Merger

"Merger"
holding image
Episode no.	Episode 7
Original airdate	30 September 2002 (BBC 2)
Written by	Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant
Directed by	Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant
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Merger is the first episode of the second series of The Office.

Plot

The Swindon lot merges with the Slough branch while the PA David Brent hired in the last series was let go. Tim has been promoted and appears to be taking his job more seriously and is being more distant to Dawn. Tim and Gareth both express an interest in Rachel, one of the new employees from Swindon. Neil Godwin, the former manager in Swindon, has taken Jennifer’s position and is now Brent’s boss. Neil and Jennifer join the office at the merger party. Brent gets off on the wrong foot straightaway with his new employees by giving an embarrassing speech and telling an offensive joke. Tim finally opens up to Dawn by winding up Gareth with her, yet when Lee walks into the office he finds Tim dancing and flirting with Dawn and he pushes him away from her in an awkward moment.

Quotes

• Gareth: Gareth Keenan. Who’s that? Oggy! Oggy Oggy Oggy, oink oink oink. Oggy Oggy Oggy, oink oink oink. Oggy! Oggy! Oggy Oggy Oggy, oink oink oink. Yeah I’ll see ya later.
  Tim: Do you still keep in touch with Oggy?

• Tim: It’s like making the daft kid at school milk monitor, no one respects it.
  Gareth: Uh yeah they do
  Tim: No they don’t Gareth
  Gareth: Uh yes they do because if people were rude to me then I used to give them their milk last. So it was warm.

• David: I was a little bit drunk.
  Neil: For most of the week as I remember.
  David: Doesn’t sound like me does it, Dawn?

• David: I don’t agree with that in the workplace.

• David: And they were cracking up and he loved it ‘cause it was nothing vicious. Some ‘comedians’ would have picked on other stuff been a bit more nasty. Like he’s got a little withered hand like Jeremy Beadle, I didn’t mention it. No need.

• Neil: But there will be perks for him (Brent). I’m sure he’s looking forward to having a whole new group of men underneath him. Anyway here’s the man at the top of the pile, David Brent.
  David: Right, you know he was saying there about me being the top of the pile of men, saying I’m gay, right. I’m not gay. In fact I can honestly say, I’ve never cum over a little queer (while doing a wanking gesture).

• David: I’m not used to public speaking, I pispronunciate a lot of my worms.

• David: He (Eric Hitchmo) talks exactly like that. Doesn’t he, Gareth?
  Gareth: I prefer the stuff you do about his little hand.
  David: (Looks at camera) I don’t do stuff about his little hand.
  Gareth: Yeah you do, the wanking claw…

• Gareth: That’s it see. A lot of people can’t keep up with what words are acceptable these days and what words aren’t. It’s like my dad for example, he’s not as cosmopolitan or as educated as me and it can be embarrassing. He doesn’t understand the new trendy words like he’ll say poofs instead of gays, um birds instead of women, darkies instead of coloureds.

Trivia

• When Tim and Dawn wind up Gareth, they ask if he’s seen the film, Gaylords Say No. This joke was first used on Karl on the Xfm radio show on 17 November 2001 as a way of testing to see if he was gay.

Cultural References

• In the opening scene, Gareth and David Brent sing the theme tune for Jim Hensen’s The Muppet Show, an American television show that ran from 1976 to 1981.
• Brent compares Eric Hitchmo to Jeremy Beadle, an English television presenter, writer, and producer. Beadle suffered from Poland syndrome and he had a disproportionately small right hand. Beadle passed away on 30 January 2008 after he was admitted to a hospital with severe pneumonia.
• In his comedy speech for the Swindon crew, Brent does an impression of Basil Fawlty from the hit British sitcom of 1975, Fawlty Towers.
• Brent also references the British sketch comedy show, The Two Ronnies, starring Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, in his speech. The show aired on BBC 1 from 1971 to 1987.
• Brent also mentions British comedian Harry Enfield in his speech.
• Brent mentions Scooby-Doo, an animated dog from the American show Scooby Doo which has aired on many networks and has led to several spin-offs beginning in 1969 until the present.

External links

• BBC episode guide: "Merger"