The Office: Power Rankings Part 2

Here is Part 2 of The Office Power Rankings, you can check out Part 1 here.  Spoilers.  Side note, writing this post was so much fun because I watched over 100 of the best clips from the show on youtube.  Devote a day to watching clips of The Office on youtube.  Do it.


#15 -- Bob Vance -- 'Kevin Malone.' 'Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration.' 'Stanley Hudson.' 'Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration.' 'Ryan Howard.' 'Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration.'...... 'So what line of work you in Bob?'



#14 -- Oscar Martinez -- I’m sure you have met a real life Oscar before, or seven. He is a great character because he is easily the smartest person in the office and he knows it, but this isn’t really satisfying for him.  He needs everyone else to also know that he is the smartest person in the office and if they don’t acknowledge this, or give Michael that title, he becomes extremely aggravated.  Now I’ve made Oscar sound like a giant douche, which he isn’t.  I mean, wouldn’t we all get aggravated from time to time with this guy.  Inevitably intertwined with Oscar’s relative intelligence in the office is his role as the straight man, which is pulled off well by Oscar Nuñez.

Oh, hey there!

#13 -- Erin Hannon -- Ellie Kemper, the actress who plays Erin, has found a lot of success recently on The Office and in the film Bridesmaids.  Quick interjection on Bridesmaids, which I watched for the first time recently -- Everyone I talked to made sure to tell me how crude the movie was and that it was a lot like The Hangover.  This was either why people enjoyed the film (mostly females) or why they didn't like it (mostly males).  So I was surprised, and disappointed when I realized the movie was just as much a romantic comedy as it was a comedy comedy.  When the movie was trying to be funny, I thought it was pretty funny.  The gross scenes didn't gross me out more because women were the main focus and the jokes hit just as well as they did in The Hangover; I just wish Kristen Wiig's character wasn't so goddamn sad all the time.  Ok, that wasn't really quick, whoops.  Erin filled in as Pam's replacement in Season 5, and has proved that not all receptionists are so boring.  Erin's naivety serves as the foundation for most of her jokes, which Kemper handles well (in Bridesmaids too!)  My main annoyance with Erin is her on again off again relationship with Andy, which has dragged on for too long.


#12 -- Toby Flenderson -- Obviously Toby is only funny because of the harassment he receives from Michael.  Otherwise he is one of the most boring characters on the show (shoutout to Pam!).   But Toby’s interactions with Michael are easily some of the best on the show.  After all, Toby doesn’t seem like he’s out to cause anyone harm, all he really wants to do is go home and eat some ramen noodles with his kid.  But Michael will simply not buy into this as an excuse.  Michael knows the evil that lies inside the soul of Toby.  Michael knows.  And so, Michael despises Toby and has no problem expressing his hatred. NOOOOOOOOOOOO! DEAR GOD NOOOOOO!


#11 -- Darryl Philbin --Other than maybe Jim, Darryl is the person I would most like to hang out with in the office.  Darryl gets most of his laughs when he talks about how to pick up women (at the book store and via text) or when he babysits Michael.  But what I love is that so many things slightly annoy Darryl.  Whether it his ex-wife pushing his buttons or Michael building a fort in the warehouse, everything gets to Darryl, understandably so.  I think my favorite example of his irritability is when he plays the role of POTUS in Threat Level Midnight so he can show his daughter there can be a black president.  Unfortunately for him, Barack Obama was elected president making all of his work pointless and a waste of time.


#10 -- Angela Martin -- If Angela hadn’t gone and devoted her life to paper, she could have made a good lower school teacher.  She wouldn’t be a good teacher, probably pretty mean to the kids, but she fits the mean teacher role well.  I think my favorite Angela storyline is that she married a senator gay state senator.  It opens up a lot of lanes of comedy with characters from Dwight to Oscar.  But the best aspect of it, other than Angela not realizing her husband is gay, is Angela’s determination to make Pam feel like a terrible mother with her snide parenting suggestions.  I'm interested to see whether Angela values her baby or her cats more and if she will make a baby poster starring her own babe.


#9 -- Ryan Howard -- Ryan’s character shot up the rankings when he suddenly had a personality change and became a hipster.  Ryan has had so many personalities on the show (new guy, evil boss) but hipster is definitely his natural calling.  He always thought he was too young and cool for the office, so it’s sort of surprising that it took him so long to start wearing scarves.  I think my favorite Ryan-hipster moment is when he uses his Ipad to check the time because a) he is using an Ipad to check the time and b) he uses an analog clock as opposed to a digital one.


#8 -- Holly Flax -- I don’t know how there was someone in that fictional world that would fall in love with Michael, but I’m glad it happened.  Holly and Michael’s engagement and goodbye to The Office was the best thing that could have happened to the office.  The Office post Michael and Holly has been underwhelming, but Holly and Michael’s relationship provided closure to Michael’s development as a character.  Holly was the only person who could push back on Michael in a way that he would respond to and thus was the only one who could force him to grow.  The last string of episodes with Michael and Holly were wonderfully done and a great goodbye for both characters.  Still, Amy Ryan was great on The Wire…  McNulty+Beadie> Michael+Holly.

One of Jim's many faces

#7 -- Jim Halpert -- Jim has dropped in recent years for many of the same reasons as Pam.  Since settling down with Pam, Jim has become considerably less funny and considerably more father-like.  Good for Pam and Cece, bad for us.  The reason Jim still has a reasonable high ranking and Pam doesn’t is because Jim is obviously funnier than Pam.  Jim is funny because he makes fun of Dwight, someone so ridiculous that we don’t even consider Jim a mean person for making fun of him so much.  This is true to a certain point; Dwight can’t actually expect to function with other people without getting some crap.  But it still pleases me when the writers occasionally give Dwight the upper hand in prank wars.

#6 -- Kevin Malone -- Is the fat, stupid guy the most overused comedic character of all-time? Yes.  Have the writers turned Kevin into a caricature at times? You betcha.  But so long as his IQ stays above the level of a raccoon, Kevin remains as the charm-type of person.  Kevin has so many hilarious moments but I’ll leave you with two of my many favorites.  The first is when Kevin comes up with a new way of speaking to save time.  Jim and Pam are worried that Kevin might be concussed or suffering brain damage, but Angela assures them he’s always been like that.  The next clip might be the greatest Office opening of all-time and is known as Kevin’s Famous Chili.  There are so many things I love about this… from Kevin trying to clean up the chili with a clipboard, to the sounds of panic he makes, to him ending his talking head saying, “it’s probably the thing I do best” as he slips in his own mess.

#5 -- Andy Bernard -- If it weren’t for his promotion, The ‘Nard Dog might rank #4, but as is he still makes the top 5.  As someone who always looks to please those around him, regional manager is an awkward position for Andy to be in.  He is always trying to please his inferiors even though they are just that, inferiors, who are forced to respect him in some way because of his job title.  Andy is at his best when he is trying to impress people with his serene vocals and his status as a Cornell alumnus. 
 
#4 -- Kelly Kapoor -- Kelly comes in as the highest ranking female ahead of lead characters like Jim, Pam, and Andy who saw much more screen time.  Kelly brings three assets to the table that her coworkers can’t match: her love of Ryan, her knowledge of pop culture, and her willingness to call people on their shit when needed.  These three categories are where most of Kelly’s hilarity stems from.  Kelly’s best moment was when she updated Jim on her life:

#3 -- Dwight Schrute --The man who will be getting his own spinoff comes in at #3 on these rankings.  We’re about to get Incepted up in this joint… rankings within rankings!  The Ying to Jim’s Yang, the grandson of a Nazi, the assistant TO the regional manager, here are my top 5 Dwight Moments.


5) Dwight impersonates Jim -- In response to Jim convincingly dressing up as Dwight, Dwight comes into work and casually asks Karen if she wants to have sexual relations later. I'm Jim Halpeeeeert


4) Dwight takes on Benjamin Franklin -- Dwight tries to prove that the Benjamin Franklin he is face to face with is an impostor.  "I don't care what Jim says, that isn't the real Benjamin Franklin... I'm 99% sure."

3) Dwight defeats Jim in a snowball war -- The whole storyline was pretty funny with Jim being horrified to walk through a maze of snowmen to reach his car, but the highlight was Dwight wearing wigs and pretending to be various members of the office.


2) Dwight buys Michael a customized hockey jersey -- The epitomization of Dwight.  He tries to please Michael and show everybody that he and Michael are friends.  The back of the hockey jersey that's Michael's birthday present simply reads, #1 "From Dwight."


1) Dwight paints the office black -- For a little while it seemed like Dwight was going to be manager of the office.  In that short time he took initiative and painted Michael's office black.  Gets me every time.

#2 -- Creed Bratton -- Creed just barely falls short for the top spot.  If Creed ever left The Office, (for whatever crazy reason Creed would make up) the show would still go on barely missing a beat, but the same can’t be said for other characters. That said, it’s hard to wonder what the Office would have been like if Creed was fired in the first few episodes instead of Devin.  For the amount of time spent on screen, Creed produces the most laughter out of me.  What is he doing working in an office?  Shouldn’t he be working in a pawnshop or trafficking alligators or something?  I know he doesn’t really do anything in the office, but wouldn’t you love to watch a show about Creed illegally selling alligators? My favorite running joke of Creed’s is that he doesn’t know anyone else’s name and either uses descriptors or makes up a name when addressing someone.  Other great Creed moments are that Ryan opened up a word document and told him it was a blog and his anecdote about the possibility of making love a man while making love to many women in the 60’s.  The way he says, “there would be no way of knowing” gets me every time.  But his greatest moment, and the funniest moment in office history is this: Hint -- Scuba.

#1 -- Michael Scott -- I really wanted Creed to take the top spot because he is personally my favorite character, but Michae Scott is The Office.  When it comes down to it, a lot of the characters are only funny because of the way they interact with Michael.  Toby, Ryan, Jim, Darryl, Phyllis, Andy, Dwight, Pam (sorta) and Holly all use Michael’s eccentricity as a way to create the majority of their own humor (or all in Toby’s case).  Without him everyone becomes significantly less funny.  Although I often found Michael’s impressions funny, or sometimes didn’t understand what they were referencing, all of the other Michaelism’s were great; he changed the landscape of sexual jokes forever.  Michael and Toby, Michael’s vocab slip-ups (all employees are gruntled and I’m only a little stitious), and general awkwardness and intrusiveness all killed.  They also were why Michael’s office hated him for so many years.  But eventually he started to change (thanks to Holly) and slowly crept towards becoming a legitimate, albeit very eccentric, person.  His employees recognized this and somehow developed fond feelings for the guy.  It took a long time for Michael to become The World’s Best Boss, but it was worth the wait. Oh my god, something's happening...

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