The Juxtaposition of Normal and the Abnormal : The Office

Dissecting one of the most popular scenes from one of the most popular TV shows in recent entertainment history: The Office, is no easy task. As many of you may know, the show revolves around a set of outwardly ordinary office drones and derives humor from the surprisingly extraordinary and often cringe-worthy character traits they exhibit. The constant juxtaposition of the monotony of a modern office and the outlandishness of extreme human behavior forms the crux of the show’s commentary on life in modern corporate America and can perhaps be nowhere better observed than in this scene. 

As the scene is set up, numerous elements of film technique lull us into the false sense that this is a normal American office where employees are observing a routine CPR training. The color scheme is as neutral as possible, the characters have normal “inside” voices that are only interrupted by the occasional hum of air conditioning or a voicemail tone in the background, and the actors have facial expressions and body language that conveys either boredom, mild discomfort, or bewildered amusement. Many of the Office’s characters do not match typical Hollywood standards of glamorous beauty and there is no true attempt to create an eye-catching aesthetic in the set and props around the actors. Most importantly the entire plot revolves around a standard corporate employee training scenario that provides seemingly little potential for catastrophe or even excitement.

Then disaster strikes and every element of film technique changes. The camera movements become so shaky and the cuts become so quick that it seems like the action is moving too quickly for even the cameraman to capture. The characters begin talking all at once, exclaiming and yelling over each other, some of them gasping and literally squealing in shock. The sounds of Dwight screaming like an animal, ripping open a dummy with a knife, and making strange clicking sounds with his mouth all create an emotion of carnal rage: something you don’t typically see in an office building. The images of a knife stabbed through the chest of a bright red shirt, which is the brightest thing in the scene, on a dummy that has adorned Dwight's glasses are quite an imaginative deviation from the monotony of the conference room they are seated in: with its drab brown-gray carpet and imprisoning fluorescent lights. And thus, with a dramatic upheaval of the previously dry, minimalistic film technique the scene very quickly shifts from the sane to the insane and the ridiculousness of this situation causes us to cringe and laugh all at once.

Apart from the dichotomy of the normal and abnormal in the technical aspects of film, the Office displays this dichotomy in its purposefully created characters. One of the most effective ways The Office creates comedy is by bringing in a non-Office member and using them as a foil for the large personalities who work at Dunder Mifflin. Despite her authoritative position of leadership as the instructor of the training, Rose is clad in a cheery purple jacket, has an almost adorable haircut, a voice that can barely be heard above everyone else’s and a demeanor that is hardly authoritative enough to deal with this explosive set of characters. As she becomes completely helpless and loses any semblance of command she had over the room, she gives a look of a bewildered plea, looking directly at the camera as she does it. In this manner, the character Rose is the audience’s voice; we pity her and she reminds us of how normal humans would see these employees . The difference though, between us and Rose, is that she is caught in the situation and is horrified as a result while we are free to watch the scene unfold from afar with our previous knowledge of the characters and thus can laugh at her confusion.

On the other hand, Dwight is the antithesis to the very idea of normal, and is often the instigator of the Office’s most outrageous scenes. As some of you who watch the show may know, Dwight is the Office’s Safety Officer, but this whole CPR exercise is occuring due to his earlier mishap, and he still considers himself something of an expert on...well, everything. It is perhaps his discontentment at watching Rose take the position that he is normally in that causes him to appear aloof and indifferent to the proceedings in the beginning and then jump right in in the most ridiculous manner possible so that he can once again be the center of attention and fashion himself as the intellectual leader of the Office. Dwight is a man of great passion and diverse interests, but the stale, stifling nature of the Office environment causes his instincts of leadership to turn disruptive, dangerous, and downright weird. Thus, the most normal person - Rose and the most abnormal person - Dwight, both take leadership in this scene. One person creates only bored indifference while the other creates impassioned mayhem.

My main takeaway is that this scene of the Office derives its humor by commenting on the fact that modern corporate America does everything in its power to ensure its employees are dutiful, efficient, and machine-like in their behavior and yet only succeeds in achieving the opposite and creates people who will do anything it takes to break the monotony of their office job and not remain an office drone.  The brown and gray colors and drab aesthetic in which the Office is designed, the endless rules, regulations, and bureaucracy that the characters are subjected to, and their day to day routine that hardly changes: it is all a design to squeeze the maximum productivity and efficiency out of every worker. And yet, it does not work. It is simply unlike human nature to pay keen attention to a stranger who walks in and gives you instructions for a corporate-mandated training. From Dwight’s attempts to recreate a movie scene, to Andy and Kelly’s attempts to reform this CPR training into a dance party, to Michael’s attempts to convince his employees that this is an exciting and fun event: not one but several individuals act out their most abnormal character traits in a desperate bid to save themselves from absolute boredom. This scene of the Office uses cringe-comedy to show that no amount of effort to create the most “normal” work environment possible will contain the “abnormal” aspects of human nature. The abnormal can simply not be be contained.