I didn’t realize that, but double checking my DVR seems to validate your theory. I thought the episode was pretty funny. I think Kevin actually didn’t look so bad in his toupée.
I have a friend whose girlfriend is a turtle specialist. Now I know what to get them if they ever get married.
I’m really pissed that my DVR cut off the ending. Hopefully, the episode will pop up on NBC.com.
I thought it was well done. The writers were in a tough spot, trying to avoid all the inevitable wedding disaster cliches. They found a way to write it so that all the office people wackiness was able to ensue, but without ruining the wedding. It was a difficult balancing act, but I thought they pulled it off.
I agree. I loved cutting back and forth between the “real” wedding and the ridiculous dancing. And I can actually justify having everyone stepping down the aisle dancing here - they didn’t have time to do the reception, but wanted to include dancing. Spoofing the youtube video was a great way to do it.
Also - using the rehearsal dinner as the reception storyline is perfect. Receptions are anti-climatic - the wedding’s already happened, and the only thing to screw up are the best man/maid-of-honor speeches. But by then, the couple’s already married, and a laid-back bride like Pam would just let any hijinks unfold naturally rather than Bridezilla them into submission.
The ending was cheesy, but it worked (for me).
But I totally agree about Retarded Kevin. C’mon - he didn’t have a pair of sneakers or something? Or make the concierge take him to the nearest department store to compensate him?
I’d love to see them wink at the cliche but not actually do it… Like maybe she goes into labor at the office; Jim, Pam and – despite their protests – Michael, get in the elevator. On the way down it lurches to a stop. The camera turns to Michael with his hand on the emegency stop, saying “Just Kidding!” But then, there’s probably a good reason I’m not a sitcom writer…
As others have mentioned, it’s hard to do a wedding episode that avoids all the TV-wedding cliches. There was a lot of over-the-top stuff here, but I can forgive it because most of it was pretty funny. (Though I agree Kevin’s Kleenex-box shoes were just dumb. Really? There’s no place to buy a pair of shoes in Niagara Falls?) I knew of the youtube dance video, so I understood the reference… and the Office gang are just the types of people to jump all over a stupid fad like that, so there was some semblance of logic there. But if you didn’t know about the video, it made no sense.
I did think Jim’s speech at the rehearsal dinner (before he spilled the beans) was quite touching, and their “pre-wedding” on the boat was very sweet. They managed to mix some sentimental in with the silly and still make it work OK.
This is my hope as well.
Jim: So everybody raise your glass – except Pam, of course –
Grandma: Why not Pam?
Jim: Because one does not drink a toast to one’s self.
oh, but then it would have solved the problem.
I liked that they were able to have a romantic, not-silly wedding on the boat, and the wedding their friends and family wanted in the hotel.
I wondered what Pam was going to do about her wet hair – she just put it up, so she wouldn’t look bedraggled. Funny nobody in the crowd commented on the change.
ETA: Sigmagirl, exactly! Why didn’t Jim think of that? And why did Pam raise a glass for her own toast?
I agree that Jim should simply have said that Pam doesn’t raise a glass for herself. (Although presumably there would have been additional toasts for which she would be expected to raise a glass. But they could have filled her glass with ginger ale.)
I hadn’t seen the youtube video, but it was pretty clear that they were just copying some viral video. I see that the actual video has 27 million hits. I wonder how many of those are since last night?
I liked the turtle escaping from Dwight’s gift box.
Probably quite a few, but the video was featured on the local and national news awhile back too. If I hadn’t known about the video, I would have been going WTF are they doing?
I’d forgotten what dicks Jim’s brothers are. Actually, I’d forgotten he even had brothers and was wondering why Jim didn’t kick them out of the hotel.
Well, I didn’t know about the video, and I had no idea what was going on. When Jim mentioned youtube, I figure it must have had something to do witha viral video, but before that TH, I was lost.
I think it makes snse that Jim’s brothers would do that, not because they thought it was cool and wanted to copy it, but just to annoy the shit out of Jim.
So Niagara Falls doesn’t have 911 service? The only way to get Andy’s nutsack taken care of was to have the BRIDE drive him to the hospital?
Joe
I’m watching it again, and like it more the second go. But I remember something that bothered me, why did they bother Pam the night before her wedding with Andy’s injury? That seemed too formulaic.
Edit: Wow, didn’t catch that last post!
I know that Michael’s gift was supposed to be awful, but I loved it. It was so sweet. Except the mention of the nude version that Michael kept for himself. If I were PB&J I would find someplace to display that in my home.
Does the captain of the Maid of the Mist really have the power to marry people?
ETA: Pam drove Andy to the hospital because she was the only one who wasn’t drunk.
Yes, but she was the bride. It would have been better to call an ambulance than to bother her.
Sure, there’s almost certainly someplace to buy shoes in Niagara Falls. Someplace with a Health Department-mandated “no shirt, no shoes, no service” policy, like every other store in this nation. It’s a catch-22 wherein he can’t buy the shoes he needs because he’s barefoot and needs shoes. His only option would have been to send someone else in to buy him the shoes, and frankly, this is Kevin. He’s the sort of passive person who, when learning that the hotel had destroyed his shoes would quietly accept a free breakfast as compensation instead of throwing a fit and demanding they replace his shoes right now. The kind of guy who finds out a coworker thinks he’s retarded and is mildly puzzled and disappointed instead of being outraged.
Kevin’s box-shoes I understand. The scene that had me yelling was the whole “Jim spills the beans” scene. In that scene, Pam very clearly had a tumbler in her hand, rather than a wine glass like everybody else. There’s no reason she couldn’t raise a glass at a toast because she wasn’t drinking alcohol in the first place. There was no earthly reason for him to say anything about her not taking a sip of whatever she had been drinking all evening, except as a setup for Michael’s little outburst.
Well, yeah, all of us up here in Niagara Falls are used to living in a third-world country.
Seriously, though, this was a big thing for everyone up here. I’ve met the owners of the Maid of the Mist and this was gold for them (of course as this is the end of the sailing season for them they won’t see a bump until next year). One answer to a question that hasn’t been asked here but I’ve seen it asked elsewhere: yes, those were just regular tourists on the boat with Jim and Pam. The Maid of the Mist doesn’t clear the boat for anybody…not even when Princess Di went on it.
Yes, just like anybody else can get married.
Oh, other people. Ah, no. And that part had to be a particular suspension of disbelief as the MotM captain usually is a bit more concerned with “not crashing into the big rocks” or “not piloting the boat directly into the Falls” to think about marrying people.
I’m not sure if there’s ever been a real honest-to-goodness wedding on the Maid of the Mist. I’ll have to ask my usual sources.
Andy ripped his ‘Nard-Sack’ here. I live close to the falls too, (well, at least Getzille/Lockport area), and yes, it was pretty big. None of the viewers that live here were safe from spoilers, (it wasn’t announced at all before shooting started). I hear the staff was very courteous, and really went out of their way to show their gratitude to film here.
It’s a myth that the captain of a boat can perform weddings, but it’s possible that a business like that would cater to the wedding trade by employing a captain who is also ordained in some kind of ministry (or perhaps just invested as a clerk of court) to perform weddings.
I know nothing Niagara Falls or the Maid of the Mist, though.
If television has taught us anything, it’s that a wedding ceremony conducted by a captain on a boat is not automatically official unless it’s a certain distance from the shore. Or are you going to argue with the impeccable legal precedents established by Happy Days?