8 Most Mindbogglingly Meta TV Show Cameos Ever

Before Life on the Road and Learn Guitar With David Brent, the closest Ricky Gervais came to reclaiming his most famous comic role was in a 2011 US Office Cold Open. In the scene, Brent bumps into Michael Scott in a corridor.

Scott's British counterpart at first appears unassuming, but once he notices the cameras he transforms into full-on cringey "entertainer", managing to include an impersonation of a Chinese person, complaints about political correctness and, of course, a "that's what she said".

The underlying joke is the differing ways Gervais and Steve Carrell approached the two characters, as well as the obnoxious similarities they share. The scene also sees Gervais mocking his own persona as an edgy comic unafraid of offence, as Brent muses "Comedy is where the mind goes to tickle itself", which isn't too different from one of Gervais' tweets.