ah here we go fast easy votes nicely but
big enough for you you fat bastard over
and paid for in it hey I'll say I'm not
saying he's fat but when he jumps in the
air to get stupid look Jim Carrey words
were you know everybody that you know
including yourself is a mind reader
at least we all think we are we act that
way because really there's no other way
to act we see someone do something like
look at a camera and attribute to that
act an invisible mental state a desire
and intention a feeling like disbelief
this is called the theory of mind but
there's a paradox at the heart of this
ability that we all have because while
we know that body language conveys
meaning and that we can interpret that
meaning and even be roughly correct a
good amount of the time we also know
that it's impossible to see the whole
picture that we can misinterpret and be
fooled because both of those things have
happened to us don't just want to nicely
with Lee would you let's come up with
gent with me I haven't split up with him
no god no
I know yeah I meant as a friend so I
didn't mean as a friend this paradox in
the theory of mind our attribution of
thoughts to action and our knowledge of
the unreliability in that drives all of
us to perform ourselves so that we can
try to shape other people's theories of
our mind and it's this performance and
the reading of this performance that the
office created by Ricky Gervais and
Stephen Merchant
spotlights so well the people who work
at Warren M Hogg comprise a spectrum of
competence on this scale on one side you
have Tim and Don who are quite sensitive
mind reader's able to navigate the
environment of the office with a strong
sense of what others are feeling and on
the other side you have David Brent and
Gareth who are really really weak mind
reader's if you do go the way Tim and
you expect me to go in there afterwards
make sure he wears condom
all right sort of a rule in the case of
Gareth it may actually be that he's
unable to read others Gervase explored
this idea again years later with Derek a
character who falls somewhere on the
autism spectrum a condition that's
marked by inherent difficulties with
theory of mind but in David Brent we
have a character so invested in the
performance of himself that he's blocked
his own access to others feelings I
think Brent could become more receptive
and there are rare but achingly poignant
flashes of that in the series Chris what
you [ __ ] home but to really do that
would require compromising his
self-image which is clearly something
that he's not willing to do the irony is
that Brent can't see that a weak theory
of mind always makes for a weak self
performance you can't brute force your
preferred personality on to another's
consciousness it takes two to build an
identity indeed this is what makes Tim
the most successful performer of all on
the show and the clearest evidence of
this is the cruel but hilarious way that
he toys with Gareth could you give a man
a lethal blow if I was forced to I could
if I was absolutely necessary he's able
to map Garrett's mental states so well
and take advantage of his weak theory of
mine that he can ridicule him without
Gareth even knowing that it's going on
this is a kind of psychic superpower and
we all use it when we tell someone for
example a white lie we're trying to
decode that person's mental state so
that our performance of the lie will be
successfully received in other words a
believable performance is one that
reflects back at your partner something
that's in support of their own
performance of themselves what makes the
show even more impressive I think and
absolutely true to life is the way that
it handles the other side of the paradox
no matter where the characters fall on
that spectrum of mine reading or
performance none are spared from
mistakes it's this essential defect in
the theory of mine that's a cause of
deep anxiety for all of us and every
time that unreliability has violently
revealed to us the world for a brief
moment becomes gibberish and the people
around us opaque because this is the
only tool that we have and for the most
part it's done like breathing as
done without conscious attention so when
it fails there's just no recourse
it's the unflinching focus on these
failures that made the office
revolutionary a lot of people say that
cringe humor like this is hard to watch
and certainly it is but in the same way
that under our confidence in theory of
mine lies and anxiety I think that under
our cringing there's actually a deep
feeling of relief cringe humor
privileges the moments when body
language speaks in a way that is totally
transparent in that moment the
embarrassment is not only palpable it's
also palpably honest
it can't be doubted it's a kind of
trauma a rupture that discloses a real
moment of connection then my movies
engine please look David I don't change
my I don't want redundancy I don't want
that I haven't signed anything so well a
bit unfortunate it's already up to you
okay sorry
alright then what I'm asking okay please
don't like you didn't I don't think the
show would be nearly as effective if it
wasn't cast as a fake documentary as
opposed to simply watching the
characters fail and embarrass themselves
as an omniscient observer the employees
of the office are aware of being filmed
which is to say that they're aware of
you but not only performing for one
another they're performing for us this
is the phenomenon of the documentary and
the mockumentary you can observe human
behavior mind reading you and performing
at you without having to reflect back
your own performance you can be alone
with someone Jason merchant exploit the
situation to activate our empathy in a
uniquely powerful way so that when you
laugh at the office it's a laugh that
rings out in the heart of moment of
cringe-worthy truth
hey everybody thanks for watching I
really wish I could be recording this on
a camera right now but it's a little bit
too late and my office is so really
incomplete in Los Angeles and it's just
just very frustrating thank you so much
to Squarespace for sponsoring this video
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that and also thank you guys I'll see
you next Wednesday
and maybe 8-bit