Its Casual Friday at the office in this week’s episode of Corporate. Matt decides to take full advantage as he strolls into the office wearing a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and (for some godforsaken reason) flip flops. Jake immediately let’s Matt know how dumb he is for falling for the Casual Friday trap, saying anything he wears can and will be held against him.
The CEO notices too, and is furious because the director of the largest chain of megachurches in the country is coming in for a meeting. The bigger problem, however, is that one employee has taken Casual Friday to an even further extreme, opting to show up to work without a shirt on. Matt and Jake are sent to convince Walter to put his shirt back on, but it only leads to even more employees going shirtless.
Meanwhile, negotiations get heated between the CEO of Hampton Deville and the leader of the megachurch. The powers of business and belief clash as both executives try to reach a deal that makes each of them even more rich. It may seem hard to believe that such a sacred and holy institution as a megachurch would ever put profit before faith, but this is a fictional show and anything can happen, no matter how absurd or blasphemous.
As the number of shirts in the office takes a nosedive, Matt and Jake realize that this is less of an incident and more of a crisis. Even turning the AC down to 55 degrees doesn’t seem to phase anyone. The entire company seems to have chosen this metaphorical hill to die on. The other workers now see Walter as a profit who has granted them the freedom to go shirtless, and they refuse to listen to anyone but him. They all gather around his office and demand to hear what he has to say. Walter decides to see how far he can push his newfound influence when he emerges and drops his pants, declaring himself truly free. Disgusted by this display, everyone puts their shirts back on and gets back to work. Despite the mass shirtlessness and brief full nudity, Matt’s toes are still the worst offense of the day by a wide margin. Through all the themes of religion, freedom, corporate greed, and double standards addressed in this episode, I had one major takeaway: Whatever other unfortunate choices you make in life, for the love of God always cover your toes in public.
Note: In addition to this being a great episode of television, it also incited a hilarious reaction from the president of the Catholic League, who called episode writer Jake Weisman an “anti-catholic bigot.” A tweet from Jake reacting and linking to the article can be found here.
