Even though new episodes haven't aired since 2013, The Office is still as popular as ever on the interwebs. The beloved show continues to rank among the funniest TV comedies of all time, and with pretty legitimate talk of a reboot of some kind floating in the air, it’s no wonder fans are still using the show as meme fodder. Let’s face it, memes are the best way to show appreciation for a show. There are the sports-related parodies, notably by the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors. The focus of many of these memes tends to be one of the show’s most memorable characters, Jim Halpert, played by John Krasinski. A few weeks ago, Krasinski got the meme treatment when fans mashed up his new horror film, A Quiet Place, with the NBC comedy.
Now, a new, much nerdier meme has emerged from the depths of a subreddit devoted to history memes. Using a particularly evil-looking still from the show, people are using Jim’s face to symbolize that feeling when all you can do is just watch everything turn to total shit, or when you successfully skirt responsibility for something. Thankfully (or perhaps not?), there are plenty of moments throughout world history to choose from. Some have even gone beyond the history format and applied the meme to more general instances of trickery or deflected blame.
In fact, the meme enthusiasts over at Know Your Meme trace this particular format all the way to 2014, when it was first used on 4chan as a reaction image to racist comments. However, its recent resurgence has little to do with that.
Here’s a selection of some of the best memes.
