1. Tragedy
There is an old saying that states tragedy plus time equals comedy. No truer words have ever been spoken. Something about the two go well together, like some sort of sick and twisted marriage. People love laughing at others misfortune, something in our hard wiring, and The Office has plenty of misfortune. Just take a closer look, its a show about people wasting their lives in a dead-end job desperately searching for meaning in their sad lives. Angela had nothing but her cats until she ended up in a loveless marriage with a man whom Oscar loves but cannot have. Dwight has little in his life besides his job and his farm, Jim and Pams perfect love story has recently hit a rough patch, and Andys fairly tale romance has dissolved without him realizing it. Sure theres a lot of love between these characters, but theres a lot of misery mixed in, and that misery is the true foundation on which The Offices hilarity is built. Everything else that makes The Office one of, if not the funniest show on TV today feeds of the central tragedy of it all. Viewers can relate to tragedy, weve all experienced it, Without the fourth wall were all just a little closer to the characters suffering. The writers, the actors, they all know this and convey it beautifully. But it is that warm hearted feel that makes the tragic lives of Dunder Miflins employees oh so funny. Besides whats better than laughing at other peoples pain, right...? (I hate it here)