The final seven episodes of the already-classic AMC network period drama Mad Men recently finished filming, but will not hit cable TV until the spring of next year. Christina Hendricks, however, takes one last shot at her memorable role as the buxom office manager-turned-ad-agency-executive Joan Harris in a highly amusing Funny Or Die video that went on line Thursday.
It was a last hurrah for the 39-year-old actress in role that made her famous. Hendricks shot her final scene as Joan in the real Mad Men in late July.
“It’s funny because it was a very emotional day and as each person finished their last scene, they’d say thank you and goodbye to the crew and then Matt Weiner would say something to the actor,” recalled Hendricks, referring to the Mad Men creator, executive producer and chief writer. “So I said that this experience has changed my life in every way imaginable. People think I’m Joan. They think I’m sexy and sophisticated and really cool. And what I love about you guys is that you know that I’m not.”
Her new office mates in this Funny Or Die video, “Modern Office,” on the other hand, definitely do not see Joan as “sexy and sophisticated and really cool.” In fact, as you’ll see, they grow pretty exasperated at her total inability to adapt to the office environment in 2014 where she mistakes an iPhone for a “plastic Pop Tart.”
But as funny as the Funny or Die Mad Men spoof is, there’s a serious point to it, one that Hendricks as Joan Harris explains at the end — explaining at the same time why she remains stuck in the 1960s.
Without giving away a spoiler, let’s just say if you saw Kristen Bell in an earlier Funny Or Die video, “ Mary Poppins Quits ,” you know what’s coming.
In the meantime, get a dose of Mad Men and the “sexy and sophisticated and really cool” Joan Harris with this clever Funny Or Die clip.