The Office (2005 TV series)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternate Character Interpretation: IGN says that Meredith is the most disgusting and saddest character in the show in this article.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: David Brent appears in the cold opening of "The Seminar" and asks if there's an opening.
  • Base Breaker: Michael Scott with his Cringe Comedy moments are this amongst the fanbase. As is the Jim Vs. Dwight debate.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The singing of "On the Wings of Love" during the funeral of a bird that flew into the building.
    • Dwight and Andy singing John Denver's "Country Roads" to get Erin's attention. They first sing competitively with Dwight on guitar and Andy playing the banjo then they sing together in harmony completely forgetting about Erin! Unfortunately interrupted by Toby.
    • The seventh season premiere's cold opening.
  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: In "Money" Dwight is severely depressed over his break up with Angela. Upon hearing her agree to go out with Andy he races out of the room. Jim finds him crying in the stairwell and relates to him what he was going through during season 2, how watching Pam prepare for her wedding caused him to basically have a nervous breakdown. He then tells Dwight "I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy...which includes you." Dwight then reaches out and actually tries to touch Jim comfortingly but he's already gone. Jim goes upstairs to Pam and kisses her right in front of the office. Seconds later he admits to the cameras that he's in love with Italian food (Pam).
    • Michael's final episode is full of this but the most notable examples are Michael's recommendation letter to Dwight, Jim's goodbye to Michael and Pam showing up at the last minute to tell Michael goodbye at the airport.
    • Andy and Erin's first kiss at the landfill.
    • Michael showing up at Pam's art show, hugging her and telling her how proud he is of her, and buying her painting of the Dunder-Mifflin building to display in the office.
  • Designated Villain: In later seasons, anyone who opposes Michael in any way, even if it's for the better.
    • This goes especially for Toby, who Michael always sees as the bad guy, even when Toby is agreeing with Michael.
    • Exceptions: Jim and Pam, and sometimes Darryl, who are understood to be the only reasonable ones in the office. Exception to the exception: Michael is generally better at managing than Jim during their season six stint as co-managers.
  • Dude, Not Funny: Both Michael and David react angrily to an office prank, until they realize it was done by Packer/Finch. Then they love it.
    • When Daryl was working on a ladder, Michael pulled it out from underneath him and asked "How's it hangin?" Daryl could've died, but only ended up breaking his leg. Recounting the story to the camera, Michael still thinks it's hilarious.
    • In "Company Picnic", Michael & Holly re-enact the torture scenes from Slumdog Millionaire for laughs.
    • In "Koi Pond", the entire office has a field day with the fact that Michael fell into a Koi Pond, until they find out that Jim pulled away instead of trying to help. This made it look like Jim let Michael fall into the pond because he didn't reach out a hand to help him, so they start giving him a hard time instead.
    • In the cold open to "Cafe Disco," Dwight pulls a prank on Pam. Since the prank deals with Pam giving up on her artistic dreams, both Jim and Pam are peeved. Apparently they can dish it out to Dwight repeatedly, but can't take it even once.
      • Should they NOT have been peeved? This prank fits the trope because it went way past the degree of previous pranks from both parties. And that going too far--it's like telling someone that their dog died--is consistent with Dwight's character.
      • Jim and Pam's pranks, while numerous and often elaborate, tend to be little more than petty annoyances; they never took it to a personal level by dragging Moze, Dwight's failed hotel business, or his break-up with Angela into them. Dwight trotted out Pam's biggest personal failure and shoved it in her face for a laugh.
    • It is a blink and miss but Dwight claims to have "4 and 3/4" horses. He then explains that he designed a machine that allows to take meat for hamburgers out of live horses without having to kill them.
      • Worse still? Of all the companies he contacted to market it, only one declined outright..
  • Dumbass Has a Point: In the seventh season finale Kelly tells Jo that Gabe was unprofessional in dating Erin to suck up but she pointed out that Gabe was acting creepy when she broke up with him.
  • Ear Worm: 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. Karen is begging him to stop in seconds.
    • The theme song itself is one of these.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Erin was initially meant to be a temporary character, but she was made into a regular as a result of both the producers loving the actress and the positive fan response to the character.
    • Dwight's cousin Moze is very popular, thanks to many funny moments. He even has his own Facebook fan page.
    • Kevin is considered by many to be one of the funniest characters from the show thanks to his simple-minded yet hilarious mannerisms.
  • Fetish Fuel: Pam for Kevin when she has to wear glasses.
  • Flanderization: Pretty much the entire supporting cast in the US version.
    • Taken to the extreme with Erin. Her character started off being merely an extremely optimistic and somewhat klutzy Wide-Eyed Idealist, to a drifty Cloudcuckoolander, and finally becoming Too Dumb to Live- all in one season.
    • Also very notable is Kevin who started as a normal overweight man with a somewhat funny smile who was relatively competent at his job, (Gambling Addiction aside) to a bumbling stupid Fat Idiot and crazed pervert incapaple of basic math and accounting who is thought of as mentally retarded and even talks more ridiculously as the show goes on.
      • Though it has also introduced areas that he is capable in; he is evidently a great cook and a talented musician. "Nepotism" indicates that he has some skill with electronics as well.
  • Final Season Casting: With Steve Carell gone now its uncertain how many more seasons the show will last, whether or not this trope results depends on that factor as well as who if anybody actually replaces Michael or if one of the other characters (say Jim or Dwight) gets promoted instead.
  • Growing the Beard: After an extremely shaky first season, the show really comes into its own in the second. In fact, many people would even say season two was the show's peak.
  • Ham and Cheese: Jim as Goldenface in Threat Level: Midnight. He only did it to impress Pam, but he sure looked like he had fun with it.
  • Hollywood Homely: Generally averted, as most of the cast are average-looking or are dressed sufficiently dumpy to pass. Played for laughs with Karen (Rashida Jones), who is stunningly gorgeous but is backhandedly insulted by Michael.
    • Played straight in an episode where Pam was out of contact solution, and wore her glasses to work. Michael told her to her face at every opportunity how "hideous" she looked.
      • And nobody else except Phyllis does. Michael and Phyllis sniping at Pam is supposed to show how rude and shallow they are.
  • Ho Yay: Michael has a way of getting into these situations. Also, Kevin and Oscar in "Niagara." Yes, we know that Oscar is actually gay.
    • Also interesting is the Dwight-Ryan conspiracy in "Manager and Salesman."
    • Dwight and Jim. In the episode where Dwight is fired (he was re-hired in the next episode) he doesn't say goodbye to anyone, but does stop to give Jim a big hug. Also, in the episode where Jim (with Karen and Pam's help) tricks Dwight into thinking that he's turning into a vampire, Dwight has tears in his eyes when he "realizes" that he must be the one to put Jim out of his "suffering".
    • In "Michael Scott Paper Company," Dwight and Andy are competing to impress Erin as they play a song together. However, they eventually forget about her as they are singing and she leaves the room while they continue their duet.
    • Michael has been enamored of Ryan for a long time.
      • Michael repeatedly writes about Ryan in his diary; when read a Jan's deposition, anyone who didn't know Ryan believed he was a woman Michael was in love with, based on some entries.
      • There's also the Dundies, the annual office awards assigned by Michael. Michael repeatedly awards Ryan "Hottest in the Office", a title previously held by Pam. When someone else wins "Hottest in the Office" in the 7th season, Ryan is shown to be pretty upset by this.
    • Dwight towards Michael, arguably. Dwight is always trying to please Michael, takes care of him when he's hurt, and in the episode "Koi Pond" calls him handsome when trying to cheer him up.
  • It's the Same, Now It Sucks: The first season really suffered for being too similar to the original UK series.
    • This can also lead to Early Installment Weirdness when you go back and watch that season after being more familiar with the later episodes.
  • Idiot Plot: Occurs MANY times.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Dwight would like to think he is one. He actually manages to pull it off in "Scott's Tots."
    • And "Classy Christmas." He had Jim reduced to a horribly paranoid mess by the end of the episode.
  • Memetic Mutation: Boom! Roasted.
    • That's what she said!
    • NO, GOD. NO, God, please, no, NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOO
  • Moe: Erin - we even see her in her "jammy jams".
  • Moral Event Horizon: Dwight crosses one in "The Coup," when he tries to back stab Michael and take his job. Notable in that Dwight recognizes this and Lampshades it as he does so. This also triggered some character development for him, as earlier in the series he seemed to be genuinely in awe of Michael. Afterward, his character maintains the facade but reveals various times that he no longer respects him.
    • Michael trying to make every aspect of Phyllis's wedding all about him. He actually implied that the bride was dishonorable in front of her husband at the wedding. In time gone by that would have ensured a Duel to the Death.
    • Dwight making an extremely serious attempt to get Jim fired in "Scott's Tots." This was actually so effective on the audience that the writers aborted the related arc.
    • David Wallace sends Michael and Dwight to infiltrate a smaller paper company (that was posing no real threat to Dunder Mifflin) so that they could steal their clients and run them out of business.
    • Angela while rude and insensitive, is usually ok with people, if tightly wound, except when she thinks they deserve it, or is vying for power (especially in regard to party planning). But in the dinner party episode, for no apparent reason, she lies about Pam's alleged romantic intentions with Michael to make Jan hate her.
      • Given Angela's view of Pam as the "office bicycle", her tendency to say things like "I think [insert color Phyllis is wearing here] is whorish", and her character conception as the type of person who says, "I don't want to say anything, BUT..." it's actually completely in character of her to believe that Pam was probably, or had probably, slept with Michael in addition to Jim and Roy since, after Jim, Michael was the one in the Office she spent the most (unwilling) time with.
      • Actually Angela did believe it but she wasn't the one to tell Jan it was true. Micheal did. All Angela said was "I've seen the way you look at him too."
    • Jan's 'forgetting' the Safe Word. Sounds like she raped Michael.
      • But since Rape Is OK When It Is Female On Male, it doesn't count, right?
      • Actually, this was treated by all as not remotely "OK", and prompted everyone to tell Michael to end things with Jan.
    • Dwight again in "Doomsday" when he installs a device to send an email to Robert California to get every one fired if they make 5 mistakes in a day. He then refuses to give up the password to them and says he'll write negative refrences to them if they get fired. If there ever was a time to give someone a kick to the testicles, this would be it.
      • To be fair though, it's revealed at the end of the episode that Dwight never intended to actually do it; he was just banking on the office believing that he would. It really was just a scare tactic.
  • Most Wonderful Sound: Stanley's absolutely hilarious laugh.
  • Never Live It Down: "Fire Guy!"
    • "Big Tuna", too.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Deangelo wandering back in to the office after having been hospitalized with a head injury, attempting to give out orders despite aphasia making him into a disturbing version of The Unintelligible.
    • Dwight's "fire drill," while hilarious, is also horrifying. The panic of all the office workers goes on for a four minute long cold open, with things like Michael smashing open a window and screaming pretty un-hammily for help, Jim yelling, "I am not dying here!" Dwight's Dissonant Serenity, oh, and Stanley having a heart attack. It's pretty unnerving.
  • Older Than They Think: A great many fans of the American version are not aware of the English one.
    • Or they wouldn't, if it weren't for Ricky Gervais complaining every time he gets a microphone about how "everyone" thinks Steve Carell is the creator of The Office.
    • Also, the character Michael Scott, who bears an intriguing resemblance to Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman.
      • Willy Loman strives for success but his main goal in life is to be loved, the same as Michael Scott. Both are convinced that's how you succeed. Both were very successful salesmen before the start of the narrative, and neither has realized how far downhill they've gone. Both are at a dead end in their careers, and neither realizes that their true talents lie elsewhere (Michael as a salesman, Willy as a carpenter). Both are desperate for normal human connections, and are incapable of keeping them. Willy Loman is really just Michael Scott in fifteen years, played for tragic anti-hero rather than for laughs.
  • Paranoia Fuel: What if your coworkers really do have you under electronic surveillance, looking for something they can use to ruin you for their own benefit.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot: Unintentionally. This sounds exactly like "Scott's Tots," only the real-life version was a success.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Andy.
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: The Dwight/Angela/Andy love triangle in season 5. Just sort of drug on and made Dwight and Angela into bastards.
  • Series Fauxnale: "Goodbye Michael", even though it isn't even the season finale, has all the hallmarks of a series finale and functions as such for some fans.
  • So Bad It's Good: What the members of the office see Michael's movie Threat Level: Midnight as, though Michael wants it to be taken seriously. He eventually accepts the fact that he doesn't need to make a great movie so he lets them enjoy it as they want to.
  • The Scrappy: It's hard to find anyone who has anything positive to say about Angela. Then again, it's hard to like a massively hypocritical religious fanatic who goes out of her way to be as much of an unlikable bitch as she possibly can.
    • Ryan, season 5 onwards, turned into a total College-brat, who doesn't even have a real job in the office.
      • Ryan's conniving, bratty nature started showing back in season 3. It even gets lampshaded at one point.

Jim: I liked you better when you were just the temp.
Ryan: Yeah, so did I.

    • Replacement Scrappy: Deangelo Vickers
      • He's an arguable example, though, as he was never intended as an actual replacement for Michael. Heck, he was Put on a Bus less than one episode after Michael was.
    • Jim is also becoming this with a lot of fans: he's been Flanderized into a smug, entitled asshole.
  • Seasonal Rot: There were complaints about a fall in quality starting around the fourth season (when the primary ongoing plot was resolved at last). It picked up even more during the sixth and seventh seasons and now that Michael Scott is gone those complaints have increased tenfold.
  • Super Couple: Jim and Pam, especially in seasons 2-6. One of the great examples of a Happily Married couple on TV this side of Friday Night Lights.
  • Tear Jerker: In "Boys and Girls," Jan discusses ambitions with all the office women; Pam wants a house with a terrace to plant flowers, and a job where she can use her art skills. Jan offers to put in a good word for her on a graphic design internship in New York, but when Pam tells Roy about it, he tells her to forget about it. Pam explains all this to the camera along with the terrace (it's from a children's story she read, and something about it stuck with her). But what are dreams worth? "It's impractical. I'm not gonna try to get a house like that. Um, they don't even make houses like that in Scranton...so, I'm never gonna..." Pam has to stop herself from crying.
    • Then Pam goes to art school (hooray!), fails once, and gives up (boo!). Roy turns out to be right in hindsight. A jerk, sure, but right.
    • When Michael leaves the office for the last time. In fact, the entire episode, though hilarious, was one big tear jerker.

Jim: You know what I think we should do? I think we should just save the goodbyes for tomorrow. At lunch.

  • The Woobie: Pam before she gets married; Erin more than anyone else.
    • Phyllis and Toby get picked on by Michael a lot. Especially Toby.
    • While he is normally a mildly creepy sexist, one Cold Opening has Kevin going out of his way make chili for everyone in The Office, proudly declaring that it's his greatest skill. As soon as he walks in the door (after carrying it up the stairs due to a broken elevator) he trips and spills it all over the carpet. Seeing the big guy trying in vain to scoop it all back into the pot just makes you want to give him a hug, even moreso when he faces the camera with an expression that looks like he just watched a puppy get run over.
    • Andy has some Woobie elements too.

Andy: "What we have here is the ultimate smackdown between the Nard Dog and crippling despair, loneliness and depression. I intend to win."

    • Erin is an orphaned Pollyanna who just wants everyone to like her, but she seems to have been fleshed out into a full fledged woobie as of Secretary's Day. She had a cringe worthy Heroic BSOD when she found out that Andy and Angela used to be engaged: her breathing pattern became irregular, she pulled her hair to her face, and started yelling.

Erin: In the foster home my hair was my room.

      • Turned up to eleven when Michael lands a devastating blow during an argument in "Viewing Party"(Though in fairness, he picks up on the mistake uncharacteristically fast and immediately moves to fix it).

Michael: I'm not your dad!

Erin: *cue massive teary doe eyes*

    • Jim and Dwight had their moments. Jim during the lowest points of his pining for Pam; Dwight after Angela dumped him (especially when, after he defeated the computer in a sales competition and Angela didn't care, Pam, who had been impersonating the Dunder-Mifflin computer network as part of a prank, sent him an instant message admitting its defeat. Dwight cries).
    • Young Michael on the videotape in "Take Your Daughter To Work Day" (which goes a long way towards explaining parts of his adult personality): "I want to get married and have a hundred kids, so I can have a hundred friends, and no one can say no to being my friend."
    • Even Angela gets in on it at one point, when Dwight gives her the news of her cat Sprinkles having died. Pet owners can relate.
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