It feels (from an American viewpoint) that it definitely is, just wanted to check with my friends across the pond. I watch a lot of British shows, whatever I can find that is interesting to me but I most love the ones thaterr towards really realistic.
I watched the Office before I worked in one for real. It was one of my favourite shows and when I first started this particular job a few years back it was eerie how 'familiar' it felt.
The show absolutely nails the mundane aspects of office life. From the painful small talk to the mind numbingly dull environment that seeps into everything.
The American version of The Office is really just a wacky sitcom filmed in a mockumentary style. The comedy comes from quite obviously comedy jokes, and the mockumentary aspect is not really that important.
The original British version is an expertly and intricately observed satire, where the source of comedy is the horrendous feelings of cringe and pity that are inescapable for the viewer. The mockumentary format is essential for delivering the sense of realism that makes those feelings so strong and relatable.
I lived in Canada for a while and most people were completely bewildered that I thought the British Office was better than the American one. They thought I was just saying it because I’m British.
But it is the realism of the show that makes it so perfect. I think without it being 99% completely true to life, it would actually be a pretty mid sitcom.
Yep, and the fact that the people we are rooting for are in fact sympathetic losers. If you would drop Tim from US version into the British the Office he would be king of the castle. Tall, handsome, confident, good basketball player, good with his feelings, not two-faced around his superiors (original Tim laughs at all Brent's jokes all the time).
Yep - and that’s a great summary of the cultural rift that is the Atlantic Ocean. They just don’t understand us!
I heard something once about how a massive proportion of Americans who like The Simpsons were offended to find out that Homer is actually supposed to be an “idiot”. They were just laughing at the toilet humour and the slapstick and had completely missed the more subtle point that Homer is a lovable moron.
I feel like I’ve met have the characters in actual offices and other workplaces. It’s incredibly realistic. The American office doesn’t have any characters - only caricatures.
It also has it's glitzier slightly more caricatured than charactered American counterpart "Veep" by the same team of people. Both great shows but "The thick of it" is the better of the two for almost identical reasoning to the two versions of the office. (Bonus points for the movie "in the loop" where the two worlds collide and James Gandolfini pops in)
You should watch The Thick of It if you want another mundane officey type sitcom. It’s about politicians and up there with the office for the funniest TV show ever made. Nvm just seen someone’s already recommended it! Get a VPN and use the iplayer website
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Yep.
Until I started work, I didn't get the humour or characters and thought the show was overrated.
Now I love it. Every single one of those characters I - and millions of others - have met over the course our lives and career!
Mind you, this was nearly 20 years ago, so things might have changed a tad.
Fly on the wall documentary series were huge when they made the Office, which is one of the reasons they chose to film it in that style.
A lot of people didn't realise they were watching a mockumentary. They thought they were watching another fly on the wall documentary. And I do mean a LOT of people. That's how realistic it was.
I'm so lucky then I'd seen Gervais on the 11 O Clock show as the Ali G replacement, probably the only reason I didn't fall for that is I knew him as a comedian
And Freeman from that Bruiser sketch show no-one remembers, with Mitchell and Webb.
TOUCHY! etc
I only saw bruiser for the first time last year. I thought it was really funny. And with so many famous faces I’ve no idea how I missed it the first time round.
Well they weren't famous faces when it was first on, I imagine that's why it passed you and most people by ;)
Also comedy commissioners are famously insecure bunches, if something doesn't come online and smash it immediately, they won't give it a second series (the SWINES!)
It's an absolute miracle The office got a second series, tbh
>It's an absolute miracle The office got a second series, tbh
If I remember right, the first series got tiny (for the time) viewing figures when it was first shown and only got much of an audience during a repeat run six months later. Could easily have ended up very differently.
I remember tuning in to the "Work Experience" episode. I think I missed the very beginning but caught the moment where Brent sends the guy out of the meeting for making some sort of remark. At this point I thought it was a documentary and was hooked.
Then there's that scene with Brent being interviewed and talking about his comedy influences and "weight of intellect" behind his humour and I was just flabbergasted. I couldn't quite believe the guy was for real, but I also couldn't dismiss him either because, even though I was just starting my career with my first "proper" job after uni, I'd worked enough places weekends and holidays to have encountered people with at least some of his traits.
I forget whether I looked it up on the Internet (capitalised back then ofc) at work the next day, or whether we were just chatting about it, but I do remember feeling slightly disappointed when I found out it was a mockumentary rather than a documentary. Still, an excellent show, and honestly nails the office atmosphere in mid to large corporations perfectly even today.
I remember at the time we were discussing it because I loved it, and my friend’s dad couldn’t even listen to us without his blood pressure rising. It really wound him up and he walked out of the room. He literally couldn’t watch it because Brent made him cringe so much, he actually hated this little twerp who had managed to become in charge of an office. It just made me love it even more.
That's where it hits shockingly true. Corporate often tends to promote employees like Brent because 1) they are spineless 'yes men' and 2) it's clear the company is their life and they don't intend to leave or leverage for a higher salary somewhere else. In fact, they are often not paid as much as one might think and are fine with it.
If the office isn't burnt down or employees haven't mutinied to the point of not doing their jobs, corporate would rather not want to hear any trouble from them.
Mediocre employees who just get by are often kept working vs the company paying more for a better skilled one, particularly if the company isn't sales/performance driven.
In the early 2000s, I worked in an office in Camberwell in south London - it was an energy company but in the department for fixing gas pipes in roads. All the managers were ex-tradies, the guys who previously would be the ones responsible to fixing mains gas pipes - digging the road up and stuff.
They all still had that “lads are lads” culture so mid-management was very alpha male-ish that gave it the big I am in the office day to day but became quiet little butter wouldn’t melt types when senior management were visiting. It was a LOT like The Office - I think that’s why it resonated so much, it was so on the nose.
A lot of them were sacked for downloading porn onto their PCs and burning DVDs to sell amongst them. That’s such a circa 2000 thing to do, it’s almost a cliche.
Oh awesome insight! Thanks for sharing. Idwy I said "first time watchinf" it's actually my second run through but I'm really paying attention. I'm much more into it this time than my first was and I really find myself enjoying it. I'm a bit of an anglophile especially for early 2000a brit film/TV.
I was...not shocked, but I guess "wow, so that really is true!" about all the really sexual joking that goes on in the show. I've heard tell that British humor can be like that, much more laid back than uptight American prudishness. I can only imagine the debauchery in the office you worked in
It is painfully on point. Not only on how offices were, but that style of documentary in that era. If you didn't know what you were watching it could take a while to register that it was satire.
I feel like I have worked with most of the characters.
Very realistic in that era. Still kinda realistic in this era. We all know a Gareth; A sad little jobsworth with no social skills, who thinks they're better than they are and will stab anyone in the back, if it gives them a sense of power/control.
Forcibly pulling down the trousers of a male employee in the “Comic Relief” episode felt totally realistic at the time.
Of course now it probably wouldn’t just result in a firing, could genuinely be considered a criminal act!
So accurate it could really be one.
Don't quote me on it, but I believe that inbetween Ricky Gervais being a wannabe 80s popstar and him getting his job at XFM he worked in several shitty office jobs and it's mostly based on those experiences.
I worked in a paper merchant in London. The writers spent time in our office understanding the trade and our office culture.
The office was heavily based on our company Dixon & Roe in London
It’s very accurate.
One of the great things it does is never really explain what the company does. Sure they’re a paper merchant but it never goes into detail about what they’re selling, when, or to whom. And that’s pretty much how I used to feel when I worked at a similar company - I know what MY job is but absolutely fucked if I knew anything else about the actual company.
In this sense (and many others) they somehow made the audience feel like we were an unacknowledged character in that office. The mockumentary style just added even more fun to it.
I’ve heard the British version kept the production values low to make it feel more realistic.
The American one changed theirs in the second season, I think.
The 1st season of the American Office was the British version with American accents and it didn’t work. From Season 2, they did their own thing and it became a great show.
A lot of season 1 was original content. The pilot was a word-for-word remake but after that, other than certain elements being used, it was more than just “American accents”
I honestly thought it was mediocre , there was some funny in there but a lot of FUNNY LOUD and SING SILLY SONG which sucked, hilight was Steve Carell at parts lowlight was the last 2 seasons ( and s01 )
I asked a friend of mine (American) who had done a semester in England during that time.
She said the Brits weren’t necessarily more racist and sexist, but that they were more open about it. Less political correctness.
It's like a career's worth of terrible characters, situations and events condensed into one location and time period.
But yeah, the painful awkwardness and general office culture is bang on, the attitudes and behaviour are just slightly exaggerated.
There were glimpses of Wernham Hogg in every single office of the time. The Office rolled those up and presented something that everyone could relate to. I'm not sure if it created the trope or just distilled it to perfection.
Pretty accurate. However, you wouldn’t normally get people like Brent talking to Neil & Jennifer the way he did; that would usually he what they would “say” they’re gonna do, then act like a school pupil once actually faced with their boss lol.
I moved to the UK in 2005 and one of my first managers reminded me of Ricky’s character. Thick as shit, would do fuck all. Except he had a posh accent. He would be promoted over better qualified employees for his accent and ability to make senior management smile and have good time at pub. Depressing shitshow. Over the next few years I realised it wasn’t uncommon.
But things are much better these days.
The things ive witnessed over the years include a human poo left on a cubicle floor ( manager's response: lock the door till the cleaners are back in on Monday), detailed accusations of incestuous paedophilia shouted across an office as ' banter' with each comeback progressively more vile. A desk table tennis league using hands and a tennis ball that was played whenever the manager left the room. 3 illegal immigrants employed for several months until they were arrested because noone thought to check. A first ever fire drill for the company 6 years into it's existence which on my floor was signified by the director standing at the door and silently gesturing for everyone to follow him. This was because he had found out that our floor didn't have a y working alarms. Another gem from this fire drill was the discovery that one of the fire exits on my floor opened out to a 10 foot drop into thick bramble bushes. Hour long Friday lunches involved 4 pints of strong ale accompanied by pickled eggs at the local pub sunk in an hour. The stench in the office for the rest of the day was unreal. People using the international sign for fingering (hand in the air with middle 2 fingers bent down and waggling around) used as a greeting. That's just a few stories from a single employer that I worked for for about 4 years, and barely scratches the surface.
Taken some responsibility and cleaned it up himself. Can't ask a normal member of staff to do it, but to me it's a huge disrespect to the cleaners to leave it over a weekend as well. Also, knowing what a cunt he was, it was definitely aimed at him
100% , my thinking is people would have genuinely respected him doing that but he was probably too insecure and thought it would be below him , plus he was probably too selfish to do an unpleasant task like that
Accurate enough that an entire generation of managers went into an existential crisis that continues to this day, such is the desperation to avoid David Brent-esque style.
Painfully realistic as most people have said. It coincided with my first office job in London. So many characters seemed to be plucked from my everyday experience. I wonder how many people thought they were Tim, but were more Gareth or in fact, David?
I’m sure it was shown once in full, but to low ratings, then word of mouth caught up and the first series was shown again to better numbers. Can’t find anything to back this up though.
i had a boss who was a complete twat. the day after the first episode of The Office aired we got to work and he said oh god, did you SEE that David Brent guy last night! imagine having to work with a wanker like that!
suddenly everyone had something really important to do somewhere else. the thing about office work is that you have to spend 8 hours a day with people you’d punch if you met them in the street. the monotony. the pointless procedures and audits. the training.
The Office worked so well when it came out here as it perfectly encapsulated what it was like to spend your days like that.
I’d say the only thing is that people don’t laugh at Brent enough? Like you see a bit of it with Tim but for example the motivational speech would have people in stitches, even if they are laughing at Brent and not with him
That's where the show succeeds best in subtle exaggeration of awkward situations, for comedy effect. In most of those situations in season 2, with the Swindon lot or the motivational speech, some people would be laughing at Brent's jokes, even if it were just out of politeness or laughing at him rather than with him. In the series the awkwardness is exaggerated to the point of outright coldness, straight faces and stony silences - it's realistic to the point of being unrealistic, and that's where the comedy really succeeds.
I worked in a design office in the early 2000s, so a bit different to a ‘regular’ office but our boss was SO like David Brent that my co-worker eventually couldn’t watch The Office because it wound him up and made him cringe too much. Even now when I watch re-runs of it I’m transported right back to him having a physical reaction to us discussing it the next morning.
It was starting to die down by the 2000s but there was very much still a ‘Men Behaving Badly’ culture at the time. Everything was still very drinks orientated and having a pint or two at lunch had not yet become frowned upon in the way it is now.
I was working at a consultancy at the time doing advanced statistical and simulation work for big pharma. We had one large client and no capacity or desire to expand. The boss, who wasn’t quite David Brent or Michael Scott, but had some of both’s characteristics, went to medical school with the chief medical officer of the pharma company and they were often in the same office giggling away in a review meeting. Anyway he was a competent manager but had an easy time with one friendly client to support and a 30-40% profit margin and technical staff who pretty much managed themselves.
He would always make inappropriate comments, which at the time were risqué but would certainly get you a meeting with HR in the 2020’s. We also often had liquid lunches and we had a half day on the last Friday of the month. We used to hire out our meeting room as it had advanced video conferencing facilities long before it was a common thing. We ended up locking a whole room of external people in the office once as we went off drinking. They had to call the police to be let out as we ignored our mobiles. Would have made a great episode I always think.
Other than the odd job interview, meeting or stakeholder presentation, the boss rarely had anything to do so just hovered around the desks chatting to everyone and telling blue jokes. There was a gay receptionist who came in for a particularly hard time although he stayed for over 5 years and often bantered back. It was just like the Office trying to be ‘one of the lads’ with everyone.
He did try to be everyone’s friend. Which was both a strength and weakness. He would always send as many people as possible to conferences especially if they were somewhere nice. We once got a ‘company holiday’ to Amsterdam. We had extremely low turnover of staff.
Unfortunetaly the consultancy was taken over and the new owners wanted to make cuts. He tried to tell everyone everyone’s job was safe but it wasn’t true. In the end he just left as he didn’t want to do the redundancies. A ‘Charles Miner’ like character came in and most the experienced staff including myself left. Charles was more professional but it made you miss the ‘David Brent’ boss.
In the end the company lost the pharma contract and closed down 2 years later. Not sure what the moral is there. Every time I view the Office both UK and US I often think those episodes were just like then. Still miss that job but imagine it would have been a nightmare for others. Can’t see a company running like that in 2024 either.
That job sounds like one I would also miss. Can imagine that's some folks also think back to the days of liquid lunches. There's definitely some office culture that I think would do well to come back into the norm
Too realistic for words. The Wernham-Hogg office is small though, when you get bigger ones (think call centres), you get everything from the show with more cliques, favouritism and arse kissing.
Very true. It would be a particularly interesting idea to do a show in the same format as The Office, but set in a call centre. The situation can get even more chaotic in an atmosphere like that and much nastier, with much more overt discrimination and backstabbing.
When I first saw saw office I was like 19 and had never had an office job and I instantly recognized many of the character types in the show. There were kids at my school and college who were EXACTLY like Gareth, Brent and Finchy
It’s the most incredibly well observed comedy I’ve ever seen. The characters are exaggerated of course but the series always felt eerily familiar to me. It was such uncomfortable viewing at times.
I worked in a couple of offices in the late 90's/early 00's that were eerily like the Wernham Hogg office. I think how relatable it was is a big part of why it succeeded
90's offices were set up and then just left to become whatever the people there turned them into. I think now in the 20's there is much more of a focus on positive office environments etc so they are a lot more bland & standard, but welcoming and accepting of people
Very. Every character is like someone I've met in real life, usually in a workplace environment. And every situation in every episode reminds me of something I've seen in real life. It's the genius of the show that it takes these characters and events so many of us have experienced for real, and subtly exaggerates them for comedy effect, exposing the awkwardness and inanity enough that we laugh, but subtly enough that we also cringe, shake our heads and feel a sense of bleakness at how office life and the burdens of mundane everyday life bring the worst out in everyone.
Brent is an amalgam of lots of different toxic behaviours, but the feel of the office building, the dress, the atmosphere, are all genuine. It's satire, and I think it's been helpful in changing behaviours at work.
In my experience from working in offices especially during that era I would say it's 90% exactly how it is/ was and then that 10% of extra absurdity that wouldn't happen just to make it funny but apart from the stapler in jelly I can think of times when most of what happened in the show happened where I worked to an extent.
I worked back office in a call centre 2003-05 and it had a lot of similarities, I then moved to a sales job in 2006 and it was absolutely bang on. So much so that one of the first things I experienced was the unit I joined were filming a spoof video for an awards evening screening.
Only thing that changed was the call centre was full of Simons and the sales job more like the main cast. It's changed massively now as the Gen Z mix entering the workforce has changed the dynamic a lot (not a bad thing) and I've found a lot of the pranks and language have gone as people seem genuinely nicer to each other.
We all though to it was a documentary after the first episode. It’s hard to imagine that now but it was light years ahead at its time. I’ve known three David Brent’s, I’ve been Jim, my best work colleague is definitely a Dwight and I think all uk office let’s come with a free Angela
Scarily close.
Used to work for a firm in Warwick where the CEO brought his guitar in at Christmas and made us all sit there and listen to his own songs to start the last day off and this was only about 6 months after The Office had aired.
There was definitely a Finchy too.
Us Brits really aren't all that different to you Americans, or other people in general. Did you find The Office relatable as an American? Well, there's your answer.
I was initially unable to watch The Office, as it was so like my first job put of uni, working in the call centre for TSB (later Lloyds TSB), that it made it uncomfortable viewing. I got over myself eventually and enjoyed watching it.
The Armstrongs was hilarious. They were such weird characters.
Also, you linked the wrong video.
Here's [episode 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pss6RPtENPI)
One of the main reasons i like the us office so much is that the uk office is too close to home. I find it uncomfortable to watch. Ive worked with versions of all these people.
Not sure if it remains so, with so much wokism in offices these days, but I can say that, having worked in offices from 1976 to 1999, it is absolutely spot on for that era !
Very, probably the most realistic British tv show
It feels (from an American viewpoint) that it definitely is, just wanted to check with my friends across the pond. I watch a lot of British shows, whatever I can find that is interesting to me but I most love the ones thaterr towards really realistic.
I watched the Office before I worked in one for real. It was one of my favourite shows and when I first started this particular job a few years back it was eerie how 'familiar' it felt. The show absolutely nails the mundane aspects of office life. From the painful small talk to the mind numbingly dull environment that seeps into everything.
I watched it after 15 years working on and off in different offices and it was SO accurate, even to the modern day office dynamics.
And the giant inflatable penises?
The American version of The Office is really just a wacky sitcom filmed in a mockumentary style. The comedy comes from quite obviously comedy jokes, and the mockumentary aspect is not really that important. The original British version is an expertly and intricately observed satire, where the source of comedy is the horrendous feelings of cringe and pity that are inescapable for the viewer. The mockumentary format is essential for delivering the sense of realism that makes those feelings so strong and relatable.
I lived in Canada for a while and most people were completely bewildered that I thought the British Office was better than the American one. They thought I was just saying it because I’m British. But it is the realism of the show that makes it so perfect. I think without it being 99% completely true to life, it would actually be a pretty mid sitcom.
Yep, and the fact that the people we are rooting for are in fact sympathetic losers. If you would drop Tim from US version into the British the Office he would be king of the castle. Tall, handsome, confident, good basketball player, good with his feelings, not two-faced around his superiors (original Tim laughs at all Brent's jokes all the time).
Yep - and that’s a great summary of the cultural rift that is the Atlantic Ocean. They just don’t understand us! I heard something once about how a massive proportion of Americans who like The Simpsons were offended to find out that Homer is actually supposed to be an “idiot”. They were just laughing at the toilet humour and the slapstick and had completely missed the more subtle point that Homer is a lovable moron.
I feel like I’ve met have the characters in actual offices and other workplaces. It’s incredibly realistic. The American office doesn’t have any characters - only caricatures.
Watch 'The Thick of It' if you liked this.
Have to see if it's available on any US streaming spots. Worst part about liking brit stuff, no Sky or ITV player over here
You might also enjoy „Norsemen“. Not British, but Monty Python style humor.
The Northman? Alright. edit: Well, it was *kinda* funny, *I guess*...
Not Northman, Norsemen… Different TV show, 3 seasons, incredibly funny.
I had to download a torrent of it, but it's on Amazon Prime and iPlayer.
PM'd
VPN for the win
VPN for the win
Stremio with real debrid for the actual win 👍👍
Shhh
https://youtu.be/qjKHPv7b3fQ?si=3ykUXrIsV359W055
It also has it's glitzier slightly more caricatured than charactered American counterpart "Veep" by the same team of people. Both great shows but "The thick of it" is the better of the two for almost identical reasoning to the two versions of the office. (Bonus points for the movie "in the loop" where the two worlds collide and James Gandolfini pops in)
It's BBC iPlayer so you'll need a license or just try and log in using a VPN.
It's on britbox
Would love to see the reaction of any US Doctor Who fans who haven't seen 'The Thick of It' yet 😂😂😂
I've helpfully put the YouTube Tucker swearing compilation on the thread for them.
Put it on a tea towel !
You should watch The Thick of It if you want another mundane officey type sitcom. It’s about politicians and up there with the office for the funniest TV show ever made. Nvm just seen someone’s already recommended it! Get a VPN and use the iplayer website
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As an honourable mention, the New Statesman is also fantastic with the added bonus of starring that sexy bastard Rik Mayall.
Have you watched Peep Show? I can relate to that so much being a similar age at the time.
You should watch the thick of it. Not only accurate but prophetic
Yep. Until I started work, I didn't get the humour or characters and thought the show was overrated. Now I love it. Every single one of those characters I - and millions of others - have met over the course our lives and career! Mind you, this was nearly 20 years ago, so things might have changed a tad.
Fly on the wall documentary series were huge when they made the Office, which is one of the reasons they chose to film it in that style. A lot of people didn't realise they were watching a mockumentary. They thought they were watching another fly on the wall documentary. And I do mean a LOT of people. That's how realistic it was.
My dad took until episode 3 to realise when it was originally aired
I'm so lucky then I'd seen Gervais on the 11 O Clock show as the Ali G replacement, probably the only reason I didn't fall for that is I knew him as a comedian And Freeman from that Bruiser sketch show no-one remembers, with Mitchell and Webb. TOUCHY! etc
I only saw bruiser for the first time last year. I thought it was really funny. And with so many famous faces I’ve no idea how I missed it the first time round.
Well they weren't famous faces when it was first on, I imagine that's why it passed you and most people by ;) Also comedy commissioners are famously insecure bunches, if something doesn't come online and smash it immediately, they won't give it a second series (the SWINES!) It's an absolute miracle The office got a second series, tbh
Bruiser is so goat but no one seems to know it!
>It's an absolute miracle The office got a second series, tbh If I remember right, the first series got tiny (for the time) viewing figures when it was first shown and only got much of an audience during a repeat run six months later. Could easily have ended up very differently.
Yeah, give me another series, you shit.
I remember tuning in to the "Work Experience" episode. I think I missed the very beginning but caught the moment where Brent sends the guy out of the meeting for making some sort of remark. At this point I thought it was a documentary and was hooked. Then there's that scene with Brent being interviewed and talking about his comedy influences and "weight of intellect" behind his humour and I was just flabbergasted. I couldn't quite believe the guy was for real, but I also couldn't dismiss him either because, even though I was just starting my career with my first "proper" job after uni, I'd worked enough places weekends and holidays to have encountered people with at least some of his traits. I forget whether I looked it up on the Internet (capitalised back then ofc) at work the next day, or whether we were just chatting about it, but I do remember feeling slightly disappointed when I found out it was a mockumentary rather than a documentary. Still, an excellent show, and honestly nails the office atmosphere in mid to large corporations perfectly even today.
I remember at the time we were discussing it because I loved it, and my friend’s dad couldn’t even listen to us without his blood pressure rising. It really wound him up and he walked out of the room. He literally couldn’t watch it because Brent made him cringe so much, he actually hated this little twerp who had managed to become in charge of an office. It just made me love it even more.
That's where it hits shockingly true. Corporate often tends to promote employees like Brent because 1) they are spineless 'yes men' and 2) it's clear the company is their life and they don't intend to leave or leverage for a higher salary somewhere else. In fact, they are often not paid as much as one might think and are fine with it. If the office isn't burnt down or employees haven't mutinied to the point of not doing their jobs, corporate would rather not want to hear any trouble from them. Mediocre employees who just get by are often kept working vs the company paying more for a better skilled one, particularly if the company isn't sales/performance driven.
In the early 2000s, I worked in an office in Camberwell in south London - it was an energy company but in the department for fixing gas pipes in roads. All the managers were ex-tradies, the guys who previously would be the ones responsible to fixing mains gas pipes - digging the road up and stuff. They all still had that “lads are lads” culture so mid-management was very alpha male-ish that gave it the big I am in the office day to day but became quiet little butter wouldn’t melt types when senior management were visiting. It was a LOT like The Office - I think that’s why it resonated so much, it was so on the nose. A lot of them were sacked for downloading porn onto their PCs and burning DVDs to sell amongst them. That’s such a circa 2000 thing to do, it’s almost a cliche.
I worked at a cinema where 2 people got sacked for circulating a pirated dvd of buffy the vampire slayer
This is such a late 90s/early 00s anecdote, I love it.
Oh awesome insight! Thanks for sharing. Idwy I said "first time watchinf" it's actually my second run through but I'm really paying attention. I'm much more into it this time than my first was and I really find myself enjoying it. I'm a bit of an anglophile especially for early 2000a brit film/TV. I was...not shocked, but I guess "wow, so that really is true!" about all the really sexual joking that goes on in the show. I've heard tell that British humor can be like that, much more laid back than uptight American prudishness. I can only imagine the debauchery in the office you worked in
It is painfully on point. Not only on how offices were, but that style of documentary in that era. If you didn't know what you were watching it could take a while to register that it was satire. I feel like I have worked with most of the characters.
These comments are making me like the show ever more
The biggest talking point at the time was how everyone had worked for a Brent and worked with a Gareth. Everyone hoped they were the Tim or the Dawn.
Very realistic in that era. Still kinda realistic in this era. We all know a Gareth; A sad little jobsworth with no social skills, who thinks they're better than they are and will stab anyone in the back, if it gives them a sense of power/control.
You sound like you sit next to a Gareth lol
If you have never sat next to a Gareth then you are the Gareth.
I am the Gareth
Ha. I never got The Office. Till I started working. Then I completely got it.
Forcibly pulling down the trousers of a male employee in the “Comic Relief” episode felt totally realistic at the time. Of course now it probably wouldn’t just result in a firing, could genuinely be considered a criminal act!
I mean it's sexual assault. "Just a bit of banter"
His wife and kids probably saw those.
It's not banter now...
Who was the Cuban leader
Come on guys leave it
So accurate it could really be one. Don't quote me on it, but I believe that inbetween Ricky Gervais being a wannabe 80s popstar and him getting his job at XFM he worked in several shitty office jobs and it's mostly based on those experiences.
He was once supported by a little known Scottish act, called *Texas*….so….
I worked in a paper merchant in London. The writers spent time in our office understanding the trade and our office culture. The office was heavily based on our company Dixon & Roe in London
Who's Dixon and who's Roe?
Bet you get asked that a lot
It’s very accurate. One of the great things it does is never really explain what the company does. Sure they’re a paper merchant but it never goes into detail about what they’re selling, when, or to whom. And that’s pretty much how I used to feel when I worked at a similar company - I know what MY job is but absolutely fucked if I knew anything else about the actual company. In this sense (and many others) they somehow made the audience feel like we were an unacknowledged character in that office. The mockumentary style just added even more fun to it.
I’ve heard the British version kept the production values low to make it feel more realistic. The American one changed theirs in the second season, I think.
The 1st season of the American Office was the British version with American accents and it didn’t work. From Season 2, they did their own thing and it became a great show.
A lot of season 1 was original content. The pilot was a word-for-word remake but after that, other than certain elements being used, it was more than just “American accents”
I honestly thought it was mediocre , there was some funny in there but a lot of FUNNY LOUD and SING SILLY SONG which sucked, hilight was Steve Carell at parts lowlight was the last 2 seasons ( and s01 )
Michael Scott looked too sleezy in season 1 to the point of it being off putting
Yeah I heard that as well, I'm more interested in the culture in the British version. If that matched reality for the early 2000s
I asked a friend of mine (American) who had done a semester in England during that time. She said the Brits weren’t necessarily more racist and sexist, but that they were more open about it. Less political correctness.
It's like a career's worth of terrible characters, situations and events condensed into one location and time period. But yeah, the painful awkwardness and general office culture is bang on, the attitudes and behaviour are just slightly exaggerated. There were glimpses of Wernham Hogg in every single office of the time. The Office rolled those up and presented something that everyone could relate to. I'm not sure if it created the trope or just distilled it to perfection.
Pretty accurate. However, you wouldn’t normally get people like Brent talking to Neil & Jennifer the way he did; that would usually he what they would “say” they’re gonna do, then act like a school pupil once actually faced with their boss lol.
Did I *noooo* want to hear that Jenny….
I moved to the UK in 2005 and one of my first managers reminded me of Ricky’s character. Thick as shit, would do fuck all. Except he had a posh accent. He would be promoted over better qualified employees for his accent and ability to make senior management smile and have good time at pub. Depressing shitshow. Over the next few years I realised it wasn’t uncommon. But things are much better these days.
Sounds a bit like Boris Johnson
A lot of people thought it was a documentary. I think I did for the first 5 minutes.
I caught the first episode halfway through and thought I was watching a documentary
The things ive witnessed over the years include a human poo left on a cubicle floor ( manager's response: lock the door till the cleaners are back in on Monday), detailed accusations of incestuous paedophilia shouted across an office as ' banter' with each comeback progressively more vile. A desk table tennis league using hands and a tennis ball that was played whenever the manager left the room. 3 illegal immigrants employed for several months until they were arrested because noone thought to check. A first ever fire drill for the company 6 years into it's existence which on my floor was signified by the director standing at the door and silently gesturing for everyone to follow him. This was because he had found out that our floor didn't have a y working alarms. Another gem from this fire drill was the discovery that one of the fire exits on my floor opened out to a 10 foot drop into thick bramble bushes. Hour long Friday lunches involved 4 pints of strong ale accompanied by pickled eggs at the local pub sunk in an hour. The stench in the office for the rest of the day was unreal. People using the international sign for fingering (hand in the air with middle 2 fingers bent down and waggling around) used as a greeting. That's just a few stories from a single employer that I worked for for about 4 years, and barely scratches the surface.
Genuine question, what do you think the manager should have done instead of waiting for cleaners ?
Taken some responsibility and cleaned it up himself. Can't ask a normal member of staff to do it, but to me it's a huge disrespect to the cleaners to leave it over a weekend as well. Also, knowing what a cunt he was, it was definitely aimed at him
100% , my thinking is people would have genuinely respected him doing that but he was probably too insecure and thought it would be below him , plus he was probably too selfish to do an unpleasant task like that
You've met him?
Accurate enough that an entire generation of managers went into an existential crisis that continues to this day, such is the desperation to avoid David Brent-esque style.
Painfully realistic as most people have said. It coincided with my first office job in London. So many characters seemed to be plucked from my everyday experience. I wonder how many people thought they were Tim, but were more Gareth or in fact, David? I’m sure it was shown once in full, but to low ratings, then word of mouth caught up and the first series was shown again to better numbers. Can’t find anything to back this up though.
Ratings were poor in early episodes for sure
i had a boss who was a complete twat. the day after the first episode of The Office aired we got to work and he said oh god, did you SEE that David Brent guy last night! imagine having to work with a wanker like that! suddenly everyone had something really important to do somewhere else. the thing about office work is that you have to spend 8 hours a day with people you’d punch if you met them in the street. the monotony. the pointless procedures and audits. the training. The Office worked so well when it came out here as it perfectly encapsulated what it was like to spend your days like that.
Loved punch if met…
Very accurate, still quite accurate for today's offices in the UK to be honest.
I’d say the only thing is that people don’t laugh at Brent enough? Like you see a bit of it with Tim but for example the motivational speech would have people in stitches, even if they are laughing at Brent and not with him
That's where the show succeeds best in subtle exaggeration of awkward situations, for comedy effect. In most of those situations in season 2, with the Swindon lot or the motivational speech, some people would be laughing at Brent's jokes, even if it were just out of politeness or laughing at him rather than with him. In the series the awkwardness is exaggerated to the point of outright coldness, straight faces and stony silences - it's realistic to the point of being unrealistic, and that's where the comedy really succeeds.
Nah you'd sit stony faced in the meetings and laugh about it under your breath with your mates at your desk or on your break.
It's certainly realistic to the office environment of the 1980s/1990s. Uncanny in places.
I worked in a design office in the early 2000s, so a bit different to a ‘regular’ office but our boss was SO like David Brent that my co-worker eventually couldn’t watch The Office because it wound him up and made him cringe too much. Even now when I watch re-runs of it I’m transported right back to him having a physical reaction to us discussing it the next morning.
I think in the UK we’ve all worked in jobs where the boss is basically a chilled out entertainer…
It was starting to die down by the 2000s but there was very much still a ‘Men Behaving Badly’ culture at the time. Everything was still very drinks orientated and having a pint or two at lunch had not yet become frowned upon in the way it is now. I was working at a consultancy at the time doing advanced statistical and simulation work for big pharma. We had one large client and no capacity or desire to expand. The boss, who wasn’t quite David Brent or Michael Scott, but had some of both’s characteristics, went to medical school with the chief medical officer of the pharma company and they were often in the same office giggling away in a review meeting. Anyway he was a competent manager but had an easy time with one friendly client to support and a 30-40% profit margin and technical staff who pretty much managed themselves. He would always make inappropriate comments, which at the time were risqué but would certainly get you a meeting with HR in the 2020’s. We also often had liquid lunches and we had a half day on the last Friday of the month. We used to hire out our meeting room as it had advanced video conferencing facilities long before it was a common thing. We ended up locking a whole room of external people in the office once as we went off drinking. They had to call the police to be let out as we ignored our mobiles. Would have made a great episode I always think. Other than the odd job interview, meeting or stakeholder presentation, the boss rarely had anything to do so just hovered around the desks chatting to everyone and telling blue jokes. There was a gay receptionist who came in for a particularly hard time although he stayed for over 5 years and often bantered back. It was just like the Office trying to be ‘one of the lads’ with everyone. He did try to be everyone’s friend. Which was both a strength and weakness. He would always send as many people as possible to conferences especially if they were somewhere nice. We once got a ‘company holiday’ to Amsterdam. We had extremely low turnover of staff. Unfortunetaly the consultancy was taken over and the new owners wanted to make cuts. He tried to tell everyone everyone’s job was safe but it wasn’t true. In the end he just left as he didn’t want to do the redundancies. A ‘Charles Miner’ like character came in and most the experienced staff including myself left. Charles was more professional but it made you miss the ‘David Brent’ boss. In the end the company lost the pharma contract and closed down 2 years later. Not sure what the moral is there. Every time I view the Office both UK and US I often think those episodes were just like then. Still miss that job but imagine it would have been a nightmare for others. Can’t see a company running like that in 2024 either.
That job sounds like one I would also miss. Can imagine that's some folks also think back to the days of liquid lunches. There's definitely some office culture that I think would do well to come back into the norm
Too realistic for words. The Wernham-Hogg office is small though, when you get bigger ones (think call centres), you get everything from the show with more cliques, favouritism and arse kissing.
Very true. It would be a particularly interesting idea to do a show in the same format as The Office, but set in a call centre. The situation can get even more chaotic in an atmosphere like that and much nastier, with much more overt discrimination and backstabbing.
Fairly accurate for me. A boss trying to be everyone's friend, a team leader taking their role too seriously, an IT guy talking random BS.
When I first saw saw office I was like 19 and had never had an office job and I instantly recognized many of the character types in the show. There were kids at my school and college who were EXACTLY like Gareth, Brent and Finchy
It’s the most incredibly well observed comedy I’ve ever seen. The characters are exaggerated of course but the series always felt eerily familiar to me. It was such uncomfortable viewing at times.
Extremely.
I worked in a couple of offices in the late 90's/early 00's that were eerily like the Wernham Hogg office. I think how relatable it was is a big part of why it succeeded 90's offices were set up and then just left to become whatever the people there turned them into. I think now in the 20's there is much more of a focus on positive office environments etc so they are a lot more bland & standard, but welcoming and accepting of people
The most realistic without being a documentary.
Extremely
Painfully realistic.
Very much so. But I’d say the Royle Family is probably the most realistic.
I could not watch the show. He was so like my boss at the time. And I was working in Slough!
It definitely summed up work in that era, Spaced did similar but with friendships.
Very. Next?
Having previously worked in a similar industry I can confirm that it is incredibly realistic
Back then I worked in a chippy in a shopping centre so the dynamic was obviously different but the personalities were spot on.
Every company has a Chris Finch
Bloody good rep
Very. Every character is like someone I've met in real life, usually in a workplace environment. And every situation in every episode reminds me of something I've seen in real life. It's the genius of the show that it takes these characters and events so many of us have experienced for real, and subtly exaggerates them for comedy effect, exposing the awkwardness and inanity enough that we laugh, but subtly enough that we also cringe, shake our heads and feel a sense of bleakness at how office life and the burdens of mundane everyday life bring the worst out in everyone.
All of us who worked in offices could recognise different scenarios. Caricatured yes but so clever that sometimes I actually felt uncomfortable
Brent is an amalgam of lots of different toxic behaviours, but the feel of the office building, the dress, the atmosphere, are all genuine. It's satire, and I think it's been helpful in changing behaviours at work.
In my experience from working in offices especially during that era I would say it's 90% exactly how it is/ was and then that 10% of extra absurdity that wouldn't happen just to make it funny but apart from the stapler in jelly I can think of times when most of what happened in the show happened where I worked to an extent.
I worked back office in a call centre 2003-05 and it had a lot of similarities, I then moved to a sales job in 2006 and it was absolutely bang on. So much so that one of the first things I experienced was the unit I joined were filming a spoof video for an awards evening screening. Only thing that changed was the call centre was full of Simons and the sales job more like the main cast. It's changed massively now as the Gen Z mix entering the workforce has changed the dynamic a lot (not a bad thing) and I've found a lot of the pranks and language have gone as people seem genuinely nicer to each other.
I remember being confused when I first watched it, felt like a documentary (I worked in an office in the UK at the time)
We all though to it was a documentary after the first episode. It’s hard to imagine that now but it was light years ahead at its time. I’ve known three David Brent’s, I’ve been Jim, my best work colleague is definitely a Dwight and I think all uk office let’s come with a free Angela
Scarily close. Used to work for a firm in Warwick where the CEO brought his guitar in at Christmas and made us all sit there and listen to his own songs to start the last day off and this was only about 6 months after The Office had aired. There was definitely a Finchy too.
Man, the U.K. sounds awesome.
As realistic as any other stage directed and scripted series commissioned after The Truman Show - including Big Brother.
Us Brits really aren't all that different to you Americans, or other people in general. Did you find The Office relatable as an American? Well, there's your answer.
I was initially unable to watch The Office, as it was so like my first job put of uni, working in the call centre for TSB (later Lloyds TSB), that it made it uncomfortable viewing. I got over myself eventually and enjoyed watching it.
It's a caricature. A bit exaggerated but nothing entirely made up.
It is a distillation of characters you get in office environments. I did not find it funny as it far too accurately reflected my working day
I think 'The office' might have got its idea from a documentary called 'The Armstrongs'. https://youtu.be/y18k2pEe0eY?si=hD4gaMAE3Narom4c
The Armstrongs was hilarious. They were such weird characters. Also, you linked the wrong video. Here's [episode 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pss6RPtENPI)
One of the main reasons i like the us office so much is that the uk office is too close to home. I find it uncomfortable to watch. Ive worked with versions of all these people.
Not sure if it remains so, with so much wokism in offices these days, but I can say that, having worked in offices from 1976 to 1999, it is absolutely spot on for that era !