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"Heh, don't flatter yourself, luv."

Ricky Gervais appealing for the return of leaked Office scripts, calling them a "christmas present for the nation". Oh. Dear. The Office was weak at best. I think he's fallen foul of the BBC's marketing department.

But it's not exactly Father Ted is it.

I never get the impression that The Office is anywhere near as black a comedy as something like Six Feet Under, but that's me.

Black*er*

Sheesh, I'm not going to try and explain the themes behind the office to you. It was a lot clearer in the 2nd series, if that helps? Maybe you've never seen it.

He's depressed, he's got no future, he's pretty close to being mentally ill (which would count as one of your diseases surely).

The same goes for Tim, we laugh at his complete inability to take control of his life and make things go right for him.

And Gareth - he believes himself to be a macho guy and we laugh at him because everybody takes the mick out of him for being a dweeb.

This isn't light hearted comedy.

We laugh because he makes an idiot out of himself. How is that black?

Yep, and David Brent is a guy with serious problems (as are a lot of the characters), which are presented in a way that makes us laugh at them. It's a black comedy.

I would see black comedy involving issues like death, disease etc. Or about black people.

Definition of black comedy:

Black comedy is a subgenre of comedy and satire that deals with a serious subject, that normally would not be humorous, in a humorous manner.

So, depending on how you view general office life, it could be black comedy. From where I stand, the Office falls into the "funny because it's true" category, so not black humour, but other people's experiences will differ...

Still waiting for one of these mega-brains to tell me why the Office isn't a black comedy....