I think I, and many others, have tried to decipher what it is about The Office that makes you feel so…comfortable. Despite the fact that the actual content of the show many times deliberately tries to make the viewer uncomfortable. And they almost always succeed at doing that. From dinner parties at Jan and Michael’s house, to Toby’s…existence, there are plenty of moments that just make you go “nhgggggg…” because you physically cannot restrain yourself from cringing. And yet, despite this, you still watch 7 more episodes even though it’s 1:00 in the morning and you have to be up early the next day. Obviously the show has many qualities other than just being a cringe fest. It’s funny, it’s charming, it’s emotional, it’s rewarding, but most of all, it’s comforting. But how can something comfort you, while simultaneously making you uncomfortable? Balance. Almost any conflict that makes you feel uncomfortable will have a satisfying conclusion that provides you with the comfort of knowing it was resolved. For example: Jim confessed his love to a friend that was already engaged, and she said she didn’t reciprocate those feelings? :( One scene later he goes in for a kiss and she fully reciprocates. :) Wait wait wait, so Pam cheated on her fiancé? :( Oh yeah, he’s an A-hole who is constantly flirting with other women but is overly protective of Pam. :) By the way that smiley face at the end was directed towards the fact that Pam isn’t a bad person for kissing Jim, not because it was good that Roy was a bad spouse. I still don’t condone cheating though! But Pam ended up breaking up with him soon after though so that just furthers my point. Comedy is also something that is used very often to balance out scenes with heavier tones and less opportunity for traditional payoff, as this still allows viewers a sort of reward without always having to let the characters off the hook. For example: Toby touches Pam’s leg in a very inappropriate way making the whole office uncomfortable :( Toby, realizing his mistake, is so uncomfortable himself that he runs out and hops the fence, stating that he’s going to jog home :) Now, this scene could’ve been played as very serious. Pam could’ve been visually much more uncomfortable and Jim could’ve gotten upset and tried to yell at Toby causing a scene, but it’s The Office. So, instead the scene is played as a joke. And I’d like to make the point that, this scene is not making a joke out of sexual harassment. In fact it’s quite the contrary. This scene is saying “look how foolish Toby has made himself look by inappropriately touching Pam” and in turn this has balanced out the tension that comes from a situation like this, by making a fool of Toby and changing the viewer from being uncomfortable from his advances, to being comforted by his repercussions. I also believe this is why many of the later seasons fail in comforting the viewer. There was not a proper balance in a lot of the scenes. For example: Kathy forces herself into Jim’s hotel room and tries to seduce him :( Jim gets increasingly more uncomfortable for the entire episode :( Jim confronts Kathy, stating that he’s a married man and wants nothing to do with her advances, only for Kathy to become offended and then continue to harass him anyways :( Jim gets into a panic when Stanley believes him to be having an affair with Kathy and he’s unable to tell him before he walks away :( Jim calls in Dwight, claiming to have seen a bed bug, and gets him to spray Kathy with chemicals, finally getting her to leave :) As you can see, there is still a payoff. But, despite how funny the scene with Dwight at the very end of the episode is, it does not make up for the amount of uncomfortable scenes we had to sit through to get there. And unlike the moment with Toby, this episode is obviously making a joke out of how uncomfortable Jim is with Kathy’s advances, rather than making a joke out of the advances themselves. I don’t know if it’s because Jim is a man and they didn’t think that men being sexually harassed was as big of a deal, or because these advances were not seen as as blatant as Toby’s, but whatever reason the writers of this episode had, they obviously didn’t realize how unfunny this premise would be in practice. Even with episodes like this though, the show as a whole still manages to bring fans back every time with satisfying payoffs and hilarious moments for hours on end. And I believe that’s why it will always be one of my favorites. Because even though there’s weird, uncomfortable episodes like this one, it will always be balanced out by some of the best episodes of television history! Thank you if you read all of this! :)