Gervais' acting in this is just incredible, especially considering he had very little professional experience at this point. Every little glance, eye movement and facial expression he does is spot on.
I think that's why i'm always a fan of Gervais, no matter the quality of the overall product he's in. Ghost Town, Invention Of Lying and Night At The Museum were all pretty sub-par, but his comedic timing and little tics always make the thing he's in worth watching.
He has such a unique way of talking. The mannerisms and inflections in his speech are just like nothing before them. You can spot Gervais fans too just by the way they mimic his style. You've got a generation of people going "big time".
I like the little pause he gives before saying "and that's pretty much like .....me" ,he realized he's gonna compare himself to Jesus and he decideded to go on
London Belly dancer Hire samba dancer Wedding Entertainment Sandrine well some straight women like it the wrong way. It doesn't matter if you're gay. One in 10, apparently. That seems a bit high. You might be. If you are, good luck to you. Just make sure it's legal and be safe.
Paul Taylor you know when people say to me: would you rather be thought of as a funny man or a great boss? My answer's always the same, to me, they're not mutually exclusive
@@simonzonenblick395 If you had a boss like Brent all you'd have to do was indulge in his delusions of being a professional comedian and you'd get away with murder
"And when I've finished with Slough, there's Reading, Aldershot, Bracknell, you know I've got to-Didcott, Yately. You know. My-Winersh, Taplow. You know, because I am my own boss, I can-Burfield."
+taputechnic Massive pedant here, but I don't get why +mrnickless decided to type them out without checking the spellings. For edification: Didcot (one T), Winnersh (two Ns), Yateley, Burghfield. You're welcome. :)
I used to enjoy watching Office US, then I realized the original office was from UK. I watched the UK version and honestly can't go back to US anymore. The US version is great but UK is a true masterpiece. Gervais nails it. I feel like I have known David Brent for a long time, that's how realistic his acting seems to me..
Rivai K. there are very very few objective proven facts. Even in science. Professional critics ...they just have an opinion Rivai. It may be more informed, it may not. This art is made for everyone, to enjoy and have an opinion on. Do you need people to tell you how good something is?
The genius of this series is that it's very well observed, very realistic, it all rings true. The sequence in which Brent tries to talk to the sales guy is spot on - he's just made a big sale, he's relieved and happy and he's not listening to Brent at all. Perfectly acted, totally believable. I've worked in office jobs and that is EXACTLY the way it looks and sounds. And of course the scene also shows that, despite what he'd like to think, Brent isn't needed here, no-one looks up to him or asks his advice, he truly is 'redundant', he won't be missed, and he's the only one that can't understand that.
@DnB and Psy Production They way David Brent half-finishes sentences that he knows he shouldn't say (but we know what he was going to say) is one of the underrated elements of this show.
He does that a few times, his insecurity was off the charts. One time not mentioned here is when Neil said Brent was under him which had Brent stupidly explain that he's not gay. The amount of times he did that made it more likely that he was gay lol, but knowing Brent it was just him being deeply insecure
@@bw5970 Back then "gay" was a huge insult, that's why they made Gareth sound gay as a joke. I think we're better about this stuff today.. but I could see Brent still making comments like this.
I came here cause this summer I went to Reading by train from Paddington.. and I passed through some of the towns he mentioned .. I was laughing by myself ...
That interaction with Jamie is the perfect illustration of why Brent isn't liked. Most people would have said "what's this about Jamie? Good news?" He isn't interested in anyone but himself.
Just brilliant.. I think the trick is that most people actually know the feeling of being David Brent the increasingly outsider, and side with him in the 2nd series.
Extremely entertaining!! Especially for someone like me who has worked in an office before -but doesn't anymore!- and knows all these lousy environment and all the horrid politics going on... The arse lickers, the insufferable bosses, the desperate mediocrity of it all...
Love the bit where Brent is doing his usual act of tying to appear cool and popular, gets blanked by the bloke sitting at the desk, and then gets his foot trodden on by the big feller. The expression on his face had me weeping with laughter.
I’ve watched the office hundreds of times and I thought I’d witnessed every single layered scene. Until today June 6th 2021 when I read your comment! Amazing spot, thank you!!
David Brent’s delusion is actually the hight of positive thinking. So much of how Brent thinks and gets through his day is actually world class self psychology. It doesn’t really matter what anybody else thinks, it’s your internal dialogue that will create happiness and/or depression. Brent takes every situation and sees the positive, even if he forces it on the host. He never leaves a situation and dwells on anything negative. His inspirations are mundane but accessible and relatable to his boring environment. He’s actually a master of mental health.
Agree with that. Effective manager, maybe not but, positive and upbeat. Quite sad how his colleagues were treating him during this. DB just longs to be liked. Cringing behaviour but not a bad person. Seen similar to this in the workplace and it's quite sad.
And the fact that nobody in his office can see this, makes them dumb and annoying as characters. I understand the comedy, it is very funny, but I get annoyed by their pretentious behaviour towards him. I guess it's realistic.
love the way he says it and then kinda realises the magnitude of what he's said but then cant stop but has to down play it slightly towards the end of the sentance
Apart from the brilliant acting (and comedic timing), this clip is a time capsule of what an office actually looked like in the late-90s/early 00s. Landline anyone? Filing cabinets? CRT monitors and "handy" desktops?
Just now it’s flat screens and less landlines. Maybe a few more plants and some efforts to look like a hipster coffee shop. Still the same old shit though. Offices can go to fucking hell
@King Alfreds Shieldwall Ok fair enough mate, no arguments about the comedy, maybe it was your comment about the english stood up to be counted with bexit, but I can see in context why you would reply like that now. my faut. hands up ;). better screenshot this, wont see it often on a youtube comment
Oh… SO funny! Every little detail. SO funny! Perfect. Fantastic. And what amazing supporting actors. I've never seen anyone act so real, which must be so hard when you've got "Brent" there with you.
The best comedies of all time only ran for a limited number of series/episodes and that is their beauty. Quality wins over quantity every time. If a show ran for a single episode but another ran for 20 series is really irrelevant, it's the content & quality that matter not the viewing figures of the hoi polloi. Also the BBC is not a commercial enterprise so it doesn't run like the US networks who continuously need to generate massive profits. This is why the quality of many BBC programmes stand the test of time over the last 50 years & why so many US series peter out or over rely on action rather than dialogue. You really do need to suspend your disbelieve with most US shows even ones as intentionally banal as The Office.
Literally me after I got canned from my last shitty office job. In September It'll be 5 years since.... Never looked back and I'm now self employed and doing better
Brent doesn't compare himself to Jesus, he likens himself to Jesus. He doesn't feel he is in direct competition with the son of God, he believes that he is to Burghfield what Jesus is to Nazareth. Similar. So...
The interaction with Jamie is one of the only points in the series where David is not the one who is out of line or being rude, another being when Neil tells him off hypocritically. Feel free to add
In the Christmas special when Dawn came back for Tim David kept his mouth shut. He let them have there moment, and he was smiling as they walked away. He didn’t make it about himself. Gareth was more clueless than David. Gareth said something to Tim about being careful, because of Dawn’s boyfriend. She said she wasn’t with him anymore. David wasn’t oblivious to the situation like Gareth.
Yeah in series 2 Neil suggests to David in front of Dawn they can let her go from the company if she's not needed, no decent boss would ever do that. That would be so unprofessional.
I don't think Jamie is being rude, he's in a moment of joy and wants to celebrate his efforts with the rest of his team. Brent, yet again, is the one being socially unaware and is the one getting in the way.
@@MrBannystarThat's all well and good but it's literally waiting just a moment to let someone who's their former boss just have a couple of parting words before leaving. Like him or not David Brent took his time to make his staff feel like they mattered. It was a sweet gesture that was disregarded.
@@MrBannystar it is rude though. Whether you’re in a moment of joy or not, interrupting someone twice to tell people something that can wait to be said is rude. Even in an interaction with Brent it’s rude.
He's actually invisible at the end isn't he. Redundant in every sense of the word. No one will miss him, he achieved nothing, like so many office managers at this level.
No one is indispensable when you’re part of the big machine. The sooner you realise it, the sooner your ego is put in check. We’re all cogs in the system, so appreciate those cogs that you like and that like you.
So so sad that Jesus didn't visit Reading, Breaknell or Winnersh.. but David Brent did!! Wished he'd stopped by Landau/Germany when I was living there!!! The Office UK - my absolut favorit series of all time!!!! Never get enough❤️❤️❤️
I wish to God it was possible to see complete episodes. This is one of the most brilliant TV series ever, and it drives me mad that I can only watch disjointed clips that last just a couple of minutes :-(
I can honestly say that The Office opened my eyes to the reality of the workplace and the delusions people have about it. You work to live and that's it.
So true. I worked in office maintenance at the time this came out. We were looking after the lights, locks, plumbing, computer connections, moving desks, etc. As outsiders we had a view into this world, rather like watching this series. . The people working in the offices were exactly as seen here.
It reminds me of Hope Steadman on Thirtysomething. She decided to stay with her Daughter Jane and be a Stay At Home Mom. She visited her Old Workplace and discovered that "yes" she can be replaced and although the Staff were happy to see and Old Workmate, time moved on and she's no part of the Staff. She was quite humbled considering she was an Honors Graduate from Princeton.
I think both Offices are genius in the sense that the branches are living the grand warehouses takeover moment. So, in a way, it wouldn't terribly matter if a stupendous manager arrived, for the middleman was slowly walking to the hang anyways. In this particular point, I believe Michael was an extraorrdinary manager, for his branch was top tier for a lot of time. Anyway, both series great, amazing imo.
Monty is spot on. These office types behave exactly like this. And David Brent is a type that you can envisage in an office. But truly, he's too much of a non-conformist to easily fit inot the drab office environment. I sometimes think Brent is trying in his mind to escape the monotony of office life through fantasising. Who can blame him? Or office life has finally begun to have this strange effect on his mentality that any sane person would recognise. Brilliantly observed, which is why it won such admiration. But a sad reflection on pressures to join the working dead.
John Green a big factor was the cameras being there, I think it magnified his personality, the whole reality TV thing was in its infancy and there were people from a documentary about an airline that were getting presenting gigs and personal appearances, I think the Brent character thinks he has it all coming to him.
