The Gervais Principle

The book annoyed me a bit with a rather exaggerated analysis of the social classes in The Office: there are the Losers, engaged in everyday skirmishes and exploited; the Clueless, the unaware crowd (Michael, Dwight, and Andy); and the Sociopaths like Wallace and Jan who manipulate it all. Until the Clueless take over and everything changes.

Losers have two ways out: become Sociopaths or stop performing. The point is to stop being exploited for nothing.

Sociopaths, on the other hand, have realized there is no god, that everything is in their hands, that society is made of masks, and they keep playing their game, often in creative ways, subjugating Clueless and Losers.

The idea, I admit, is compelling. I did not like the part where he categorizes the social groups and overanalyzes the characters and the talk segments, because it seems a bit exaggerated, but the concept, if taken with the show’s ironic vein, could be useful in the future.