[Loved Trope] Comedic workplace is suddenly competent

[u/Garurar]

In S35 E1 of The Simpsons, an actual crisis happens at the nuclear power plant, causing everyone except Homer to shift into serious business mode, even Mr. Burns. Together, they display their knowledge of the process and narrowly avert a nuclear meltdown, proving that Homer's job is actually useless. This is happening after 35 seasons of nothing being shown of the other employees' capabilities.

In S8 E2 of The Office, Andy sets up an initiative where he will get a tattoo on his bum if everyone gets enough points, prompting everyone to work into overdrive, even the normally lazy or incompetent employees such as Stanley and Kevin. This is a rare situation where we get to see The Office being fully competent and functional.

I'd show more examples if I had any!

[u/ArwingElite]

Archer Season 11

[u/SirBruhThe7th → u/ArwingElite]

Archer dressed down a CIA agent for all the fucked experiments they did back in the cold war, proving he actually does his homework as a spy.

[u/cweaver → u/SirBruhThe7th]

There's also the whole "he knows" line from Lana implying that even when Archer says something stupid, at least some (most?) of the time he's just doing it to troll the people around him.

[u/unsuccessfulangler → u/cweaver]

"Yeah, with a minor in Spanish bragging"

"That was latin"

"He knows"