'The Dealership,' a parody of 'The Office,' rockets Chevy dealer to social media stardom

Tired of waiting for a sequel to "The Office "? Looking to buy a new car in upstate New York? This dealership has got you covered on both accounts.

A car dealership in Saratoga County has developed a legion of thousands, even millions, of fans who tune into TikTok weekly to watch "The Dealership," a series of mockumentary-style clips styled after the hit television show "The Office."

Now nine episodes in and counting, "The Dealership" drops new content each Tuesday, amassing more than 1 million likes and 100,000 followers for the TikTok page of Mohawk Chevrolet, located in Ballston Spa, New York.

With titles like "Get Ducked," "Lemme Drive the Rado " and "Fellowship of the Recorder," the two to three-minute-long videos capture the essence of what made "The Office" such a comedic success: Absurd behavior, deadpan delivery and finding dry humor in the mundane 9-5 life.

The mastermind behind the project, 23-year-old Grace Kerber, did not expect to find such massive online recognition in her first job fresh out of college.

"We're very lucky," she said.

Kerber, who has been at Mohawk Chevrolet for nine months, is prominently featured in each video of the series, which she produces alongside co-worker Ben Bushen, who also stars in the clips while operating as a cameraman and editor.

Other members of staff get in on the filming as well, appearing as a cast of characters that pull antics like hiding mini rubber ducks around the office, sporting cowboy hats to learn new dances and going undercover to infiltrate other local car dealers.

"Everyone who works here is very familiar and comfortable with us asking them to be in videos because social media is so important to our work culture here, said Kerber. "Everyone enjoys being in the videos..now that it's really taking off people are having even more fun with it."

From 3,000 followers to 100k

It all started with the mini rubber ducks, said Kerber. Originally, she and a coworker decided to have a bit of silly fun around the office by hiding them for people to find. People had such a good time, said Kerber, she and Bushen thought the internet may like to get in on the joke as well.

"We knew we had to make content from it and we decided to do kind of make a mockumentary like 'The Office' because it just felt right for everything that was happening," said Kerber. "A lot of the things that happened in that first episode really happened throughout the day and we reenacted them and got a kick out of it."

In late June, the idea hit TikTok via a video titled "Get Ducked." Text on the screen characterized the nearly 2-and-a-half-minute clip as a "car dealership Office parody." Coworkers and local customers were quickly taken by the idea, sharing love largely on Facebook, said Kerber.

This inaugural episode has since amassed 22.6k likes and 188.9k views, though it didn't start that way. I wasn't really until episode 5 that the videos started taking off, said Kerber. Before that, the dealership's TikTok page had just 3,000 followers and received between 10 to maybe 100 likes per video.

"Episode 5 just took off," said Kerber. "We posted the video and, like, two days later, all of a sudden we looked at it and it had like 1,000 likes. I made a joke to Ben saying, 'Every time I refresh it we have more likes and comments, I bet we're gonna hit 20k views by noon' and by noon we had over 100k."

Episode 5 , which is now sitting pretty at 2.7M views, follows Kerber's character as she struggles to climb into and drive a huge truck despite her short stature. Episode 6, called "Star Quality," follows Kerber's quest to hold auditions and find the perfect "star talent" to use in new promotional videos for the dealership. Naturally, shenanigans ensue, to the tune of 1.7M views in this case.

The videos are largely unscripted and are filmed, edited and posted all in the same day, said Kerber and Bushen. Most of what you're seeing is improv, as the pair likes to keep things easy and breezy.

And while it may be an unorthodox way to go about it, Kerber and Bushen have certainly done their jobs of attracting attention, fans and customers to Mohawk Chevrolet.

"Locally people are very excited, we actually just had someone from HR come in and say he was at [the gas station] and someone walked in and saw his hat that said Mohawk Chevrolet and said 'Oh my gosh, do you know Grace and Ben!?!' So it's definitely brought in foot traffic."

Online fans of "The Dealership" appear to be pretty diehard in their right, even if they're too far away to pay a visit in person.

Comments calling Kerber the "female Michael Scott" appear under many of the videos, along with fans insisting that they are "canceling their HBO subscription" and other television services and watching "The Dealership" instead. Plenty also think the team deserves a true television show, with one comment saying "I really wish this could be turned into an actual show like The Office. I worked at a dealership. there is so much content." Another said, "If this were on Netflix I’d binge it."

"Watch out, Hollywood," Chevrolet's corporate account commented on one video, alongside shout-outs from other big brands like Geico and Microsoft.

Will "The Dealership" run as long as "The Office" did? Only time will tell, but it will keep going as long as people enjoy it, said Kerber.

"We will do this as long as people want to watch," she said. "We're just having so much fun, even if people don't watch it's great for our company culture and people locally will always love it."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'The Dealership,' a parody of 'The Office,' rockets Chevy dealer to social media stardom