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In a recently published paper, CU Boulder PhD student Cooper Casale interrogates Jim Halpert鈥檚 direct-to-camera gaze in The Office and its similarities to what he calls the 鈥榝ascist听look'

A couple of years ago, Cooper Casale was dating a woman who loved the American version of 鈥淭he Office.鈥� Despite having watched seasons two and three on repeat in middle school so he鈥檇 have something to talk about with a girl he liked, a decade had passed and he wasn鈥檛 really a fan anymore.

鈥淏ut I end up being sucked into it,鈥� recalls Casale, a PhD student in the University of Colorado Boulder Department of English. 鈥淚 watched all the way through multiple times鈥攊t becomes a kind of hypnosis. It was just always on.鈥�

Through nine seasons and repeated watching, Casale began to wonder: Is Jim Halpert looking at me?

In the 650 times that Jim Halpert (played by actor John Krasinski) looks at the camera through those nine seasons鈥攖here鈥檚 even a of them on YouTube鈥擟asale began considering what or who he was seeing in the Jim Halpert gaze: the pitiless scientist, the capitalist boss or the fascist father? Or perhaps all three?

In a in the Journal of Popular Culture, Casale considers how the Jim Halpert gaze is also the fascist look.

鈥淭he Fascist Look enlists its subjects into their make-believe hero's service, a role audiences want to occupy,鈥� Casale writes. 鈥淭hey want to please Halpert, as the worker wants to please the foreman. Their peculiar loyalty partly explains 鈥楾he Office's鈥� remarkably enduring popularity鈥�

鈥淗alpert's Gaze arms people against their feckless bosses, slovenly neighbors and annoying coworkers. At the same time, his frozen glare, his pranks and his sarcasm represent the punitive aspects of mainstream culture that are foundational to enforcing and maintaining capitalism. Halpert does not critique his corporate arrangement but merely masters it. He becomes its boss, and viewers enamored by his cruel fiction but powerless to act it out, choose, in Halpert, a more nightmarish boss than they had before. Furthermore, viewers are thankful because he reminds them that the great can still overcome the small.鈥�

Microdosing work

First, though, a sorry-not-sorry: While Casale appreciates a lot of the humor in 鈥淭he Office,鈥� he increasingly resents its popularity now that remote work is so common. He wanted to understand how the 鈥渁lmost liturgical pattern in which some people watch it鈥� has become a sort of surrogate to having an in-person, so-called work family, he explains. 鈥淭here are some who never turn it off. When I was in publication for this paper, my editor was like, 鈥榊ou can鈥檛 prove that,鈥� and I can鈥檛, not yet, but there鈥檚 an observably strange practice in people watching this show on rotation all the time.

鈥淪o, the initiating question was 鈥榃hy do people come home from a 9 to 5 and immediately watch a show about 9 to 5?鈥� Theodor Adorno wrote about this in his essay 鈥楩ree Time,鈥� about how free time is itself a kind of work. We have to spend those hours after work preparing to return to work, so people watching 鈥楾he Office鈥� is almost like microdosing having to go back to work.鈥�

In the character of Jim Halpert, Casale says, 鈥淭he Office鈥� established an everyman protagonist鈥攁 frustrated dreamer and creative type who somehow ends up in a meaningless job at the world鈥檚 most boring business. When he looks directly at the camera, he conveys that he recognizes the absurdity and ridiculousness around him and that he is somehow above it.

Citing another Adorno work, 鈥淒ialectic of Enlightenment,鈥� which observes that enlightenment and barbarism are often linked, Casale notes that 鈥淛im Halpert represents this enlightened corporate subject. He鈥檚 presented as smarter than everyone else, but we see how fast that enlightenment has to express itself through barbarism or violence in the pranks he鈥檚 constantly pulling on Dwight.

鈥淒wight鈥檚 biggest crime in the whole show is that he likes his job. He鈥檚 presented as na茂ve, sentimental, he likes beets and 鈥楤attlestar Galactica,鈥� and because of his sentiment he must be punished. We鈥檙e meant to believe that Jim really deserves to be somewhere else, and he鈥檚 only there because he鈥檚 unlucky, but it鈥檚 everyone else鈥檚 fate to be there. Kevin will never do better, Stanley will never do better, but it鈥檚 Jim鈥檚 fate to overcome the circumstances of his life. We鈥檙e meant to find his cruelty affable.鈥�

鈥淭he Office鈥� reaffirms the strange hierarchies of corporate America but sells them as quirky, Casale says. Its documentary style becomes a two-way mirror between Jim Halpert and viewers鈥攊n Jim鈥檚 disgust, annoyance, resentment or bemusement, viewers have a proxy in lieu of their own documentary camera recording their reactions to the clowns and fools around them.

Interrogating power

The Jim Halpert gaze becomes the fascist look when considered through the lens of power, Casale says: 鈥淲e have this TV show teaching me that the best way to express my power is to lend it to somebody else who can punish people in my stead. It鈥檚 similar to how a vote for an autocrat is a vote to not have to vote anymore. We see it in the working class voting for Donald Trump, who鈥檚 only going to give tax breaks to the rich. But because they want to be rich, there鈥檚 an aspect of living out their dreams through him.

鈥淚 think people always struggle with how members of the working class can vote against their self-interest. Part of it, I think, is that people鈥檚 resources to express themselves or express some kind of autonomy are so impoverished that their last opportunity to be free is to live in surrogate through someone else. If Jim Halpert can prank these people and humiliate all his coworkers, then I can live vicariously through Jim Halpert.鈥�

Casale adds that rather than interrogating the structures of power and capitalism that Jim Halpert ostensibly gazes against, 鈥淭he Office鈥� emphasizes a message that mimicking the behaviors of power will lead to having power. In 鈥淭he Office,鈥� Jim Halpert is in control鈥攏ot Michael, not Dwight, nor any of the other characters to essentially serve as his minstrels.

鈥淚 think that鈥檚 the fascist myth,鈥� Casale says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a desire to be dominated so I can learn the procedures of how to dominate others. In my own domination, I learn what it feels like and how I can do it. We see this with any kind of autocrat, including Jim Halpert. When Donald Trump says he wants retribution, there are thousands upon thousands of regular, pretty nice people who say, 鈥業 want retribution, too.鈥� And because they won鈥檛 direct their anger to capitalism, the real culprit, they have to have proxy wars about DEI, gender, immigration, whatever else, so they won鈥檛 have to focus on the real cause of their powerlessness.鈥�

Top images: NBC Universal

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