The Office Star Mocks Your Tiny Local Paper
Ricky Gervais, star of the original British version of deadpan TV comedy the Office, just started a personal blog and has already resorted to that old blogger standby, local media criticism. But Gervais' video sendup of the Lowell, Mass. Sun is, as you'd expect, far more entertaining than the local press commentary most internet cranks churn out. The comedian's short skit is delivered in the deceptively gentle tones of Gervais' Office character and mocks the character's own pomposity. At the same time, it nails the defining pitfalls of community journalism — the typos, excessive attribution, bizarre story placement, awkward prose — as Gervais dissembles the Sun's page-11 coverage of pre-production on his new movie, This Side Of Truth. Any hack who earned his stripes at a small-newspaper city desk will cringe in sympathy. Video after the jump.
