Why the IT Crowd Works

I’m still marathoning old shows, at least for now. As usual, I hate myself and have decided to do Camp Nanowrimo this month. I decided that three days before the end of June.

(Okay, I’m being too hard on myself. What happened is that I realized I was way behind where I wanted to be in my novels for the year. So I needed to clear my plate and put novel working first for a whole month.)

But all that aside. I finally got around to watching all of The IT Crowd.

I’m amazed it took me this long. I work in technical support, I love British comedy and I have a weird tolerance for laugh tracks. I don’t like them, but I can tune them out. 

I’m not going to say the show is genius. I’m not even going to say it’s great. But it’s good, it’s lasted, and it works. Let’s discuss why.

In describing The IT Crowd, I kept coming back to one phrase. It’s relatable, but then it

goes past that and becomes ridiculous. Let me give you an example. We’ve all messed up at work. Most of us haven’t set a fire extinguisher on fire and just let it burn for hours. We’ve all been on bad dates. We usually don’t have chocolate pudding on our faces the whole time, only for our date to think it’s literal shit.

While the characters get into ridiculous circumstances that are somehow relatable, it doesn’t end there. The characters themselves are caricatures of people we might very well have in our own lives. 

No one is as socially awkward as Moss. But I bet there’s someone in your life or at your job who you think of every time you see Moss. I have a friend who seems just like Roy. To my knowledge, he’s never run through his place of work without a shirt on. But he doesn’t tell me everything, so who knows? And I have, for sure, forced my feet into shoes that were too small because they were just so cool! (They were baby pink Sperry’s. Don’t judge me.) But I didn’t let it get to the point of crippling me. 

I have a soft spot for any show that manages to surprise me. They’re rare. And they’re even rarer when we’re talking about relationship predictions. And I was sure, from episode one, that Roy and Jen were going to end up together. And they don’t! And that makes perfect sense for them. It would have been awful if they’d gotten together. It would have ruined the show. I think we see that way too much. We don’t see enough friendships between men and women. I was never so thrilled to be wrong.

Finally, let’s talk about catchphrases. Is there any more iconic one than, “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” It’s good advice, it’s funny, and it’s so true for anyone who works in technical support and IT! If literally anything isn’t working, turn it off and back on. It was even referenced in Dr. Who. Hell, it’s been suggested several times that we should turn 2020 off and back on. And if I could find a way to do it, I would.

Now I want to hear how you think. Have you watched The IT Crowd? What worked for you?

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