Wed, 31 January 2007
A mere 24 hours or so away from the next chapter in our little saga-- BEN FRANKLIN. The episode description goes a little something like this: Michael celebrates Phyllis' wedding shower by bringing two adult performers into the office, a stripper and Ben Franklin. Meanwhile, Karen confronts Pam about her past history with Jim. Ben Franklin has an obvious Pennsylvania connection, and in fact they have a big "Franklin-impersonator" that walks around Philly doing appearances and such. I gotta say, though, that I can only imaging what is going to happen in this episode... it sounds so... ODD. But then again, there ain't no shower like a Scranton shower, 'cause a Scranton shower don't stop! Bring it on, boys.
Category:general
-- posted at: 8:54pm EDT
Comments[45]
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As usual, after another new episode of TWSS, I have to go back and listen to others. Sadly, I missed several episodes of The Office this year, and have to keep those until reruns (Diwali, etc). Even though you discussed the following point at length, my aging ears still kept me from hearing it right until like the 4th run through. Listening to your episode on the Initiation, I just now grasped that Dwight was chanting \"Temp, Temp!\" while Ryan drank at the bar. To me, it sounded like he started out chanting \"Jim, Jim!\" like Jim is the cool office mate who can drink, and Ryan was now taking his place. Sad but true tales of losing one\'s hearing too near the water cooler, I guess.
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Aww, Traveling Salesman had really good timing, a return, I felt, to the good pacing and funniness of season 2. But you\'re hard to please. I mean, a less good season 3 of The Office is still way more innovative and funny that Ugly Betty. I think. (Nothing against America, who I think is lovely.)
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martin, you\'re the crankiest office fan ever. lol! this was the most boring super bowl ever. i think i would have rather watched ugly betty...well, maybe not. i watched \"ben franklin\" 2 more times this weekend and i have to say, it still cracked me up. i really liked this episode. and i thought that jim was talking about sex at first. what, you all got a problem with that?! well, EXCUSE ME!! face it, jim and karen have sex! just like pam and roy had sex! i didn\'t think that pam thought that jim was talking about sex. two things i noticed after the second viewing. jim commenting that he had never seen a stripper. REALLY, jim? REALLY?! that was really sweet of the stripper to tell pam she could strip if she wanted to. i can only imagine what kevin would have said if he had overheard that! and stop hating on toby! hey, darrell likes toby, as evident by the deleted scene. he was wrong about the haircolor though, paul lieberstein is blonde. isn\'t pam brunette? i thought the redhead thing had more to do with katie. ot: does anyone watch 30 rock? thursday\'s episode was so freaking funny, and further proof that even the guest stars on that show are funnier than alec baldwin!
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aw man, the super bowl was depressing. anyway, i was not all that impressed with this episode at all. the jim/pam conversation felt really strange to me. and, when did karen and jim start announcing their relationship? did i miss that in a previous episode? i know that everyone knew, but i thought they were going to try to keep it quiet... also, screw \'big tuna\' i want old jim back. but i know that would be a regression in his character, so it most likely won\'t happen. but i am starting to lose interest in any potential Halpeesly action. they seem to hurt each other more than have cute little moments anymore. i have to say though, i am SO happy that meredith finally got a line! and it was awesome of course.
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Martin Tsang on Traveling Salesman, \\\"I didn\\\'t hate it.\\\" Hm. I\\\'ve been waiting for a revival of \\\"officially not a piece of sh*t.\\\" I guess this will have to do for now. Why don\\\'t you like them referencing (speaking of hate, I hate using reference as a verb, and you just made me!) old episodes? Or is it that you don\\\'t like them doing it so obviously? I agree that the unevenness of the writing is puzzling. Though, maybe it\\\'s not really. It must be hard to be funny every time on command. Maybe they know when it\\\'s not great, but they have to go with the best they have. I still have to watch this one a second time, though. Should not really be making any comments yet. Oh, well. Sue me.
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Oh, and Jordan -- I don\'t think that anyone thought that Jim meant sex when he said \"talking,\" just that possibly Pam, who knows nothing of what Jim said to Karen when she asked about his feelings for Pam, could have thought it was code for sex. I really have to watch it again to see if that\'s a possibility. I did not read it that way the first pass, but it doesn\'t seem out of the question.
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\"Nomi - as always, I completely agree with you.\" Hm, I had no idea there was someone out there who completely agrees with everything I say. That could go to a girl\'s head . . . . Ian, I think that Matt just might be mocking you for your small, one letter error. I now imagine him marking up his hapless students\' papers with individually crafted snide comments. ;) But don\'t worry. It was clearly a mere typo. Mathercize -- Another teacher. Wow. You guys have it rough. Do you get to, say, move the kid\'s desk into the bathroom? Also, I keep wondering where he or she did it. Home? \"Borrowed\" on Thursday? But then he or she whould have had to bring that big mess to school and then hide it all day? The home economics cooking room? Is there even still such a thing? No one would notice if someone was boiling up some unauthorized jello? Maybe you\'re in a loosey-goosey high school like the one I went to where the students are respected so much that no one would wonder why one of them was running around with a big tray carrying a big sloppy pile of jello with a stapler inside . . . OK. It\'s very late. Even for me. I think I\'m thinking way too much about this jello in school problem. Oh! Wait. Maybe he or she didn\'t make the jello at all, but got a whole bunch of those little bowls of it from the cafeteria and just burried the stapler in it. Hm. Now I must know. My eyes are closing, but I must know!
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oooh. i did not like the very end with dwight and ben franklin. it was way too fake and ruined it for me. i\'m becoming more and more confused with the whole jim/pam/karen triangle. jim confessed his feelings for pam to karen, yet they \'talked it out?\' it seems like good guy jim just got yanked into part II of jimandkaren unwillingly because he has NO BALLS whatsoever. i mean on one hand i\'m glad to see that pam and jim didn\'t just automatically end up together because that would\'ve been your classic lame-o, but i wasn\'t expecting the way they\'ve gone with it. interesting.
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Eli, yeah I think everyone\'s reading exactly what we were supposed to in that scene. I\'m sure the point was to put Jim on the spot having to announce which he preferred - redhead or brunette symbolizing Pam or Karen. Then he chooses blond. He\'s off the hook and we get to see Dwight so pleased.
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If memory serves me, I don\'t think Jim knows about Dwangela... it was only ever Pam (and the cameraman .. um.. Pamera). I agree that it was all about avoiding the bullet. Another parallelism... Jim dodges the redhead-brunette bullet, while Ryan avoids the \'do you think the stripper was hot\' bullet. I don\'t mind if Dwight is a little \'dumb\' about Ben Franklin, so long as he\'s consistent as a character. The whole thing about a joke is that something needs to be just a little exaggerated. Dwight is gullible about sci-fi stuff: CIA ice cream socials, future Dwight faxes, and whatever the joke was when Dwight\'s reply was \"I don\'t believe you. Continue\". So I teach math at a high school... and I thought I had lost my stapler on friday, until I heard a knock on my door the last block of the day. Upon opening the door, I see a note in a big tray that reads \"Hey there Big Tuna, I thought you might want a snack... and a stapler... your stapler\". Below the note was a big sloppy pile of jello with my stapler inside. Lesson: Don\'t tell your students that you watch the office. When the culprit stopped by after school, I kicked a trash can across the room, cause I didn\'t have the guts to punch a hole in the wall. As a note of application for any high schoolers out there, Jello sets up best if you ADD gelatin to it... the box stuff just won\'t get the shape you want. Finally, the kid wrapped the stapler in a plastic bag to keep it clean, but the jello found its way inside anyway... yellow-jello stapler is currently soaking in some hot water in the school bathroom.
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This Jim thing reminds me of something else. I remember on a podcast you guys commented about Jim sort of making fun of Toby when Toby went to do the fist hit earlier this season. In \"Office Olympics\" Jim plays HateBall with Kevin and they do the fist thing very casually. OLD Jim would have recognized Toby\'s attempt to be \"cool\" and went along. NEW Jim draws attention to it and embarrasses Toby. What the hell? I want old Jim back.
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Roy... just seemed bloodshot... was that from drinking or just sobbing for Pam all night. DUDE... MOVE ON. Spoiler... there\'s a future episode entitled \"Pamagrams\" in which Pam follows Stripper\'s advice. Okay, not really, but I bet that\'d make Jim jealous enough to do something. I think that after the Dwight stripper-preference phone call: \"redhead or brunette... blonde\"... and then the shots to angry Karen and Pam.... that they should have shown a shot of Angela peering around a corner and smiling wryly out of the corner of her mouth.
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hmm. i didn\'t even think of it as a prank. i just figured he hired the ben franklin guy because he was trying to be more responsible (to some degree) and didn\'t want to hire a stripper to go to work. but, he didn\'t have a problem with a female stripper, and even suggested a blonde. yeah, phyllis looked kind of bummed that she didn\'t get her male stripper. lol! who has a bridal shower at work? i guess that kind of goes back to what kyla was saying about the parties. i didn\'t realize that they really have had a lot of party themed episodes this season. well, i guess phyllis\'s bridesmaids would probably throw her a real bridal shower but, i don\'t see the point of having one at the office. other than the fact that the guys were having a party for bob vance (of vance refridgeration). oh, here\'s a link to a \"JAM\" fan video that made me tear up. seriously. don\'t laugh. i might just be pms-ing. or pamMS-ing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDNfi5VY2jI
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Nomi - as always, I completely agree with you. And! I think that Pam\'s just... she\'s trying to make conversation and it\'s going nowhere, and Jim\'s really not helping her (with the conversation, I mean - he\'s just hanging her out to dry). And she\'s trying to dig herself out of the going-nowhere-conversation and just getting into it deeper and deeper and deeper. And I think that maybe Jim\'s not helping her (with the conversation) because he\'s in the middle of a such crap-tastic situation right now that even just trying to TALK to Pam is so completely awkward. And if he has to explain that he\'s having \"problems\" with Karen, he doesn\'t want to tell Pam that it\'s because of Pam. And he doesn\'t want Pam to suspect that it\'s because of Pam. And he wants it to work with Karen because maybe then he can forget Pam. And I think it\'s just such a mess for him right now that he just can\'t even come up with anything to say. Plus. Every time that he\'s going to be talking to Pam, Karen\'s going to be watching and worrying. And he knows that, too. And then he\'s going to have to stay up late again, talking about THAT. He really just doesn\'t GET the fact that now Pam is feeling all gushy about HIM. I know that everyone is all \"how stupid can they be?!\" but... I don\'t know. Some people are just not as confident as others and it\'s hard to just say, \"hey! now i like YOU!\" because... well... it would really suck to be told that you missed the boat. Jim is trying really hard to convince everyone (including himself) that he\'s moved on, and so he\'s also convincing Pam in the process. And she\'s just finding it difficult to convince herself that maybe she still has a chance, especially after she crushed his poor little heart and MADE HIM CRY! And why would Jim believe that Pam called the wedding off because of him? He might WANT to believe it, but... I think that he just can\'t believe it. Because she can\'t get up the guts to go after him, because she figures he\'ll just turn her down now that he\'s with Karen. And he\'s not going to try to go after Pam again until she does something that REALLY gives him a clue about how he feels. I like them. But I am just afraid that maybe they will never both be able to both step up and get their acts together at the same time. Some people are just not as brave/confident/ready-to-put-themselves-out-there for possible public(-ish) humiliation as others. And that makes me feel kind of sad.
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Oh, yeah. I just meant that I didn\'t think it was an \"out of practice\" problem, but more, like you said, a super awkward situation problem. At least she finds it super awkward with the current lay of the land. Yes, she definitely knew that it had been an excruciating exchange, clearly evidenced by her \"ohmygod.\"
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I\'m trying to figure out how I feel about Jim\'s prank. Sure it was all because of Michael that he brought Ben Franklin in instead of a stripper but it was Phyllis, the other women and Ben F. himself who were really pranked. Not his usual Dwight/Michael/Andy target. Not a big deal because it was funny but still, maybe Phyllis would have preferred the stripper.
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Um...weird episode, great episode. There were definitely some very funny moments. The Ryan and Michael interactions in particular. The grilled foot grill, the giggling. I loved the brief Dwight and Jim interactions. (An Alias shoutout no less.) Their \"friendship\" is one of the best parts of the show. And Man Meat, which although very funny, seemed a little too obvious. Jim and Karen...when a couple has less chemistry than Kelly and Ryan, they are going nowhere. The hug? Ick. The late night \"talks\"? I won\'t spoil the summary of Cocktails, but I hope KaJim the Sparkless Wonder is heading to a conclusion. And then there was JAM. The eight hours of sleep conversation sounded incredibly familiar...I think I had one exactly like it when I was fifteen. In front of my crush. Come on Pam, have you forgotten how to flirt?? Am I crazy or was SexyBeard just adorable? Okay maybe it was all fake, but he\'s trying at least. Jammer all the way, but still. Pam loves Jim, Jim loves Pam...it\'s just something that I know. P.S. I have a character on the show! I just imagine she spells her name with an S as well.
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Is is just me, or have they centered *a lot* of episodes around parties in the office? The idea is getting stale. There was Christmas, the island party after Michael\'s vacation, a party for Oscar, and now the bride/groom showers (and you could throw Diwali in as well). Naturally, there are moments in each of the aforementioned that I enjoy, but just knowing that there was going to be ANOTHER party made me kinda bored before I even started watching the episode.
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wow, dude, chill. ya don\'t HAVE to watch it. but, yeah, i was confused about the part when dwight said he was sure it wasn\'t the real ben franklin. dwight isn\'t stupid and i\'m sure he didn\'t mean he thought it was the ACTUAL ben franklin, but still, i think that line came out wrong or was written wrong. i didn\'t think that pam thought jim was talking about sex (or implying it...inferring? lol), i thought she was acting weirdly chatty because she saw karen hug him, then her and karen had that kind of weird staredown moment right after. i thought she was trying too hard to make him laugh and wasn\'t really being herself. out of curiosity, what do you guys think about jim still being in a relationship with karen? i mean, to me, it seems like he\'s trying to make it work, but its really pointless because he just doesn\'t seem that into her. he really did seem tired and a little irritated but trying to bite his tongue. i don\'t know? anyone?
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i meant that \"chill\" for martin, not megan. martin, i gotta say i enjoy your rants regardless! :-) megan, i think you hit it on the nose about how pam isn\'t very good at flirting. it\'s been a looong time since she was single. i hope they do another episode where she\'s on a date, i think it would be interesting...as long as the guy isn\'t as big of a dick as that cartoonist guy!
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Playing against Matt\'s oft-role of \"I didn\'t like it on the first viewing\" is my \"I think this was the funniest first viewing episode I\'ve ever seen!\" Judging by the above comments, I think I\'ll be alone on this, but I was spitting up my dinner the whole episode. I think Pam\'s absurdly awkward conversation in the break room stemmed from the fact that she thought Jim\'s \"late-nights\" meant sex, not arguing. And so, she was literally trying to convince him that he needs more sleep (so that he wouldn\'t be smooching all night).
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I thought Pam\'s voice sounded awful at the beginning, and figured that she had a cold. Looks like I was right. I wonder if they\'re building to a sweeps week blow up with the whole Jim-Karen-Pam-Roy love parallelogram. It looks as though Pam\'s \"whenever\" means that we\'re going to see her go on a blind date with one of Ryan\'s business school friends, so it looks like it could become a love pentagon (hoping that reference didn\'t land me on some \"Watch List\").
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Melissa and Dave, I think you guys are dead-on with why Pam told Ryan to set her up with his business school friends. And I agree with Sabai, too - I think one of the reasons that the \"sleep\" conversation was so awkward might have been because Pam didn\'t realize that Jim was being completely serious.
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Playing Matt\'s occasional role of \"I didn\'t like it on the first viewing\" will be me. I didn\'t like it on the first viewing. My \"laugh out loud\" moment, however, was Meredith telling Angela to shut the hell up when she tried to protest about the women getting a male stripper.
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I think I laughed the hardest at \"Guys Afternoon In\" ... that\'s so GAI! When Pam and Karen were talking, I was reminded of Pam\'s talking head way back in Season 1. I think it was when Jim asked Katie out and Pam was trying to be cool about it. She was like, \"Am I talking really loud? I feel like I\'m talking loud.\"
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Even though Dwight was gone from DM only one episode I was so happy to see him back home. Maybe it was because Andy wasn\'t there. I love Andy and Ed Helms but I\'m curious how he\'ll fit back in. I also loved the phone call to Jan. Loved how Jan went from annoyed to concerned to frustrated to click. That\'s our Michael.
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first impressions, good episode. Is there anyway in real life karen would stay with jim after he admitted he still had feelings for another woman? lol why does packer always say jim\'s gay? there were alot of references to past episodes (micheal\'s grilled foot, baby poster) overall good episode. and great prediction andy..im 99% sure he isn\'t the real ben franklin lol
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haha! hilarious episode! that part when michael and ryan were in the porn shop and everything was pixilated, i almost peed my pants laughing! the end of the episode wasn\'t great but, i thought the rest of it was. what was that thing with michael and the tide detergent? i was cracking up but i couldn\'t figure out if he doesn\'t like it for a specific reason. the pam/karen talk...awkward! i knew karen was going to start being all affectionate with jim in front of pam to \"mark her territory\", if you will. i thought when karen and jim were discussing their \"talks\", i thought \"talks\" were code for sex...explaining why he was tired. lol roy is a douche! i\'m so tired of his ass, he\'s so fake (in my opinion). i must admit, i was kind of glad that pam told ryan in front of jim to set her up with one of his friends...he looked pissed. i know we all pretty much agreed that it was pam\'s turn to be jealous but, i don\'t know, i was kind of glad she did that. i think more tension and growing anger between them could make for a very interesting storyline. i guess i\'ll have to be patient for a JAM reunion...dammit!
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