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The Office is littered with a healthy dose of references that are relevant to life in the UK at the turn of this century, but imagine the future when we’ll all be driving our own hovercrafts, we won’t know what the characters are on about!
Topical right now (being late 2003), but inevitably not forever, here’s a guide for you (the future) to understand what passed as culture back in the present (past). If there’s anything I’ve missed off, then please, let me know on the forum. The references are in chronological order, because that seemed the best way of doing it.
Series 1
Episode 1
“Wassup”
When: The first words out of Gareth’s mouth, and Brent says it as well.
What was it: Budweiser, in September 2000, had a succesful ad campaign revolving around four guys saying “wassup” while on the phone to each other. It was catchier than it sounds there, and lots of people, for a while, went round saying “wassup” instead of thing like “Hello. How are you?” This had just about died out by the time The Office was first shown, but you still had a few sad people saying it. The character of Gareth could not have had a better introduction.
I want more: You can see the original ad here. The Official Budweiser site no longer has the ads on; searching for “wassup ads download” will point you in the direction of the rest.
Flat Eric
Where: On top of the coat stand.
What was it: Flat Eric was an advertising phenomenon that had definitely passed by the time a fictional camera crew was sent down to a paper merchants in Slough in late September 2001. Eric came and went quickly in 1999, and still no explanation can quite account for his popularity.
I want more: A great unofficial site can be found here, which contains all the original TV ads as far as I can tell. The site has the drawback of being in Japanese, but trust me on this, you don’t want to put yourself in the situation of reading too much about Eric. If you’re that bored, then just use google yourself (and an angel called Jenn decided to do just that, and uncovered a real treat!).
The ads were for Levi’s Sta-Prest jeans.
Comic Relief
When: Brent talking about organisations not having egos.
What was it: Comic Relief is a charity organisation, best known for the bi-annual Red Nose Days that incorporate an evening of television on the BBC. Throughout the day as well, people are encouraged to raise money for charity by getting sponsored to do silly things; nothing demonstrates this better than episode 5 in series 2, set on Red Nose Day. The two main areas the money raised goes to are fighting famine in Africa, and helping those in poverty in the UK.
I want more: You can learn all about Comic Relief at their official site.
“Ricky”
When: Brent first meets Ricky the temp.
What was it: Ricky was a character in Eastenders, a soap set in the cockernee London. He had a girlfriend, Bianca, who I guess shouted his name in her typically annoying cockney accent a few times, and so people like Brent used to imitate this for an easy laugh. And let’s face it it’s a stroke of comic genius to do that sort of thing.
I want more: Here’s the official Eastenders’ site, it’s largely about what’s going on in the show at the moment and doesn’t contain any info on Ricky or Bianca.
Vic and Bob (and
one extra one)
When: Tim and Ricky make a couple of jokes about Gareth’s stapler being in jelly.
What was it: Vic and Bob are two self styled zany/wacky comedians.
I want more: No you don’t.
Episode 2
“Gareth is a Benny”
When: Tim’s screensaver at the end of the episode..
What does it mean: In the UK at least, it was the joy of school children to ask of each other “Are you a benny tied to a tree?” If the answer was yes, then the reply was naturally “You’re a benny, you’re a benny” If the answer was no, then the slightly more imaginative reply was “Argh! Benny on the loose, benny on the loose!”. The term benny being derived from bender, political correctness meaning little to six year olds.
Alternatively: The term ‘benny’ refers to a character from an old 70’s/80’s soap called crossroads. Benny was a bit slow on the uptake and pure comedy to look at. Thanks to Sean for this.
I want more: That’s more than enough for now!
Episode 3
Whose Line is it Anyway?
When: Brent is making up jokes about Tim’s huge inflatable cock.
What was it: A TV show that transferred from the radio version back in 1988, and was running in the UK for a decade before it sort of stopped, and at the same time a US version began. The show revolved around four comedians being asked to improvise sketches, based around certain rules. It was better than that makes it sound.
I want more: One of the games on the show involved giving the comedians props, and them having to think of jokes to make around them, as Brent is seen doing in the episode, except that they were funny. You can see a list of the best Whose Line fan sites out there here.
Blockbusters
When: Ricky mentions that he was on Blockbusters.
What was it: A “young adults” quiz show that had the odd situation of a team of two playing a team of one. Both teams had to answer questions, where they were given the first letter of the answer, hence “Which Y...”. I think the team of two had to answer more questions that the team of one, so it was fair and all that.
I want more: You can read a slightly more detailed and accurate version of the above here. And this Blockbuster’s page is where I got the image from, so I best link to them as well.
Crufts
When: Brent is talking about Spock from Star Trek being half-human, half-vulcan, and compares the common misnomer to that of dogs being pedigrees.
What was it: Crufts is the world’s largest dog show, and so any dog being entered for the “Best in Show” award must be a true pedigree of good stock.
I want more: Official Crufts Site
Episode 4
Peter
Purves/John Noakes
When: The training video.
What was it: Peter Purves and John Noakes both hosted Blue Peter, the long running BBC children’s program, between 1967 and 1978.
I want more: The BBC have an excellent page on the history of Blue Peter here.
When: While the slide of two dogs is up, Gareth shouts out “Give a dog a bone”, Tim replies “It’s not Roy Walker”
What was it: Catchphrase was a popular ITV show, hosted by Roy Walker, where contestants had to guess which well-known phrase or saying was being acted out on the big screen.
I want more: Brilliant Catchphrase Page.
When: Brent mentions that Foregone Conclusion, his band, were once supported by Texas.
What was it: Texas is a Scottish Pop/Rock band who’s debut was at a Glasgow College in 1988. They’ve been going long enough to have had a ‘best of’ album. You’ll probably know their song “Summer Sun” if you can’t think of any they’ve done.
I want more: Official Site.
When: Tim asks Gareth who he’d want to be stuck on a desert island with..
Who was he: Daley Thompson was a British athlete who won consecutive gold medals in decathlon at 1980 and 1984 Olympics.
I want more: There’s a short but detailed biography of Daley here.
Episode 5
Peak Practice
When: While having lunch with Tim, Keith mentions he was watching Peak Practice last night.
What was it: Peak Practice was a medical drama, set in the English countryside somewhere. The show was noted for strong sense of community among the main characters, and being both educational and entertaining when it came to dealing with medical problems.
I want more: The official site seems to have been scrapped along with the show, but a great unofficial site is here.
Episode 6
Benny
Hill
When: Brent is thinking of funny things to say or do to Malcolm, who importantly, is bald.
What was it: Benny Hill was a much loved British comedian, who’s best known for The Benny Hill Show, which ran for twenty years from 1969 to 1989. The bald connection refers to the regular appearance of Jackie Wright, a short bald man who would often get slapped on the head by Benny, in a slapstick manner which we no longer see on television these days.
I want more: A good concise write up of The Benny Hill Show is here.
“An Esther Rantzen Heart of Gold”
When: Brent is justifying leaving his staff, saying that he’s not working there for charity.
What was it: Hearts of Firewas a TV show, on which awards (Hearts of Gold) given by Esther Rantzen to deserving members of the public, who typically had done some charity work. The award was a little golden heart, although this is just from memory-there’s very little information about the show out there.
I want more: Sadly no one else does, as there’s nothing out there about this show.
Episode 1
The
ITV digital monkey
Where: The coat stand (Flat Eric’s replacement)
What was it: ITV digital was infamous for being a failure. A big failure. The words ‘losses’ and ‘billion’ and ‘pounds’ are not unfairly associated with the company. If you did buy a set top box from the company, you were rewarded with a free stuffed monkey puppet, which also featured in the fantastically popular adverts, with the monkey voiced by Gervais lookalike Johnny Vegas. Comparisons to the earlier success of Flat Eric were not unfounded. Monkey’s career came to a end after doing some promotion for the 2003 Comic Relief.
I want more: It’s oddly hard to find any sites about Monkey, or even any clips of the ads. Searching through the keywords tends to result in newspaper’s archives and precious little of any worth. Shame about that.
At one point the puppets were reaching £200 on eBay, that’s as interesting as it gets.
Episode 3
Ian “Beefy” Botham
When: During a Brent talking head.
Who is he: Famous England cricketer who in 1981 came out with the sort of performance that would simply be too unbelievable if it was in a script for a film. It was mental. In 1989 he was suspended for smoking cannabis, and for a while his private life was an easy source of filler for the tabloids.
Since retiring from the game has spent a lot of time walking for charity. The John O’Groats mentioned is in reference to the 874 mile Lands End to John O’Groats walk, which it’s hard to imagine anyone doing for a purpose other than raising money. He’s also recently launched his own wine. You didn’t know that did you?
Not many do.
When: While Tony and Oliver are playing darts, Brent jumps into shot saying “you can’t beat a bit of bully!”
What was it: Bullseye was an ITV gameshow running from 1981-93, revolving around darts, with a sort of member of public-professional darts player team playing darts and answering quiz questions thing going on.
I want more: That description is a bit lacking, but I’d only be re-writing the excellent info already here.
Bit of trivia: Ricky Gerais’ chat show “Meet Ricky Gervais”, had Tony Green from bullseye on each week, so Gervais must be a big fan of the show.
“What’s your biggest disappointment?”
“Alton Towers.”Episode: Series 2, episode 3
When: The interview with Ray and Jude
What is it: Alton Towers is a big theme park in the UK.
Rory Bremner
“If you could have a working lunch with anyone, who would it be?”
“Martin Luther King, and the Dalai Lama. And Rory Bremner.”Episode: Series 2, episode 3
When: The interview with Ray and Jude
Who is he: Rory Bremner is an impressionist and satirist who’s been telling it the way it is for the last ten years on Channel 4.
Episode 5
Bernie
Clifton
When: Brent gets sacked.
Who was he: A children’s entertainer from simpler times, where running around in an ostrich costume was deemed passable entertainment. No. That’s unfair on Bernie. He was and is a funny man, coming from a time where having an ostrich costume gimmick wasn’t frowned upon by self-righteous viewers such as you and I. And he wouldn’t have entered the national consciousness if he hadn’t been able to keep an audience laughing past the stage of “look at that funny costume!”.
Even these days you can’t hire a similar costume without reference being made to Bernie.
I want more: Sadly there’s nothing out there on the internet about Bernie. He’s still doing live shows, having gone to the other end of the age scale and making pensioner’s laugh. If you do look for info on him, beware of generally ironic or sarcastic references on throwaway websites.
Rod
Hull
When: While Brent is posing for the Slough Gazzette in his yellow bird costume.
Who was he: Rod Hull was. Now he isn’t. A children’s TV presenter with the gimmick of having an almost uncontrollable emu puppet on his right arm, Rod Hull will be most fondly remembered for hitting Michael Parkinson a lot during the interview, claiming it was all the emu’s fault, which in a way, it very much was.
I want more: Not a great deal on info on Rod out there, but some interesting bits of trivia can be found here.