From Mythic Quest to Superstore, TV comedies are showing how modern labor can be degrading

Vulture

"It seems in poor taste to compare the two kinds of situations on display in Mythic Quest and Superstore, but that’s the trap that the modern world of labor has set up for us: Either shut up and stop complaining about the poor conditions of the job others would kill to have or shut up and work the undignified job you haven’t tried hard enough to escape, despite its efforts to keep you exactly where you are," says Joshua Rivera. "This is where jokes work as an equalizer. The punchline to both of these shows is that modern labor is degrading, and they work because the setup is you don’t deserve this. Workplace comedies have always been about indignities large and small. Whether it’s the tyranny of middle management (The Office), the misery of having the life you want dangled in front of you while you labor for peanuts (Taxi), or the universal strangeness of being trapped in close confines with a bunch of weirdos you’d otherwise avoid if you didn’t have to make a living (literally all of them), they contour in shape with the anxieties of the times. And in these times, there’s a pervasive sense that there is no longer any way to win, even if your definition of winning is simply a job well done. This is a bleak no-win scenario, but no-win scenarios can be overwhelmingly funny, like a puppy trying to eat a lemon or anyone trying to keep Michael Scott from saying something inadvertently racist."