Seinfeld meets The Office
As you know, I regularly find myself stuck in old (or should have been) Seinfeld episodes: driving a car out of gas for no reason, having doctors question this and that and then write things on my files, friends hitting a pothole with your car leaving it to make clicking noises, waiting it out for repair men, battling it out with the laundromat over ruined shirts, even bandaids in food (well, that was the episode that should've been). However, I recently find myself in this situation that UGH, keeps me feeling like I am stuck in a Seinfeld episode but I realized, it is not Seinfeld, it is The Office.
Being our company's group administrator for our health insurance, I get to constantly deal with the little dogs. I say little dogs NOT out of disrespect but because I honestly have to remind myself that the actual people I am talking with, arguing with, fighting against, grring over, are not the ones who came up with all the rules and fees and hoops. They are the messengers, it is not their fault, the fault goes to the big dogs who wrote the obnoxious rules.
Though I generally find myself wanting to pull my hair out from the insanity I am hearing over the phone, I have now decided to take solace in imagining the people I am arguing as being real people, not mere puppets. Taking on the form of The Office, I imagine them with break rooms and office romances and birthday cakes and protocols and maybe (if they are lucky) a boss who likes to write his own songs and poems for them. They are the person with the policy binder and need to do exactly what the policy binder says for each exact situation and then go home. (It is not so much as me being in the episode, as me watching an episode over the phone, so to speak.)
That, my friends, is when it dawned on me.
I am sure you have been baffling it as well, but let me fill you in... it wasn't Jerry or Bill's fault the 2 Microsoft extended commercials were not all they should've been - it was the director and accidentally, The Office's fault.
I have only watched a handful of The Office but I have watched every single episode of Seinfeld, twice SO let me tell you, it wasn't Bill and Jerry's combo that was bad, it was their director who was out of the loop. My guess is their director hadn't watched a Seinfeld episode or Jerry's stand up routine in a while and had fallen in love with The Office. While The Office is absolutely beautiful with its dry sarcasm, it is not what Seinfeld episodes are made of and it lacks the quick humor, quick conversations, face paced action that is Seinfeld. Yes, Seinfeld was a show about nothing, but that nothing came in a beautiful package. Call me old fashioned, but I think most people were expecting a more developed Seinfeld-esque interaction.
I say, the Microsoft folks turn over the film to a new director, add and chop and slice and dice, and maybe film a couple more scenes and give 'er another shot. The concepts for each of the videos are hilarious and have so much potential but in their current state they are incomplete!! Double explanation point!!
Or, maybe like all things, it is time for Jerry to step down and pass the torch on to Steve Carell. (Bill did an amazing job and it was wonderful to see him in a "natural" setting, so please keep him.) Maybe it is time, like The Cosby Show, for now Seinfeld, to move over for the next guy / generation.
As for me, my life will continue as it's own episode of Seinfeld... where the nothing-ness of the everyday makes me giggle (and that is a hard thing to do).
OH! And here are the videos from http://www.youtube.com/user/WindowsVideos so you can be the judge:
And...
Seinfeld friends unite! I actually loved to see those commercials just to get another taste of Jerry. Isn't that sad? I still watch the reruns. Have you seen "Curb Your Enthusiasm"? It's an HBO series about Larry David (like Seinfeld was about Jerry). It's HILARIOUS if not a bit more crude. You need to overlook some of the words that fly on an HBO show. The best season so for is 2 and 3, but definately the trick or treat episode. You should rent one for a throw-back to the Seinfeld days.
I enjoyed Seinfield and will watch a rerun if it's on, but won't go searching it out. However, I can't stand the Office. I know, I must be one of three people in the U.S. that will admit to this fact, but I thought it would give some context to my opinion. I found myself watching the videos with the same laugh-less wonderment that I have at the Office. I honestly don't see what's funny about it at all, nor how it possibly promotes buying a PC. On a different note, I hear ya on the little dogs. I work in a law firm that often deals with health insurance companies. And previously I worked in a business office for a clinic organization. I've had several years of dealing with little dogs and I feel your pain. I appreciate your comparison to the Office, but given my opinion of the office, I imagine it a little more like Dilbert.
Totally Kathy!! Yes, I should definitely add that I did enjoy seeing Jerry in action once again through the commercials! Our local station that played the reruns stopped doing so about a year ago (replacing Seinfeld with Trash Magazine, blah! Bad decision!) and I have definitely been in withdraw. And again, they were entirely promising with great concepts and scripts even just don't you think there was a little something missing? A little speed on the delivery perhaps? It must be me, :)! And Charity, good morning sister!!! I do hear you, at first I did not like The Office. But I watched it a few more times and realized it does not make me laugh so much as "hun" and shrug my shoulders. When I evaluate it as a whole, they truly do have a wonderfully developed cast with great personalities, Michael especially.