http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/TheDrewCareyShow

"I got screwed by the system. I'm always gettin' screwed by the system. That's my role in life: I'm the system's bitch!"

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A Dilbert-esque look at office life, about a nice but overweight, unattractive man named Drew Carey with a low-paying dead-end job as the Assistant Director of Personnel of the Winfred Louder department store (there is no Director of Personnel).

Drew is the perpetual everyman who can never seem to get ahead in life. Bad things never stop happening to Drew. He still hangs out with his friends from high school, Lewis, Oswald and Kate (who started as purely platonic friends with Drew only to become his later love interest). Also, his dog is crippled.

As part of his job Drew has to deal with his Mean Boss, Mr. Wick, and his own perpetually conniving secretary, Mimi, both of whom hate Drew's guts just because he's there. And that is all on top of general office bureaucracy.

The series would go on to become Denser and Wackier as it went on, as a result of having more creative freedom due to being uncancellable for a time. Later seasons would have Mimi and Drew engaged in prank wars that escalated to the point where Mimi drugged Drew and dropped him off at the Great Wall of China. Several episodes were made littered with intentional mistakes pointed out to the audience, which they could tally for a contest (which were often random, over-the-top sight gags, ranging from hairstyle changes, actor changes, characters being replaced by sock puppets, and an entire scene being done in Machinima using The Sims). Other notable silliness includes an episode done mostly in improv (to spoof Drew Carey's role as host of Whose Line Is It Anyway?), and an episode where Oswald and Lewis are treated by a dentist who is a very over-the-top Dr. Frankenstein parody.

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Carey and Ryan Stiles (Lewis) became fixtures for Whose Line Is It Anyway? that also featured several other cast members briefly.

Sort of a Work Com, but one which focuses on a single character rather than an ensemble.

This show provides examples of:

Aborted Arc: In Season 8, Wick is reduced to a mere janitor in the new company and was intent on working his way back to the top. However, after a couple episodes, Wick disappeared because Craig Ferguson left the show. Wick did return for the season finale, but by then, he had gotten a new job.

Age-Inappropriate Dress: A problematic customer that Mimi has to deal with is an elderly woman who still dresses like a teenager. Her justification is that the teen department is the only place where the clothes fit her.

...And That Little Girl Was Me: Subverted by Mrs. Louder in "Drew Gets Motivated." When she sees Kate sitting in her chair, she's reminded of another headstrong young woman who once dreamed of running the store. Mrs. Louder then fired that young woman.

Advertisement: Animated Credits Opening: In the first season, the animated character logo of Drew Carey sings "Moon Over Parma".

Historical Longevity Joke: One episode has Drew helping a senior member of the Winfred-Louder board write a speech. Drew suggests throwing in a joke about how the board member has been around for so long that he can remember when they used to great each other by saying "Hail Caesar!"

I Am One of Those, Too: During the improv episode, Oswald is pretending to be German while talking to a bartender to see if she cheats him. She immediately says she was born in Germany and starts talking to him in German. He then says he is actually from a small town France called Germany. She then says she went to school in France for several years and starts speaking French.

I Call Him "Mister Happy": Oswald nicknamed his genitals "the Olsen twins".

Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Mimi

Instant Turn-Off: There's an episode where Drew, Oswald, and Lewis try to watch scrambled porn because Drew believes that the cable company will turn him in if he has both Cartoon Network and porn channels. It turns out it's the surgery channel they're watching, not the porn channel.

Irony: Drew finally managed to get Mimi fired by convincing Mr. Wick to put her into a cubicle, which she refused to do. Late, she and Drew's brother put their camper in his backyard and Drew discovered she was claustrophobic, which is a medical condition that would release her from the circumstances of why she was fired. When he learned that, he went crazy over the moral obligation and getting her out of his backyard vs. not having to deal with her at work. Meta example: in the episode where the executive ignores Drew's speech and goes on a racist and homophobic rant, an Asian employee gripes that the speech offended him... on the grounds that Asians are ignored so much in corporate culture, and society in general, that they are overlooked when it comes to racist insults. Neither the character nor the actor portraying him were seen or heard from again for the remainder of the series.

Jerkass: On Lewis, Ryan Stiles has said that he's "less of a character and more a jerk". Mimi as well. This trope describes practically her entire character, although she certainly has her share of Pet the Dog moments.

Karma Houdini: Mimi has gotten away with a number of things, including sending Drew to China. When he returned, he burned her desk down to its frame. She was very scared by his subsequent threats of retribution. The one time he acted officially to get her fired for a prank that embarrassed him and the company, it turned out his girlfriend at the time was responsible.

Kavorka Man: Mimi, a female version.

Later Installment Weirdness: The show saw a number of major differences in its last two seasons, especially the final season. Many of the show's major characters were written off for various different reasons; Drew, Mimi, and Mr. Wick are now working for an entirely different company (Mr. Wick in particular is now a janitor and tries working his way back up to the top of the corporate ladder); the show goes through three different new theme songs; the show switched from a multi-camera Studio Audience format to a single-camera Laugh Track format, which also resulted in Chaos Architecture with the sets; and plots became a tad absurd, such as Mimi's house being burned down to force her into moving in with Drew.