Steve Carell's character is so annoying and buffoonish and insensitive and clueless and self-centered and un-PC and unwittingly sexist and racist and cowardly and obnoxious and, yes, smug that you laugh at him. Not with him, at him. ... Carell's character is basically repulsive. Yet there's also this tiny little grain of dorky vulnerability and well-meaningness that makes you not entirely hate him.
In last night's show, for example, I loved when he was giving the filmmakers (for those who haven't seen it, the premise of the show is that it's a documentary being filmed by an unseen camera guy and interviewer) a know-it-allish tour around Manhattan, boasting about what a great city it is and how at home he feels there, and every single thing he said about the city was incorrect.
See, somebody that fatuous, I just want to slap. I might pity him a little bit. ... I hope. I also don't care for that documentary premise, but that's another issue altogether.
I like all the other characters, too. I'm always sad when it's over.
Tell you what, that tall guy with the shaggy blond Dutch-boy haircut and the biggish nose, he's kinda cute.
(I like Earl, too -- the two shows complement each other really well.)
Earl? He's kinda foxy. ...
