Henri de Jongste
[Topics in Humor Research 9] 2020
► pp. 245–266
In the previous chapters, we studied individual examples of flawed role performances by the characters in The Office. The more we observe the characters in their social roles in the situational contexts of the sitcom world and the more we re-construct their private mental models and the a priori intent steering their behaviour, the more we can zoom out from individual scenes and take a more general view of what life in The Office is like. We can assess the emerging patterns in the characters’ specific role performances, and gain insight into the characters’ personalities. We can also assess the characters’ role identities and relate them to culturally established norms to see to what extent the characters deviate from the predictive expectancies shared by the TV viewers.