In "Jen theThe Fredo", Jen assures Roy that businessmen are different from what they were in the seventies. Cut to Reynholm laughing with a pack of visiting businessmen, apparently having just finished a discussion about their balls.

* [[Hacker Cave]]: theThe office basement where the IT department is located.

"Dom, get on to recruitment. Get them to look for a security team that can work as a ''team''. They may have to escort the current security team from the building for not acting like a '''team'''." }}

* [[Have You Tried Rebooting|Have You Tried Turning It Off And On Again?]]: orOr, [[Expospeak Gag|if you prefer]], Have You Tried Forcing An Unexpected Reboot?

** Played for laughs in the episode '"Moss Andand Thethe German'".

* [[I Am Not Shazam]]: To quote Douglas: "Well, I'm the boss, head honcho, ''[[Gratuitous Spanish|el numero uno]]'', Mr. Big, [[The Godfather]], [[The Lord of the Rings]], [[The Bourne Identity]], er... [[Taxi Driver]], [[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]... [[Metaphorgotten|Forgot the question a while ago.]]"

* [[Incoming Ham]]: theThe very first time we see Douglas is his throwing open the doors of a church [[The Fun in Funeral|in the middle of a funeral]], [[Milking the Giant Cow]] and [[Skyward Scream|Skyward Screaming]] "[[Big Word Shout|FATHERRRRRR!]]"

* [[It's Not You, It's Me]]: "No actually, it is you."

* [[Juggling Loaded Guns]]: Douglas opens a random drawer and finds a unloaded revolver. Whilst attempting to conceal it, he accidentally shoots himself in the leg after putting bullets in it, and spends the rest of the episode trying to hide his injury from his staff. Amusingly, that happens after he checks if it's loaded by ''putting the gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger five times.''. He is supposed to be [[Too Dumb to Live]], but ''damn''.

* [[Large Ham]]: Both Reynholms. '''''[[Incoming Ham|"FATHERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"]]''''' Douglas comes across extremely unintelligent and oafish at first, but becomes more eccentric like his father in seriesSeries 4.

* [[Left the Background Music On]]: Twice in "The Haunting of Bill Crouse", Moss seems to have a dramatic epiphany accompanied by a '''DUN-DUN-DUUUN!''', only for the music to turn out to be his mobile phone's ringtone.

'''Moss:''' Yes. One of those. }}

* [[Menstrual Menace]]: Jen transforms into some sort of demon women when she gets angry during PMS / PMT.

* [[Metaphorgotten]]: The boss' speech in ''"Calamity Jen''":

* [[My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels]]: Jen cannot speak italianItalian, despite her misguided belief that she ''sounds'' like she does which is sort of the same. Moss reminds her that italiansItalians and people who ''speak'' italianItalian would strongly disagree.

* [[Nice Guys Finish Last]]: Which Roy attempts to prove. See [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]] above.

* [[Noodle Incident]]: In the second episode of the first series, Moss and Roy reference an incident in which a unattended soldering iron caused a golf... I mean fire.

* [[No Periods, Period]]: Heavily averted; an episode from SeasonSeries 1.0 focuses on Jen experiencing an angry period, with Roy and Moss discovering the male period and that theirs are psynching up with Jen, demonstrating sympathy symptoms and eventually culminating in [[Absurdity Ascendant|worldwide computer technician riots]].

* [[Obfuscating Disability]]: Roy in Series 2. Episode 1 does this to avoid getting in trouble for using the handicapped toilet.

* [[Out of Order]]: Series 3's episodes were changed in broadcast order; especially noticeable when the episode resolving the seriesSeries 2 cliffhanger that opened with a recap of said cliffhanger was broadcast third in the run.

** [[The Bus Came Back]]: He returned for the seriesSeries 4 finale.

* [[Reckless Gun Usage]]: seeSee [[Juggling Loaded Guns]] entryabove.

* [[RPG Episode]]: Very surprisingly, given the the setting, but the one time an [[Role -Playing Game|RPG]] is a major plot element, it is an old fashioned 'pencil and dice' [[Tabletop Game]] (implied to be ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' itself) rather than a computer game.

** The packaging for the limited edition SeasonSeries 1-4 DVD boxset is designed to look like an RPG rulebook.

'''Moss:''' But that's STEALING! }}

** Peter File's unfortunate name is a call back to a similarly named person in the infamous ''[[Brass Eye]]'' ''Paedogeddon'' special.

*** A poster of Jim Woodring's ''[[Frank]]'' hangs behind Roy's desk.

** Roy has a framed ''[[Axe Cop]]'' poster prominently displayed in his flat.

* [[Slow Clap]]: Moss starts one in response to Roy's impassioned speech at the end of ''"Something Happened''" in Series 4.

* [[Snowball Lie]]: Moss telling an unwanted suitor of Jen's that {{spoiler|she was dead}} to keep him away from her.

** Taken to extremes when he's filling the champagne glasses of Roy, Moss and Jen while talking about "these three people,", - and then turns to the toilet cleaners. One wonders if he really had been trying to praise them while messing with them. He later sincerely thanks Roy in the corridor later in the episode, so it's possible.

* [[Springtime for Hitler]]: Moss and Roy feed Jen a bunch of [[Little-Known Facts|ridiculously nonsensical IT 'facts']] to use in her Employee of the Month speech, in an attempt to utterly embarrass her. Too bad that nobody in attendance at the speech is computer-literate enough to notice anything remotely wrong. {{spoiler|It ends up working out for them when she breaks 'the Internet' and sparks a major panic, however.}}.

'''Moss:''' [[All Girls Want Bad Boys|You heard me]]: take your top off. }}

'''Policeman:''' [[Microsoft Windows|Vista.]]

'''Moss:''' [[Oh Crap|We're going to die.]] }}

* [[Training Fromfrom Hell]]: Nerd-style. In seriesSeries three3, Moss is having trouble with some bullies in the park he walks through to get to the office. Roy tries to help him with some roleplay, upon which Moss bursts into tears as it was "too realistic". {{spoiler|He eventually solves the problem when he finds Douglas's grandfather's old service revolver}}...}}

'''Roy:''' He was very convincing. I think... }}

* [[Verbal Backspace]]:

'''Roy:''' "Every man has a few stories like this." }}

** Also happens with Douglas: "Deleting incriminating files ... haha, I just mean files."

** Douglas has a ''[[Star Trek]]'' inspired sex-tape.

** In seriesSeries two2, when discussing Jen's boyfriend Peter File's unfortunate name, Moss mentions the US pronunciation "'''peh'''-d''uh''-fahyl" in comparison to the UK's "'''pee'''-d''uh''-fahyl".

[[Category:TurnLive-Action TV of the Millennium/Live Action TV2000s]]