Human Resources is a devastatingly funny workplace sitcom packed with wacky characters and preposterous concepts. It revolves around the surreal bureaucracy of emotional management. Entities like Ambition Gremlins, Hormone Monsters, Logic Rocks, Lovebugs, and Shame Wizards help their respective humans navigate their lives, often with calamitous consequences.
These characters might be abstract personifications, but they are refreshingly three-dimensional — Addiction Angels develop crushes on Lovebugs, and Depression Kitties shack up with Shame Wizards. None of it makes sense, and that’s what makes Human Resources such an enchantingly hilarious experience.
10 Pete And Dante’s Blossoming Hate Affair
Rochelle and Dante fall in love, leaving both Pete and Emmy upset and resentful. Emmy eventually manages to restore her broken friendship with Rochelle, but Pete’s rivalry has just begun.
In the Season 1 finale, Dante has an embarrassing and painful accident. Pete is there to help but enjoys the excruciating pain it causes Dante. Although the entire sequence is packed with mediocre d**k jokes, the blossoming hate affair between a Logic Rock and an Addiction Angel is uproariously funny.
9 Asha & Arsalan Have Some Fun With Lionel
Lionel is no stranger to shame, as seen through his story arc on Big Mouth. There is a lot to unpack in his one-night stand with Asha, but it’s clear that Lionel enjoys being humiliated. When Arsalan catches her “cheating,” Asha persuades Lionel to murder her husband.
The subplot’s ominous tone is dispelled after Arsalan and Asha reveal that the whole scenario is a kinky game. Although it’s satirizing the link between sex and shame, a trio of Shame Wizards playing these games provides audiences with a profoundly bizarre concept to digest.
8 Connie Tries Babysitting For Maurice
When the Hormone Monsters get together, it’s always hilarious. On this occasion, Connie offers to babysit when Maury is overloaded with work, but the latter claims that she can’t deal with the responsibility because she’s “not really a kid person.” Connie is quickly overwhelmed by Maury’s boisterous “children” and snaps at Pete for “mommy-shaming” her.
Connie fails to keep the “kids” from multiplying and transforming, forcing Maury to “send the batches of a*****es” to Boston,” where they “seem to thrive.” Connie learns an important lesson about parenting and viewers get to enjoy the whimsical callbacks to Big Mouth.
7 Andrew Glouberman Is Too Much For Gil & Joe
The Hormone Monsters Joe and Gil are much like Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s famously inept detective pair, Hitchcock & Scully. They want to coast their way into retirement without actually putting in the work, at least until Corporate hands everyone an ultimatum.
Hoping to prove their worth, Joe and Gil decide to poach Andrew Glouberman, Maury’s best. Their plan succeeds, boosting their job scores to new heights, but their client’s comically incessant libido soon becomes a burden too heavy for the Hormone Monster pair. Gil and Joe realize that Andrew’s “mind is a dumpster of slime” and return him to Maury.
6 Donna Wholeheartedly Shares Doug’s Obsession
Pete believes that Doug should apply for “a perfectly reasonable [credit] card,” so the latter can start “saving money for Donna’s engagement ring.” Rochelle encourages Doug to follow his passion, disregarding Pete’s solid argument about the demerits of getting “a joke credit card” whose “punchline is a lifetime of crushing debt.”
Doug gets the basketball-themed card and squanders an exorbitant amount of money decorating his van with Phoenix Suns’ collectibles. To Pete’s complete surprise, Donna appreciates Doug’s overtures of affection and proposes to him on the spot.
5 Sensitivity Training For The Hormone Monsters
The idea of a Sensitivity Training seminar for Hormone Monsters is far beyond the scope of narrative irony. Following José’s unfortunate accident, management hires Empathy Mulholland to sensitize the Hormone Monsters. Mulholland successfully guides Gavin, Connie, and Maury through their respective breakthroughs, albeit with some difficulty.
Mona refuses to compromise because “sеx is [her] workplace,” prompting Mulholland to offer an alternative solution. In the end, the Hormone Monsters are ultimately given a private room to protect everyone else from the nature of their work.
4 The Illegal Fights At The Mistake Factory
The Mistake Factory, an after-work bar frequented by Human Resources employees, occasionally hosts “illegal fights” in its back room. However, the fact that the fighters are based on famous fictional boxers — Apollo Cream instead of Apollo Creed and Cocky Ballsboa instead of Rocky Balboa — makes these sequences considerably funnier.
The champion Mr. Beef is eventually defeated by the underdog, “a Tiny B**er soon to become an organ donor.” It’s funny, even though it feels like Ballsboa might have sustained a serious concussion or worse in his fight.
3 All The Memes About Pete Chugging Water
Pete is understandably alarmed when he sees Emmy’s overloaded inbox, so she suggests an “Inbox Zero” system as a practical solution. While working on her computer, Pete finds a massive email thread making fun of an unknown office colleague, totally oblivious to the fact that he is the email’s so-called Chugger.
Pete incorporates himself into the meme network between Emmy and Rochelle until he accidentally uncovers the truth. Ironically, the Logic Rock’s feelings are deeply hurt by all the jokes directed at him. Pete’s sadness isn’t funny, but his reaction to the email certainly is.
2 Rick Apparently Owns The Human Resources Office Building
The Hormone Monsters are all bizarre creatures, but Rick is by far the weirdest of the lot. He’s rarely lucid and he makes constant cringey observations about his clients on Big Mouth and Human Resources. Although Rick has retired more than once, he is immune to administrative discipline.
In other words, he never gets fired even though his behavior is incredibly unprofessional. To explain this, the show drops the hilarious bombshell that Rick “owns the [office] building.” Rick glibly attributes his “inherited wealth” to his grandparents, who “did some stuff [he isn’t] proud of.”
1 Rita Tortures Lionel Because She’s His Mummy
Lionel St. Swithens wants nothing more in the world than his dear mother’s attention, but Rita refuses to even acknowledge her son’s existence. It’s not clear if the parent-child dynamic among Shame Wizards is always so dysfunctional, or if Lionel and Rita have a uniquely disturbing relationship.
Rita denies her son access to basic information like her home address, which keeps him groveling at her feet. Her apparent mistreatment is objectively amusing when considered from Lionel’s warped perspective. He is delighted to learn that Rita “will be torturing [him] for the rest of time,” not because she loves him but “because [she’s his] mummy.”