‘The Office Time Machine’ is amazing and that’s what we said

If you build it, they will watch.

Imagine every pop culture reference in The Office, in the correct chronological order, in handy little YouTube clips. Imagine no longer.

The Office Time Machine is more than just references in a TV show. It’s got a message. From creator Joe Sabia.

The Office is relatable (and hilarious) because it borrows so much from culture, and people get the references. Culture is society’s collected knowledge, art, and customs. It’s what surrounds us and unites us, and it allows us to collectively laugh at a joke in The Office about Ben Franklin or M. Night Shyamalan. Culture, simply put, is the seasoning in a meal.

Copyright – the system created hundreds of years ago to incentivize creators to create cool stuff – falls flat in world where many creators:

a) have no intention of wholesale theft of works

b) have no intention of commercial exploitation

c) have so much media and so many tools to play with. (Every single one of us is a creator as a result.)

d) will keep creating regardless if they make a living out of it.

e) want to create new culture, by borrowing previous culture

This Time Machine is intended to show how much we rely on culture. So let artists bang it out without fear of being sued. (…that’s what she said)

Pick the year, watch the video, just like Toy Story. Well, not like Toy Story, but it felt so natural to say that.

‘The Office Time Machine’ Chronologizes Thousands of Years of Pop Culture References from ‘The Office’ [Splitsider]