Contextual Studies Essay: How Does the UK Version of The Office use comedic techniques and genre conventions that are used to support and sustain the comedy?

Question: Discuss a TV Sitcom of your choice with reference to the various comedic techniques and genre conventions that are used to support and sustain the comedy

In this essay I will be discussing a British TV Sitcom “The Office”, a programme that I had never previously watched. I wanted to make sure that I had not seen the show I was going to write about so I that could give the fairest opinion possible with no preconceived ideas.

The Office was a BBC UK TV Show that aired from July 2001 to December 2003. It was critically received as one of the greatest TV shows in recent years.  It had a 98% rating on Metacritic, one of the highest ever. (Metacritic Article, 2001, THE OFFICE UK SEASON 1). It is a show created, written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and follows a group of staff and their day to day activities. It’s filmed in a mockumentary style which used various comedic devices to make the viewer engage with what is happening on screen. In this essay I will discuss the comedic techniques they used, and indicate which ones I think worked and others that I feel didn’t add much to the show.

As I had never watched the show before I was not sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised about how good the comedy was. Even though the programme is over 15 years old it is still very relevant, and I found the awkward situations they get themselves into are in some ways the funniest parts. Many are situations that we all get ourselves into which means we can relate to them very easily.

The Office is a great example of a Progressive Workplace Comedy, which is a sub genre of TV Sitcom. I think that of all of the Sitcoms on TV, The Office does one of the best jobs of portraying real life situations. The reason why we find awkward situations funny is because we know what it feels like to be in those situations ourselves and we know how bad it can sometimes feel. It may be a laugh, but an awkward laugh because we feel sorry for the character on screen. The office frequently uses this technique alongside various others to create a very interesting TV Sitcom.

A genre convention of TV Sitcom that The Office uses a lot is “The One Liner”, a joke that generally receives laughter from the other people on screen as well as the audience. The one liner descended from Stand up comedy and is normally seen as a throwaway remark but one that, in a sitcom, is relevant to the current situation.

Another genre convention of TV Sitcom is “The Running Joke” (Also Known as The Running Gag) and in The Office that is the tension between Tim and Gareth and how they hate each other but rely on each other at the same time. They are constantly bickering but, much like the awkward situations we talked about earlier, we can relate to it because it is something we have probably all done. One reason why we enjoy this sort of comedy is because it is real - unlike some comedy which seems forced, this is something we easily relate to because, in many ways, we are simply laughing at ourselves.

A great comedic technique that The Office uses to engage the viewer is breaking the fourth wall. Ricky Gervais will often turn to the camera and speak to you as if you are in the conversation with the rest of the group. In a lot of shows like “House of Cards” breaking the fourth wall is used in a way where the other characters don’t know it’s happening, like a freeze frame. In The Office the whole group reacts to you as if you are in the conversation. This is an unusual but great comedic technique because it brings more interaction and intimacy to the moment which in turn makes the laughs even louder.

Something that The Office does and which edges the show into a comedy sitcom is mocking conventions of documentary. It is not classed as a mockumentary but the show is following staff around, something which is typical of the documentary style. The way it is shown on screen tells us that it is a Comedy/Sitcom. The Office mocks some of the main conventions of Documentary. On The Guardian website they said “…many modern comedies and films borrow the unpretentious freewheeling camerawork and jump-cut style of the mockumentary without the full-on commitment of dressing up as real documentaries. The intent is to evoke the same spirit: that the characters you will meet will be slightly caught off guard. You get the fun of peeping through the paparazzi lens, while feeling slightly uncomfortable for intruding.” (Mockumentary hasn’t killed comedy, 2017)

1-     Observing everyday life. As you can see from this picture, the camera is placed behind a desk with some objects in the way. It is filmed as if we are spying on them which is a technique frequently used in documentaries to get a natural reaction instead of one that might be self-conscious due to the camera being placed purely for the sake of image quality. It is, however, mocked because it is made so obvious that the characters know the camera is there (Referring back to breaking the fourth wall)

2-     The use of natural lighting and sound also makes this feel like a documentary. There are no outside sources to make the image quality or sound better, and in a lot of scenes they purposely leave in parts that would normally be cut, possibly mocking the fact that documentaries normally leave the boring parts in to fill up time in the show.

3-     Another example of The Office mocking documentaries is that documentary makers normally do all they can to convince you that what you are seeing is real and true. In The Office they purposely set out to make it appear fake, mocking the documentary makers and their desire to prove a point.

The Reception Theory (Stuart Hall - 1980) makes a lot of sense in The Office because of the way the viewer reacts with the text on screen. I feel most people watching The Office view it in a hegemonic way because they agree with what they are watching. They see it as natural and realistic. It is important that the viewer see’s the text in the same way that the director intended otherwise the show could fall into the trap of offending people and their views. This is something that The Office does well because the situations created and dialogue used leave little room for doubt about what the director intended. The message is clear and unambiguous.

I personally could not see anyone viewing The Office in a Negotiated or Oppositional way because they do a very good job of being harsh with their jokes but making them relative at the same time. As with any show your background and personal viewpoint could very well change what you think of The Office, but for people like me I think it is very easy to relate to.

Something that does surprise me about The Office is that the cast consists entirely of white British actors. By modern TV Standards, including those from the period when the show was filmed, this is unusual because we are used to racial diversity in most shows on TV nowadays. I do wonder if they wanted to keep the whole cast from the same race so that they could make the jokes a little ruder. Maybe if they had a mix of races in the show some of the humour might be self-conscious and possibly not as funny, or might be perceived as offensive. Personally, I like shows with a mix of races and religions because it better reflects modern Britain and it is something about The Office that I feel could be improved. It does, to some extent detract from the realism that is otherwise a key to the success of the show.  Other shows have a diverse cast but manage to keep a broad range of humour without upsetting people.

Whilst the show lacks anyone who is non-white and British, it also lacks proper speaking roles for the female cast. In the first episode, we see a good mix of male and female cast members, but only 2 female roles actually speak. Once again, like the lack of different races, I feel this could be to keep the humour a certain way, one that predominantly the male viewer understands very well. Overall I would rather The Office had more diversity in it’s cast as I don’t think it would take anything away from the show, but I’m assuming the writers were wary about possible punchlines being called racist or sexist. (IMDB, List of Actors, 2003)

The Office has a domestic feel to it, which takes it into familiar territory since many sitcoms are based around families. They are constantly arguing over silly things but at the end of the day they all like each other. They make it seem like a surrogate family with Ricky Gervais being the father figure and everyone else being his kids. This gives the whole show a funny dynamic in that they don’t really care what they say to each other and means that, as viewers, we are sometimes left shocked by what they have said. In many ways, this adds to the comedy because they don’t hang back on what they say. It also makes it very relevant because we have all experienced petty squabbling so know exactly what it is like to be in that situation and means that we find the comedy more amusing.

I think that the Uses and Gratifications Theory (Bulmer and Katz 1974) is very true of the show as well. The active role I see most viewers finding in this show are the “Identify” and “Entertain” parts of the theory. As suggested earlier I feel a lot of people identify with what they see in The Office because they know what it’s like to be in most of the situations portrayed in the show and they enjoy it because of that. The “Entertain” function is achieved through good writing and acting and most people will laugh at the little jokes and gags which appear consistently throughout the show.

Something that The Office has become well known for is the frequent use of bad jokes. Sometimes you laugh at the joke simply because it is so bad and other times you laugh at the fact that they that have dared to use the joke at all. Once again, like so much in this show it’s about how relevant they are to everyday life. We probably all know someone who makes bad jokes, and sometimes you laugh with your friends when they make a joke because you knew it was coming. That is something that The Office does perfectly. It draws us into the joke by mirroring situations that we find ourselves in every day.

After reading some of the book “Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era” (Jonathan Gray, Jeffrey P. Jones – 2009), I learned a lot more about TV Comedy some of which is relevant in The Office. Whilst the quote - “The rapid spread of the clip highlights satire’s viral quality and cult appeal” - is about another show it is still very relevant to The Office. On the internet, even to this day, GIF’S and screengrabs from The Office are frequently shared even though the show is now quite old. I think this demonstrates how well the comedy in The Office has aged. Whilst The Office does not generally rely on satirical comedy, it uses it from time to time to considerable effect.

The Mediation and Representation Theory (Marxist theory) is very apparent in The Office because we know what the director thinks this office scenario should look like. The reason it was so successful was because it was written, produced and acted so well and felt so realistic to the viewer. We understand what is going on on-screen through semiotics and ideology. We judge people firstly on appearance and then through the way they speak and what they do. In The Office we stereotype the main female character (Dawn) as a slightly ditzy person who looks like she may play up to the boss. As the series progresses, however, you see that she is a smart person who has possibly been made to dress in a certain way to give us a false representation of who she really is. It is bad that we judge people so quickly and through material things, but it’s how a lot of society is. It is another element that the show touches on by potentially making us re-think some of our preconceived ideas.

To conclude, I found it interesting to watch The Office and see how they use stereotypes and awkward situations but keep the viewer entertained through the use of a variety of different types of comedy. Even though a lot of the humour is dry it is carried along by interesting characters with even some potentially boring scenes working well. I have changed my opinions as I have watched it. At first I was unsure if I was going to like it, and whilst it still wasn’t a personal favourite, I enjoyed some parts and many of the jokes were still good even though the show was made over 15 years ago. The comedy has aged well in The Office and is still very relevant to this day.

References

(Metacritic Article, 2001, THE OFFICE UK SEASON 1 - http://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-office-uk )

(Mockumentary hasn’t killed comedy https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/apr/05/mockumentary-british-comedy-tom-kingsley)

(Stuart Hall Reception Theory - https://prezi.com/y8btjn21oiho/stuart-hall-reception-theory-1980/ )

(Running Gag http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RunningGag)

(Bulmer and Katz Uses and Gratification Theory - https://www.slideshare.net/jessbird92/blumler-and-katz-7737839 )

(IMDB, List of Actors, 2003 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290978/fullcredits )

(Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era https://www.amazon.com/Satire-TV-Politics-Comedy-Post-Network/dp/0814731996/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492873754&sr=1-2&keywords=television+comedy)

(The Mediation and Representation Theory (Marxist theory) https://www.slideshare.net/kbamediastudies/mediation-and-representation )

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