Nervous laughter

I saw The Office Special yesterday at the Museum of Television and Radio. Before it started, they put the lights down and aired this promo for the museum with Candace Bergin. The promo must have been about 15 years old, because she looked about 15 years younger than she did in Ms. Congeniality. I hate it when they don't change promos. After a dozen times, the cell-phone talker getting hurled at the screen isn't funny anymore (though I still like Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man. That gavel bit cracks me up).
But about Murphy Brown. Where the hell is Murphy Brown? It's not that I've been pining away for her all this time, it just seems like that show should be re-running somewhere, TVLand, Nick at Nite, something. It could take over Everybody, but me and everyone I know, Loves Raymond's spot at 11:30. Though, when I was watching I started wondering how that woman ever fronted a TV show. She's so icy and twisted: I don't want to get to know her better. She pretty much scares the shit out of me.
And then they showed the special. I'd never seen any episodes of The Office because 1) I didn't have a TV last year, 2) cable in the Bronx is different than cable in Manhattan and by different I mean fucking horrendous, so I couldn't even watch it at my parents' and 3) I'm not cutting edge. It's a weird thing to sit in an audience where everyone is expecting something, to laugh their asses off, and they proceed to do that even when what's happening on screen isn't funny, and you seem to be the only person who can tell because you're the only person who didn't go in expecting to laugh their ass off. This isn't to say the Special wasn't great, because it was, but for every funny part there were two parts that were so excruciating that if they made you laugh, then you must laugh about dead babies (not counting dead baby jokes, obvs). There was just a disconnect between what people were seeing, which obviously wasn’t funny, and what they had expected to see that led to some of the craziest outbursts of laughter I’ve ever heard.