MovieChat Forums > The Day Today (1994) Discussion > 'The Office' ripped off 'The Day Today'

'The Office' ripped off 'The Day Today'


Before I say anything I want to highlight that I love 'The Office'. But it has been tagged with "ground-breaking" and "original", and this just isn't fair or true.

It might have been mentioned before on this forum but it is not mentioned at all in on TV, Radio and the mainstream media. I can not get over the fact that 'The Office' is a rip off from a sketch on 'The Day Today'. The sketch (which was also called 'The Office') was a documentary style, laughter free, dry look at a badly run office with Steve Coogan, Patrick Marber et all. Okay, so it's about how an America Shrink is trying to sort out their attitude to work, whereas Gervais' 'The Office' is much deeper and mainly about David Brent. But for a 10 minute sketch what more could you expect.

My point is that if you have seen the pilot for 'The Office' and the style, especially of the first series, it does feel like it was lifted from this particular sketch. Again, this highlights that neither Ricky Gervais, Caroline Aherne (The Royle Family) or any other British acts pioneered this new type of British comedy. It was infact Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, Steve Coogan and Patrick Marber. So will all these documentaries and books about modern British Comedy please remember who started this new era of comedy in Britain. It certainly was not Gervais or Aherne.

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if anything, i'd say it was more of a different spin on the formular of 'spinal tap' (the most famous mock-umentry until the office came along.)

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Exactly. Not nessersarily original (infact far from original) but a new spin on the mockumentary style. I wish the press/media would stop the OTT tags, and that Gervais and Merchant would be a little more humble and stop acting like they invented the concept. (Too many times they have happily accepted the "Original" and "Groundbreaking" praises)

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Couldn't agree more. The first series of 'The Office' is reasonably good, but other than that Gervais has really done nothing of any real merit. His stand-up is awful, his radio shows are just *tedious* and 'Extras' was overwhelmingly and insufferably smug, irritating, unoriginal, sub-Seinfeld toss. I imagine there'll be a backlash soon enough, when people realise that his ironic homophobia/racism/sexism is just an excuse for cheap laughs and the blatant self-referential plugging is just a way of being seemingly humble and jokey about it, when in fact he's just looking to advertise at any possible opportunity.

Sorry, didn't mean to derail the thread with my Gervais-bashing... but anyway yes, I agree, the 'groundbreaking' and 'original' tags attached to 'The Office' really are rather baffling. Well, I suppose they're not - it's just the hype machine at work - but they're just very wrong.

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But what is truly original? Another "inspiration" for the Office as far as i can tell is "people like Us" (much underrated)

There seems to be an Office backlash at the moment, but it stands up for me because it is so funny and well made.

Didn't like extras though.

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No backlash from me I'm afraid. Like I said, I think Gervais is the funniest comic in Britain since Coogan, but I can't stand the over the top praise for 'The Office'. It simply wasn't that ground breaking. It was just very very good, and at times brilliant.

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I would argue that Morris was the man who broke new ground in the early 1990's. He perhaps doesn't get the plaudits he derserves but the man is a legend. Gervais is fantastic, Walliams and Lucas are great fun and newcomers like Tate and 'The Peep Show' lads are very talented. But this new era is very much down to the Morris/Coogan/Ianucci comedies of the early to mid 90's. I'm sure they were influenced by the likes of Elton and Python but in the 1990's they paved the way for these new types of comedy we see today. It's an interesting period in British Comedy, and this is simply one way of looking at the current state of things.

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I'm Alan Partridge > Brass Eye > The Day Today > Peep Show > The Office

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I think Vic and Bob have been a big influence too.

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I agree that his standup and invention of lying are rather weak but I love office, extras, his radio shows/podcasts, an idiot abroad and cemetary junction to bits. I think the three guys are great and often never go a day without seeing/listening to something of theirs.

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gervais also said the larry sanders show was a huge influence on his writing.

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The Office = Fawlty Towers for me. Love both but im always suprised that not many others ever see the similarity. Im usually ridiculed for it: "the office is *beep* all like Fawlty Towers" they all say.

Still think it is though.

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You're right, I think. It does looks like a direct rip-off. But the joke's on Gervais, isn't it? He made a mainstream comedy of manners within TDT's satire of a form of journotainment. A bit like M*A*S*H.

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I think Little Britain is influenced by/rips-off (depending on how you view these things) the 'Everything is okay' sketch in Ep3 to a greater extent than The Office takes from The Office.

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You're not wrong, it's pretty much the opening of Little Britain. But the idea of men dressing up as women for laughs was their own.

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I haven't seen The `Day Today for a while and am hazy about it.

But regarding The Office ripping anything off, I saw Operation Good Guys again recently and straight away thought OMG Gervais just took this completely for everything. DI Beach straight away is Brent, a pathetic excuse for an authority figure, and sitting there talking to the camera giving his "philosiphies". The fact that it is a spoof documentary obviously rings true, but then added to that in Operation Good Guys each episode would see a guest star playing themself, ala Extra's.

OGG was a decent show and obviously ahead of it's time, and I'm sure the BBC were the ones who had the not so bright idea to add a laughter track to series 2 and 3, which unfortunately makes it from this point unwatchable. But Gervais I'm certain took this idea on and by then was able to persuade the BBC that the public dont need to be told whats funny.

Fundamentaly The Office is a superior show, and I wont let something like this spoil it for me, as basically everything is influenced by something or other, but it is a shame that when something is tagged original, and you are able to easily see it's not if you have any idea about past shows, and not just what's new.

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IF anything little britain is a complete rip off of 'league of gentleman' and an incompetent one at that.

And lets not forget the brilliant 'adam and joe show' there influence on modern comedy is everywhere.

www.-ain-tit-sh*t. com

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The style of comedy borrows more from Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry Sanders and I'm Alan Partridge, but I'm sure they saw The Day Today. I wouldn't call it "ripping off", though.

And Chris Morris is an outspoken fan of The Office, which I'm sure he wouldn't be if he felt he'd been ripped off by them.

These bastards!

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