Looking closer
A lot of people enjoy the office for the big, noteworthy scenes/episodes.
Things like:
Dinner Party
Threat Level Midnight
Niagra
Andy punching a hole in the wall
Dwight’s fire drill
Prison Mike
While all of those moments are great and legendary, that’s not what I love about the show.
The greatness of the show lies within its subtleties.
Lines/moments that oftentimes go unnoticed but make the show perfect.
A Jim Halpert glance at the camera after Michael says something he definitely shouldn’t have. An Andy Bernard comment underneath his breath. An extended view of Michael’s face after he said something that he can’t even comprehend.
That’s where The Office separates from every other show that I’ve ever seen.
It masters subtle comedy.
It might take you 5-6 times (yes, us kids will watch the same show that many times) to get a joke or comment, but when you do, it becomes your favorite line.
Here are my 3 favorite subtle things in The Office:
1. Clutch Cream Run Bro
In this episode, Michael employs his nephew, Luke. Luke is some sort of temp/meaningless assistant.
After countless easy tasks that Luke fails to accomplish, Michael sends Luke out to get ice cream for the office. Seems easy enough.
When Luke returns he comes back with some bagel chips and a pint of soy ice cream.
Kevin immediately loses his shit, demanding to know why anyone would ever want soy ice cream. Pretty valid question if you ask me.
Oscar then lets everyone know that “my favorite part of an ice cream party is the bagel chips.” So good.
As the awkward tension begins to diffuse and the scene is about to end, the camera pans over to Andy for about 2 seconds.
Andy leans back in his chair and says to Luke, “clutch cream run, bro”.
This scene always makes me laugh.
Unbelievable delivery.
2. Your Mother Just Died
The great thing about The Office is that there are plenty of characters you kind of root against. Certain characters are just flat-out annoying.
I would argue that Erin is at the top of that list. However, it’s her line in this particular scene that is waaaaaaaaaaaaay up there for me.
At this point in the show, Andy has become the manager of the Scranton branch.
Andy is meeting with one of their bigger clients. Right before the meeting begins, he runs over to Erin’s (the secretary) desk.
He tells Erin that he wants her to interrupt their meeting in a few minutes for a “very important call”. The old trick of the fakephonecalldeclinetomakeyourclientfeelspecialinasalesmeeting. A pretty good ploy if I’m being honest.
So, a couple of minutes in, Erin comes into his office and tells Andy that he’s got an extremely important call on the other end of the line.
Andy responds in a heroic way and claims that there is nothing more important than the meeting going on right now. Wow, what a guy.
Erin then responds, “Are you sure? Because your mother just died.”
The camera pans to Andy and the client who are both shocked and then back to Erin.
Erin gives the camera a little smirk to show the audience that she thinks she absolutely nailed it when in reality she failed miserably.
Erin’s smirk at the end always makes me chuckle.
So subtle.
3. Vietnam, I Hear It’s Lovely
In season 5, Michael and Dwight make a trip over to one of their local rivals, Prince Paper Company.
David Wallace (the CFO) has instructed them to go get a list of all of PPCs clients in order to put them out of business.
The plan was for Michael to head in first and Dwight to follow shortly after. Normally a Schrute/Scott combo would be the highlight of the show, but Michael dominates before Dwight can get in there.
As Michael tries to cozy up to the owner of PPC he asks him about the company and himself.
He tells Michael that it’s a family joint and he had opened it up right when he returned from Vietnam (obviously referring to the Vietnam war).
Michael responds, “Oooooooh Vietnam, I hear it’s LOVELY.”
The camera pans back to the owner who looks completely dumbfounded by what was just said.
Yikes.
Perfectly constructed chaos.
Conclusion
That’s an extremely long-winded way of telling you why I love The Office.
There are so many funny comments/looks/emotions that are inconsequential to the episode but so important to the overall character development.
You can learn so much about the characters with such little information.