Media Literacy, Culture, and Critical

Media Literacy, Culture, And Critical Process in the Office

Episode Description

The Fifth episode ("Mafia") of Season Six of the NBC prime-time comedy hit the Office originally aired on Thursday, October 15, 2009. Its principle plot line is Michael's Scott's perception that an insurance salesman (played by Michael Starr, a character actor who has previously portrayed a prototypical Italian-American tough guy persona in mob movies) is shaking him down for protection money.

Starr plays Angelo Grotti, who claims to be an insurance salesman but evokes immediate fears on the part of the hapless duo Dwight Schrute and Andrew Bernard of being a mob shakedown artists selling commercial insurance as part of a thinly veiled protection racket. The episode also contains a subplot arising from the Kevin Malone's character's unwittingly causes Jim Halpert's credit card to be cancelled during his and newly-wed Pam Beesly's honeymoon in Mexico.

Initially, Michael does not suspect anything strange about Grotti, regarding him as a "bad salesman" insulting him (as a "great salesman") by trying to close an insurance sale that Michael clearly finds mind-numbingly boring. Dwight and Andrew immediately draw the obviously premature conclusion that Grotti is a criminal thug and not a legitimate businessman. When they discover that his name is only one consonant away from "Gotti," the most famous name associated with the contemporary American Mafioso image, they recoil in horror. The episode is eventually resolved only after Dwight and Andrew dupe Michael into calling Grotti's bluff and very rudely cancelling his newly purchased insurance policy by assuring Michael that they managed to "check out" Grotti's pedigree and determined that he is genuinely nothing more than a guff-sounding insurance salesman with a thick New York accent.

Cultural Message Analyses and Interpretations

Initially, the Grotti character provides no objectively reasonable reason for assuming he is anything other than an insurance salesman. While much of his dialogue is potentially open equally to innocuous interpretation or to threatening implied innuendo, his delivery is neutral and suggests neither conclusion. On his way out of the office, he apparently knocks over the office coat tree; he picks it up and replaces it right-side-up where it belongs next to the reception desk, but he does so somewhat less apologetically than one might expect of someone who knocked over other people's coats while a visitor in a strange office. Instead of apologizing profusely, Grotti warns the entire staff, "Will you look at that, People? What an unpredictable world we live in, huh?" somewhat cryptically. Other than that slight possible glitch, the Grotti character does not give any overt hints about the potential criminal nature of his character or a threatening purpose of his business proposal.

The restaurant scene includes hackneyed use of typical Italian cuisine that is further designed to perpetuate uncertainty about Grotti. When he orders linguini with red sauce and garlic bread, the camera cuts to a recognition shot of Michael who then orders "gabagool," yet another obvious reference to a type Neapolitan lunch meat called Capocollo, but pronounced "gabagool" through thick Italian-American accents in both the HBO series, the Sopranos, and also in the Godfather. Andrew further reinforces the message in his attempt to help the waitress understand what Michael is trying to order by repeating the phrase "gabagool" in successively heavier impressions of a thick Italian-American accent.

The other direct cultural message comes in the form of Kevin's assumption that Oscar Martinez, an openly gay man, would "love" jail, presumably because all gay men love gay sex so much that even an environment in which forced anal rape is a risk would be enjoyable to them. Kevin says, "I wouldn't last in jail; I'm not like you" after Oscar tells him that Kevin may have committed a serious crime in pretending to be Jim on the phone when Jim's credit card representative called to confirm the charges from Mexico. Kevin reiterates "You would love jail; you would love it" and then looks knowingly at the camera.

Cultural Message Evaluation

The fact that Michael Starr's character is so convincing as the behavioral manifestation of the mannerisms and speech patterns that have personified the Mafioso in American popular culture ever since the Godfather (1972) makes him a perfect choice for the character. Undoubtedly, viewers who have seen his burly frame in Miller's Crossing (1990) and Goodfellas (1990) are naturally inclined toward the perception that his "Angelo Grotti" character in the Office is a mobster and not an ordinary insurance salesman.

Had a less stereotypical portrayal of the character been used for the role, the central premise of the episode would have remained largely unaffected, except perhaps highlighting the silliness of any nefarious assumptions jumped to by Michael and his inept "backups" Dwight and Andrew. If anything, the fact that the Grotti character does seem to closely mirror so many of the mannerisms, behaviors, and speech patterns typically portrayed by the contemporary genre of mob images draws in the viewer. It reminds all of us who are viewers that we may be guilty of some of the same types of prejudices or assumptions parodied through their exaggeration by Michael.

The scene between Kevin and Oscar actually portrays a very common cultural assumption that heterosexual males makes about homosexuals: namely, that they are much more interested in sex than heterosexuals. In truth, sexual assault and rape are no more likely to be enjoyable to a homosexual male than to any heterosexual male (or female, for that matter). While Kevin's persona is highly exaggerated, his assumption is not necessarily.

Finally, the subplot involving Kevin's ineptitude and his accidentally causing Jim's credit card to be cancelled raises another interesting issue of human behavior. Once Kevin realizes the effect of his mistake, he immediately telephones Jim and Pam again in Mexico. However, instead of doing so for the understandable purpose of telling Jim what happened to enable Jim to rectify the situation as easily as possible, it becomes clear that Kevin's only concern is whether or not Jim has figured out who was responsible for cancelling his credit card. After Pam's response indicates that she is irritated at being bothered again during her honeymoon but that the couple are totally unaware of Kevin's role in the credit card problem, Kevin reclines back in Jim's office chair completely relaxed by the knowledge that his mistake is still unknown. He shows absolutely no concern or interest in helping Jim fix the problem that he created. Certainly, Kevin's character's entire persona is as over-the-top as is Grotti's; however, the moral issues raised by Kevin's response to Jim and Pam's crisis may remind many viewers of their own capacity for selfishness and is not necessarily overplayed in principle.

Engagement of the Audience

One of the reasons that the episode is engaging is that it also touches so effectively on the dichotomous relationship that many Americans (especially males) sometimes have when it comes to criminally thuggish behavior. Specifically, Michael (who routinely incorporates the characteristics he finds admirable in others into his own purposeful outward behavior) immediately begins emulating Grotti's tough attitude and assertive persona.