English Dub Review: Africa Salaryman “Africa Nasty Coworker”
Overview (Spoilers Below)
Since they’ve already grown tired of their office concept, the good people at Africa Salaryman said “screw it,” and made a Red Riding Hood skit. They justify this change of pace by saying Toucan is going a little bald and needs the red rag—or turtle loincloth—to cover his embarrassingly cold dome. Then President Turtle has a completely normal request for Toucan to deliver a package to Granny.
Afterward, the office guise no longer matters because everybody acts completely out of character. Lizard is working as a hunter, while the Africa High School Girls are dressing up as wolves to attack him. Finally, Toucan Hood reaches “Granny” who turns out to be Big Cat, taking a sick day. And the package is filled with work, because this skit is dumb. Also, the girls killed Lizard because…?
Back in real office land, Toucan is super excited about summer vacation. But when Lizard explains to the daft bird that they work in an office and summer vacation isn’t really a thing, Toucan goes crazy before dropping into a pit of despair. He then barges into President Turtle’s office and demands a summer break. Turtle, being a complete pantywaist, takes the verbal abuse from his underling and agrees to take him to Hawaii on a business trip. What a dick!
Next, the guys are at the mercy of an office prankster. The culprit is a tiny honeyguide bird—a species I’ve never heard of. Anyway, he gets away with his cavalcade of pranks because his direct manager is very intimidating. And so, we meet Honey Badger who is just the worst. Not only does he chew out Honeyguide, he also messes up Toucan’s shirt and threatens everyone else in earshot. He claims not to be afraid of anything, and shows off his machismo by pounding on his chest more than Gorimi at a family reunion. Even tough boy Big Cat is bowled over by this brash bastard.
Caracal—remember Caracal from last episode?—is revealed to be the office’s HR manager. Unfortunately, he’s not very good at his job and is deathly afraid of red tape. Honey Badger isn’t afraid of no red tape; he’s the most fearless animal in the world. If you don’t believe him, just check out the Guinness Book of World Records—true story. Oh, you didn’t think animals could win Guinness records? Well, that’s offensive.
Anyway, Toucan is surprisingly wise today, and dares the badger to fight an elephant in the parking lot. Fearless Honey Badger sees no problem with this and yells, “Come at me, bro” to the unassuming pachyderm. However, the elephant is so big, all he has to do is step on the irate supervisor, and that kills him.
Caracal doesn’t even bat an eyelash.
Our Take
Let’s start off by agreeing that the Red Riding Hood skit was ridiculous. It had only a negligible connection to the office, and it didn’t even have a ton to do with the fairy tale. I don’t know why they needed to include this, and it just left me confused and a little bit petrified. Sorry, “petrified” isn’t the word I meant to use. Hmm? What word was I looking for? Oh yeah: “dumber.” This skit left me feeling confused and a little bit dumber.
Confession time: I kind of liked Honey Badger. He was a little intense, but brother fit into the office environment like a well-oiled, leather glove. What I found particularly great about this long-suffering supervisor was the true animal facts sprinkled into his already compelling backstory. While you don’t have to know how fearless honey badgers are in the real world to enjoy Honey Badger’s story—it certainly helps.
One of the major problems with Africa Salaryman is its trio of main characters are so unlikable it’s hard to know who to side with when HR-level issues arise. Honey Badger was a no-nonsense pirate of industry who wore the hell out of his $2,500 suit. But the show logic kept telling me to root for Toucan even though that damn bird has been an irritant since the premiere. So what? Am I supposed to cheer when my new favorite character gets trampled to death by an unseen elephant because it helps the status quo? Absolutely not, we’re put on this earth to fight against societal norms! What kind of propaganda is this show?
What irritated me most about this twenty-four minute installment was its reliance on tired, old gags. It was an okay goof when Lizard’s tail kept getting pulled off in the premiere, but enough is enough. There are only so many ways you can rip off this guy’s appendage before it gets stale, and that amount should be capped at twice. You can do it twice. Any more tail escapades are simply egregious. It’s reminiscent of that The Simpsons episode where George Plimpton kept saying, “And a hot plate.” What a terrible episode that was! And it aired years before the series got really bad.
