Dramas and fantasy programs tend to be the most talked-about TV shows, but you know what’s the most watched? Comedies. Friends is so huge Netflix forked over a fortune to keep it another year. Meanwhile, in the streaming giant’s top five most watched offerings? The Office. It’s had more endurance than perhaps was assumed back when it was nothing but yet another Americanization of a cult British show. Indeed, ever since YouTube first launched in 2005, one of the most popular subjects was The Office.
Jump nearly 15 years, and YouTubers are still at it. Above, you can watch a brand new supercut compiling 10 minutes worth of impersonations done by Dunder-Mifflin boss Michael Scott. Steve Carell is so funny he can be hilariously unfunny as the powerfully incompetent gag man, who — like the original Office’s David Brent before him — liked to think of himself as more entertainer than supervisor who’s in charge of his employees’ financial stability.
There are a lot of amusingly unamusing Michael Scott impersonations to be had, from the comparatively benign (James Bond, Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, Travis Bickle) to the definitely problematic (Bring the Pain-era Chris Rock — an extended riff that landed him in HR hell). There are even impersonations that don’t, shall we say, age well. By that we mean Michael’s semi-well-intentioned mimics of Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson, and the biggest villain of this era, Donald J. Trump.
The only person who does find him funny is his future bride, Amy Ryan’s Holly Flax, who is so charmed by his take on E.T. that she does one in return. For better and worse, they deserved one another.
