"Maybe that's how you die."

Ah, the mind of Dwight.

Hey...is chat broken?

Chat Dead?

Chat is Dead.

All "Linguo jokes aside," it was a really weird episode tonight. Strippers, Pam acting very un-Pamish, Karen hugging in the middle of the office, "Man-meat", Nocti-whatever.

Very hormonal episode.

And, of course, "Guys Afternoon In"

It wouldn't be The Office if there weren't uncomfortable moments, but I thought it was hysterical. The whole Ben Franklin things, I thought, was a stroke of brilliance. My favorite line, though, was ...

"What up, spin-sters..."

"I'm 99% sure that's not the real Ben Franklin."

It may have been a bit weird, but last night's show was an epiph...ery for me.

How about that awkward Pam-Jim moment where she was teasing him about not getting enough sleep. You could cut the sexual tension with a knife. And then Pam said "Oh Yeah," she was still interested in Jim. Who guessed that Karen would be such a high maintenance girlfriend?

The line of the night for me was:
"Didn't Ben Franklin have syphilis?"
"Yeah, but I don't."

You smell like Tide detergent.

And -- how soon we forget -- Dwight in a bra.

Pam's attempt at flirtation was so incredibly awkward. I just wonder if they overdid the point that Jim is attracted to Pam for who she is, not who she's trying to be.

Oh, and yes, how Roy finds Pam's art sexy and wouldn't go near the stripper. Perfect.

And Creed diving in to eat the steak using both hands.

Okay, I've been looking online for about 20 minutes trying to get the name of the guy who played Ben Franklin, with no success. Can anyone help?

12 - The one of about 15 huge steaks cooked on a George Foreman Grill in about 15 minutes. I hope he likes 'em rare.

Obviously the real world's rules and customs discouraging inter-office romances are suspended for most TV programs -- otherwise where would they get 80 percent of their plotlines? But I'm enjoying the way this show demonstrates how truly claustrophobic a work affair usually is, for the couple as well as everyone around them. When Karen introduced herself to Michael's goofy friend, "Hi, I'm Jim' girlfriend!" you could just feel the chill run down his spine: How am I going to get out of this?

I thought last nite was a little too awkward and disjointed.

The set-up was good---stripper comes to the office.

But now I'm thinking, ok the stripper will come, be all over Michael..Jan makes a surprise visit, and then were left with how Michael talks himself out of it...Perfectly entertaining storyline right there.

Instead, it just sort of died with Michael very weakly escaping trouble through a phone call we barely hear.

Jim-Pam-Karen...end it now. Please. Before the 3rd season is over. Its not funny. I watch The Office to laugh. More funny, less drama. Please.

Kevin just staring at the stripper, and Dwight texting "Kinda" to Michael's "Is she hot" question were pretty good.

The Ben Franklin thing was too out there for me. Not my type of humor.

15 - So, your problems with last night's episode were:

1) it wasn't predictible in the way you expected.

2) it spent too much time on drama, though you didn't like the entire plot that went for laughs.

3) the central romantic storyline is taking time away from you not laughing at the funny stuff.

I'm not sure what show on today offers more laughs, but I guess it's not working for you - which is fine, of course - the show isn't everyone's cup of tea. But week after week, you come in with criticisms on most aspects of the show that don't feature Jan, leaving me with the overall impression that you'd be happier just spending a half-hour here:

http://www.melora.com/

15 - I died laughing when Karen came and gave Jim a hug in response to his yawn. She was clearly marking her territory in front of Pam. Just like Pam was obviously making a power move when she asked to be set up with one of Ryan's friends in front of Jim.

It is a show of subtext, where we all know the actual dynamics and are able to interpret that none of the characters are being totally honest. I find that amusing, even laugh out loud funny at times.

PS Dwight ordering the stripper was hilarious, and Jim's choosing a blond was another example of subtext.

www.melora.com is one strange site! She is very odd.

"I think of myself as a character actress. I enjoy characters," Melora utters while trying to downplay her penchent for being cast as the sexy vamp.

Did she really "utter" those words "while trying to downplay her penchent...?" That's a strange image. "Sorry if I'm too hot. I'll try to get a handle on my vampiness."

Her husband is named "Gildart." What's a "gildart?" It sounds like a weapon you'd use to kill a shark.

17 - Pam looked like she was just trying to claw her way into the soft drink machine to hide ... it was so sad :)

Also, Ed Helms is now a regular on the show. He obviously is taking a short break, a la Oscar, but he will be back to stay. Rashida Jones is still only a recurring though, leading me to believe that she will quit when Jim and her break up.

http://tinyurl.com/2u495u

19 - She was obviously trying to stifle her excitement that Jim and Karen were having problems. She is in a tough position though. Jim and her are friends and Karen and her obviously get along well, but, she wants Jim.

"Are you interested in Jim?"
"Oh yeah." (My jaw dropped here)
"You are interested in Jim?"
"What, no, no, it was worded funny."

18 - Gildart could be the Best of Gilda Radner?

I'm not sure what show on today offers more laughs

Seinfeld, if you count syndication.

23 - Is that where you want to take the conversation? Okay. So basically, it's the funniest current show, but it needs to be funnier. Tough crowd, as they say.

23 - So the only thing funnier than "The Office" is the single great sitcom of all time? Praise with faint damns. I personally like "The Office" better than "Seinfeld" and I love "Seinfeld". But I think "The Office" brings it more often, while "Seinfeld" brings it harder (more laughs vs. bigger laughs). If "The Office" somehow made it to 180 episodes (unlikely given how big the cast is, the show would get prohibitively expensive at some point, but I can dream), wow.

13 That was Andy Daly, who is hilarious. He performs a lot at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Hollywood. He does Asssscat long-form improv on Saturdays, and I've also seen him do random standup characters at Tuesday's Comedy Death Ray.

Comparing sitcoms from different eras is like comparing a newspaper published today with one published 10 years ago. Seinfeld was the funniest show of its decade, but I find The Office funnier now, because it's about now. Whether it's a classic, like Seinfeld, is unknowable and irrelevant. (Whether Seinfeld will retain its status as a classic 10 years from now, or disappear like "Mary Tyler Moore," is also unknowable.)

26 - Thanks!

27 - I don't know about that. Some humor is about now, but Seinfeld isn't heavy on references (like say Murphy Brown) so a lot of the humor works now. If anything, Seinfeld suffers from experience. "The Office" is putting out new episodes, while I have seen everything from "Seinfeld" about 5 times. My point was, "The Office" plays alot faster, it crams jokes in and doesn't use the setup-punchline classic sitcom structure. "Seinfeld" was fast for its time but it still was a four camera show and it had a lot of longish scenes. It made up for that will some truly great moments, such as "I'm out" when Kramer slams down the money in the contest.

I also wanted to point out that Bill Simmons last article is being roasted again by Deadspin. However, they are using tons of "Office" quotes including: "Bill, you smell like Tide." "why does he write the crappiest articles for the magazine? secrets, secrets, are no fun. secrets, secrets, hurt some one."

I hated it when "MASH" didn't have scenes involving Nurse Kellye.

I hated it when "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" had episodes that didn't revolve around Gordie, the weatherman.

I hated it when "The Bob Newhart Show" had episodeds that didn't revolve around Dr. Bernie Tupperman.

"Renegades" was better when it revolved around Lt. Marciano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXOIi5s1isk

Kellye? Didn't anybody on that show spell his name properly?

I believe they just named the character after the actress who played her, Kellye Nakahara

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0619990/

Another slam dunk Office episode, this season has been really good.

What I was most pleased with was that Scrubs was funny again. Going into Kelso's head worked out surprisingly well and Janitor's rabbit salt and pepper shaker was classic. I don't think it's a coincidence that they strayed away from the baby plotlines and finally came up with a funny episode.

This Office episode was my favorite since "grief counseling", not that the ones in between weren't hilarious.

It was brilliantly awkward, just like a day in that office would feel if that were ones real life. The office captures the awkward fun of life better than any other show. And of course who doesn't love former President Ben Franklin? ;)