Mysterious Workplaces

[neveragain]

Or 'comedies set in workplaces that never tell you what the workplace actually does'. My examples are...

*Nightingales, where it added to the inherent surrealism
*The Smoking Room, where it didn't

Can anyone think of any more?

[copa]

Only When I Laugh. A hospital ward in which three men, who show no signs of ill health, get to dick around in dressing gowns for three series.

[dungbeetle kpi]

the office job that Fran gets in Black Books (which is sometimes exactly what.m y actual job is like)

[Cuellar]

What the hell were their jobs meant to be in Open All Hours?

[Bad Ambassador]

The nature of Barney's job in How I Met Your Mother, although it's revealed towards the end, after it had jumped over a cliff.

[Terry Torpid]

Reynholm Industries in The IT Crowd, by CaB favourite Gary Glinner.

Mike Judge's Office Space.

[dissolute ocelot]

Chandler in the early series of Coffee Friends. It had something to do with numbers and computers. Then they made him an ad-man because that's (sarcastic Chandler voice) much cooler than being a transponster. Ross's job was a bit vague too, till they made him a university lecturer.

(I suppose the alternative is when they portray an actual job in a way that the person never does any actual work. Did Larry Hagman ever do any astronauting in I Dream of Jeannie? Not sure Chandler did any work either, though. No idea what Family Guy actually does in the toy factory or brewery; at least Homer has a job title, although I'd imagine an actual safety inspector would inspect things.)

[Video Game Fan 2000]

am i tripping or did itv have an office based sitcom in the early 90s where one of the gags was what the office did changed radically all the time due to nonsensical head office requests? female lead as the manager, canny and at all not brentish and inept. like a pre-watershed drop the dead donkey about normal people jobs

i think i might be combining glimpses of nightingales and DTDD in my head

[rubysay]

Reynholm Industries in The IT Crowd, by CaB favourite Gary Glinner.

Mike Judge's Office Space.

In office space, they're software programmers, no?

[Sebastian Cobb]

In office space, they're software programmers, no?

Yep. He actually explains what his job is supposed to entail to Anniston's character, he's supposed to be upgrading financial software (I think it's implied they're an 'IT Services' company that sells their software to financial institutions rather than one themselves) to use 4 digit rather than 2 digit dates to mitigate the millenium bug.

The actual scam is also reliant on them being developers of financial software, the idea is that when money is represented at cent-level precision any remainders are simply truncated rather than rounded and they intended to siphon off these 'fractions of a cent' over millions of transactions to make cash. In the real-world this is conceptually known as 'salami slicing', although Snopes seems to reckon there aren't any real world examples of it, people often seem to think Office Space was based on a real scam or life imitated art.

[dead-ced-dead]

Yep. He actually explains what his job is supposed to entail to Anniston's character, he's supposed to be upgrading financial software (I think it's implied they're an 'IT Services' company that sells their software to financial institutions rather than one themselves) to use 4 digit rather than 2 digit dates to mitigate the millenium bug.

The actual scam is also reliant on them being developers of financial software, the idea is that when money is represented at cent-level precision any remainders are simply truncated rather than rounded and they intended to siphon off these 'fractions of a cent' over millions of transactions to make cash. In the real-world this is conceptually known as 'salami slicing', although Snopes seems to reckon there aren't any real world examples of it, people often seem to think Office Space was based on a real scam or life imitated art.

Michael Bolton: Same scam as in Superman 3.

Samir: Superma??? I DON'T WANT TO GO TO JAIL!

[dead-ced-dead]

Better off Ted, the company is fairly vague on what it does, except for that they're doing vaguely evil things for the American military.

[Bad Ambassador]

It's based, as it says in the film, on the scam Richard Pryor's character does in Superman III. He makes far more than he expects and is immediately caught when he turns up at work the next day in a Ferrari.

[neveragain]

Reynholm Industries...

That reminds me of Reynolds Industries from the episode of Always Sunny where Frank gors back to work. They do a lovely riff on this idea.

"What does the company make?"
"Money!"
Etc cetera.

[gilbertharding]

North American Veeblefetzer - Mad Magazine.

I suppose Mole Valley Valves doesn't qualify for this thread, because the clue's in the name, but it does have a certain inscrutability about it.

And what did the company Jerry worked for in The Good Life do? I know that Tom designed the plastic toys for cereal packets, but the company HQ where Jerry and Sir worked was in the City...

[Bad Ambassador]

Same company, wasn't it? Maybe they worked in the head office in the City while Tom was at a workshop somewhere in the suburbs.

[gilbertharding]

Same company, wasn't it? Maybe they worked in the head office in the City while Tom was at a workshop somewhere in the suburbs.

Yes, the same company - didn't Jerry start out in the same department as Tom - the drawing office? I thought there were references to 'upstairs' and 'the fifth floor' - presuming this was literal, and not just a metaphor for promotion to the executive class.

Is this another example of comedy writer's limited, and often extremely dated ideas about normal people's jobs?  Like including secretaries, typing pools, and tea ladies YEARS after the last typist and tea lady was made redundant. This is kind of like what I was talking about in the 4 Extra thread.

[badaids]

In The Crown the main characters are all very clearly well off and never seem to have a job, can anyone explain what that is about?

[Gurke and Hare]

Is this another example of comedy writer's limited, and often extremely dated ideas about normal people's jobs?  Like including secretaries, typing pools, and tea ladies YEARS after the last typist and tea lady was made redundant. This is kind of like what I was talking about in the 4 Extra thread.

No, I just think it's what things were like in the 1970s - not everybody who worked in the City of London was in finance, insurance or the law. See also Sunshine Desserts.

[copa]

Is this another example of comedy writer's limited, and often extremely dated ideas about normal people's jobs?  Like including secretaries, typing pools, and tea ladies YEARS after the last typist and tea lady was made redundant.

I was wondering this about the Icklewick FM comedy show on Radio 4. Not listened to it but seems to be set in a local radio world that doesn't really exist any more.

[Icehaven]

Ross's job was a bit vague too, till they made him a university lecturer.

The "museum emergency" that disrupted Ross and Rachel's date was fairly ridiculous, the idea that a museum curator (or whatever he was) could be beeped out of hours at all is silly, never mind that he then had to work late into the night rearranging a display when it was clearly something he could have done in about ten minutes the following morning.

[Blumf]

*Nightingales, where it added to the inherent surrealism

Wasn't the building they were guarding supposed to be unoccupied.

[Famous Mortimer]

The "museum emergency" that disrupted Ross and Rachel's date was fairly ridiculous, the idea that a museum curator (or whatever he was) could be beeped out of hours at all is silly, never mind that he then had to work late into the night rearranging a display when it was clearly something he could have done in about ten minutes the following morning.

Plus, he's a paleontologist, so his knowledge of the non-fossil aspects of prehistoric cultures in that scene is curious too.

[Utter Shit]

I don't really know what most of the characters in The Thick of It do, but then I suppose that is partly the joke.

Malcolm, Stewart - press secretary/enforcers
Jamie, The Fucker - enforcers?
Ollie, Phil, Emma (and Glen?) - advisors to Hugh and Nicola as MPs
Terri, Robyn - press relations?
Adam - newspaper editor
Angela - journalist
Julius - advisor to the prime minister?
John - also a press officer but not sure who for
Steve - enforcer?
Sam - PA to Malcolm

[Gurke and Hare]

Julius - advisor to the prime minister?

I think Julius was an MP with the PM's ear - in the reshuffle episode Malcolm made up a story that he'd been putting himself forward for Foreign Secretary to undermine him. Wikipedia says that Nick Hanway (the bald nutter who was only in the specials) was an MP, but I've not seen that backed up anywhere.

John - also a press officer but not sure who for

Seems to be more employed by the party than the government I think.

Steve - enforcer?

Who's that? I can't place a Steve.

I do find the idea of "what does everyone do?" fascinating in TTOI.

[dissolute ocelot]

Plus, he's a paleontologist, so his knowledge of the non-fossil aspects of prehistoric cultures in that scene is curious too.

Clearly they don't know the difference between a paleontologist and a paleoanthropologist. It's the difference between old things and old people, the clue's in the name!

[Utter Shit]

I think Julius was an MP with the PM's ear - in the reshuffle episode Malcolm made up a story that he'd been putting himself forward for Foreign Secretary to undermine him. Wikipedia says that Nick Hanway (the bald nutter who was only in the specials) was an MP, but I've not seen that backed up anywhere.

Seems to be more employed by the party than the government I think.

Who's that? I can't place a Steve.

I do find the idea of "what does everyone do?" fascinating in TTOI.

Steve = Steve Fleming, the creepy guy who briefly replaces Malcolm in one of the later series. CHOO FUCKING CHOO!

It's kind of mad really, there are only a handful of people whose jobs are clear cut. The rest are all people with vague job descriptions helping people with vague job descriptions. Again, I know that this is part of the satire, but even the deliberately vague 'Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship' department title seems too precise for what actually goes on there. It's like there is an eco-system of people just existing to clear up each other's mistakes. If everyone just stopped working, there would be no noticeable difference in output because the problems would stop as well. A self-perpetuating circle of futility.

[Terry Torpid]

In office space, they're software programmers, no?

Yep. He actually explains what his job is supposed to entail to Anniston's character, he's supposed to be upgrading financial software (I think it's implied they're an 'IT Services' company that sells their software to financial institutions rather than one themselves) to use 4 digit rather than 2 digit dates to mitigate the millenium bug.

Oh yeah, I completely forgot that scene. Thinking back, I had assumed that he was just fixing the software for the company itself, and actual purpose of the company was still mysterious. And I've just remembered the scene where the guy explains how he takes the specs from the customers to the software engineers. Yeah, the film really doesn't count at all. Mea culpa.

In my defence, it's so relatable for so many office workers, it might as well have been about any company in an unspecified field. It feels like they never said what they did, despite the fact I'm completely demonstrably wrong.

[Gurke and Hare]

Steve = Steve Fleming, the creepy guy who briefly replaces Malcolm in one of the later series. CHOO FUCKING CHOO!

Doh, of course!

the deliberately vague 'Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship'

I like the way they did that, in the tradition of the Ministry of Administrative Affairs from Yes Minister and the Department of General Assistance from the Men at the Ministry.

[The Mollusk]

The nature of Barney's job in How I Met Your Mother, although it's revealed towards the end, after it had jumped over a cliff.

Same sorta deal with Boomhauer in King of the Hill, though I don't recall exactly how rubbish the show had gotten by the final season.