The Work Outing

I enjoy Linehan's humour - Father Ted, The Fast Show, Black Books, even Hippies - and I've watched the "If you type google into google" clip lots of times. But this show passed me by.

The second half of this episode is the best ten minutes of sitcom. Ever. Not even Seinfeld, including Do The Opposite. I was wiping away tears, but no recovery time before the next laugh, and so on until the credits rolled.

Brilliant example of laying pipe - what they set up early on made the later execution simple and rhythmic. Add in the weird-is-normal humour and you get exponential laughter.

An absolutely hysterical episode. Jen has found yet another prospective boyfriend, and he asks her to go to the theater with him. When Moss and Roy invite themselves along, both manage to get into trouble, and hilarity ensues! It's true that this episode doesn't incorporate as many geek jokes as usual or take place in the typical work setting. Instead, the episode follows a far more daring path: it puts established characters into a new situation. This time, the humor revolves around the personalities of Moss, Roy, and Jen, not just references to geek culture. But don't worry, the episode still has plenty of The IT Crowd's trademark hilarious one-liners. Don't miss it!

Besides being the best IT CROWD episode of the series, I think that "The Work Outing" stands alongside some of the best sitcom half-hours of TV history.

The first series had established the groundwork of the three main characters, but had confined them to their workspace. But writer/director Graham Linehan opens up this season two premiere by "opening up" the physical space and taking his team to a theatre for the performance of "Gay: The Musical." The bits of the musical that we're allowed to see contain the wackiest songs since "Elephant!" (from "The Tall Guy") or "Springtime for Hitler" (from "The Producers"), but what's even funnier are the situations that Jen, Moss and Roy get involved in while on their "outing." The comic timing of this episode, and the clever way that Linehan builds the pay-offs to his gags, are priceless.

You might also want to pause your DVD on the theatre poster, where you'll see the names of many of the crew listed as part of the cast.

It's a bit more like "Seinfeld" than "The IT Crowd," but it's consistent with what we already know about the characters. I've watched this episode several times and never tire of it.

Simply the funniest sitcom episode ever broadcast.

Never has anything funnier ever appeared on TV in any country ever. Ever. If you haven't seen this episode, immediately add it to your bucket list.