Drab Ennui of “The Office” Translates to Columbia Remarkably Well

by Chris Beam | May 15, 2007 at 11:51 am

Drab Ennui of "The Office" Translates to Columbia Remarkably WellIf you haven't noticed, The Office is multiplying at a lapine rate. First there was the British version. Then NBC's remake. Then some French and German versions. Extrapolate this trend and you get a parallel universe consisting entirely of Office remakes, one for every corporate culture on earth. The Onion: "CBS To Release Own Version Of NBC's The Office." It was only a matter of time before Office fever spread to academia.

This time the story is set at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, an institution that we imagine buys red tape by the mile. These are students training to be parts of bureaucratic machinery. Navigating the school's rigid hierarchy, financial aid office, and shoddy advising system -- that's just part of your education! At the very least, a few students saw enough similarity between their school and the existential mudpit of The Office to write and shoot their own remarkably faithful remake. It's got the same characters as the NBC version, only everyone is Columbia-fied: Michael Scott burns time surfing J Date. Dwight denies students financial aid. The deans award fellowships by picking out the cutest applicants' photos and throwing darts at the finalists to determine the winner. It's worth a gander, but you'll have to fill out a permission request first.

Part 1:

Part 2:

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6 Responses to “Drab Ennui of “The Office” Translates to Columbia Remarkably Well”

  1. Tiger '10 Says:
    May 16th, 2007 at 9:45 am

    Haha, nicely done.

  2. CC '09 Says:
    May 16th, 2007 at 10:41 am

    Lapine? Like rabbits? What’s with the fancy book lernin’ in your posts?

  3. R Gervais Says:
    May 18th, 2007 at 4:01 am

    This is awesome. I love the series, and I thought yours was almost as funny. Michael Scott is so like Steve Carrel, that is impressive. Nice job, everyone.

  4. cc '10 Says:
    May 19th, 2007 at 2:35 pm

    i’m pretty impressed!

  5. Cornell '08 Says:
    May 26th, 2007 at 8:45 am

    wow! much more entertaining than most shows on TV

  6. Penn '08 Says:
    May 31st, 2007 at 6:50 pm

    I’m extremely surprised by how good that was!

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