The Day of Laughter

S2E5: ‘Charity’ begins at work

This piece is part of a series on The Office (UK), running up to the 20th anniversary of its finale this Christmas. Don’t miss out by following me on Medium.

When you think about it, naming a charity associated with famine ‘Comic Relief’ is, as puns go, pretty close-to-the-bone. In drama the comic relief is the interlude or character whose humour eases up the general tragedy lest the audience get too bummed out or that lightens the tone to bring out better the darker parts. Since 1985, Comic Relief’s work has built every year towards Red Nose Day, the UK’s biggest telethon, a multimedia fundraising event and all-round luvvie-fest hosted by celebrities, and lurching from VTs of hunger-bloated kids to gunge tanks and novelty songs. Or in the game-giving-away words of David Brent: “Who says famine has to be depressing?!”¹

Now that telethons have been diluted by donation sites like JustGiving and all the sterling philanthropy content from YouTube millionaires, it’s easy to forget what an event Red Nose Day used to be. Aired as it was by the nation’s public broadcaster it saturated the culture for a few days every year. Red clown noses of the kind David slips on at the start of this episode were sold in petrol stations and church halls, supermarkets and tuck shops, millions upon millions of plastic noses which…