Jokes about Jokes

Steve Carrell (or his writers) has (or have) a habit of developing his characters by implying that they enjoy certain forms of entertainment.

In The 40 Year Old Virgin, Carrell sees the Ultrasound of his friend's child and asks, "Is this the movie about babies that are geniuses?" The reference is to Baby Geniuses, recognized among film reviewers as a movie without a conceivable audience. The joke works on three levels, at least. First, the rephrasing, "Babies that are geniuses," is funny because one would expect someone who knew that much about the movie could also remember its obvious title. Second, confusing an ultrasound with a movie about babies is funny. Third, the movie is sufficiently bad that one would not expect it to be shown to a group of adults.

This final reason appears in similar iterations on NBC's The Office. The joke has a pretty simple structure. Someone mentions the idea of doing something funny, and Carrell or another buffoon mentions an example of something they consider funny but that is actually quite corny. From my foggy memory, the example ran something like:

Jim: We're talking about something funny.
Dwight: Oh, you mean like Dave Barry?

Steve Carrell himself delivers a similar example in another episode.

Jim: We're going to do something funny.
Michael: Oh, you mean like the Jamie Kennedy Experiment?

These jokes appear to function purely on the premise that the comedy discussed is not actually funny, and the characters are fools for thinking otherwise.

In another way, the jokes imply a set of preferences held by the writers of the show and presumably shared with its audience. It's the old business about allusions flattering the audience.

The joke doesn't work (yet) with shows or performances that are widely acclaimed. It might be funny, however, if a character on the American Office made a joke about the British version. This kind of dialog could actually function to reinforce the idea that Jim, Pam, and the gang actually inhabit a real office in the same world that we live in, and go home to watch a show about the annoyances of office life. Or we could wait until the sarcasm of liking bad jokes becomes the reverse sarcasm of liking good ones.