Steven Wells Pisses Off Everyone At Dunder Mifflin

Steven Wells hasn’t been the A&E editor at PW for a while now, but it’s good to see he’s continuing to get into mischief. In addition to calling my opinion “utter rubbish” in a recent Guardian piece (sweet!), Wells also recently took on the U.S. version of The Office.

He likes the British version better! That’s a perfectly fine argument; I probably still like the British version better, even though the U.S. one is great, too. (The British version is so much more depressing!) In his column, though, he included a little dig at the real town of good ol’ Scranton, Pennsylvania, the show’s location, calling it a “boring town.” That was, really, about it.

Cue The Times-Tribune, which fired back with a story Tuesday titled, “Hot Topic: British blogger says “Scranton is a boring, working class dump.” And, oh, man, is it good:

While most every visitor to our town has had nothing but nice things to say about us, this British blogger from The Guardian UK sees things a bit differently. Using a few words we can’t print here, the writer takes Scranton, our native sons (and daughters), and the American version of the show ‘The Office’ to task.

Warning: This article is not for the easily offended.

All of the controversial Scranton references are gone by the middle of the article, but the first few paragraphs are must reading for Scrantonians.

That apparently ran in the paper; the first mention was on the paper’s Office blog. Yes, of course the Scranton newspaper has an Office blog. It might as well be edited by Dwight (or maybe Mose) Schrute:

“I implore you to read the story, and to then share your reactions with Mr. Wells. Update: 5:29 p.m. — I failed to mention before that Mr. Wells wrote about the second “Office” Convention recently taking place in Scranton. No, Mr. Wells, that hasn’t happened yet. But when it does, you should come on over and have a firsthand look at our fair city. On second thought, maybe just stay put in merry ol’ England. We don’t need your bad vibes.”

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Wells: Assume All Pro Athletes Are Gay

“In order to relieve the pressure on those in the closet, we should assume that all professional football players, without exception, are gay.” That’s ex-PW A&E editor Steven Wells in The Guardian. Aww, we miss you, Steven!