- 20 hours ago
Bu video Dailymotion Python SDK ile yüklendi.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00No, I wouldn't say I have a passion for HR.
00:05The Office's Toby Flenderson is a fun sponge,
00:09a bit boring, kind of sad, and sometimes a little creepy.
00:12Since the show ended, theories on Toby have proliferated,
00:15with many even finding a bunch of clues that he's the true Scranton Strangler.
00:20But if he wasn't the Strangler, did he deserve all the vitriol he got
00:23from Michael, the rest of The Office, and the audience?
00:26If I had a gun with two bullets and I was in a room with Hitler,
00:30Bin Laden, and Toby, I would shoot Toby twice.
00:32He's calm, kind, and unlike most of the other characters,
00:36the sort of stable, competent co-worker many of us would appreciate
00:39in a real-life professional setting.
00:41Here's our take on why Toby doesn't deserve the hate,
00:44and what went wrong to make him such a punching bag.
00:47I hate so much about the things that you choose to be.
00:56We are so excited to announce that we now have a line of weird girl merchandise.
01:04Which weird girl are you?
01:06Are you the dreamy space cadet living on your own planet?
01:09Are you the delightfully spiraling basket case?
01:11Are you the ferocious goth?
01:13Are you the awkward misfit?
01:14Are you the smartass?
01:16Make sure to order now to get it before the holidays.
01:18Thank you to Brilliant for sponsoring today's video.
01:21Brilliant is an interactive learning platform that helps you master valuable STEM skills through fun activities.
01:26Right now, the first 200 people to click the link in our description below,
01:29brilliant.org slash thetake, will get 20% off a year-long subscription.
01:34Whether you aced math and science in school, or are looking to master valuable skills now,
01:38Brilliant will help you sharpen your mind so you can solve problems,
01:42strategize, and be at the top of your game.
01:49The office sets Toby up to be
01:56hateable from the beginning, because the show's lead, Michael, hates Toby.
02:00While Toby may be reasonable, fair, and respectful of his co-workers,
02:04Michael is the star of the show, providing many of its biggest laughs.
02:08Thus, it can feel like Toby gets in the way of the fun.
02:10Why are you the way that you are?
02:13Honestly, every time I try to do something fun or exciting,
02:17you make it not that way.
02:20It's the reason many viewers are irritated by Breaking Bad's Skylar White,
02:24or Kay from The Godfather.
02:25Even if they're right, they threaten to shut down the exciting crime operations
02:29that are what we're there to watch.
02:31Workplace anti-hero Michael is great fun to watch,
02:34even or especially when he's a chaotic, belligerent, and cringe-worthy boss.
02:39IGN even argues that The Office, as a show, is essentially one long series of human resources debacles.
02:46Quote, a staple formula of so much of The Office's first few seasons is simply to take a basic
02:51HR issue and stretch the horrible process out.
02:54So it makes sense that Michael's chosen nemesis, the person he can't stand above all,
02:58is the human resources rep, the person tasked with getting Michael to behave appropriately,
03:03follow corporate rules, and avoid controversial or offensive behavior.
03:07Oscar is gay. That is his choice. We can make fun of that.
03:12You still can't make fun of people for race or gender or sexual orientation.
03:16Michael believes that Toby's correctness attacks the heart and soul of what he's doing
03:21as a manager and kills all his fun. And Toby, by having to articulate and draw attention to
03:27when Michael's behavior is wrong, can sometimes compound Michael's cringe-worthiness and force
03:33others to confront the boundaries being violated. Even on a structural level,
03:37Michael sees Toby as a threat to his control of The Office. While everyone else works for Michael,
03:42Toby works for corporate, which means he doesn't have to obey Michael in the way his colleagues do.
03:47He works for corporate, so he's really not a part of our family.
03:52Ironically, Michael falls for the HR rep who comes after Toby, Holly Flax. But that's actually
03:57because Holly often doesn't really do her job when it comes to keeping Michael in line,
04:02and instead enables his inappropriate behavior. She enters into a relationship with Michael,
04:07is rude to her predecessor,
04:09I nearly fell asleep when he gave me a tour of the files,
04:12doesn't work to challenge the hostile work environment, and even assists Michael
04:16in making The Office a more uncomfortable place for employees. She lets Todd Packer come and work
04:21there despite expressions of genuine worry from the rest of The Office.
04:24Let me help Michael.
04:25Well, if that's the case, I guess I've gotta be fired too.
04:28But The Office is primed to overlook all this because it was so touching to watch
04:32Michael finally find a viable love interest who gets him.
04:36Michael is actually killing it with Holly, and I think I know why.
04:40It's because Holly is kind of a major dork.
04:44And when David Wallace then has Holly sent away,
04:46it feels cruel with Michael's punishment compounded by the fact that Toby comes back.
04:52Look closer though, and the widespread disgust for Toby could actually be
04:55the illusory truth effect at work.
04:57The illusory truth effect is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when people are told
05:02something enough times and come to believe it, whether it's true or not.
05:06Psychologists Sarah Barber and Omayo Hassan wrote that people tend to perceive claims as truer
05:11if they have been exposed to them before, and repeated exposures lead to increased belief.
05:16Likewise, The Office staff initially have a camaraderie with and respect for Toby,
05:21but this decreases over the show's run, as Michael's bullying dehumanizes Toby in their eyes.
05:27Millions of Americans suffer from extreme repulsiveness.
05:30Someone in our midst is bringing that problem to light.
05:34Toby Flunderson.
05:34Oh, that's so mean.
05:36Now it's fine.
05:37In this scene, while D'Angelo immediately reacts to this
05:40cruelty because he hasn't been conditioned to it,
05:42the staff are more interested in making The Last Dundees perfect for Michael at Toby's expense.
05:47It's his last Dundees.
05:49You gotta play along, man.
05:49Michael uses an almost Pavlovian approach to train his colleagues to hate Toby.
05:55He uses Toby as a repository for all of the negativity in The Office,
05:59so that the employees associate Toby with their bad feelings and use him as a punching bag.
06:04For example, when he invites comments and Angela wants to complain about
06:07her colleagues' clothing, he gives this to Toby.
06:10Even when Michael gets in hot water for dating Pam's mom,
06:21he makes Toby deal with the fallout, using Toby almost as a physical shield
06:25to absorb the vitriol that's meant for him.
06:28The illusory truth tactic likewise works on the audience,
06:31whereas early moments of Michael hating on Toby are played to highlight how irrational Michael is being,
06:36Toby Flenderson is everything that is wrong with the paper industry.
06:42Is he why you left?
06:43Oh, no.
06:44Over time, jokes increasingly align us with Michael,
06:47or mock that supposed repulsiveness of Toby's that Michael harps on.
06:52You don't understand clothing, Toby.
06:55You're dressed like this amorphous blob of khaki.
06:58It's a testament to Michael's charisma,
07:00and how beloved he eventually was by us and his colleagues.
07:03Best boss I ever had.
07:05That quiet, unassuming Toby comes away looking like the bad guy,
07:09just for trying to do moderate damage control.
07:12We, at the end of the night, are going to give the check
07:15to an actual group of Boy Scouts.
07:17Yeah, I didn't think it was appropriate to invite children,
07:20since it's, uh, you know, there's gambling and alcohol,
07:23and it's in our dangerous warehouse.
07:25But perhaps the biggest victim of the illusory truth effect
07:28when it comes to Michael's smear campaign is Toby himself.
07:31Toby goes from having a pleasant relationship with most of his colleagues,
07:35and even a good-looking girlfriend at Phyllis's wedding,
07:37to being really lonely and lost in later seasons,
07:41to the extent that he even tries to instigate a friendship with the Scranton Strangler.
07:44He demeans himself by continuing to secretly hope for his tormentor's approval,
07:58even delusionally trying to set Michael up as friends with his brother in Boulder.
08:02I have a brother in Boulder, Rory Flenderson.
08:07You should look him up.
08:09Okay.
08:10Toby doesn't believe in his own self-worth anymore.
08:18To be fair, Toby also contributes a lot to his own unlikeability.
08:22He's a pathetic character who never seems to do anything to help himself.
08:26In his pre-office life, Toby almost became a priest and then backed out.
08:30I was in the seminary for a year and dropped out because I wanted to have sex with this girl,
08:35Kathy.
08:36Followed her back to Scranton.
08:38Took the first job I could find in HR.
08:40And he appears to believe that God is punishing him.
08:43Why you always gotta be so mean to me?
08:46In his strange combination of self-pity and self-hatred,
08:50his feeling that he's being pummeled by life but probably deserves it,
08:54he's essentially a human Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh,
08:56the depressive donkey who feels unseen and unappreciated by his friends.
09:01It's my birthday. Can't you see all the presents?
09:05Who lives alone, often forgotten about,
09:07in a slightly removed part of the Hundred Acre Wood from the most central characters.
09:12Go back to the annex.
09:13And whose plots often revolve around his low self-esteem,
09:17and need to be validated and cheered up.
09:19Thanks for inviting me over, Pooh Bear.
09:21Guess you couldn't get anyone more interesting to come.
09:25Like Eeyore, Toby almost seems to be followed around by a personal dark cloud.
09:30But instead of inspiring others to empathize,
09:33that near-constant misery and feeling sorry for himself might,
09:36over time, be more likely to trigger annoyance.
09:39It almost feels like Toby's attitude invites terrible things to keep happening to him.
09:43I've been ziplining my third day in Costa Rica.
09:47I guess the harness wasn't strapped in exactly right.
09:51Toby's behavior eventually leads the women he's attracted to
09:55to develop a level of aversion or disgust for him.
09:58Early in the series, he carries a torch for Pam,
10:00and originally she likes him too.
10:02While she doesn't really seem to return his feelings,
10:05she considers him a friend and even suggests he is attractive.
10:08Oscar's kind of cute.
10:10Yeah, I like Oscar.
10:11Ooh, Toby.
10:13So it's possible he could have at least had a chance with her
10:15if he put himself out there.
10:17But by the ninth season,
10:18she's openly stating that the idea of him being sexy is repellent.
10:22I'm sexy Toby.
10:25Gross.
10:26Instead of drumming up the courage to ask her out,
10:28he hides his feelings behind elaborately convoluted attempts to please her
10:32that are so subtle she doesn't even notice them.
10:35Where have you been all night?
10:36I was looking forward to hanging out with you.
10:37Hey, don't you have a daughter?
10:42In spite of never communicating his intentions, though,
10:45Toby feels something like ownership over Pam.
10:48He pettily refuses to recognize Jim and Pam's relationship,
10:51outs them before they're ready,
10:53The complaint was about Jim and Pam.
10:55You guys are together?
10:56Yes!
10:58Yes!
10:58Toby, was this your fun little way of congratulating us?
11:03Yes.
11:03And belittles the seriousness of their connection.
11:06We just wanted to know if we had to sign one of those
11:08we're dating things for the company.
11:10If it's just a casual thing, they're so neat.
11:13Like Friends' Gunther silently pining after Rachel,
11:16Toby is caught up in a secret fantasy of being with Pam.
11:19It sometimes blurs his perception of reality to the point where,
11:23in a rare moment where he forgets to hold himself back,
11:25he embarrasses himself so badly by impulsively stroking her leg
11:29that he decides to move to Costa Rica on a whim.
11:32I have an announcement, uh, to make.
11:36I am moving to Costa Rica.
11:40I'm just gonna hop the fence and jog on that.
11:43Overall, because audiences love Pam and can clearly see that Jim makes her happy,
11:47Toby's inability to get over his feelings, respect her wishes,
11:51and be happy for her is likely to markedly diminish his character
11:55in most viewers' eyes.
11:56Toby's aura of unlikeability is well-established by the time Nellie
12:00Bertram joins the Scranton branch in the show's final season.
12:03But at first, she isn't biased against Toby like everyone else,
12:06as she hasn't been swayed by Michael's libelous hatred.
12:09When Nellie dresses up as Toby for Halloween, he's drawn to her.
12:13Are you me?
12:15Probably because he feels someone has at last noticed him,
12:18something he hasn't experienced, maybe in years.
12:21Later, in the same episode, he goes to give her flowers,
12:24but when she takes her Toby wig off, he almost looks angry,
12:28and is shown smashing the bouquet off the wall.
12:30A few episodes later, Nellie makes out with him,
12:33in part to stop him droning on about the Scranton Strangler.
12:35But while Nellie sees this as a drunken Christmas party hookup,
12:39Toby jumps to assuming it's a full-fledged relationship.
12:42I'm so proud of you, hun.
12:43Oh!
12:44And he continues to one-sidedly conduct the relationship.
12:48Not everybody has what we have.
12:51Essentially, he's continuing, like he did with Pam,
12:54to engage in limerence, excessive one-sided infatuation,
12:58which leads Nellie to view him as delusional,
13:00and eventually totally creepy.
13:02How did you know my plane had arrived?
13:04How long have you been stalking me?
13:06The biggest reason Nellie begins to find Toby irritating, though,
13:09is his profound lack of agency.
13:12Despite big talk of adventures like Costa Rica, visiting the Strangler,
13:15or writing the great American novel, he's so full of self-doubt
13:19that he's paralyzed, seemingly incapable of doing anything.
13:22You cannot keep blathering on about this Scranton Strangler.
13:26Do something about it.
13:27I've been drafting a letter.
13:28For two years!
13:30Let's compare him to another character who initially seemed pretty stuck,
13:34unselfaware in his mental habits, and alienating to women.
13:37Pam's ex-fiancé, Roy, by the end of the show,
13:40is actually doing great because he worked on himself.
13:43I have a surprise for you.
13:47You play piano?
13:48No.
13:50Roy? No.
13:51She's got a way about her.
13:57So perhaps the biggest gift Nellie gives to Toby is to push him to do something.
14:03It was very brave.
14:11Though it's hilarious to watch, in real life,
14:13the Dunder Mifflin office would have been a nightmare place to work.
14:16The level of involvement that these colleagues have in one another's lives
14:20is borderline unhealthy and invasive.
14:23Cece's getting christened today.
14:24Big day.
14:25Everyone from work is here.
14:27We weren't planning on that.
14:28No.
14:29Michael treats the office like a family,
14:31but it's not healthy to expect employees to make work their whole life
14:35and have no respect for boundaries.
14:37I feel like all my kids grew up and then they married each other.
14:44It's every parent's dream.
14:45Actually, Toby is really good at his job as an HR rep,
14:49and an effective ally for employees.
14:51In large part thanks to the things that Michael hates about him,
14:54like that he isn't much fun, tries to keep the boss in check,
14:57isn't easily excitable, and doesn't laugh at jokes that aren't respectful.
15:01He protects Jim from Dwight's over-the-top grievance reports.
15:04I have a standing appointment with Dwight for him to file a grievance against Jim.
15:08I tell him that I'm sending them to a special file in New York.
15:12That box is the special file in New York.
15:14He calls out inappropriate comments that are likely to make others uncomfortable.
15:18He even displays real aptitude for the more complex emotional
15:21and psychological aspects of HR in the counseling session he does with Michael,
15:25suggesting he could make a very good therapist.
15:28It's a testament to Toby's strong work ethic, great training,
15:31and underlying humanity that he still wants to help the man who's cruelly bullied him for years.
15:36I don't have a chance to do something good here.
15:38And that he can unpack the intricacies of Michael's personality with unclouded judgment.
15:44I guess that's why I thought he ran away in the first place,
15:46to find a kid he liked better.
15:47Dogs don't do that.
15:49Right? Why would a dog do that?
15:51I don't know.
15:52When I hear myself say it, it just sounds ridiculous.
15:54It's working.
15:56He's a gentle, caring guy whose calm demeanor makes him approachable,
16:00which leads to members of the office becoming vulnerable with him
16:03and seeking education from him.
16:05His colleagues also know that Toby can be trusted to do his job
16:09and give them some protection.
16:10Toby will stop it.
16:11Anytime anyone's ever been fired, Toby's blocked it.
16:14Yet in the end, when Dwight finally gets the top job,
16:17one of his first acts as regional manager is to fire Toby.
16:21Bye-bye, Toby.
16:22Just as Michael had long wanted to do.
16:25In part, the trigger for this firing is so that Toby won't prevent Dwight
16:28from firing Kevin or whoever else he wants.
16:31So the act of firing Toby signals the office's true descent
16:35into the tyranny of a manager whose power is totally unchecked by HR.
16:40Without the office, Toby says he's embarking on a new adventure writing a novel,
16:44but just sounds miserable.
16:46I have six roommates, which are better than friends, you know,
16:50because they have to give you one month's notice before they leave.
16:54And feels he's left with nothing.
16:56Do you find that your life feels pointless now that nobody's actually filming you anymore?
17:00Yes.
17:03In many ways, he has the most tragic ending of all the characters.
17:07He's so lonely and depressed in the finale that he ends up
17:10sobbing in Pam's arms at the wedding.
17:12Still, the final scene involving Toby has a silver lining.
17:15He's pleased that his former co-workers want him to hang out with them.
17:19You have to go, Toby.
17:20Yeah, come on, Tobes.
17:21Come on, Toby.
17:22Come on.
17:23Yeah, that's a fight.
17:25There he is.
17:26It's what he wants most of all, to simply feel noticed by his friends.
17:30Toby just wants to be valued, and he deserves to be.
17:33He's the kind of rational and helpful colleague we all can use at work,
17:37so it's a shame he's broken down into believing that he has no power.
17:41Doesn't HR have some rules against talking about this kind of stuff?
17:44Aaron, HR's a joke.
17:46I can't do anything about anything.
17:48And we can learn from how the others tolerate
17:50and accept Toby's mistreatment, that we should be brave
17:53and stand up against workplace bullying, because if we don't,
17:56we become enablers and eventually bullies ourselves.
18:00Hey, Jim.
18:01Not now, Toby, my god.
18:02Jesus.
18:03Get the hell out of here, idiot.
18:04What did I do?
18:06This is the take on your favorite movie shows and pop culture.
18:09Thanks for watching, and don't forget to subscribe.
18:12Toby's what you might call an acquired taste,
18:15and for many people, so is the idea of STEM learning.
18:18It seems frustrating at first glance, but provides great value and becomes easier over time.
18:23That's why we're excited that Brilliant aims to make STEM as simple, fun,
18:26and accessible as possible through their highly interactive courses.
18:30Right now, the first 200 people to click the link in our description below,
18:33brilliant.org slash the take, will get 20% off a year-long subscription.
18:38I recently took Brilliant's course, The Joy of Problem Solving,
18:40and I was amazed at how it helped me completely rethink my approach to problems in my daily life.
18:45It also felt really good to exercise my mind at a time when it's all too easy to just zone out.
18:50If you'd like to try out Brilliant for free, click the link in the description down below,
18:54brilliant.org slash the take, and the first 200 people will get 20% off a year of STEM learning.
Recommended
10:06
8:12
5:57
9:07
6:33
6:36
7:00
8:50
14:59
Be the first to comment