I’ve watched the entirety of the British series The Office and squirmed and grimaced while laughing at every moment that cuts to the quick of life in an office-based work culture. (The mere use of the phrase “office-based work culture” shows just how completely immersed I am in one.) I held onto a deep, unrealistic optimism that the American version would, at the very least, not embarrass our country for once again bastardizing a brilliant idea. This was completely unfounded. This show reeks. It has the stench of nervous sweat derived from the fear that neither the writing nor the acting can live up to its predecessor. It can’t stop at simply being not funny, it pushes into the territory of “jokes” that equate to bamboo slivers being pushed into sensitive parts of one’s body. I feel unclean just writing about it. I’d go take a shower if I wasn’t currently at 33,000 feet.

Bumper sticker that required me to get *really* close to the car in front of me and even then I had to squint (both my eyes and my brain) to understand this. Then I laughed. Not because it’s particularly funny, but because of all the Bush backers who must grit their teeth and clench their jaws when they see this.
Blood for oil. Billionaires for Bush.