A Reminder That Laughing At 'The Office' Requires Advanced Intelligence

The moment I laid eyes on this legendary tweet for the first time, my thumb and forefinger reflexively activated the screenshot function on my Apple device in the same instantaneous manner that one would remove her hand from a scalding hot stove or his dick from a tailpipe filled with fire ants. Was my goal to save the photo to my camera roll so I could ridicule and poke fun at its “unintentionally funny absurdities” like the vast majority of my vapid companions online? Absolutely fucking not. Before even cognitively processing the juxtaposition of the World Cup-winning US women’s soccer team and the likes of sitcom characters, J. Cole, and fictional superheroes, I subconsciously realized its subtle and purposeful comedic brilliance.

The artist who concocted this masterpiece is no “idiotic intern” or oblivious imbecile. This is the expert craftsmanship of an unhinged creative genius; someone who knew exactly the type of widespread fuss it would cause on the internet and subsequently revel in the fire they started. Perhaps a “troll” of sorts with a hatred for internet trends and a knack for infuriating strangers. Perhaps not. Its subtle humor may have went undetected by most, but it certainly didn’t go over my genetically superior head. In fact, it reminded me of a couple different pieces of art with striking similarities:

And to get even more eerily similar:

Just like the anonymously crafted Bleacher Report graphic, the shades of genius behind The Office‘s humor was only appreciated by an extremely tiny percentage of people, including but not limited to myself and a few hundred thousand other members of a social media site known for the stupidity of its users and their opinions.

Growing up, while my peers found joy in juvenile thrills like playing sports recreationally or hanging out with friends socially, I involuntarily spent my free time, alone in my workshop, indulging in episodes of The Office and its highly advanced comedic intricacies.

While I persistently quoted and made references to the complicated nuances of Michael Scott’s “That’s what she said” quips, the majority of my intellectually inferior schoolmates “didn’t understand” my sense of humor and considered me an “outcast” or “pervert.” Unfortunately, not “fitting in” with others was the fate that scholars like me were cursed with from an early age. When the sheep in my kindergarten class would look at a Rubik’s Cube, they would have thoughts like “I’m going to twist this colorful toy.” But when I looked at a Rubik’s Cube, I would have thoughts like “I’m going to solve this complex mathematical puzzle” and “this fascinating 3x3x3 device has approximately 43 quintillion permutations.”

“WHO can relate?”

And when my male peers in high school would look at a vagina, their simple minds would have thoughts like “I’m going to stick my penis in this until I cum.” But when I looked at a vagina, I would focus my attention on the entire, complex organ, from the vulva to the cervix to the clitoris, before worrying about my own orgasm and cleaning the semen from page 97 of my Health book.

Similarly, when my intellectually inferior peers saw Steve Carell hit Kate Flannery with his automobile in Season 4, they had thoughts like “omg he hit her with his car” and “ouch, that would hurt,” while I pondered the potential foreshadowing the impact of the crash could have on the impact of the series’ overall plot and the character development of Michael and Meredith.

When Kevin Malone haphazardly dropped the gigantic pot of chili and made a zany mess of the floor and himself, I hooted and hollered out of superior intelligence.

And when Michael took his GPS’s directions to “turn right” literally and drove his car directly into a visibly oncoming lake (Bazinga!), I rolled on the floor laughing due to the evolved humor detectors in my brain.

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I know this a niche topic that very few of my readers can relate to, but I felt the need to pay homage to those of us in the minority: The few. The proud. The super geniuses who enjoy the humor in one of the most popular comedy television shows of all time.