Thursday, September 11, 2008

Scott on an Office Joke

[Guest blogger Scott]

I was just watching a Season 3 episode of The Office that had a great illustration of how Michael Scott works.

In the episode, Michael feels immasculated during a "Saftey Training" program when the warehouse workers are able to illustrate the real danger to life and limb in their work enviornment as opposed to the much more subtle dangers of working in an office (carpal tunnel, seasonal affective disorder, weight gain).

Michael decides that the key to trumping his blue-collar co-workers is to have a 'visual aide' so he has Dwight get him a trampoline. When we first see him bouncing on the trampoline he says, "Hey, here I am bouncing on a trampoline just to blow off steam for a few minutes and releive stress and then I'm going to go on about my day."

For a moment, we think, "Hey, that's not a bad idea for a 'stress relief' activity. Instead, Michael says, "Just kidding" and then informs us of his intention to fake a suicide from the roof of the building by jumping onto a trampoline (and later, when the saftey of the trampoline is called into question, a 'moonwalk' ). This gag illustrates so much of where the humor in Michael can be found. If he had actually used the trampoline as a way for his employees to blow off steam, that would have been a cool thing for him to do as a boss but, as always, he goes way too far in the pursuit of a 'dramatic' moment and creates a scheme as ridiculous as it is dangerous.

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