Wall Banger/Live-Action TV/The Office

• The Office, American edition, is sympathetic toward Jim and Pam -- but they are Designated Heroes. They prank their coworkers, snicker behind their backs, and lie their way out of get-togethers. The show focuses on the social consequences of inappropriate behavior, but Jim and Pam's never being up-front with their coworkers is almost always given a pass.
• The only time Jim and Pam's misbehavior became an issue In-Universe was when Dwight learned that Toby had not been processing his numerous complaints against Jim, but simply keeping them in a large box underneath his desk. Dwight threatened to leave the company, but Jim agreed to go to Stamford for an unrelated reason. Then the complaint was dropped. It never came up again, not even when Jim returned to Scranton and was promoted to co-manager.
• After the merging of the two branches, Jim plays a prank on Andy which causes him to get angry and attend anger management. Jim never apologized for basically causing Andy to go to rehab, nor did he show any remorse, nor did he become nicer to Andy after that. When Andy came back and asked Jim to start calling him Drew, Jim outright refused; he seemed to be trying to see whether he could provoke another outburst! And we are supposed to identify with Jim.
  • What makes this worse: while he was working at Stamford, Karen specifically warned him not to provoke Andy.
  • Did Jim ever tell Pam that he knew of Andy's anger issues?
• The way that Jim kind of led on Karen for a while and later blew her off was never portrayed as consequential.
• How about the episode where Michael assigns Dwight to pick a health care plan, and Pam and Jim make up all these fake diseases to be covered? Then at the end Pam says "Dwight did a horrible job!" Yeah, like you made it any easier, asshole.
  • By the time Pam has created a bunch of fake diseases, Dwight had already slashed the benefits to the bone... And probably hacked off a little bone too. We never see or hear him go back on that, and a medical plan that only covers diseases you have now (Dwight's plan B) could prove useless as early as tomorrow.
    • Yeah Jim and Pam may have had many Designated Heroes moments, but that one episode is one of the few in which Dwight really, really deserved it.
• Every personal conversation Jim starts with Dwight on screen is meant to annoy Dwight, make him look foolish, or prank him. Dwight continues to assume good faith even though the evidence is against, and responds to Jim's conversations appropriately, if unusually. Jim relies on this trust and the false assumption of good faith for his pranks to work.

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