(S02E09) It's nice to see an episode where everybody in the office (and Ann) is working together. They're usually broken up into their own smaller storylines, so people like Donna often get shoved into the background, if we see her at all. This time, she was front and center, along with Jesus Greg Kinnear, and Indiana's pride, Michael Jackson. Speaking of which-- American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert was born in Indianapolis, so he totally could have helped round out the table.

Jerry, another mainly background character, generally serves as the show's whipping boy, which I find really funny -- especially in the episode where they were all trying to dig up dirt on each other, and he found out he was adopted. Granted, that's pretty bad, but I still laughed. This time though, where they ridiculed him and dismissed his mural, it didn't really work for me.

I think the reason I didn't like what they were doing to Jerry in this episode, is because it was frustrating. His mural was perfect! It would have easily won them the competition! Yet they decided to be just weird and cruel about it. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, and "murinal" is a funny word, but that part of the episode just didn't sit right with me.

My favorite part about the whole mural competition is Tom's part in it. I love how he gave some random art student 20 bucks to make him some art, then got pissed because it was abstract, only to fall in love with it. As a non-artistic person myself, this is something I could identify with. Plus, the look of fear in Tom's eyes when he says, "I had an emotional reaction to a piece of art! Is this normal?" was probably the funniest part of the entire episode.

Okay, maybe the second-funniest part, because I do believe that honor has to go to Ron and Andy's entire storyline in this episode. Installing Andy in the building as a shoe-shiner was a brilliant move on the writers' part. Seeing the dopey look on his face as he shines shoes never seems to get old for me.

So, the moan. Oh my god, the moan. Poor Andy never thought he'd be giving shoe shines with happy endings. What do you do when something like that happens? It's such a terrible, unexpected reaction to such a random, public situation. I guess other than trying and failing to avoid the other person, and then promising never to speak of it again, there's not a whole lot you can do.

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