The Office

2001-2003. British mockumentary, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. A model for numerous international adaptations, e.g. in America (with Steve Carell) and Germany (Stromberg).

Set in the Slough branch of the fictitious Wernham Hogg paper company, the show chronicles the work lives of office manager David Brent (Ricky Gervais) and his less-than-motivated team. The comedy is largely the result of Brent's character flaws and his clumsy attempts to win favour with his employees. At the same time, the series is a satire of the corporate world (where a phrasemonger like Brent is apparently successful, at least for some time) and of New Labour's political rhetoric (which often relied on soundbites: small chunks of words that can easily be quoted but carry little meaning).

The series is also a parody of fly-on-the-wall documentaries with their partly irrelevant, partly unrealistic claim to insights into "real life".