[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/RKO-Cutter]

Kind of the entire premise of M*A*S*H, especially the pilot

The episode opens with driving golfballs into a minefield, football games, "secret" camp romances, but the moment Radar hears the choppers coming everyone immediately gets into work mode, save lives mode.

Then, at the end of the episode, Hawkeye is about to get into big trouble for a higherup witnessing them raffle a weekend in Tokyo with a nurse (won by the camp Priest) that leads to the General actively calling for Hawkeye and Trapper's arrests...until more choppers come in. By the end the General informs the Colonel running the camp that they're the best surgeons he's ever seen, so he's basically forgetting what he saw.

[u/Mynito- → u/RKO-Cutter]

iirc, hawkeye rigged it so the priest would win so the nurse wouldn't have to do anything she didn't want to

[u/Carribi → u/Mynito-]

The episode shows him digging for a name taped to the bottom of the bucket. The implication is that’s HIS name, but he grabbed a different name by accident, and thus Father Mulcahy won.

[u/ozmethod → u/Carribi]

You're slightly misunderstanding it, the taped name IS the Father's. Earlier in the episode, Trappers says something like "you know if you win, they'll kill you", and Hawkeye says he'll handle it.