The British version re-runs starting tonight on BBC2 at ten.
I remember watching this the first time it aired, and having worked for a bureoucracy for over forty years, and endured managers as bad as, and worse than David Brent, I found lmyself unable to breathe for laughing so much.
I also knew that in that situation, I would be Tim - looking at the camera and silently saying, Are you getting this? Can you believe what I have to live with on a daily basis?
I found the series utterly cringeworthy and totally unwatchable. I could never understand how it could win so many awards (or, indeed, any at all), especially when it was up against really classic comedy at that time, such as the wonderful Still Game.
I thought it was brilliant. I've encountered all the character-types in my office-bound career, and to see them lampooned in that fly-on-the-wall way was rewarding and entertaining.
//For example, I know people whose opinions I respect on most matters, who advise me that Michael McIntyre is not only talented, but hilarious as well.//
A fair point. Probably the same people who made Mrs Brown's Boys a success.
It was brilliant.
I know a lot of people didn't 'get it'
It was cringeworthy, it was supposed to be. David Brent was being laughed at, and deserved to be so.