What Some Fans Cannot Stand About Will Ferrell In The Office
The American version of "The Office" was a very popular show when it was airing, and it has arguably maintained or even grown that level of popularity in the years since. It consistently pulls in high viewing numbers on whatever streaming platform it's on, including its current home at Peacock (per Cord Cutters News). As its name implies, "The Office" is a workplace comedy focusing on the employees of Dunder Mifflin, a paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The series lasted for nine seasons and had a steady, but somewhat fluctuating, cast of characters, especially in the later seasons of the show. Unsurprisingly given the series' popularity, "The Office" also saw more than a few actors who were either already A-listers or would go on to become big-name stars make appearances. One big example of the former is comedy legend Will Ferrell, who had a short, but significant guest stint during Season 7 as Deangelo Vickers, the branch manager of Dunder Mifflin who steps in to replace a departing Michael Scott (Steve Carell). However, some "The Office" fans are not at all impressed with certain aspects of Ferrell's character.
Some fans found Will Ferrell's The Office character to be annoying
On Reddit, u/Leather-Yesterday197 started a thread to make it clear just how much they did not care for Will Ferrell's four-episode run on "The Office." In the introductory post, they wrote, "Is anyone else in agreement that the Will Ferrell episodes were awful? I used to think he was so funny and now not so much." When looking at the replies, it appears that they are not alone in that assessment.
"I do love will Ferrell, but yeah I have to skip those episodes. They're awful," said u/PleasantFix5, one of many who complained about the comedian's run on the show. A large portion of the complaints seemed to stem either from Ferrell having the unenviable job of trying to step into the shoes of Steve Carell's Michael Scott or the simple fact that fans found Ferrell's character to be annoying and lacking any sort of redeeming personality traits. As u/prettymuchalwayssad wrote, "[Will Ferrell] is funny, the character he played was atrocious."
This isn't super surprising, as a lot of fans have been unimpressed with these episodes for years. In fact, "The Inner Circle," which served as the show's first after Carell's exit and the last of Ferrell's guest appearances, was voted the third worst episode of Season 7 on major fansite OfficeTally. So, while Ferrell was only on four episodes of "The Office," his guest appearances made an impact, though probably not the impact that anyone associated with the show was hoping for.