Yaglidere
Mesut Yaglidere
Prof. Samberg
English 101
3/26/19
Fire Drill
Knowing what to do in a situation where the building is on fire is key to save your life. In this short skit of the show “The Office,” employee Dwight Schrute demonstrates in his work office, what to do when a fire breaks out. He tells the audience "Last week I gave a fire safety talk and nobody paid any attention. It’s my own fault for using PowerPoint, PowerPoint is boring. People learn in lots of different ways, but experience is the best teacher.” We can see Dwight “prep” the office for his “fire preparedness” employees. He locks doors and torches the handles to make them warm to the touch. His final touch to his plan is to put newspaper into a small trashcan and then lights a cigarette, looks into the camera and says, “today smoking is going to save lives.” He then flicks the lit cigarette into the flammable trashcan which then ignites right away. He then walks away going back to his office desk patiently waiting for his coworkers to realize there is smoke coming from the hallway. This is when he asks his coworkers “does anyone smell anything smokey” which his coworker replies with “did you bring your beef jerky in again?’ I thought this was great because the coworkers did not know what was going on and beef jerky does have a distinct smokey smell to it. Dwight then continues to clear his throat very loudly so he can get his coworkers to look around and distinguish the smoke coming into the room through the door frame. This part was particularly funny because he knew what he did and wanted everyone to know whats going on.
When everyone is aware of the smoke, the workers quickly go in to panic mode. Dwight then sarcastically says “Oh a fire, oh my goodness. What's the procedure? What do we do people?” The cameraman then focuses on the receptionist of the office in which she tries to call the fire department but says “the phones are dead.” The lines are down because Dwight apparently cuts the telephone lines and we know this because the next scene is him saying very sarcastically and looking into the camera very sly “oh how did that happen?” The manager barges out of his office to see the commotion and in a very panic voice he screams “OH MY GOD, IT’S HAPPENING. Everybody stay calm, everybody stay calm.” while Dwight is trying to get everyone's attention by asking “what's the procedure people?” and the Manager replies back with “STAY bleeping CALM”. This was my favorite part in this entire part. The way the manager is telling everyone to stay calm but himself is in a panic mode. I’d say this is the best scene in television history due to its hilariousness and how quick it is. More than anything I love the way the show is directed, you can tell there is...
