The Office (UK series): Difference between revisions

** YMMV. This is all part and parcel with her larger lesson about taking risks, which works out [[They Do|pretty well for her.]]

** Arguably, the old Pam wouldn't have been able to do things like con her way {{spoiler|into her job as Office Manager}} without having pushed herself to go through those experiences.

* [[Brother Chuck]]:

** Jordan vanishes without a trace between Seasons 7 and 8, even getting a [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]] several episodes into the next season. Danny Cordray gets one mention after his two appearances and then vanishes as well, though his absence is easily [[Incredibly Lame Pun|justified]] by the character's role as a traveling salesman.

* [[Brought Home the Wrong Kid]]: A variation on this trope occurs when Pam breastfeeds the wrong baby(!) while spending the night in the delivery room.

* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]: Dwight, Michael, and Jim (to a lesser extent) are only tolerated by management because of their sales records.

** Jim's rapport with customers was implied to be the main reason Dunder Mifflin keep promoting him.

* [[The Bus Came Back]]: For several characters. Roy, Karen, Todd Packer...one entire episode was focused on Michael revisiting all his old girlfriends.

* [[Butt Monkey]]: Dwight, re: his relationship with Jim. Jim has next to no respect for Dwight, so Mr. Schrute routinely finds himself to be the go-to guy when Jim is bored and in a pranking mood. Dwight does, on rare occasion, get his own back.

** Toby, and to a lesser extent Dwight, get ridiculous abuse from Michael.

** Andy is certainly becoming this (undeservingly).

** Gabe, in the last couple seasons.

* [[Buxom Is Better]]: When comparing Pam and Karen, Kevin explicitly notes that Pam has bigger breasts.

** In that same episode ("The Job"), Jan, previously dumped by Michael on the advice of Pam and the other office women, has returned to win him back. The office women tell Michael to be strong, and he confronts Jan--only to see that she has a brand-new and very big set of breast implants. They immediately get back together.

** Dwight: "Idiot."

** Also Michael's unconvincing deflection of "Mmmm...no." whenever someone accuses him of something that he indeed did.

* [[Caught in the Rain]]: Jim and Pam, {{spoiler|when he proposes.}}

** Mirrored when {{spoiler|Michael proposes to Holly while the two are being drenched by fire sprinklers. Considering there was a discussion earlier in the episode about Jim and Pam's example above, one has to wonder whether or not that was intentional.}}

* [[Celebrity Paradox]]: In the season 4 episode "Money," Michael Scott critiques the film ''[[Live Free or Die Hard]]''. In season seven, his newest hire is a hotshot traveling salesman played by Timothy Olyphant, who was the villain in that film. Speaking of Olyphant, see next entry.

** Michael also mentions watching ''[[The Wire]]'' a season or two before they started taking notes from that show's casting director.

* [[Chronic Pet Killer]]: Dwight Schrute.

* [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]]: Jordan Garfield in Season 8, mirroring her rather abrupt addition to the cast in the previous season.

* [[Clingy Jealous Girl]]: Kelly.

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Dwight, sometimes Andy, occasionally Kevin, but most especially Creed.

** Michael. For example, after pressing his face into wet cement, he beams that "in a hundred years, I'll be able to visit this spot with my great-grandchildren, and say ''"That's me."''."

* [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong]]: Averted in the season 7 Halloween special with Oscar complaining that the coupon book prize was stupid but {{spoiler|he was the one to win the 15000 dollar coupon book after saying it costs more to get all the things in it}}. Usually in-universe with Michael's regards to Toby.

* [[Concussions Get You High]]: Dwight starts acting uncharacteristically nice after crashing his car. The others eventually realize that he has a concussion and take him to the hospital. During this bout of identity amnesia Dwight also shows absentmindedness and compulsive behavior not unlike fictional portrayals of being high on marijuana.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: The pilot concerned possible downsizing of the company and the inability to "justify a Scranton branch and a Stamford branch" and that one branch would incorporate the other. The downsizing remains a part of the plot for the rest of the season, but the Stamford branch is not mentioned until season three, when Jim transfers to that branch. Shortly thereafter, the Scranton branch absorbs the Stamford branch.

** At the end of "Niagara" (Jim and Pam's wedding episode) the final shot features Pam with her head on Jim's shoulder, similar to their [[Sleep Cute]] moment way back in season 1. Not a bad day indeed.

** Karen tries to annoy Jim with the squeaking of the chair that he swapped with hers. Jim responds by repeatedly singing the chorus from "Lovefool" by The Cardigans (with Andy, of course, immediately joining in). Karen is begging him to stop in seconds.

* [[Cool Hat]]: Ryan's trillby. Where'd he get it? He'd rather not say.

* [[Cosmic Deadline]]: Steve Carell announced before Season 7 began that he would be leaving the show by the end of it, so naturally that season saw the end of several subplots that had been running for years. Michael gets closure with several former love interests, finally acknowledges that he and Ryan will never be friends, completes ''Threat Level Midnight'', realizes Packer for the Jerk he is, etc.

* [[Crazy Cat Lady]]: Angela. She has a motherly devotion to all of her cats, sometimes bringing one into work (keeping it in her filing cabinet!), while watching the rest of them on a Nanny Cam. Kevin, Meredith, and Oscar once actually caught her ''grooming a cat with her tongue.'' Not to mention that she coughs like a cat with a hairball...

* [[The Cutie]]: Kelly and Erin.

** Erin far more so. She's not just cute but also extremely naive and innocent.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Stanley's primary role in the office. Jim and Pam frequently fill this role too.

* [[Defcon Five]]: Michael declares DEFCON 10 and DEFCON 20 in "The Job."

* [[Department of Child Disservices]]: Erin was an [[Heartwarming Orphan|orphan]] and raised in a foster home. We're given hints that the experience wasn't a particularly pleasant one for her.

* [[The Glomp]]: Michael does this to Jim after he learns of Jim's engagement.

* [[Go Look At the Distraction]]: "Hey, did you get a shot of Pam's art over there?"

* [[Good Hair, Evil Hair]]: Ryan [[Growing the Beard|grows]] a [[Beard of Evil]] after being promoted. Michael grows one out of adulation (as Dwight does likewise for him).

** [[Your Approval Fills Me with Shame|Ryan shaves his off upon realizing this.]]

* [[Gratuitous French]]: When tagging along to the Winnipeg business trip, Andy brushes up on his French which he practices profusely before leaving. There is virtually no one in Winnipeg who actually speaks French, most of the French-speaking Canadian population being concentrated in the eastern portion of Canada.

* [[Gratuitous Japanese]]/[[Did Not Do the Research]]: "Sempai" (先輩) does not mean a person is an assistant [[Running Gag|(to the)]] sensei. It is a term of respect used to refer to a superior or person of higher rank. The title is accurate given Dwight's rather high ranking in the dojo, however.

{{quote|Michael: "If you so much as harm a hair on Stanley's head, [[Disproportionate Retribution|we'll burn Utica to the ground.]]"}}

** Micheal to Gabe about Erin after the ''[[Glee]]'' party.

* [[I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!]]: Jan played this quite obviously with Michael. Michael was equally obvious about the effect it had on him.

* [[The Informant]]: Andy is this is when it is revealed in "Whistleblower" that he is the one who leaked to the press that the Sabre printers Dunder-Mifflin are selling are prone to catching on fire. He becomes the office pariah afterwards. Which kind of sucks, considering that there were ''three other'' whistleblowers in the office as well.

{{quote|'''Michael:''' ''[scoffing]'' I know a ton of 14-year-old girls who could kick his ass.

'''Jim:''' [[Crowning Moment of Funny|You know a ton of 14-year-old girls]]? }}

* [[Ironic Echo]]: Judging from a remark during Jim's interview, David Wallace apparently has the same relationship with Corporate's HR officer Kendel that Michael has with Toby.

* [[It's Not Porn, It's Art]]: Ryan's photography

** Also comes up in one of the deleted scenes from the episode "Goodbye Michael" when Michael catches one of his employees with some erotic drawings:

{{quote|{{spoiler|Stanley}}: It's called [[Hentai]]... and it's art.}}

* [[Ivy League for Everyone]]: Averted. Andy went to Cornell, but [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|it was because his dad is filthy rich]] and made a donation to the university. Ryan appears to have gone to Dartmouth, but the rest of the cast doesn't really seem the Ivy League type; Michael is specifically mentioned as not having gone to college at all.

** The ironic praise of Cornell within the show is probably born of the Ivy league grads working on the show; developer of the American version of the show, Greg Daniels, is a Harvard grad, as is B.J. Novak (writer and actor). Actor John Krasinski (Brown alum), writer/actress Mindy Kaling (Dartmouth), and actress Ellie Kemper (Princeton) also play less elite characters.

** I don't know about his undergrad, but at least for his MNB, [[Word of God]] has [http://www.dundermifflin.com/media/052107.shtml Ryan graduating from] the Kania School of Management at the U of Scranton.

* [[I Was Told There Would Be Cake]]: Jim's plan to celebrate all the office birthdays on one day.

* ''[[The Jack Benny Show]]'': While demonstrating his wooden train whistle to one of the young visitors, Michael references the show.

** Inverted (arguably) with Michael's excuse of "trapped in an oil painting".

** "I was never given a name." Why didn't he just hang up?

* [[Lampshade Hanging]] / [[Medium Awareness]]: Well, [[Captain Obvious|of course]], given that this is supposed to be a documentary. But, apart from the omnipresent "character talking head" moments, we occasionally get subtler instances of this. One of the more notable examples: Prior to getting on the plane in his last episode, Michael asks the unseen videographers, "Hey, will you guys let me know if this ever airs?"

{{quote|''(removing a microphone pack from under his jacket)'' "It's gonna feel so good getting this thing off my chest." ''(inaudibly mouthing to the camera)'' "[[That's What She Said]]."}}

* [[Last-Episode New Character]]: Robert California is introduced in the season 7 finale.

* [[Lawful Stupid Chaotic Stupid|Lawful Stupid]]: Dwight would make an excellent Paladin.

* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Than the UK version.

** Not always. The Season four episode "Dinner Party" was very, very dark for US network TV and Jan's relationship with Micheal got dark quickly.

* [[Living Prop]]: A number of the minor characters in the early episodes, especially the pilot, before they were really fleshed out. Most of the background cast from the different branches and the warehouse still qualify.

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]

* [[Logic Bomb]]

{{quote|'''Dwight:''' Jim is my enemy. But it turns out that Jim is also his own worst enemy. And the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So Jim...is actually my friend. ...''But.'' Because he is his own worst enemy, the enemy of my friend is my enemy, so actually Jim is my enemy... '''But.'''}}

{{quote|'''Pam:''' ''That's as close as I ever want to get to being Pamela Anderson.''}}

** But when marrying Jim, she's more than happy to change it, and [[Squee|Squees]] with delight when Kevin hands her a check made out to "Mrs. Pam Halpert".

* [[Man Child]]: Michael most often comes across as this.

** Kevin perhaps more so. Holly mistook him for a mentally handicapped person after Dwight told her that Kevin was hired under from a work program for the mentally challenged.

* [[Meaningful Echo]]: Michael gets fired from Dunder-Mifflin for trying to found the Michael Scott Paper Company under their nose. When he tries to give one last speech, Charles cuts him off with "No, no. You're done." When Michael forces Dunder-Mifflin's hand to get re-hired, Charles tries to give one last speech and Michael cuts him off with the same phrase.

* [[Meganekko]]: Erin, when Dwight has her wear glasses and pretend to be a hipster to get a line started at the first Sabre store in Tallahassee.

* [[No Accounting for Taste]]: Andy and Angela

* [[No Bisexuals]]: The instant the members of the office find evidence that Angela's senator boyfriend is attracted to men, they conclude that he's purely gay and his relationship with Angela is a sham. The possibility of bisexuality is never even mentioned.

* [[Noob]]: Jim, at ''[[Call of Duty]]''. It makes Josh and Andy crazy.

{{quote|''You don't snipe on Carentan!''}}

** Done intentionally in the "Ethics" episode. After Dwight boasts that he does not waste any time at work, Jim carries around a stopwatch to keep track of any time not spent on work related activity. It culminates with him discussing [[The Remake]] of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'', and deliberately gushing about things like [[Star Trek|"Klingons"]] and [[Star Wars|"Wookies"]], and tells Andy that it's "practically a shot-for-shot remake" of the original. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Dwight is struggling with every fiber of his being to focus on his work]].

{{quote|'''Jim:''' It's about this guy named [[Harry Potter|Dumbledore]] [[Star Wars|Calrissian]] who has to [[Lord of the Rings|return a ring to Mordor.]]}}

* [[Noodle Incident]]: In the Christmas episode, Jim intends to give Pam a teapot filled with several mementos linked to inside jokes the two of them share. After explaining the stories for a couple of the items, Jim pulls out an unsharpened pencil, and simply states that "'it would take too long to explain."

* [[No Such Thing as HR]]: Technically there is in the form of Toby and Holly, but in keeping with the theme of the show, they're pretty useless at resolving the office hijinks.

** It's suggested in one episode that Toby is actually good at keeping the internal office conflicts to a dull roar. Unfortunately when Michael finds this out he decides they need to be fixed HIS way, which ends up making many of them worse.

** Although, to be fair, he didn't start panicking until she refused to go to the hospital even when her contractions were getting close together.

* [[Parental Substitute]]: Michael learns Erin, an orphan, thinks of him as a father figure in "Viewing Party."

* [[Party Scheduling Gambit]]: In "A Benihana Christmas" Angela's overbearing unpleasantness as head of the Party Planning Committee lead Karen and Pam to form the Committee for Planning Parties and plan a more fun party.

* [[The Password Is Always Swordfish]]: The server password {{spoiler|bigboobz}} is figured out when Michael recalls that when the IT guy told it to him, Michael laughed, but Pam got upset.

* [[Ready for Lovemaking]]: {{spoiler|Kathy}} pulls this on Jim at the end of After Hours. Jim tells her to get out.

* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: Jenna Fischer's real life pregnancy was written in during season eight. She was noticeably more pregnant than she was during Pam's first pregnancy.

* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: After his brief stay as office IT, Nick delievers one to the ''entire office'' before leaving while [[Flipping the Bird]] to everyone.

** Also Michael with his quickfire "Boom, roasted!"

* [[Reckless Gun Usage]]: In "Survivor Man," Dwight is observing Michael through the scope of his hunting rifle.

{{quote|'''Dwight''' (to camera): Nothing to worry about, the safety is ([[Beat]]) *click* on."}}

** Done spectacularly by Jim in "Pool Party":

{{quote|'''Jim''': And there's my talking point. (proceeds to plow through the driveway)}}

* [[Second Hand Storytelling]]: Characters sometimes describe unseen events during interviews with the filmmakers, though their descriptions are often [[Unreliable Narrator|skewed]]. Used especially when characters refer to events predating the documentary filmmakers coming to Scranton.

* [[Seinfeldian Conversation]]: Dwight and Jim often engage in this.

* [[Sensitivity Training]]: Andy has to go to this after punching a hole in a wall in "The Return." He comes back to work five episodes later, far less likely to become angry than he was before.

{{quote|'''Kevin:''' You threw out my shoes?

'''Manager:''' I had them ''incinerated.'' It was the best decision of my entire career. }}

* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: The upbeat, drums-and-guitar rocking tune is played over several completely mundane shots of a typical day at the office.

* [[Special Edition Title]]: In the credits for the first episode after Michael starts The Michael Scott Paper Company, Michael's Pam's and Ryan's opening credit shots reflect their new surroundings.

** The episodes following Michael's departure in season 7 each feature the various replacement managers doing a variation of his "placing a figurine on the desk" at the end of the credits.

* [[Spin-Off]]: In 2012 it was [http://www.hitfix.com/articles/office-spin-off-starring-rainn-wilson-in-the-works-at-nbc announced] that a spinoff show set at Schrute Farms and centered around Dwight was being planned, complete with a [[Poorly-Disguised Pilot]] episode on ''The Office'' itself.

** Several years earlier, the show that eventually became ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'' was initially conceived as an ''Office'' spinoff.

* [[Stay in the Kitchen]]: Dwight feels this way about anything that "elevates" women to the status of men.

* [[Stock Lateral Thinking Puzzle]]: Dwight tries to test Ryan with these, but of course he's heard them all. Ryan quickly starts belting out the answers before Dwight is even finished asking them.

* [[Straight Man]]: Jim, Pam, and Oscar.

** Not to forget the straightest of all straight men, Toby. Stanley counts as well.

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by Oscar in "Mafia" where he refers to Jim, Pam, Toby, and himself as the "Coalition for Reason."

* [[Stylistic Suck]]: Surprisingly averted at the end of "Local Ad" when the Scranton branch's ad. Despite Michael's lack of technical expertise and blatant attempts at multiple [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Crowning Moments of Heartwarming]], it's actually pretty cool.

** Michael's movie, ''Threat Level: Midnight''.

** You can [http://blog.nbc.com/CreedThoughts/ read it here.]

* [[Take That]]: In "Nepotism," Creed complains about [[Betty White]]'s [[Hype Backlash|new surge in popularity]].

* [[The Tape Knew You Would Say That]]: When Holly returns in season 7, Michael prepares two contingency kits to react on whether she's actually married or not. She has no wedding ring, so he breaks out the "Happy" kit and launches a pre-recorded message on his computer, resulting with Michael [[Talking to Himself]] as the recording acts as [[Only Sane Man]] to happy partying Michael.

{{quote|'''Recorded Michael:''' I know you're happy right now, but you need to calm down. Is that ''music''? ''Are you dancing?''}}

* [[Theme Music Power-Up]]: Dwight listens to [[Useful Notes/Heavy Metal|Heavy Metal]] to psyche himself up for sales calls and performance reviews. The shots of him air guitaring and punching Jim's car seats are priceless.

** He also does it during his interview montage after being forced to quit from Andy's frame-up and in the staircase before his performance review with Michael and Jan.

* [[They Do]]: Jim and Pam

** Michael and Holly

* [[Virus Victim Symptoms]]: Invoked for a prank.

* [[Visual Pun]]: Jim's Halloween costume in "Koi Pond." "...[[Sarcasm Mode|Yes, I am the popular social networking site known as]] [[Facebook|Bookface]]."

* [[Vomit Chain Reaction]]: the cold open of "Niagara Part One".

* [[Wacky Marriage Proposal]]: Michael's speculative methods for proposing to Holly in the "Garage Sale" episode fit this category: pouring gasoline on the office parking lot in the shape of a heart and setting it afire, tossing "a corpse dressed like me" from the office roof and decapitating it so he can tell her, "I lost my head when I fell for you", etc.

** His actual proposal to her kind of straddles the line between this and [[Grand Romantic Gesture]].

* [[Faux Symbolism|What Do You Mean It's Not Symbolic?]]: In a Halloween episode, Dwight mentions that [[Hypocritical Humor|he is perfectly willing to leave Scranton to go wherever 'they value loyalty the most']]. His costume? [[Star Wars|Sith Lord.]]

** In a later Halloween episode, Ryan is dressed as [[Wall Street|Gordon Gekko]], referencing his rise and fall in the corporate world.

* [[What Does She See in Him?|What Does He See In Her?]]:

** Erin's reaction to Michael and Holly.

** Asked of Andy by Oscar, regarding his courting of Angela.

* [[What Exactly Is His Job?]]: Creed works in Quality Assurance. Everyone knows this except Creed.

** Ryan's job is extremely unclear once the Michael Scott Paper Company is absorbed by Dunder Mifflin. He is hired as a salesman but is demoted in favor of Pam. So...WhatExactlyIsHisJob

{{quote|'''Michael:''' "Why are you helping her? You're not even dating." She's my friend... and... ultimately my strategy is to merge this into a relationship... without her even knowing.

{{spoiler|They will.}} }}

* [[Wondrous Ladies' Room]]: It has a couch! And magazines!

* [[Worthless Foreign Degree]]: Vikram, an admittedly good telemarketer, was a surgeon back in India.

** There's also a Japanese heart surgeon working in the warehouse. However, this one is justified, as he is in hiding from the [[Yakuza]] after (apparently intentionally) botching a heart transplant operation for their boss.

*** In the same episode Michael refers to [[Ben Franklin]] as one of our most popular Presidents.

** When Michael hides the Sabre leads from the sales teams and organizes a scavenger hunt to teach them a lesson, Jim's first clue is "look under the first american president." Jim looks in the parking lot and finds his next clue under a ''Ford Lincoln.''

* [[You Fail Mathematics Forever]]: Michael believes 47+9=53...after he goes through it on paper.

** Kevin's mental math leading him to conclude Pam weighs 230 pounds. Or pretty much any math he does, really. It explains a lot that Michael confesses to Erin in "Scott's Tots" that Kevin had applied to the warehouse, but Michael [[Horrible Judge of Character|had a good feeling about Kevin as an accountant.]]

*** Kevin's spelling is equally bad as he proves in the Cookie Monster parody plot:

{{quote|'''Kevin:''' ''C'' is for ''suspension.''}}

* [[Your Approval Fills Me with Shame]]: The stripper at Bob Vance's warehouse bachelor party gets two of these when she tells Pam she's hot enough to strip and Angela that she loves her baby posters.

** Michael does this to Ryan as a guest speaker to his business class when he claims that Ryan is better than all the other students despite having never made a sale, started a fire with his pita bread and [[Ho Yay|"everybody thinking he's a tease".]] Also doubles as an unintentional [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]].

** When Andy forms a band with Darryl and Kevin, he asks several people their opinion on the first song they create. Everybody hates it, but Andy perseveres in claiming it has potential for success. Then [[Cloudcuckoolander|Creed]] says he loves it, which totally bums him out.

* [[Your Costume Needs Work]]: Dwight reacts this way once he realizes that Jim has dressed like him and adopted his speech patterns and mannerisms as a prank.

* [[Your Favorite]]: Michael REALLY likes crisp bacon.