Tuesday, November 2, 2010

If you watch The Office, you're a douchebag

http://www.movieline.com/2010/11/new-study-finds-that-people-who-watch-the-office-are-douche-bags.php
A brand new study has shown that depending on your watching habits, more specifically the NBC adaptation of the UK series, The Office, then you're a douchébag.

I originally had serious doubts on the US series upon it's original airing, due to the reputation of UK to US adaptations. It has never worked and even sometimes been so bad the episodes are never aired.  and it was something I eventually grew to love the series and the Pam/Jim storyline actually had me crying one night when I watched it. Eventually I just fell out of watching it (mainly because TEN's timeslots were more erratic than an epileptic at a switchboard)  and I just never bothered to pick it up.
I could see how the show could possibly make people into douchebags, or make them seem that way. The show is constantly about self-absorbed people who retain little consequence for their actions and the narcissism is increased heavily when they become self-aware of the camera's or even when they look at them briefly, of course, this is what makes the show endearing, fun and watchable...well at least to people who still watch it.
Lovable, if not indecisive, douchebag.

Or it could be the fact people quote it a fuckton, which has never made anyone happy...ever...I have learnt.
However, with the 'self-absorbed' comment, other shows such as It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Seinfeld, reveal the polar opposites of asshole sitcoms. Whilst Always Sunny has a consistent theme of dramatic irony where the main cast have no idea the problem's they are causing, Seinfeld always has the idea of 'the greater good' presented before them, and because we like them, know them and are attached to them, we see it too. The Seinfeld thing took me almost a decade to figure out, but even though I know now, it only adds to the viewing experience rather than hinder.
Still one of the greatest sitcoms of all time.

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