# The Office 1/10 Lice **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 11, 2013, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892 "2013-01-11T19:32:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![koufax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/21 "2013-01-13T15:41:50Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Awful episode. Just awful. Agreed. I notice Ed Helms (or his agent) got smart and got him out of there before his career is completely ruined by that (now) TERRIBLE mess of a “show”. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/22 "2013-01-13T16:14:30Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > It probably wouldn’t be based solely on a sitcom though. This is a well-known folk remedy, and a quick Google turns up plenty of websites claiming that it works and that it’s better than lice shampoo because it’s safer and more natural – basically the same thing Erin said in the episode. > > If there had been any real comedic payoff to the mayo treatment that would be one thing. But the episode spent a LOT of time on this and none of it was particularly funny, so it seemed almost like an infomercial for treating lice with mayonnaise. If the writers just wanted to show Erin stepping up to solve a problem, they could just as easily have had her overseeing lice shampooing/nit combing. Sitcom. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/23 "2013-01-13T16:16:18Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Awful episode. Just awful. Did you miss Kevin humping the air 😉 !!! ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/24 "2013-01-13T17:00:54Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Sitcom. Are you still confused about what the term “sitcom” means? It’s short for “situation comedy”. The mayo treatment wasn’t funny – it didn’t even seem like it was _meant_ to be funny – so the show being a sitcom doesn’t justify the use of mayonnaise instead of lice shampoo. The [Rule of Funny](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfFunny) doesn’t cover things that _aren’t funny_. I’m not complaining about Dwight saying he uses lice shampoo every day (something that would also be at best a waste of time and money) or repeatedly bug bombing himself (which would actually be dangerous IRL) because those were jokes. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/25 "2013-01-13T17:42:22Z")
> [@koufax](#): > > Agreed. I notice Ed Helms (or his agent) got smart and got him out of there before his career is completely ruined by that (now) TERRIBLE mess of a “show”. He’ll be back. He needed to take some time off to make a movie which is why they came up with the whole sail the boat to the Caribbean story line. ---
**Author:** ![koufax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/26 "2013-01-13T21:40:48Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > He’ll be back. He needed to take some time off to make a movie which is why they came up with the whole sail the boat to the Caribbean story line. If he (or his agent) was smart, he would refuse to return and NOT come back to this amateurish mess even if he was sued for breach of contract. Even Dwight is not funny anymore, his career is also over. ---
**Author:** ![pricciar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@pricciar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pricciar)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/27 "2013-01-13T22:12:43Z")
I’ve really enjoyed the show this season. Some episodes, I thought, could stand up against any other season. But, yeah, this episode was horrible. What was the point of the opening? Jim hurt his mouth, and it hurt so much he had to go home? What makes that funny? I’m not sure. koufax: No offense. But, aren’t you the guy who said he was going to stop watching the show like 2 years ago? Are you a part of some project that forces you to watch each week? Don’t worry your long nightmare will soon be over. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/28 "2013-01-13T22:25:02Z")
> [@pricciar](#): > > What was the point of the opening? Jim hurt his mouth, and it hurt so much he had to go home? What makes that funny? I’m not sure. I know. I usually love the opening but this one was horrible. I thought that maybe it was referencing something that I missed. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/29 "2013-01-14T02:14:23Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’ll bet if we _put our heads together_, we can find something to replace it with. That’s probably how they spread the lice to start with. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/30 "2013-01-14T02:25:49Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Very little on sitcoms is ever explicitly presented as practical advice the way Erin’s mayo remedy was. “Sitcom character does something strange, hilarity ensues” is pretty different from “sitcom character describes well-known but probably useless folk remedy as the best way to deal with a common problem, and this is shown to work perfectly.” > > Given the amount of time this episode devoted to the mayo remedy and the lack of comedic payoff associated with it, I’m not sure what the point was of including it at all if the viewer was not meant to think that Erin was right and that she’d saved the day with her unexpectedly practical advice. I mean, the mayo thing wasn’t hilarious or anything, but it was written to have several comedic payoffs. Basically, it was used in various ways to make characters look silly, and to move a plot point forward. Characters looking silly: –The mustache on black-guy-who-is-not-Darryl –Crazy-Old-Guy being all weird about how “messy” it looked –Others I don’t remember right now (I was only half watching…) Plot point moving forward was redhead secretary and new guy flirting and her showing blatantly that she finds him attractive in his “elvis” hair and undershirt. I’m terrible with names btw. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/31 "2013-01-14T03:02:34Z")
> [@koufax](#): > > If he (or his agent) was smart, he would refuse to return and NOT come back to this amateurish mess even if he was sued for breach of contract. And then get the reputation for quitting projects and breaching contracts? That’s way more of a career killer if you ask me. > [@](#): > > Even Dwight is not funny anymore, his career is also over. According to imdb, he has two movies coming out this year. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/32 "2013-01-14T03:34:44Z")
I concur that it was pretty bad. Despite the ostensible premise, I don’t expect documentary realism but they completely abandoned any semblance of plausibility. The Dwight bug-bomb thing was so sitcom-cartoon-hacky it deserved a round of canned laughter. Still confident they can and will do better. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/33 "2013-01-14T04:02:23Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > I mean, the mayo thing wasn’t hilarious or anything, but it was written to have several comedic payoffs. Basically, it was used in various ways to make characters look silly, and to move a plot point forward. Most of which would have played out exactly the same way if the characters had paired off to lice shampoo/nit comb each other’s hair instead of using mayonnaise. Characters who don’t normally spend much time together could have been forced to interact, everyone could have sat around looking silly for a little while, Angela could have “waterboarded” Oscar, and Erin could have both stepped up to tackle a problem and had an opportunity to admire New Jim in his undershirt and slicked-back hair. Or they could have used the mayo and then realized after rinsing off that they were all still infested, which I think would actually have been funnier. (Still not _that_ funny, but funnier than the mayo working.) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/34 "2013-01-14T04:08:45Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > (Still not _that_ funny, but funnier than the mayo working.) I don’t believe they ever said the mayo worked. Did Erin ever do a post-procedural check up? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/35 "2013-01-14T05:09:48Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I don’t believe they ever said the mayo worked. Did Erin ever do a post-procedural check up? She said the lice in New Jim’s hair were dead before she rinsed him off. But what do you care, it’s a sitcom, so it doesn’t have to make sense OR be funny. ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/36 "2013-01-14T18:03:20Z")
It doesn’t really bother me if the mayonnaise plan is correct or not, but it does seem to have been a common treatment when Erin was (presumably) in foster care, and it was plausible enough that others in the office would go along with it, so I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt in favor of the (expected ensuing hilarity. The problem was, the hilarity never ensued. I guess they thought seeing a bunch of people with mayonnaise on their head would be funny in and of itself, but it wasn’t. Of the top of my head (ha!), I could come up with 4-5 sight gags or one-liners based on this premise, and I’m not a professional sitcom writer: 1. Someone in the cast could insist on light mayo or Miracle Whip because they’re on a diet. 2. New Jim puts his hair into a faux-hawk, Creed comments “I once spent a weekend with Sid Vicious–total buzzkill.” 3. Shot of Oscar carefully styling his mayo in the bathroom mirror. 4. (If Kevin had lice) When Pam offers to buy the mayo, Kevin comments “That’s OK, I brought my own” and pulls a jar out of his desk drawer (“For sandwich emergencies”). 5. During cleanup: “The office has the smell of death and egg salad. I’m not sure which is worse.” ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/37 "2013-01-14T18:20:18Z")
> [@CJJ](#): > > 1. Someone in the cast could insist on light mayo or Miracle Whip because they’re on a diet. > 2. New Jim puts his hair into a faux-hawk, Creed comments “I once spent a weekend with Sid Vicious–total buzzkill.” > 3. Shot of Oscar carefully styling his mayo in the bathroom mirror. > 4. (If Kevin had lice) When Pam offers to buy the mayo, Kevin comments “That’s OK, I brought my own” and pulls a jar out of his desk drawer (“For sandwich emergencies”). > 5. During cleanup: “The office has the smell of death and egg salad. I’m not sure which is worse.” Bravo! You should be on staff there. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/38 "2013-01-14T21:39:01Z")
Let’s talk about pubes. ---
**Author:** ![koufax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/39 "2013-01-15T01:22:17Z")
> [@pricciar](#): > > I’ve really enjoyed the show this season. Some episodes, I thought, could stand up against any other season. But, yeah, this episode was horrible. What was the point of the opening? Jim hurt his mouth, and it hurt so much he had to go home? What makes that funny? I’m not sure. > > koufax: > No offense. But, aren’t you the guy who said he was going to stop watching the show like 2 years ago? Are you a part of some project that forces you to watch each week? Don’t worry your long nightmare will soon be over. Yes, that is me and I did quit watching but something compelled to check it out again and my god, it is even worse than before!!! And I actually like the characters, a very talented cast. But who is writing this crap? I’m surprised Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant haven’t sued NBC to stop this atrocity, even though they are still raking in millions, just to save their good names. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892/40 "2013-01-15T01:53:54Z")
> [@CJJ](#): > > The problem was, the hilarity never ensued. I guess they thought seeing a bunch of people with mayonnaise on their head would be funny in and of itself, but it wasn’t. Of the top of my head (ha!), I could come up with 4-5 sight gags or one-liners based on this premise, and I’m not a professional sitcom writer: > > 1. Someone in the cast could insist on light mayo or Miracle Whip because they’re on a diet. > 2. New Jim puts his hair into a faux-hawk, Creed comments “I once spent a weekend with Sid Vicious–total buzzkill.” > 3. Shot of Oscar carefully styling his mayo in the bathroom mirror. > 4. (If Kevin had lice) When Pam offers to buy the mayo, Kevin comments “That’s OK, I brought my own” and pulls a jar out of his desk drawer (“For sandwich emergencies”). > 5. During cleanup: “The office has the smell of death and egg salad. I’m not sure which is worse.” I think any of your suggestions would have been funnier than anything they actually did with the mayonnaise concept. The even bigger problem with this episode was that this wasn’t even the only storyline in the episode that introduced a specific, unusual situation that seemed like it was supposed to be building towards hilarity that ultimately did not ensue. I find the mayo storyline more annoying than the Jim & Dr. J one because it’s inaccurate AND unfunny, but really they were both pointless and boring. I guess for some people it was exciting just to see a famous basketball player on the show, but I kept expecting something funny to happen instead of Jim just having a cool day at his other job. I thought the third storyline, about Darryl’s breakup, was fine, but it didn’t get much screentime and was largely unrelated to anything else that was going on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-1-10-lice/646892.md?page=3)