Despite being just one season old, the new Space Force show on Netflix has very quickly pulled an ardent fanbase, thanks to featuring iconic television veterans from the past three decades.
The show features Lisa Kudrow, popularly known for Mad About You and her role as Phoebe in Friends, as well as Steve Carell, who made his breakout playing the deeply lovable Michael Scott from The Office. Bridging television to the big screens is John Malkovich, and if you throw Ben Schwartz from Parks and Recreation into the mix, you get a world of references and potential easter eggs to wonder about.
The show is brimming with unconfirmed references and political jabs, so we deserve some good memes.
That's What She Said
If you’ve watched Space Force, there’s a high chance that you watched it because you’ve watched The Office, and you’re more than acquainted with Steve Carell and Greg Daniels.
In this moment of public presentation, General Mark Naird says a line that feels like it was intentionally made to have fans of The Office yelping “THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!” from their couches.
The choice of Jim’s expression is immaculate because it’s from the scene where Jim baits Michael into saying “that’s what she said” right after Michael has received disciplinary action for sexual harassment. And what did Jim say? “Wow, that is really hard.” Credit to Redwolf on Instagram for the meme.
The Scranton Witch Project
Here’s some never-before-seen footage of Michael from the Scranton Witch Project. A play on Blair Witch Project, the Scranton Witch Project is one of Michael’s many self-filmed videos, revealed only for a split second in the episode “The Merger”. Jim describes it to be his orientation video when he joined Dunder Mifflin. In the video, Michael associates terror with the breaking of office rules: “I am so scared, when people don’t label their personal food”.
This footage of General Naird from Space Force tossing and turning in bed would fit perfectly into the caucus of self-filmed footage that we could imagine seeing in a Michael G. Scott film.
How The Turntables
Fans of The Office can all share intricate confidence for Michael’s capabilities. While Michael is the most ludicrous person in the room at times, his potential is often deeply underestimated and overshadowed by his dramatic personality. The show displays numerous instances that make Michael worth rooting for, from the time he used Chili’s “Baby Back Ribs” jingle to close a deal, to the time he turned his back on the disrespectful David Wallace, exiting with, “you have no idea how high I can fly.”
The jar that Michael is holding in this image contains bits of gravel from the road outside Dunder Mifflin, which the unidentified Scranton Strangler drove on. He’s depicted sharing what he’s going to say to his grandchildren when he gives them the jar. It also reminds us of Michael’s lifelong dream to have children. And although he doesn’t have “a hundred kids” in Space Force, he does have one daughter, who he’d drop just about anything for.
It's Prison Phoebe!
Does this meme need any tell? “Prison Mike” is one of Michael’s absolute best gags. Michael takes on the Prison Mike persona in his own eccentric way of lashing out at his employees for jokingly implying that prison was better than working.
We hope Lisa Kudrow isn’t eating “gruel omelettes” in the “clink”, and we sure as hell hope she hasn’t been seeing any of those prison dementors. We still don’t know why her character’s been imprisoned, but… what are the odds she’s in there for kidnapping the president’s son and holding him ransom?
Assistant To The Regional Manager
Dr. Adrian Mallory (played by John Malkovich) in Space Force is right-hand man and guide to General Mark Naird. A little bit like what Dwight Schrute was like to Michael Scott. The main difference here, being, that Adrian Mallory isn’t nearly as power-hungry as Dwight Schrute is.
Dwight needs to be corrected almost every time that he refers to his official position as being “Assistant Regional Manager” when really, it is “Assistant to the Regional Manager”. The latter sounds a lot like the title of a make-believe assistant with no real power, as Adrian very readily picks up on.
Peeky Blinders
This meme is a nice dose of nostalgia, looking back on the career of Steve Carrell and creating resonance with visual similarities. But that’s only as long as you stop thinking there.
Delving a little deeper would break this meme. That shot of Steve Carrell as Michael in The Office is actually from a scene where he’s staring creepily at Ryan the temp, whom we all know Michel finds to be the hottest and most attractive person in the office. In Space Force, however, General Naird is looking out of the window to destress in the heat of a major decision.
Trump Card
People who don’t like Donald Trump think he’s capricious and impulsive, and people who do think he’s just shameless about his desires. Don’t both those opinions surmise Michael Scott? Nobody can quite understand the way that Michael Scott’s brain works, and apparently, neither can he.
This meme encapsulates how little Donald Trump may have known about what ordering a Space Force could encompass, especially with the dire consequences that have come out of it. But if we’re being real, we’ve all had to deal with this feeling. Just, with much lower stakes.
Brain Room
It’s not rare that we see rooms like these in television shows and movies, where scientists gather for discussion. Set-ups like these amplify the emotional tone of scenes by bringing using collective fervor to build intensity. A tinge of you can’t help but feel joy when a room of people is celebrating a successful space landing, even if it’s for the hundredth time.
And so when you’re looking at a 49th draft with your room of brain scientists, your heart is going to brim with pride, and you’re going to have a beaming inner smile.
Welcome Back, Jerky-Jerk Face
Does Michael Scott’s arch enemy from HR, Toby Flenderson, have anything to do with Ben Schwartz’s character in Space Force being called F*** Tony? We don’t know. But what we do know is that Michael would rather make his own movie than watch an episode of anything written by Toby.
Today, Paul Lieberstein (Toby in The Office), has written an episode of Space Force, and Michael Scott has made the movie “Threat Level Midnight”. This meme revisits one of Michael Scott’s most classically memed moments, upon the unannounced return of Toby.
Threat Level Midnight
Space Force never directly acknowledges Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America. So, we get to pretend that it’s actually President Jackson from Michael Scott’s movie “Threat Level Midnight”.
In The Office universe, Threat Level Midnight stars Darryl Filbin (Craig Robinson) as President Jackson. And fans who want to stay in that universe can picture General Naird as secret agent Michael Scarn. Although, there’s one thing that they must remember, and it’s that President Jackson turns out to be evil!
Looks like there’s gonna be a clean-up on Aisle Five.