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Corporate - General Discussion

Meredith Quill

By Meredith Quill
in Corporate

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bilgistic

bilgistic

I watched the first four episodes of Corporate on Comedy Central's app, and really liked it! I had very low expectations. The only thing I've liked from Comedy Central for quite a while has been Broad City, which is excellent. Corporate is like an Office Space for Generation Y (definitely not Millennials; there are no ping-pong tables and free snacks in this company).

I laughed out loud several times. I just left a soul-sucking corporate job, so a lot of this resonated with me the way Office Space did when I had a soul-sucking corporate job in the late 1990s-early 2000s. (I'm part of Generation X.) I was afraid it would make me anxious because I'm still dealing with a lot of anxiety and PTSD (seriously) from my last job (I left at the end of July), but it was really well done and not at all serious. It's satirical without being too ridiculous.

I loved the casting of the CEO, and particularly that a black man was cast in what is almost always a white male position in American corporate culture. I recognized the actor (Lance Reddick) as Broyles on Fringe, but he's been in plenty of other stuff since then. He always has such a serious demeanor, but an undercurrent of being in on the joke.

The HR rep is played by Aparna Nancherla, a very funny comedian and writer for several shows. I follow her on Twitter, and she's so witty. I wish she had been one of the leads (the two male "junior-executives-in-training"), because her talent is much bigger than her role. I hope an episode exclusively featuring her is upcoming.

I wholeheartedly recommend Corporate!

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marketdoctor

marketdoctor

Quote

I laughed out loud several times. I just left a soul-sucking corporate job, so a lot of this resonated with me...

It would be interesting if they did an episode on career-related PTSD.  I'm not sure how you'd find the humor there--maybe off camera?  And end it with someone discovering that 15 minutes a day of positive, creative action (writing, music, painting, etc.) can reduce symptoms a lot.  (Do NOT "trust me on this"; give it a chance.) 

What they've done so far is awesome, and they deserve free cake for that.

Dowel Jones

Dowel Jones

It's an interesting mix of characters, from The Devil Wears Armani CEO right down to the junior exec who has already cheerfully mortgaged his soul, and all the rest.  I like that the comedy is not broad slapstick; you have to pay attention to what's going on.  Smaller countries finding out they can start wars on the cheap?  Excellent!  Looking forward to the new episodes.

bilgistic

bilgistic

(edited)

I'm worried the show won't last very long. The obvious jokes have seemed to calm and it's subtler now. I still very much enjoy it, but I worry that traditional comedy fans might not.

What I mean by subtle is the shirtless storyline. On the surface, it's not very yuk-yuk funny. It's a deeper commentary on corporate culture, where if one person gets away with bad behavior, others will follow, and no one does anything about it (or they send a "don't do this, okay, thanks! email). I imagine this was written before the #MeToo revelations, but that's one glaring example. Another lighter one is how people in my last office would just keep piling glasses in the dishwasher to absurd heights where there was no way water and soap would reach them...rather than actually running the dishwasher. Or throwing out trash if we had bagels and wiping down the counters. Or not stealing others' food from the fridge.

The advertising in church storyline was smart, too. Advertising is taking over everything, and it's inevitable that it will take over "sacred" spaces at some point. What advertisers don't get (but they would if they read the commercials forums on this site) is that ads piss us off more than anything else. We mute them and block them. We hate them and swear to never buy the products.

I hope this show stays on for a while. It's viewers are about half of South Park's, but comparable to Drunk History's, and it's in its fifth season. I don't watch either of those shows.

Edited by bilgistic
ALenore

ALenore

I think I know where the writers got the idea for Thanks!  

One of my friends shared a post on Facebook last year in which a writer relayed that she had decided to use fewer exclamation points in her writing, she'd read articles complaining that people were overusing it, that it should be sparingly.   When she decided to follow this practice when writing Facebook posts, she got into trouble.   People thought her comments like "cute kid", "good looking puppy" or "nice music" were sarcastic.   She had to go back to using exclamation points so as not to piss off her friends.  Pretty much what happened in "Thanks!"

mojoween

mojoween

Ohmygod yes.  I often re-read emails and then add qualifying words so they don’t come off too strident, and hate myself a little bit more every time.

I always feel when I sign off “Thank you,” instead of “Thank you!” that I'm being a jerk.  Sometimes I AM being passive-aggressive, but sometimes I'm just not in an exclamatory mood, ya know?

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Joimiaroxeu

Joimiaroxeu

(edited)

Guess the producers didn't want to pay for rights to play a Led Zeppelin classic:

Before this episode I never knew the term "black dog" had a particular meaning. Learn something new every day. 🤔

(The Zeppelin song doesn't mention the phrase though, and allegedly referred to an actual dog.)

Edited by Joimiaroxeu
Amethyst

Amethyst

On 7/31/2020 at 12:49 AM, Apathy said:

I can't believe this show isn't more popular.

Yeah, this episode really deserved more attention.  It was an excellent view into Jake's chronic depression and how he was starting to spiral.  The scenes in the apartment were way too real.  Also, I didn't know "Black Dog" was a euphemism for depression. 

This interview goes a bit more into depth about the background to the episode, like Jake Weisman's actual experiences with depression, and how it effects the people who want to help, like Matt doing his pathetic Mary Poppins routine.

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Amethyst

Amethyst

I thought the coffee plot was kind of silly, but you could tell they were sidelining Matt and Jake a little so Grace and Kate could have the main plot this week.   And the guys could have played dumb when Tammy went to the break room.  Matt and Jake sitting there all smug about the sign just gave them away.

Jake looks like he's in better spirits.  Nice continuity from last week.

I loved Grace and Christian hanging out together, it's always funny to see Christian actually relax for a change.  But Grace, checking the sender in the email is 101.  That's as bad as hitting "reply all".

The best scene was John just sitting in his car, combing his nonexistent hair with that orgasmic expression on his face.  The Jonas-brothers music in the car only made it funnier.

Apathy

Apathy

"If someone calls you shy, it just means they don't know anything about you. It's like when someone gives you a candle as a gift." Jake gets it. I was honestly scared for Matt when John had the scissors, and Jake when he was being stalked by Jupiter about the survey. "NO! You don't get to know what I think about you!" I'm not ready for this show to end.

mojoween

mojoween

Lance Reddick passed away and so far his work in Corporate hasn’t been mentioned in any of the pieces memorializing him.

I know this was a silly comedy and not a prestige drama, but he was really good in it and showed a different side than on, say, “Oz” or “The Wire”.

I don’t know why, but this one hit me hard.  He was too young.

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