YMMV / The Office (UK)

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • David Brent: a complete jackass, or a decent bloke who lets the fact that he's being put on television go to his head with disastrous consequences? Or was the documentary edited to show him in the worst possible light?
  • Neil gets some of this too. Gervais admitted that the character was intended to be as unlikable as Chris Finch, but some viewers feel that he dealt with David fairly for the most part and that his low tolerance for Brent's disruptive behaviour was usually justified. That said other viewers believe he manages Brent passive aggressively such as telling him off in front of Gareth when it could have been a 1 to 1.
  • Does Gareth really believe the Blatant Lies Simon spins, or is he just indulging a fellow weirdo's habit? Perhaps he knows better than to tempt the kind of zinger Tim received for mocking Simon's stories.
• Awesome Music:
  • "Free Love Freeway"
  • The title theme, “Handbags and Gladrags”, as covered by Big George Webley, is pretty sweet in itself. It brings to mind all the complicated feelings while in the workplace and the melancholy of not knowing where life will take you i.e. a perfect fit for the show.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The impromptu singing of Mahnamahna at the very beginning of Series 2.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Gareth is assumed by many to be on the Autism spectrum. He's fixated on the military with few other interests, is obsessed with maintaining order around the workplace, has an awkward fashion sense, the few times he tries to be funny he fails to read the room and is generally unable to connect with other people on their level.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Keith. His deadpan moments never cease to amuse fans, plus his complete lack of pretentiousness makes him the perfect contrast to Brent.
  • Simon the IT guy is also popular in some circles, despite (or maybe because of) his laughably insufferable personality. His cutting comeback to Tim's patronising is likely half the reason.
• Fridge Brilliance: In the Christmas Special, Gareth offhandedly mentions that Brent sued the company after he was fired, settling out of court for a good deal of money (which he wasted trying to launch a music career), following which he still shows up at the office on a regular basis. Really, is it any wonder Neil's tolerance for the man had utterly plummeted as of this point?
  • In Series 2 we see David Brent tell someone he thinks is trying to sell him training courses that he does all his own training in-house. Yet in Series 1 we saw an entire episode devoted to a training day organised by an outside company. Continuity issue....or did the fact that the training day went so spectacularly badly lead to Wernham Hogg (Slough) being blacklisted by every training company in the area?
  • Also in the Christmas Special, we do not see Chris Finch when everyone is posing for the photo at the end. Meaning that after David told him to fuck off, he actually did.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • David expresses his curiosity on how to permanently delete his internet history. In the US version, we see Clark do just that.
  • The second series opens with an impromptu rendition of Mahnamahna, which Brent joins in. Ricky Gervais would later co-star in Muppets Most Wanted and made a guest appearance on Sesame Street.
• Jerkass Woobie: David Brent. He's a Jerkass from start to finish but he somehow ends up being so miserable, pitiable, and downright tragic that it's near impossible not to feel sad for him by the end of the show.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Gareth Tunley appears in the audience of David Brent's motivational speech in series two, two years before his first acting role (in Peep Show).
  • The scouser getting fired by David Brent is Jerk Jock Jeff in Peep Show. Future Oscar winner and fellow Peep Show alumni Olivia Colman appears in series 2 episode 6 as the journalist who interviews Brent.
  • Along with Olivia Colman, who plays Helena, Ricky and Donna later on went to play Boyce and Kim in Green Wing, with a very similar relationship to the one that have in The Office.
• Signature Scene: David's utterly embarrassing dance following a relatively decent duet; he describes it as "Flashdance meets MC Hammer shit", but it's largely a lot of him grunting, waving his arms and pointing at his captive audience. It's very much the ultimate example of David desperately wanting to be liked.
• Song Association: "Only You" by Yazoo will forever be associated with Tim and Dawn's kiss in the Christmas Special.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Anne gets a gloriously blunt "The Reason You Suck" Speech when she bitches about people having the audacity to smoke near her at a party. However, given she's pregnant, she can come across as Unintentionally Sympathetic in this situation.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • The warehouse guys smoking at the Christmas party, given that smoking indoors was outlawed in Britain four years after the show ended.
  • The reference about Noel Edmonds not getting on TV for "love nor money"; two years after the show ended Edmonds was hosting Deal or No Deal and returned to being somewhat of a household name- although Deal or No Deal is pretty much all he's known for these days.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Anne getting a "The Reason You Suck" Speech when she complains about the warehouse employees smoking around her is supposed to be funny, but even though she was portrayed unsympathetically up to that point, at the end of the day she is a pregnant woman and is right to complain about people smoking around her. For that matter, even if she wasn't pregnant, she'd still be right to complain about them spreading second-hand smoke indoors. It doesn't help that the "The Reason You Suck" Speech comes from the warehouse employees who have been completely loathsome in their previous appearances, as opposed to Tim who she has been annoying throughout the Christmas special to this point. That said, smoking indoors was allowed at the time. Granted, it was increasingly seen as being socially taboo, especially in a workplace like an office, but when Anne complains about the smoking, it's during the Christmas party as opposed to regular working hours. It was only banned in Britain in 2007, four years after the Christmas specials were broadcast.
  • Gervais has stated in the past that we were meant to dislike Neil ... which ended up surprising all of those viewers who thought that his only crime was doing his job properly, a thankless task given that it involved having to supervise David Brent.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Tim as the series wears on, particularly in the Christmas Specials, as his Snark Knight tendencies become exaggerated and he starts sniping at Gareth over the tiniest thing. It doesn't help that much of his often unprovoked pranks on Gareth in season 2 are calculated to impress Rachel. He actually behaves more like his new deskmate Anne, who is supposed to be irritating and unlikeable.
  • We're meant to feel bad for Sheila when Trudy and Oliver hook up at the Christmas Party, but considering Sheila's only line in the series is "I like blacks", you can come away with the impression she only liked Oliver for that reason and didn't bother getting to know him as a person, since we never see them actually talk to each other while Trudy and Oliver interact several times in Season Two and even playfully kiss on Trudy's birthday.
  • Dawn, to a point, since she's such a doormat when it comes to Lee that she rejects the much nicer Tim twice and ends up wasting three years in America being a glorified babysitter because she couldn't muster up the courage to leave him. Yes, her situation sucks, but she makes her own bed by refusing to stand up for what she really wants. It takes a very heartfelt present from Tim in the series finale for her to finally put her foot down and choose the guy who doesn't treat her like shit.
• Unconvincingly Unpopular Character: Tim still lives with his parents at the age of 30, but is charming, witty and good enough at his menial job to be considered for a manager's position, plus he manages to attract the attention of both Dawn and Rachel. He also generally tends to have the upper hand in Snark-To-Snark combat with Brent, Finch, and Keenan.
• Values Dissonance: The UK's more relaxed view of alcohol is apparent when comparing with The Office (US). One UK episode involves Brent taking all of his new employees out for quite a few beers in the middle of the workday, which wouldn't fly in most American companies. By contrast, nearly every time alcohol is introduced to the American show, there are serious consequences: Pam throws herself at Jim despite being engaged, Roy smashes up a bar, Michael and Jan get in a fight where the cops get called, and Meredith sets her hair on fire.
• The Woobie:
  • Tim, and even David at one stage.
  • Dawn. Her dreams are constantly being pushed aside and her fiancee doesn't care how she feels, to the point where he gropes her in front of his mates. She clearly wants to be with Tim, but he's flirting with the new girl who seems much more fun than she does.
  • Sheila in the Christmas special who was clearly pining for Oliver, only to watch him drunkenly make out with Trudy. He regretted it after.
  • Karen Roper has to deal with Brent's incredibly creepy and inappropriate behavior and even gets a rather nasty accidental headbutt from him. It gets worse when you factor in that he's knowingly stringing her along by offering her a job when he knows Wernham-Hogg is making redundancies, meaning she quit her previous job to work for David, only to be left jobless within a few weeks.

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