The Office is the hit NBC comedy that follows the fictional lives of employees at Dunder Mifflin, a paper supply company. It is classified as a mockumentary, or a tv show or movie that takes the form of a documentary to satirize it's subject.

The first season focuses on the day to day lives of coworkers who seem to at best tolerate each other. The regional manager, Michael Scott, is loud, confident, and almost always found making celebrity impressions and borderline offensive jokes. His crude sense of humor is, to some extent, disliked by the other employees. This is exemplified in season 1 episode 2, titled Diversity Day. In this episode, Michael makes an insensitive joke and is reported to corporate. In amends, diversity day is initiated at the office. A speaker visits and attempts to educate the employees, but Michael made continuous attempts to take over the meeting. He also showed an ignorance to how his joke was insensitive. This created an awkward situation for the rest of the employees. This is because it showed the embarrassment and frustration many of them felt for Michael, but that they didn’t completely know how to handle the situation, considering that he was there boss.

This episode illustrates the relationships among the coworkers at the show’s beginning, showing how the employees don’t fully know how to handle each other, especially in awkward situations. In addition, this episode, similarly to many episodes in season one, presents the awkwardness that can be found in the workplace. This makes the show more realistic and relatable to many viewers. If the show’s entirety was slapstick humor surrounding an office setting, viewers may find it entertaining, but may not connect to it’s humor. Comparatively, The Office presents a satiric humor building off the awkwardness and frustration created in an office setting. This greatly fits into the basic definition of the show’s genre, the mockumentary.

Although the show presents a relatable satiric humor that stays true to its genre, it also presents slapstick comedy. For example, throughout the entirety of the series, two salesmen, Dwight Schrute and Jim Halpert, are involved in a comedic rivalry. This is seen from episode one of the series when Jim encases Dwight’s stapler in jello. Another example is how Jim tricks Dwight into thinking he had been recruited by the CIA. These, among other pranks, although mostly committed for his own satisfaction, arguably were pulled in order to impress the receptionist, Pam Beesly.

Presented in the first season, is the fact that Jim is romantically interested in Pam. Throughout the series, the two grow closer as friends, and eventually end up in a relationship. From there, they eventually get married. At the wedding, alongside their close friends and family, are the employees from Dunder Mifflin.

Although glimpses of this had been seen in earlier episodes, this was the first moment where the employees truly seemed to bond and enjoy the company of each other. At the wedding, the employees were all seen dancing and celebrating the happiness of Pam and Jim. This was also a turning point in the sense that up until this point, the show mainly followed the going ons within the office. From here, the employees’ personal lives begin to be shown more, allowing for additional drama to surface.

An example of this is the following of Angela, an accountant at the office. In season seven, she enters a relationship with a senator, named Robert Lipton. Throughout their relationship, footage is taken at campaign dinners and other events not held within the office. From this footage, it is found that the senator is cheating on Angela with one of her coworkers. This creates much drama and tension within the office. Without the creation of footage from outside of the office, this drama would have been less pronounced in the show.

Luckily, the drama eventually clears up, and contrary to what one might believe, brings Angela closer to her coworkers. This, along with other outside of work experiences and relationships among the employees, helps to build a dysfunctional family within the office. Similar to real families, the office employees have highly varying and arguably incompatible personalities. Despite this, they tolerate, and even appreciate, their time spent together. Also, when drama and fighting arises, they don’t let it end relationships, unlike what often happens among coworkers or even among friends. They work it out and grow closer and more connected as a result, which happens in real families. Further driving the point that the employees became a family, Michael stated in the show’s finale, “I feel like all my kids grew up and then married each other. It’s every parent’s dream!”.
In addition, the connection shown within The Office never felt forced, as character interactions often feel on tv shows, especially in comedies. In part, this was due to the length of the series (over two hundred episodes), which allowed for the characters to connect slowly, and therefore more naturally. This was also due to the skilled writing of the episodes and acting that brought the characters to life.

The portrayal of the shifting relations of the employees is accompanied by a well written balance of satire and slapstick humor. This, along with staying true to the themes of both comedy and mockumentary, The Office is set apart from the typical comedy show.