The whole point of the video is way too expansive and effectively clickbait bullshit. If they’d said “some of the qualities Michael Scott exhibits can be useful in a manager (given that some are necessarily absent)”, they’d get a grudging agreement, but then they wouldn’t get their clickbait title.
The whole premise of the video is based on the conceit of the show itself: that Michael Scott, somehow, is an effective manager. It’s a fictional show and in this fictional show, the fictional manager is a effective manager. How can anyone possibly use this non-evidence to deduce that someone mimicking Michael Scott in a real-life paper company will sell a lot of paper?
And we only enjoy the show because we are suspending disbelief. The fantasy is that Scott can continue to do what he does and not get fired for all his personal transgressions. Scott is a buffoon and an idiot. He can entertain, but that’s it: he does not have any real intelligence and does have the ability to think or behave strategically. To seriously elevate Michael Scott as a role model is completely missing the point. What’s next? “Principles of Fatherhood” by Homer Simpson?
We recently plowed through the whole series and when taken all at once it’s really stark how they switched him to likable, then in a later season (6 or 7? I forget) he was suddenly back to a total asshole only not as funny, then they switched him back to likable just to send him off. Then with him gone I found the show funnier if more absurd, until it started to suck again.
Exactly what I was thinking while watching the video. Any success of the Scranton branch is because no actual work was ever having to be done. Since it’s made-the-fuck-up.
And people didn’t watch the show to see work get done. It was more of a, “Well, I hate my job but at least I don’t have to work there… what’s going to happen this week?” kind of escapism.
