NBC Promo Monkeys

It was announced prior to the Olympic Games that NBC would make commercials to tie the Olympics to their regular programming. More or less, it was a ploy to get people to remember that after the Olympics are to continue to watch NBC for its wonderful shows.

Here's one commercial:



Now, for the casual viewer of the Olympics, they might watch the commercial and scratch their heads, thinking "Why are they slapping each other?" For the fans of "The Office," most would be excited to see "new" footage of their favorite characters, even if it was only for a commercial.

The commercial in itself is a double-edged sword. While it keep the regular "Office" fans happy, it might not be presentable to new viewers. There are so many underlying jokes within the commercial that it will go over those viewers' heads. Not exactly what the NBC Promo Monkeys might have been looking for.

Yes, it's a simple commercial of three guys slapping each other, and the concept itself is humorous but a new viewer isn't going to know that the first two guys are friends/enemies while the third stole the second guy's girlfriend and proposed to her in the last season's finale thus making the slapping, much more humorous, right?

So, did this commercial make the returning viewers of "The Office" happy? Yes. Did this commercial make non-viewers curious about the show? Maybe... but maybe not in a good way.