The Office (UK series): Difference between revisions
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British [[Mockumentary]] [[Work Com]] (2001-3) in the style of a fly on the wall, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.
The main setting is the administrative office of [[Incompetence, Inc.|paper supplies company Wernham Hogg]], presided over by [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist]] David Brent. His [[Number Two]], Gareth Keenan, is an unpleasant, pathetic loser with a military obsession. The most sympathetic character is Tim Canterbury, the witty clerk (see [[Tough Room]]) whose relationship with receptionist Dawn Tinsley seems to be an example of [[Star-Crossed Lovers]]. The series was met with great critical acclaim and won several awards, hailed for its original style and subtle, insightful
One inspired departure from the usual [[Mockumentary]] formula: the characters are very aware of the [[In-Universe Camera|cameras being on them]], all the time. Brent in particular is given to preening and showing off for the camera, and Gareth explicitly notes that he's only behaving a certain way because "they're filming".
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{{tropelist}}
=== The British version provides examples of: ===
* [[Agree to Disagree]]: "Motivation".
* [[Amusing Injuries]]: David Brent headbutting his new receptionist.
* [[Aside Glance]]: Tim and David both do it constantly.
* [[Bad News, Irrelevant News]]: [[Trope Namer]]. The bad news is the Slough branch is being closed. The good news is that David's been promoted. The staff don't see it this way, describing it as "bad news and irrelevant news
* [[Belated Happy Ending]]: {{spoiler|Tim and Dawn}} in the [[Christmas Special]].
* [[British Brevity]]: Fourteen episodes (two six-episode seasons and a concluding two-part Christmas Special). Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant felt that as it is supposed to be a 'fly on the wall' documentary (rather than a work-com) it would stretch belief that the crew are still there months or years later. This is the biggest difference between it and the American version.
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* [[The Cast Showoff]]: Ladies and gentlemen, the blues rock stylings of Ricky Gervais!
* [[Christmas Episode]]: which was also the [[Grand Finale]].
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Gareth and Keith..
* [[Comically Missing the Point]]: Given the nature of the series, it happens with alarming regularity. However, a particularly [[Egregious]] example is when David [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVr6rFXJg88 reads John Betjeman's "Slough"] at the end of "The New Girl".
** Also notable is the Training episode, where Gareth somehow misses the point of every single exercise the instructor puts the staff through.
* [[Comic Role Play]]: The training episode! "See, I fazed you."
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* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Tim!
* [[Death Faked for You]]: The tech support guy, Simon, is convinced that [[Bruce Lee]]'s death was a cover-up to allow him to go [[Deep-Cover Agent]] and bust up the Triads.
* [[Don't Explain the Joke]]: David Brent is constantly doing this, as part of his chronically misfiring sense of
* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]
* [[Failure Knight]]: Gareth.
* [[For the Funnyz]]: David.
* [[Happily Ever After]]: Mocked in an after-the-fact (out of character) documentary.
* [[In Da Club]]: Deconstructed in the last ten or so minutes of "The New Girl".
* [[Jerkass]]: Chris Finch and Lee. Neil is also a bit of this, albeit more subtly.
* [[Pet the Dog]]:
** David standing up for Gareth when Donna insults him in "The New Girl
** Tim agreeing to go out for a drink with David when everyone else shuns him in the Christmas special.
* [[Pointy-Haired Boss]]: David.
* [[Real Song Theme Tune]]: "Handbags and Gladrags", in a version similar to the cover by Welsh rock band Stereophonics.
* [[Romantic False Lead]]: Lee, coming between Tim and Dawn.
* [[Running Gag]]: Keith says something grossly inappropriate, before taking a huge bite from a scotch egg.
* [[Separated by a Common Language]]: "Because fanny means your arse over there. ([[Beat]]) Not your [[Country Matters|minge]]."
* [[Seven Minute Lull]]: David gets caught in the middle of a (lame) dirty joke in the [[Seven Minute Lull]] at the end of "The Party
* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: Used intentionally (and hilariously).
* [[Star-Making Role]]: Take a bow, Ricky Gervais.
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=== The US version contains examples of: ===
* [[Aborted Arc]]: Current showrunner Paul Lieberstein has admitted that Jim's {{spoiler|demotion back to Assistant Regional Manager, after being promoted half a season earlier}} was a result of poor audience response to the change and Dwight's resulting plot to {{spoiler|seriously get him fired}}. This meant that the Ryan-Dwight alliance established at the end of "Scott's Tots" lead to nothing, as the Jim plot ended four episodes later.
** Similarly,
** The romance between Dwight and Isabella is another example. The last episode she appeared in left it looking like they were simpatico.
* [[Above the Influence]]: Pam would've done anything with Jim (and even kisses him before he can react) in "The Dundies
** Jim also displays this in "After Hours" when Kathy makes unwelcome advances towards him: Avoiding her, inviting Stanley to join them, tricking Dwight into the room, gently rebuffing her, and finally asking her to leave outright.
* [[Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male]]: Jan and Michael's sexual relationship is very clearly exploitive and would easily be [[Dude, Not Funny]] if their [[Stealth Pun|positions were reversed]]. However, we really only hear his side of things, and he appears to dish out as much as he gets in "The Dinner Party
* [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]: The documentary format can raise the question of just how long these people are going to keep filming before they have a finished product. And if it's a TV show in-universe as well, apparently none of the characters actually watch it. Fans tend to let it go for the sake of the jokes.
* [[Accidental Marriage]]: Angela and Andy arrange to host their wedding at Dwight's farm. During a walk through, Dwight has a local German-speaking Amish minister perform a "mock" ceremony with himself as the groom. Subverted in that, until Dwight pulled this stunt, Angela was carrying on an affair with him and had finally decided to leave Andy.
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* [[AI Is a Crapshoot]]: Dwight doesn't care for artificial intelligences. This allows Pam and Jim to trick him into thinking the sales website server has achieved self-awareness with the intent of destroying him (in terms of sales) in one episode. There's this exchange in a later episode:
{{quote|'''Michael:''' Why do you have a diary?
'''Dwight:''' To keep secrets from my computer.
* [[Alcohol Is Poison]]: At Pam and Jim's wedding.
* [[All Guys Want Cheerleaders]]: Subverted when Michael is describing his love life to the office women. At first, he seems to be suggesting that he wants Jan to act this out, but she is the one demanding that ''he'' wear the uniform.
** Practically inverted by Jim in "Booze Cruise". When it comes up that his girlfriend Katy was a high school cheerleader, he briefly doesn't believe it and overall seems to see it as a negative, in preference to Pam the "art geek".
* [[All Women Are Lustful]]: This is probably the most aggressive portrayal of female sexuality on network TV. Nearly every female character has had sex in the office, and many of them are quite frank about themselves in the [[Confession Cam]].
* [[Ambiguously Brown]]: Karen, to Michael at least ("Wow, you look very exotic. Was your dad a GI?"). Her last name (Filipelli) and dialogue suggest she is Italian-American. Rashida Jones is actually half black and half white.
* [[Ambulance Chaser]]: When Michael thinks he's about to be sued for sexual
* [[American Accents]]: Several Southern accents are attempted (poorly) in "Murder
* [[Amusing Injuries]] :
** When Michael hurt his foot by burning it on a George Foreman grill.
** In the same episode, Dwight crashes his car trying to rescue Michael and receives a concussion
** Erin Hannon, being attacked by her literal "Twelve Days of Christmas" gifts certainly give merit to this trope.
** Andy tearing his scrotum. It SOUNDS funny...
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* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: Oscar described Ryan's illegal maneuvering as such:
{{quote|'''Oscar:''' Ryan's big project was the website, which wasn't doing so well. So to give the ''impression'' of sales Ryan had us record sales twice; once as office sales and once as website sales. This is called ''misleading the shareholders.'' Another word for this is ''fraud.'' The ''real'' crime, I think, was the ''beard.''}}
* [[Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving]]: Inverted in the
* [[Ascended Extra]]: Phyllis Smith (Phyllis) was originally a casting assistant who was rewarded with a part after making a good impression at a read-through. Mindy Kaling (Kelly), a member of the show's writing staff, was pressed into service in her first appearance because the director needed an Indian actress.
* [[Ascended Meme]]:
** Two in the wedding episode. First, Dwight wears a ridiculous [http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Short-Sleeve-XXX-Large/dp/B000NZW3JI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=apparel&qid=1255064214&sr=8-1 Three Wolves Howling at the Moon t-shirt] that became an Amazon.com legend for the hilarious fake reviews, and second, the wedding itself, which took after [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0 the YouTube video with the bridal party dancing down the aisle.]
** In one episode, Ryan is watching the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ3oHpup-pk Flea Market Montgomery] ad.
** [http://www.hulu.com/watch/96408/the-office-parkour "Parkour!"]
** Andy doing the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJHMApr_xtk evolution of dance dance] without the music
** The Lipdub.
** Planking in the cold open at the start of
* [[As Himself]]: Creed Bratton has a pretty interesting history and is basically playing an [[Adam Westing|exaggerated version]] of himself. In episode commentary, the actors say the real Creed is just like the character, except without the "creepy" tendencies of his onscreen persona.
* [[Aside Glance]]: Characters who are "allowed" to shoot nonplussed or aside glances at the camera tend to be the most self-aware
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* [[Bacon Addiction]]: Michael.
* [[Badass Boast]]: Robert California delivers one to Andy in "Turf War":
{{quote|''"I will not be blackmailed by some ineffectual,
* [[Bad Bad Acting]]:
** "Threat Level Midnight".
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** Michael's ''Blair Witch'' style new hiree introduction video.
* [[Batman Gambit]]:
** How Pam manages to get a new job in the office in
** Michael goading Dwight into using the information from the notes he stole into losing his biggest client to the Michael Scott Paper Company.
* [[Beach Episode]]: ...sort of.
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* [[Benevolent Boss]]: Michael likes to think of himself as being one of these.
** Jo Bennett also seems to qualify.
* [[Benjamin Franklin]]: The episode "Ben Franklin".
{{quote|'''Dwight''': I don't care what Jim said! I am 99% sure that is NOT the real Ben Franklin. (Beat) 98% sure.}}
* [[Berserk Button]]:
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** Or actually fire Devon, particularly if Creed actually deserves to be fired.
** If you're Pam's boss, don't date her mom.
** Don't call Pam "Pammy
** Do ''not'' cut in or save a spot for anyone in line on Pretzel Day! One of the few things Michael and Stanley agree on.
* [[Betty and Veronica]]:
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** And an offscreen one when Pam learns that {{spoiler|Michael's dating her mother}}. It continues through a commercial break!
* [[Birds of a Feather]]: Jim and Pam, Michael and Holly, Andy and Erin
* [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]]: Phyllis. In "Happy Hour
** Kathy, Pam's rarely seen/heard from replacement, as well. Apparently her goal is to
* [[Black Best Friend]]:
** Subverted. Michael ''thinks'' this way about Stanley.
** Also with Darryl, who takes it upon himself to teach Michael some "black man phrases
** On the other hand, Andy and Darryl have become best friends even depending on each other for advice and support.
* ''[[The Blair Witch Project]]'': Jim recalls that his induction video to Scranton was in the form of a parody of the movie.
* [[Blatant Lies]]: Among many others, Michael's claim that when he was in college, the professors were invited to the many parties he went to. As if it weren't blatant enough already, everyone knows Michael never went to college.
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* [[Bonus Material]]: There are a number of [[Webisode|webisodes]] and extra scenes offered online on the NBC website or Hulu.
** Interesting example, as deleted scenes are still considered canon by the cast and creators. This is more common now, what with the rise of "webisodes" and freely available online content, but ''The Office'' premiered at a time when deleted scenes were largely only available on DVD releases.
* [[Booby Trap]]: When Dwight is in Tallahassee and looks like he's about to be promoted and stay, the office decides to find out what's in the box he left marked "treasure". Fearing it might be booby trapped they get the most insane person in the office (Creed) to open it. When he does the only thing that seems to be inside is a picture of everyone there. At first they're touched but then a dart suddenly shoots out and up into the ceiling. Dwight TH's innocently that he had no idea it was rigged with a poison dart!
* [[Book Ends]]: Holly Flax first appears in the episode "Goodbye, Toby". Her last appearance (to date) is in "Goodbye, Michael".
* [[Bowling for Ratings]]: Where Ryan is recruited for The Michael Scott Paper Company.
* [[Brainless Beauty]]: Beautiful but dumb Erin is a textbook case. Kelly has some elements but is a bit too devious to be a genuine [[Brainless Beauty]].
** Earlier episodes suggest Kelly isn't as dumb as she acts, given the winks and eyebrow-raises she makes to the camera after particularly clueless statements.
* [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick]]: An actual food-related example with Dwight's machine during "Secret Santa
* [[Break the Cutie]]: Erin Hannon in "Secretary's Day
** Some of those other events did seem to upset her. But what probably [[Berserk Button|sent her over the edge]] was that it was Angela, the antithesis of Erin.
* [[Brick Joke]]: In "Casual Friday
** "The Lover" has Dwight giving Jim a wooden mallard that is an [[Incredibly Obvious Bug]]. During the scene, he awkwardly returns a pen he borrowed from Jim. {{spoiler|At the very end of the episode, by which time the mallard has been thrown away and everyone else has gone home, Dwight sneaks back into Jim's office and takes out the pen, which is his true listening device. "Do you really think I'd put my primary listening device in a wooden mallard?"}}
*** And ''then'' in "Scott's Tots", the pen comes back.
** In "Traveling Salesman
** In "Prince Family Paper
** In "Ben Franklin", Ryan wants to know if the Foreman grill that Michael is grilling steaks on is the same one that he burned his foot on. Michael admits it is, but assures Ryan "I got all the foot off."
** When recapping some of the weird people who interviewed for Michael Scott's job after Michael leaves, Jim mentions one guy who kept talking about the Finger Lakes, although the audience never saw the interview. At the end of the episode, there's a quick series of talking heads from each interviewee. The Finger Lakes guy is unexpectedly revealed. It's [[Jim Carrey]].
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* [[Brilliant but Lazy]]: Jim.
** Once news of impending bankruptcy surfaced he matter-of-factly tells the camera that he only screws around when things are going well.
* [[Broken Aesop]]: One of the things that Pam learns during her [[Character Development]] arc in Season Three is the importance of taking risks when you're unsatisfied with the current state of your career...except that the risks she takes, such as art school, joining the Michael Scott Paper Company, trying to be a salesperson, keep turning out not to be worth it and [[Unfortunate Implications|get her disliked by other members of the cast]]. She does [[Failure Is the Only Option|as badly as people say she will.]] And with the addition of [[Foil|Erin, who makes the best of the receptionist job that Pam doesn't think much of]], it's starting to look like the best option would have been to adjust perspective on the whole thing. Arguably justified since teaching life lessons is probably way down on the show's list of priorities; it's all about comedy.
** 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.
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** 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.
* [[The Butler Did It]]: Inverted by Dwight. When he ends up as the Butler character in a murder mystery dinner party game, he immediately turns into the [[Munchkin]]
* [[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.
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{{quote|'''Michael''': So, I guess we're getting back together.
'''Pam''': What happened?
'''Michael''': Your advice was good, but Jan's was bigger.
** Several seasons later, Erin the new receptionist makes a new friend out of an old lady she meets in Florida. Erin tells the old lady that her boyfriend Andy rejected her, and the old lady answers with "With those gazongas?".
* [[California Doubling]]
** Particularly [[Egregious]] example in "Goodbye, Michael" - Deangelo and Andy are seen driving down a typical Southern California boulevard and California-style street signs are clearly visible.
* [[Call Back]]: "Christmas Party" ends with a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Minor Moment of Heartwarming]] when Michael is invited to drinks at Poor Richard's with his co-workers; "E-Mail Surveillance" had focused on how much everyone in the office (and even everyone in Michael's improv class) would lie to avoid Michael following them to social events outside work.
** In
*** Though the finished movie seems to occur in a later timeline than the screenplay from
** In
** In
** In Season 7, Toby is visibly reluctant to enter the church where Cici Halpert is being baptized. At first glance, it appears he's just upset about seeing his crush's baby. But then he talking heads that "He and the [[God|big guy]] have a lot of catching up to do." It's actually a reference to a much earlier sequence where Toby admits dropping out of seminary to date his now ex-wife.
** In Season 8's "Pam's Replacement", after spending the entire trying to make Jim admit that
** Nellie Bertram, first seen applying for the Scranton manager position in Season 7 finale "Search Committee", pops up again in Season 8 working at the Sabre HQ in Florida.
* [[Calvin Ball]]: When Andy, Darryl, and Kevin play the ''[[Dallas]]'' board game without any instructions to consult, the first two just make up the rules as they go, to Kevin's great displeasure.
* [[The Cameo]]: "The Seminar" has Michael meeting his British counterpart David Brent (Ricky Gervais) outside an elevator.
** Gervais pops up again in the "Search Committee" episode, along with [[Jim Carrey]], Catherine Tate, Ray Romano, James Spader, Will Arnett, and Warren Buffett.
** In "The Convention", Michael meets NFL star Jerome Bettis.
* [[Cannot Spit It Out]]: Jim and Pam are in love but can't vocalize it for the first three seasons, Andy and Erin's relationship lives off this and Michael is in love with Holly but can't say so during her relationship with AJ (which is the middle of
** During "Casino Night", {{spoiler|Jim [[Averted Trope|tells Pam]] how he feels}}.
** {{spoiler|Recently, Andy has gotten over this and actually flew back to Florida when he heard that Erin was planning on staying there after the business trip was over. They have since gotten together officially and have been a couple ever since}}.
* [[Cannot Tell a Joke]]: Michael.
** Not necessarily. "The Client" proves that he can tell a joke pretty well (especially since it's implied that jokes are a key part of his sales pitch). Michael's problem is that he's terrible with situational jokes and coming up with his own material.
*** Not just situational. He's proven time and again that even with ''prepared'' material, he is a terrible public speaker and a horrid stand-up comedian. He can tell correctly a joke when Pam goes over it carefully (as "The Client" proves) but if he prepares his own, every characters ''knows'' that [[This Is Going to Suck]]. This is lampshaded repeatedly every time Michael opens with "[[Good Morning Vietnam]]!" which gets met with a room-wide groan.
* [[Can't Hold His Liquor]]: Despite showing up a good while after Michael buys booze for the party in the Christmas episode, Todd Packer is the only one to pass out.
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* [[Captain Oblivious]]: Stanley tunes out ''everything'' that goes on around him. The entire office spends a cold open trying to challenge his oblivious sense and he fails to notice Kevin dressed as Phyllis, naked Andy, the fake computer monitor Jim slips on the real one, the "everyone sits backwards" meeting where Michael proclaims 8000 percent profits for the Jupiter branch, mustache Pam or Dwight's pony.
{{quote|'''Jim:''' Stanley just took a sip of my orange juice instead of his hot coffee and didn't notice, so the question begs to be asked: Is there a ''limit'' to what he won't notice?}}
** Creed suffers from this as well. During a round of side betting amongst the staff, they switch Creed's apple with an old potato they found behind the fridge. Creed doesn't notice ''even after biting into it
* [[Car Fu]]: Andy does this ''with stealth'' by using his hybrid's electric engine to sneak up on Dwight and pin him to a hedge.
* [[Carpet of Virility]]: [http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t117/cowboyhd/MenOnTV/Shows/Office%20-%20S04E01/Office-4x01-01.jpg Jim.] Who knew?
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* [[Catch Phrase]]: Michael's "That's what she said!"
** 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
* [[Cavemen vs. Astronauts Debate]]: Is ''[[Hilary Swank]]'' hot or not?
* [[Celebrity Paradox]]: In the
** Michael also mentions watching ''[[The Wire]]'' a season or two before they started taking notes from that show's casting director.
** With [[Will Ferrell]]'s guest run in
** In
** In a deleted scene from the
** This one will blow your mind. In Season 1
* [[Celebrity Resemblance]]: In "The Sting
* [[Chain of Corrections]]
* [[Chandler's Law]]: Michael lives by this trope, and ''only'' this trope, at his improv nights. Much to the annoyance of the other performers.
* [[Chaos Architecture]]:
* [[Character Blog]]: Though Creed's doesn't live up to Ryan's description (see [[Take Our Word for It]] below).
* [[Character Development]]: Phyllis and Pam are quite different in later seasons than their shrinking violet behavior in the early ones.
** Nearly the entire support cast has this. Creed went from being the quiet guy to being the weird guy. Kelly went from being the traditional Indian girl to being a cheerleader who hasn't grown up. Erin went from the oddly strict secretary to the girl who doesn't quite get it. Even Dwight's unique view of the world went from being geeky, paramilitary and a little too serious to full fledge paranoid.
** Pam and Jim can both be argued in the sense that each started with dreams of leaving the Scranton workplace; they saw their jobs as menial, and the only thing that kept them there was each other. Now, though, all their dreams of going beyond Dunder-Mifflin have gone, and it's been hinted many times that Jim is following Michael's path to management despite his apathy for a career in paper. They're content to just stay there, although still will complain about the job often.
** Ryan started as sort of an [[Only Sane Man]] outsider perspective character but became increasingly [[Jerkass]] as he rose in the company becoming [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]], falling from grace, and ending up just as messed up as anyone else in the office.
** Dwight. Going from the character everyone in the office is either annoyed or perplexed by, into... well, still perplexing, but damn golden-hearted. Also, realizing that his boss is grossly unfair to him and learning to stop hero-
* [[Character Filibuster]]: Used in the literal sense by Dwight to stall for time at the volleyball game while waiting for Pam to get back from the ER.
* [[Characterization Marches On]]: When he was first introduced, Andy Bernard was a douchebag fratboy asshole with anger management problems and a sleazy, predatory attitude towards women. He went to an anger management class after punching a wall, but the rest of his early character does not mesh well with the later portrayal of Andy as a
** Justified as in those predatory moments, he seems to be trying to impress Jim more than anything. And his anger management training time and relationship with Angela seem to have hammered out most of the douchebag confidence he once had.
** Mindy Kaling was originally a writer who was pressed into service in "Diversity Day" because of her Indian ethnicity. The businesslike Kelly who slaps Michael in that episode does not match up well with the flighty, shallow Kelly of later seasons (as [[Word of God|Mindy Kaling admitted]] on a DVD commentary).
* [[Charlie and the Chocolate Parody]]: Michael puts five Golden Tickets worth 10% each off for a year's supply of paper into packs of Dunder-Mifflin paper. Unfortunately {{spoiler|they all end up at Dunder Mifflin's biggest client, Blue Cross}}. Even worse, he forgets to {{spoiler|write "one per customer" on the tickets}}.
** But then after he tries to {{spoiler|bully Dwight into taking the fall, it turns out that Blue Cross was ecstatic over the promotion and makes Dunder Mifflin its exclusive provider of office supplies out of gratitude, making it a public relations and sales bonus. So Michael tries to reclaim credit
* [[The Chew Toy]]: Meredith, oh Meredith...
** Erin also plays this role sometimes, having her Twelve Days of Christmas "presents" pluck out her hair, scratching her face and attacking her in other ways. Also, while riding in a shopping cart, being pushed by Kelly, she falls out and hurts her leg while Kelly and Ryan make out.
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* [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]]: Jordan Garfield in Season 8, mirroring her rather abrupt addition to the cast in the previous season.
* [[Clingy Jealous Girl]]: Kelly.
* [[Clip Show]]: "The Banker
* [[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."''."
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** Holly Flax is a somewhat milder one.
* [[Cold Open]]
* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: An inversion. Michael color-codes the back of his
* [[Comedic Sociopathy]]
* [[Comically Missing the Point]]:
** Michael is often guilty of this.
{{quote|"I don't care if Ryan murdered his family, he is like a son to me."}}
** In "The Secret
{{quote|'''Dwight:''' I found out something very interesting about Oscar today. ''[beat]'' He was lying about being sick!}}
* [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong]]: Averted in the
* [[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.
* [[Conservation of Competence]]
** Also, when Michael takes an entry-level telemarketing job, he becomes much sharper socially and relating to people, but can't make a sale, which is basically the opposite of his qualities when he is in his manager role at Dunder Mifflin.
* [[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
** In "Secret Santa
* [[Contractual Immortality]]: It's the only possible explanation for why Michael was never fired (or arrested); although he is known to be an extremely good salesman (and in one episode, it's alluded to that he was in fact one of the most successful salesmen in the company's history), his management skills are... inferior.
** Nearly averted ([[Like You Would Really Do It|sort of]]): One early-season episode specified Scranton as bottom of the heap in sales for the branches that Jan oversaw. The Scranton branch ''was'' going to get closed and Michael was going to get laid off ("Branch Closing"). It was only after Josh, the Stamford manager, took a job at Staples that Scranton absorbed Stamford. And after all that went down Scranton had absorbed Stamford's clients while keeping only two employees (Karen and Andy).
*** After Karen takes a manager job in another branch, this leaves only Andy as the extra salary, trading for Devin's QA job (fired in the first Halloween episode) to
**** However, when David Wallace is meeting with Michael about his high sales numbers, he takes a moment to specifically congratulate Michael on not losing any clients over the course of the two mergers. Wallace has not been portrayed as an idiot, so one would think that if it was just that simple, he would've connected those two dots himself.
** Justified by the fifth season, when it's revealed that the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin is, in fact, the most successful regional branch in the company much to the utter confusion of corporate.
** '''Michael''' has repeatedly sexually harassed his employees (particularly Ryan, Pam, Oscar, Karen, Phyllis, Angela, and Stanley via the photo of his daughter) and put them in physical danger, and almost never actually works. It was indicated that he raped Ryan. He has kidnapped a delivery boy, knocked a ladder out from under another employee, causing him serious injury, forced a kiss on an employee, and attempted to get his HR representative ''sent to prison''. And all that was BEFORE he lost new business leads that Sabre (which is a much more serious and successful company than Dunder Mifflin) spent $50,000 on in a failed attempt to get his sales staff to stop acting up, with no later reference to it from corporate. Is a complete douchebag to everyone in the office (except Erin), especially Toby.
*** '''Michael and Dwight''' both did things which absolutely would have gotten them terminated immediately during "Stress Relief" - legitimately threatening Stanley's life. David Wallace mentions that they're "not going to just let this one slide" - and then requires Dwight to 'formally apologize,' and the whole thing is promptly forgotten.
** '''Dwight''' has, among other things: caused another employee to have a heart attack with his "fire drill" (using arson as a learning tool), had a duel with another employee during work hours, cut the face off of a CPR dummy (which had to be replaced by the company, costing them thousands), repeatedly abandoned fellow employees at remote locations under false pretenses, and fired a gun in the office injuring Andy. He keeps all kinds of other weapons in the office (which turned out to be useful, when he stopped Roy from attacking Jim). He looked at gay porn on his computer for "research". He made Holly think that Kevin was mentally disabled, and made Erin think that the office was haunted by the ghost of a 19th Century prostitute. He talked to Toby's 5-year old daughter about Nazi's. He brought a porcupine into the office in an attempt to set Jim up to get fired. He shot Jim repeatedly with
** '''Jim and Pam''' spend the vast majority of their work day flirting (and the
*** Although they probably only do this in the first place because they know their workplace isn't exactly a "professional" one and doing well in a place like that isn't exactly going to get them anywhere career-wise. They probably just do it for kicks since it's all they've really got, and if they were working in a more normal work environment, they'd be much more professional and serious about it.
*** Pam lied her way into a job with higher pay because she wasn't a good salesman.
** '''Kelly''' at one point faked negative customer reviews (which affect the bonuses of other employees) as revenge against Jim and Dwight for not attending one of her parties.
** '''Stanley''' has repeatedly and openly chewed out his own boss (though at times fairly reasonably), and does crosswords on company time.
** '''Toby''' makes little to no attempt to actually control the constant disruptions in the office. He also has a potentially unhealthy infatuation with Pam.
*** Actually, "Conflict Resolution" makes it clear that the conflicts in the office would be ''far'' worse if it weren't for Toby. Obviously, he has to pick his battles to some extent, and a disruption in the office that is quickly dealt with by HR wouldn't exactly make for an exciting episode, would it?
** '''Creed''' makes no attempt to do his job at all, to the point of needing to frame another employee when an obscene watermark makes it through his quality control responsibilities.
** '''Meredith''' is frequently drunk at the office. She sexually harasses Michael, and has had sex at least once with Creed. In addition, her casual
** '''Ryan''' has never made a sale and rarely seems to work
** '''Andy''' is a terrible salesman who hit Dwight with his car and punched a hole in the building's wall
** '''Angela''' has shown a pattern of disrespectful behavior to the other women in the office, calling them 'hussies' and 'whores,' and [[Hypocritical Humor|has had sex on office property]] during work hours. Also a total homophobe, ironic as her husband is a closeted homosexual.
** '''Phyllis''' has blackmailed a fellow employee.
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** That leaves Darryl, Oscar, and Erin as the only Dunder Mifflin employees who would conceivably be employed in the real world.
*** Didn't Dwight get enough evidence to at least get Darryl in hot water with the act of defrauding the company medical insurance plan by pretending his injury was work-related when in fact the warehouse staff were using the mechanical lift as an elevator against company safety procedures?
**
*** Actually, it was stated that Darryl had already been trying to get a raise, and was using Roy's firing as extra leverage.
* [[Control Freak]]: Gabe.
* [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]]: After learning that Ryan told his business class that a paper company would inevitably fail against a computer company, Michael moves his desk next to Kelly's
** And then, to punish his insubordination, Jim moves his desk into the closet between the bathrooms.
** When Dwight insults her about her baby weight, Pam and Jim learn
** 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
* [[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
* [[Crazy Prepared]]: Dwight stashes weapons all over the office (most notably a knife he keeps in the filing cabinet under the file "A. Knife"), and is convinced that he's prepared to survive any eventuality.
{{quote|Pam: "There are two keys to the office. Dwight has both. When I asked him what would happen if he died, Dwight answered 'If I'm dead, you've all been dead for weeks.'"}}
** When Ryan rattles off a list of excuses why he can't go to Benihana with Michael (including both food allergies ''and'' having just eaten there), Jim complains that he used all the good excuses and Ryan reveals that he keeps a list of excuses on his Blackberry.
* [[Credits Gag]]: In the episode "Michael Scott Paper Company
** When Deangelo takes over, the scene of Michael adjusting his Dundie Award statuette in the last shot of the credits is replaced by Deangelo adjusting a strange, brightly-colored figurine of his own.
* [[Cringe Comedy]]: Used without mercy, especially with Michael. Any time Michael is speaking in front of a large group, prepare to cringe.
** There was a tendency to do this with Jim and Pam a lot around the period in which Jim was a co-manager alongside Michael.
* [[Crossover]]: The cold open of the episode "The Seminar" features [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AppVGPVYv4 the historic meeting of Michael Scott and David Brent].
* [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]: Despite being... [[Cloudcuckoolander|out there]], Michael's branch is consistently the top in sales.
* [[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.
* [[Dead Person Impersonation]]: Cryptically hinted at
* [[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.
* [[Department of Redundancy Department]]:
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* [[Derailed for Details]]: When asked which five books he would want on a deserted island, Dwight acts like a [[Munchkin]] (see below), [[Completely Missing the Point]] of the game and asking whether there is any firewood on the island or whether he lost his shoes before he got there.
* [[Description Cut]]: In "PDA", Holly has a talking head in which she gives a description of Michael Scott basically exudes sex. As she's talking, a montage is shown of Michael being anything ''but'' sexy, culminating in a shot of him slouched in a chair with his face and bits of his suit smeared with Cheese Puff dust.
* [[The Determinator]]: Dwight in "Tallahasee" tries to make it through a Sabre seminar, even though he's in pain from an appendicitis. Later in the day, he still tries to give a presentation just a few hours after having an emergency appendectomy.
* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: Michael's knowledge on any given topic is inversely proportional to his willingness to lecture on it.
** "There are four kinds of business: tourism, food service, railroads, and sales... and hospitals/manufacturing... and air travel."
** When Michael correctly states that China has 56 cities with over a million residents as opposed to the United States with nine, the whole office goes crazy trying to find the exact figure. They are all stunned that he got both numbers right.
** "We do not know how many offices are robbed every second... because there is no [[The Other Wiki|Wikipedia entry]] for office break-ins."
* [[Did They or Didn't They?]]: It's unclear exactly what happened between Jan and Michael in "The Client
* [[Dinner and a Show]]: Jan and Michael's titular gathering in "Dinner Party" descends into utter chaos, with each of them berating the other and breaking their possessions, much to the simultaneous entertainment/horror of their guests.
* [[Discreet Drink Disposal]]: Karen in the Stamford office in Season 3.
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** Creed shares this trait in the NBC version of his [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:cCx5p9u4984J:www.nbc.com/the-office/creed-thoughts/+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us Creed Thoughts]
{{quote|'''Creed Thoughts - Jan 24 2012''' Buying a zoo in this economy is a pretty crappy idea, but it's a lot better than buying the farm. (Cause that means you're dead).}}
* [[Double Entendre]]: Michael finds it '''extremely hard''' to '''go all day''' without using "That's what she said
** His jokes always left Jim satisfied.
* [[The Dragon]]: Dwight often seems to like seeing himself as this to Michael.
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** His advice to Jim on the Booze Cruise: "BFD. Engaged ain't married. Never, ever, ever give up."
** His response to Andy's anger about having told Erin about his former engagement to Angela: "You didn't tell her you were engaged to someone who sits six feet from her? That's, like, ''[[Mr. and Mrs. Smith]]'' crap."
** His attempt (in deleted scenes) to claim that Meredith was drunk when he
** His speech to Stanley at the end of "Did I Stutter?", when he reasonably points out that however little Stanley thinks of him, he has to treat him with the respect due a boss.
** Everyone attacks Michael's obsessions with the idea that Donna wants him to kiss her again, and later that she's cheating on him - both of which turn out to be correct.
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* [[Elevator Failure]]: Induced by Pam as a prank on Dwight.
* [[Embarrassing Slide]]: Michael Scott does this intentionally to show off who he's been dating. He oversells it with a smiling "Whoops! How did that get in there?" while no one else is amused.
* [[Enemy Mine]]: In "The Merger
* [[Eskimos Aren't Real]]: Kevin thinks that mummies are fictitious monsters from the horror genre, and expresses surprise and fear when people tell him that they exist and there are some in a local museum.
* [[Eureka Moment]]: When Pam is trying to bluff her way into an office administrator job, and Gabe is trying to call her bluff, she realizes he's ''incapable of actual confrontation''.
{{quote|'''Pam''': Say that I'm lying or say I have the job. Make a definitive statement, Gabe.
'''Pam''': (in talking heads) One thing I learned from watching Tournament Poker at two in the morning: you don't play your cards, you play your opponent.
* [[Even Evil Has Standards|Even Jerk Asses Have Standards]]: In "Branch Closing", where Jim Halpert is disgusted at another manager's disloyalty, he admits begrudgingly, "Say what you will about Michael Scott, but he would ''never'' do that."
** And when Toby is framed for having drugs in his desk, '''''Michael''''' decides it's too far when the police arrive and begin to arrest Toby, and reveals that he placed the "drugs" in the desk.
* [[Even the Guys Want Him]]: Ryan apparently. Michael Scott has a sublimated crush on him, and Angela's closeted fiancee was looking at Ryan's Facebook photos at 3 in the morning. Ryan used to be squicked out by this but has slowly gotten used to it.
* [[Everyone Can See It]]: Jim and Pam for three seasons. It's kind of hard to miss.
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* [[Everything Is Worse With Bears]]: Dwight is well aware of this.
* [[Evil Roy]]
* [[Exact Words]]: When Andy asks Creed to read what it says on a
* [[Extended Disarming]]: Played for laughs in episode "E-mail Surveillance", where Michael is made to surrender all his imaginary guns at improv class. Also the many occasions upon which Dwight is forced to surrender his in-office arsenal.
* [[Eye Take]]
* [[Face Heel Turn]]: Ryan's transfer to Corporate can be seen as this. While up until then he's portrayed as a sympathetic character, during the fourth season, he becomes arrogant and thoroughly unsympathetic, somewhat playing the role of [[Big Bad]] for that season.
** Dwight's Earth Day
* [[Failed Attempt At Drama]]: Michael as he walks to his car with Andy in "The Duel".
* [[Failure Knight]]: Andy and Dwight.
* [[Fat Idiot]]: Kevin.
* ''[[Ferris Bueller's Day Off|Ferris Buellers Day Off]]'': A deleted scene from
** Also Michael's sleeping dummy with the string connecting the door to the arm so that someone entering the office triggers a snoring tape. It's not fooling Stanley who lampshades how pointless the whole scheme is anyway.
{{quote|'''Stanley:''' How is this better than you not being there?}}
* [[Flanderization]]: So many. Many characters, such as Meredith and Creed, show up every episode now to make either a gross-out joke about sex and/or alcohol and a non sequitur, respectively. Perhaps the most egregious offender is Erin, though, who started off as a sweet and innocent girl, not the brightest bulb in the world, especially when it comes to older pop culture (such as not knowing who Marlon Brando is), but still competent. Nowadays, she thinks that if your boss asks you out, you have to accept, that disposable cameras are supposed to be thrown away immediately after taking a picture with them, and, when asked to follow Phyllis's lead in a conversation, takes that to mean repeat every word that she says exactly.
** A perfect example would be Jan. In her last appearance in
** Andy, after becoming regional manager started to come off more like Michael Scott. Then came [[Cerebus Retcon|"The Garden Party"]] and his actions are more understandable. Also averted since Andy's clueless (as opposed to Michael's childish buffoonery), but is capable and willing to learn. Michael would rarely defend his employees' integrity against an imposing boss as Andy did, would never go through with actually getting that tattoo as Andy did, and would never be able to handle the Darryl/warehouse situation as exceptionally as Andy did.
* [[Flipping the Bird]]: Done regularly by various people. Always [[Pixelation|pixelated]] out.
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* [[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.
* [[Groin Attack]]: Andy manages to do this ''to himself'' when he tears his scrotum doing a split in "Niagara, Part 1
** Not be outdone, Dwight, shortly thereafter in the episode "Murder
** When Sabre CEO Jo Bennet comes to Dunder-Mifflin, she brings her enormous Great Danes. They spend ''the entire episode'' with their faces jammed in Andy's crotch.
** [[Share the Male Pain|"Snip-snap-snip-snap! You have no idea the physical toll that three vasectomies have on a person!"]]
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* [[Hands Go Down]]: In Michael's improv class, the other students are happy to take part in a scene... until Michael is chosen to be in it.
* [[Happily Married]]: Phyllis and Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration.
** Jim and Pam Halpert.
** Seems to be likely for Michael and Holly.
* [[Has Two Thumbs And]]: Jim hates Todd Packer.
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* [[Hidden Supplies]]: Dwight has weapons stashed all around the office. Knives in the filing cabinet (labeled under A. Knife), sais behind the water cooler, jians in the sub ceiling, blowdart gun out of the toilet tank...
** [[Fridge Horror]] settles in after you think that while the tank of the toilet would probably have the cleanest water of the entire system and thus be safe for Dwight to touch the blowdart gun with his lips, this ''is'' the office where Todd Packer has taken a dump in the manager's office (twice with the implied incident Ed Truck recalls), so Todd Packer would probably be the type to consider it hilarious to perform an [[MacGruber|upper decker...]]
* [[Hide Your Pregnancy]]:
** Angela Kinsey (who plays Angela Martin) had a baby in May 2008, forcing the writers to do this. It's
** Averted in Season 8, when Jenna Fischer and Pam were both pregnant.
* [[Her Codename Was Mary Sue|His Code Name was "Marty Stu"]]: Michael's character in his screenplay... and in his improv comedy.
* [[Hollywood History]]: The Ben Franklin impersonator tells the girls about his key-on-a-kitestring experiment.
* [[Hollywood Law]] (as well as Hollywood Finance): There is almost no onscreen fallout from Ryan's fraud indictment beyond him simply being fired from Dunder-Mifflin. This should have led to serious consequences for David Wallace (as his supervisor) and virtually all of the cast (who were material witnesses). However, between
** Michael spanking his nephew, while constituting assault in a legal sense, is brushed off in exchange of a mere 6 hours of counseling which he burns off in a single sitting with Toby (arguably ''worse'' than a real court imposed sentence, seeing how this is ''Michael'' and he despises Toby).
* [[Hope Spot]]: There are a number of scenes in which it seems like Michael is finally being mature for once, only for him to turn it completely around seconds later. For example, his improv class where it briefly looks like he finally abandon [[Chandler's Law]] for a bit, only for him to attempt to hold his acting partner at imaginary gunpoint ''in secret''. Another is when it sounds like he's expressing confidence in Angela's party-planning abilities by asking her "Who else could do this?", only for him to point out in his next breath that it ''wasn't'' a rhetorical question.
** A different example is in the beginning of the "Classy Christmas" two-parter, where Michael goes around making a concerted effort to make sure that no one had any latent issues or emotional baggage to bring to the ensuing Christmas party, with even Stanley being genuinely cheerful for once. It seems like there's going to be a Christmas party without any crazy drama this time... and then Michael finds out that Holly's coming back. He promptly throws out everything for the Christmas party that was about to happen, and sets up a new one that goes to Hell in a hand basket faster than you can say "Scranton Strangler".
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** And in one episode, she implies that this wasn't even the first time she's pulled this.
* [[I Banged Your Mom]]: Michael dates Pam's mother for awhile, much to Pam's chagrin.
* [[Idiot Ball]]: Jim picks up the idiot ball when he becomes a manager, ultimately culminating with
** Being a manager or higher-up at DM in general seems to make someone an easier target for having the idiot ball lobbed at them.
* [[Idiot Houdini]]: Michael has incredibly poor judgment, even considering his skill as a salesman, it's surprising he's as successful as he is.
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** Phyllis' wedding to Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration-
{{quote|Michael: If you lay a finger on Phyllis, I'll kill you.
Bob Vance, [[Insistent Terminology|Vance Refrigeration]]: If '''you''' lay a finger on Phyllis, I'll kill '''you'''."
** After Stanley accepts a job at Karen's Utica branch.
{{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.
* [[If You Know What I Mean]]: Aside from a majority of Michael's dialogue, at the "Charity" Auction, where employees offer up a particular skill, the card with Creed's contribution just says... {{smallcaps|
{{quote|That's all inclusive ''[wink]''}}
* [[I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!]]: Jan played this quite obviously with Michael. Michael was equally obvious about the effect it had on him.
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** Also Dwight Schrute is hailed as their number one salesman and apparently has the numbers to back it up, early in the show he wins an award. Yet whenever we see him at a meeting or over the phone, his usual abrasive and arrogant nature persists and drive away the sale. This is especially obvious in the episode where he quits and goes to work for Staples. He immediately breaks records by selling two printers in his first day (off screen) but when we see him, he's chasing off a customer by insulting their printer paper choice. In contrast Michael, likewise touted as an excellent salesman, has been repeatedly shown winning over customers on-screen.
*** Ultimately, it probably comes down to the makers of the documentary obeying the [[Rule of Funny]]. Dwight's persistence likely gets him plenty of sales, but why waste time showing those (the exception being when it becomes especially ridiculous, like when he forces Andy to sell him his car by repeatedly counting down to zero and saying "NOW!" over and over. This likely doesn't work on anyone but Andy)? He's often shown talking normally to clients over the phone (usually right before Jim interrupts him with a prank), but when he goes too far, that's when they put it in the episode.
** [[Word of God]] says that the UK show's idiots had to actually be good at their jobs for the transition to a US audience to work; it's a fair bit easier to get fired in America. However, Dwight is just a freak... basically [[They Just Didn't Care]].
*** Well, it may be that Dwight makes up for chasing off customers with an equal amount of scary "I will skin you alive if you don't buy from me" looks he gives other ones.
*** It's also worth noting that in many cases where Dwight is apparently being rude to a customer, he is distressed by something else that is going on.
*** Certain sales prospects actually respond favorably to an aggressive sales pitch; some people apparently need to be bullied into making a decision. Dwight also has some clever tricks, such as calling up the company's biggest competitor and letting the "on hold music" play throughout a sales presentation, to prove that Dunder Mifflin has better customer service.
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*** Dwight's position at his karate dojo:
{{quote|'''Dwight:''' A Sempai is the assistant Sensei.
'''Jim:''' Assistant ''to'' the Sensei.
* [[Instrumental Theme Tune]]
* [[Insult Backfire]]: Dwight reveals that he's taking martial arts classes (he's the Assistant ''to the'' Sensei).
{{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]]?
* [[Invisible to Gaydar]]: Oscar. As he says himself, the gayest thing about him (besides sex with men) is forming a casual art/literature appreciation club with Pam and Toby.
* [[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.
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* [[Jerkass]]: A lot of people at various times, but especially Dwight, Angela, and, less consistently, Michael.
** Todd Packer does not have a single redeeming characteristic.
* [[Jerkass Woobie]]: Michael Scott. He may be a [[Jerkass]], but when you consider his horrid relationship with the bitchy Jan and his depression after his roast over how much fun he'd have instead of what really happens at a roast and his short lived romance with Holly and he
** Even further than that, throughout the show, it's clear that most of Michael's decisions (becoming a salesman being a big one) are made with the intent of either making friends or finding romance. Unfortunately, [[Failure Is the Only Option|failure seems to be the only option for him]], as bad luck tends to break up any chance at either that Michael's own [[Jerkass|thoughtlessness]], [[Man Child|childishness]], [[Too Dumb to Live|oblivity]], or [[Ted Baxter|generally self-centered nature]] doesn't drive away first. It gets really woobieish at the brief points where Michael actually ''realizes'' this, such as in "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day".
*** The "Fundle Bundle" tape with young Michael qualifies as [[Mood Whiplash]].
** Pam's this way now. Interesting in that she started off as
*** Don't forget she also considers half of the people in the office losers. Though that might be because she was being moody from her pregnancy.
* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: Andy, who was initially introduced as a overconfident sycophant with rage issues has evolved into one of these. He's still largely clueless but seems like a nice enough guy.
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** Michael goes back and forth between this and regular ol' [[Jerkass]] depending on the episode or the season. Much more likely to be a complete [[Jerkass]] in earlier episodes. He seems even worse during the co-managers period and early Sabre buyout.
** Roy was a [[Jerk Jock]] for the first two seasons but showed a softer side throughout season three when he tries to get back with Pam and even apologizes for trying to beat up Jim when he learned he kissed her.
* [[Kavorka Man]]: Dwight, who manages a one night stand with one of Pam's friends at {{spoiler|her and Jim's wedding}} and handles it with a level of expertise that suggests experience in the field
{{quote|'''Dwight''': "It's purely carnal, and that's all you need to know."}}
** And this is despite [[Early Installment Weirdness|having to have Toby explain female anatomy to him]] in the "Sexual
*** Then again, it was only after that episode that he started dating Angela and becoming more successful so perhaps Toby's lecture helped him out more than we realize.
** Todd Packer. However, since all the information we have about his conquests come from Michael or himself, it might be an [[Informed Ability]].
*** Or possibly he [[Blatant Lies|just made it all up.]] There is no evidence to support any of it, and his seduction technique when shown onscreen is less than stellar.
* [[Kick the Dog]]: Jim's getting a few of late, like trying to give bonuses to the sales department without considering that it looks like a transparent attempt to reward his wife, or moving specifically to allow Michael to fall into a fish pond.
** In "Casual Friday", the Dunder Mifflin salespeople are presented as the victims with right on their side and the opposing Michael Scott Paper Company employees are presented as the ones in the wrong, which is exactly the case. Then Michael, Pam and Ryan took Dwight, Andy, Phylis and Stanley's lunches out of the fridge and ate them in front of them... [[Disproportionate Retribution|in revenge for nothing more than saying very true things about them in a secret meeting in the warehouse]].
*** And then lying to him about it.
** In the pilot, Michael ''fires'' Pam as a practical joke, making her cry.
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** Pam's getting in on these now: Mocking how the senator proposed to Angela; Manipulating Dwight, claiming they've been great friends when she knows that's not true, so that he can take care of her daughter for a night, so she (Pam) could ''sleep''; Lying her way into a nonexistent job where she created her own higher salary because she couldn't cut it as a salesman.
*** In fairness, the Office Administrator job wasn't nonexistent so much as it was simply unfilled, and she ''did'' check with Oscar to make sure her salary was reasonable; thus far, she has been shown to take it seriously. As for Dwight, they may not be great friends, but considering such times as Dwight's breakup with Angela and when Dwight almost takes over the office in "The Job", she probably cares about and respects him more than just about anyone else in the Office. And Angela, can you really blame Pam considering how Angela regularly treats ''her''?
** Andy in "The Garden Party
* [[Kick the Son of a Bitch]]: Like a bad penny, the obnoxious womanizing pea-brained [[Jerkass]] Todd Packer turns up once again,
* [[Kubrick Stare]]: Dwight in episode "E-mail Surveillance".
* [[Lady Drunk]]: Meredith.
* [[A Lady on Each Arm]]: Done to get Michael, Dwight, and Ryan into a club.
* [[Lame Excuse]]: "Ryan's... um... dead."
** "He's in the shower."
** 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?"
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** Earlier in the "Goodbye, Michael" episode, a jealous Gabe confronts Andy in the restroom and threatens to make him regret it if he goes near Erin. After Gabe leaves, Jim exits one of the stalls, having apparently heard everything. Cut to a talking head segment with Jim where we expect to hear his opinion on the Gabe/Andy thing. Instead, Jim asks if they're really ''filming people in the bathroom'' now.
* [[Large Ham Title]]: "Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration" (who even has the second part used at his wedding).
* [[Last-Episode New Character]]: Robert California is introduced in the
* [[Lawful Stupid Chaotic Stupid|Lawful Stupid]]: Dwight would make an excellent Paladin.
* [[Le Parkour]]: Mocked in the
* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Than the UK version.
** Not always. The Season
* [[Like a Weasel]]: Andy in season three.
* [[Literal Metaphor]]: "Gay Witch Hunt".
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'''Toby''': No, he’s attracted to other men.
'''Michael''': Okay, little too far, crossed the line.
'''Toby''': Okay, I am telling you Oscar is an actual homosexual.
* [[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]]
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* [[Lord Error-Prone]]: If [[Aristocrats Are Evil|corporate executives are modern aristocrats]], then Michael fits this one to a T.
* [[Loud of War]]: Jim steals Karen's desk chair because his squeaks. So Karen (not realizing who she's dealing with) tries to get back at him by squeaking the chair. He sings the chorus for "Lovefool" by The Cardigans repeatedly to [[Ear Worm|get it stuck in her head]]. She's begging him to stop in seconds.
* [[Love Triangle]]: Oh boy... Andy/Erin/Gabe, Jim/Pam/Roy, Pam/Jim/Karen, Dwight/Angela/Andy, Jan/Michael/Carol, Jan/Michael/Holly, Michael/Holly/AJ, Ryan/Kelly/Darryl, Toby/Pam/Jim, Dwight/Erin/Andy (for one episode), Angela/Dwight/Isabel.
** Mocked in "The Duel":
{{quote|'''Angela''': "My worst breakup was actually two breakups. Two different men. I was in love with both of them and when things went bad they had a duel over me."
'''Oscar''': "Yeah, Dwight and Andy. We were here."
'''Angela''': "No, this was years ago when I was living in Ohio. John Mark and John David."
'''Oscar''': "Angela, you had ''two sets of different men'' actually ''duel'' over you?"
* [[Lower Deck Episode]]: The Webisodes focus on the supporting cast.
* [[The Magic Poker Equation]]: "Casino Night
* [[The Maiden Name Debate]]: Pam indicates that she would have taken Roy's name if they had gotten married, but wouldn't have been terribly happy about it.
{{quote|'''Pam:''' ''That's as close as I ever want to get to being Pamela Anderson.''}}
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* [[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.
* [[Man Vs Machine]]: In "Launch Party", Dwight tries to outsell the Dunder Mifflin website. He does.
* [[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.
Line 603:
** "So Ryan got promoted to corporate, where he is a little fish in a big pond. Whereas back here in Scranton, I am still top dog in a fairly large pond. So who is the real boss? The dog or a fish?"
** "At first, we were talking about introducing a line of toilet paper. And what part of the human body does one use toilet paper upon? So you draw a line from there to the other planets, and I think by the end, we learned a little bit about how small we are."
* [[Mexican Standoff]]: With fingerguns/fingercross-bows at the end of "Murder
* [[Mockumentary]]
* [[Munchkin]]: Dwight pretty much applies this philosophy to everything including secret
* [[My Friends and Zoidberg]]:
* [[My Name Is Not Durwood]]: Hey, Big Tuna!
** (Similarly... "D! W! I! G! ''H!'' T!")
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* [[Mythology Gag]]: In "Whistleblower", we learn that Dunder Mifflin's address is 1725 Slough Avenue. The fictional Scranton street is a nod to the UK show's setting of Slough, England.
** Ricky Gervais' cameos as David Brent in "The Seminar" and "Search Committee".
** In "Dwight Shrute, Acting Manager
* [[Naughty Nurse Outfit]]: Angela, of all people, during "Costume Contest
* [[Nazi Grandpa]]: Dwight alludes to this more than once.
{{quote|'''Dwight''': My grandpa Manheim is 103, and still puttering around in Argentina. I tried to go visit him once, but my travel visa was protested by the Shoah Foundation.
'''Dwight''': My maternal grandfather was the toughest guy I ever knew. World War Two veteran, killed twenty men and spent the rest of the war in an Allied prison camp.
* [[Nepotism]]: In the episode of the same name (
* [[Nice Hat]]: Kevin has a stylish fedora that turns up from time to time, first seen when he gets his picture taken for his ID badge in
* [[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.
Line 635:
'''Phyllis:''' Excuse me?
'''Angela:''' I'm not moving the tree. Face it. The only power you have over me is this big secret that I know you're not going to tell. And you want to know how I know that? Because then you won't be able to plan your stupid, tacky parties anymore. So you move the tree.
'''Phyllis:''' Okay. ''[starts to walk away, then turns around]'' [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Angela's having sex with Dwight!]] I caught them doing it after Toby's going away party!
* [[Number Two]]
* [[Oblivious to His Own Description]]: One of the workers is flashed by a pervert. Pam is asked to draw up a description of the man in order to make wanted posters. Pam ends up drawing Dwight with a moustache and asks him to put the posters up. Dwight does so, even mentioning happily that he wants the "pervert" to be caught.
Line 647:
* [[Oh Crap]]: Jim has some good ones, given his tendency to look into the camera frequently. Probably his best ones are when his pranks cause Andy to lose his temper.
** Also when Jim is wearing the tuxedo and hears that Charles is visiting that day.
** Kevin gets a moment when he talks with the identity theft department for
*** And on "Take Your Daughter to Work Day", where he talks to the camera about how he has to make sure none of the young girls see the porn on his computer, then realizes they could be doing that right now.
** Vikram realising that joining the Michael Scott Paper Company was probably a mistake.
{{quote|'''Vikram:''' What kind of name is Nana?
'''Pam:''' It means grandmother.
'''Vikram:''' Oh sweet Jesus.
** You can see the tiniest glimmer of [[Oh Crap]] in Stanley's eyes in
** Jim realizing that ''he'' had to resolve the conflict between Dwight and Andy after they challenged each other to a duel over Angela.
{{quote|'''Jim:''' (to the camera) I have two choices. I could get more involved. Or I could just take the afternoon off. Leaving Dwight in charge. ''Oh god.''}}
** At the end of "Goodbye, Michael", there was a rare moment where Jim & Dwight share this reaction, as Deangelo starts screaming at a cake.
{{quote|'''Dwight:''' Uh-oh.
''[Jim mournfully nods in agreement]''
** After Michael leaves, Jim turns down an offer at being Acting Manager. A minute later Dwight's phone rings and Dwight accepts the offer. Jim is speechless that he did not see that coming while Pam is much more vocal.
{{quote|'''Pam:''' What have you done?!}}
** During one of Pam's interviews when she realizes a concussion has made Dwight her friend.
* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: In-universe example. Karen's role as the slutty cheerleader in
* [[One Steve Limit]]: Averted and then exploited by Kelly the CSR. She has a crush on Charles, so she hangs out near his office in the hopes that he will call for Kelly the receptionist. She then runs in and says "Charles, you wanted me?" in the hopes that it will subliminally make it so.
** Then played [[Invoked Trope|invoked]] by Charles when he decides to avert Kelly's aversion by calling the other Kelly by her middle name, Erin, which sticks well enough that it's hard to remember it's not actually her real first name.
Line 671:
** But if there is one, it's probably Darryl--he manages to maintain an observer status in most of the insane office hijinks.
{{quote|'''Phyllis:''' Darryl's the coolest kid in school.
'''Stanley:''' It used to be Jim. It hasn't been Jim in a looong time.
** Ryan, in the early seasons.
** Toby, albeit an excessively hapless one.
** Oscar and Pam also have traits. Oscar once [[Lampshade Hanging|points out]] that with Jim and Pam gone, he feels that the crazies are out numbering him, and actually tries to convince Jim and Pam to cut their honeymoon short to support him.
* [[Orphan's Ordeal]]: Apparently Erin went through one bad enough in a foster home that she refers to hiding behind her hair whenever she's upset as ''her room''.
* [[The Other Wiki]]: "The best thing ever
** In one episode, Phyllis uses it to obtain advice on dealing with difficult people (i.e. Angela). Angela proved too much for any of the methods obtained this way.
* [[Out of Focus]]: Ryan. He might remain in the opening credits but he is clearly a less prominent character than Andy these days.
* [[Panicky Expectant Father]]: Jim turns into this when Pam goes into labor in "The Delivery
** 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
* [[The Peter Principle]]: Michael is the living embodiment of this. He used to be a great salesman; because of this, he was promoted, and ended up in a position for which he's absolutely unqualified.
* [[Pet the Dog]]: Michael and Dwight get these moments every now and then, in order to balance out their [[Jerkass]] personalities. And everyone in the office has had at least one, except for Creed.
* [[Pixellation]]: Used to hilarious effect in
* [[Pointy-Haired Boss]]: Jan, Ryan, Charles, Deangelo. Double subverted with Michael. He seems like this at first, but it's later made clear that he's not only a very good salesman, he's the ''best salesman in the company's history''. It is then almost immediately made obvious that, despite his sales acumen, he is an absolutely ''terrible'' manager.
* [[Poirot Speak]]: Michael adopts the ridiculous "How you say?" mannerisms when speaking English to an English-speaking Canadian.
Line 705:
** Michael eats a Cup O'Noodles as he tries to get himself invited to Jim's party.
** Michael wants Pam to rub Country Crock Spread on his foot.
** Charles stays at "The Scranton Radisson" (which IRL would be the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel, Scranton).
** This is also subverted: Staples and Office Depot are mentioned repeatedly, but they are the ''antagonists'' and ultimately drive Dunder-Mifflin under.
** Utz potato chips and pretzle snacks can often be seen in the breakroom's vending machine. As Utz is a Lancover PA based company whose products are largly distributed in the NY/NJ/WV/Penn area, this is realistic for [[Shown Their Work|a Scranton PA workplace]].
Line 716:
** YMMV. These assignments would be pretty standard for anyone in his position in a failing company.
*** Though it would seem odd that benefit plans would be decided on a branch-by-branch basis, especially for a decision that would be more suited to HR such as health benefit plans. This one was given to Michael with the obvious intent of shielding Jan from being the bad guy.
* [[Promotion to Opening Titles]]: Ed Helms (in
* [[Proud Warrior Race]]: Invoked. In one episode, Dwight reads a speech by Mussolini shouting [[This Is Sparta|WE ARE WARRIORS!]], apparently claiming that paper salesmen are a [[Proud Warrior Race]].
* [[Psycho for Hire]]: Dwight.
* [[Punch a Wall]]: Andy's reaction to one of Jim's pranks, leading to his Anger Management.
* [[Put on a Bus]]: Roy, Karen, Jan, Charles, David.
** [[The Bus Came Back]] (via new "old" footage) for all these characters except Charles in "Threat Level Midnight". (David Wallace's scenes are deleted
** As of the Season 8 premiere, Jo Bennett.
** And, of course,
** Robert California finds a new job at the end of Season 8, so we won't be seeing him next season. It also looks like Kelly won't be coming back since her actress, Mindy Kaling, has had Fox pick up a new series for her this fall, which is going to become her primary focus, not leaving her enough time for ''The Office''. Plus, producer Paul Lieberstein is going to be leaving to start producing the planned Dwight spin-off ''The Farm'', so this could potentially be Toby's fate as well.
* [[Race For Your Love]]: Erin chases down Andy as he's driving away in "Get the Girl".
* [[Ready for Lovemaking]]:
* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: Jenna Fischer's real life pregnancy was written in during
* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: David Wallace.
* [["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
{{quote|'''Dwight''' (to camera): Nothing to worry about, the safety is ([[Beat]]) *click* on."}}
** In "Dwight K. Schrute, (Acting) Manager", Dwight brings a gun into the office and winds up accidentally discharging it. This winds up costing him any shot at the permanent position.
* [[Road Apples]]: Andy: "Why is that '''in the kitchen?!?'''"
* [[The Roast]]: Michael has his employees roast him. He did not take it very well.
* [[Robot War]]: Being a big fan of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'', Dwight is well aware that all sentient machines will eventually be [[Turned Against Their Masters]]. This is why he keeps a diary to [[AI Is a Crapshoot|keep secrets from his computer]] and suggests that Ed Truck's robot statue should only be five feet tall and have a short power cord.
** While having started out as a benevolent alien visitor, ''Recyclops'' gradually turned into a polluting, earth destroying monster.
* [[Romantic False Lead]]: Roy. Karen. Gabe. Jessica.
* [[Rooting for the Empire]]: In-universe example. While watching ''[[The Devil Wears Prada]]'', Michael cheered for Meryl Streep's character until the end when he finally realized she was the villain.
* [[Running Gag]]: In
** Also:
{{quote|'''Dwight''': I'm Assistant Regional Manager.
'''Anyone Else''': Assistant ''to the'' Regional Manager.
*** That gag ran all the way across the Atlantic, when it was Gareth protesting that he was Assistant Regional Manager.
*** Subverted when Jim (often the one mocking Dwight) calls himself the ARM and is mocked by the new boss for it. But in that case Jim did receive the corporate-recognized position of ARM when the Scranton and Stamford branches merged, and received a modest raise with the title. Dwight, on the other hand, was made ARM with no benefits when he and Michael got in a fight and Michael wanted to make him feel better.
*** A variation as Dwight talks about being made Purple Belt at his dojo.
{{quote|'''Dwight''': ...in fact, I've been made Assistant Sensei.
'''Jim''' (immediately): Wow, assistant ''to the'' sensei, that's great!
** Phyllis and Michael are the same age. They went to
** Trends making it to Scranton way after they've passed their prime elsewhere.
*** After even that, Michael keeps parading them around like [[Weekend at Bernies|Bernie after he starts to smell.]]
{{quote|'''Michael:''' WASUUUUUUUUUUUUP!
'''Jim:''' Wow, seven years later it's still funny.
** A short one towards the end of
** People thinking Jim says "dude" a lot and acts like a slacker.
* [[Running With Scissors]]: Played with when Michael calls out Erin to "Scissor me!" and she throws him a pair blades first. Subverted because he doesn't cut himself on either catch and lampshaded by Pam's scared expression each time.
* [[Sadistic Choice]]: In order to [[Incredibly Lame Pun|cover its ass]] after the altercation between Michael and {{spoiler|his nephew which ended with Michael spanking him}}, Sabre claims that Michael had a "stress-induced outburst". Gabe tells him that he will need to attend counselling sessions. With ''Toby''. Or lose his job. From the look on his face, Michael seems to be seriously considering the latter as the episode ends.
* [[Safe Word]]: The fact that Jan pretended to "forget" what it was is the first sign that it's exploitive and that Michael should get out of his relationship with her.
* [[Save Our Students]]: Michael tries and fails spectacularly to do this in
{{quote|'''Erin''': The principal told me that 90% of Scott's Tots are on track to graduate, and that's 35% higher than the rest of the school. So I think if you hadn't made that promise, a lot of them would've dropped out. Which is something to think about, I think.}}
* [[Scary Black Man]]: Ryan is very intimidated by Daryl and the other warehouse workers. Even getting yelled at by Stanley (Kelly falsely told him that Ryan was hitting on his 13-year-old daughter) was enough to send him hiding, trembling with fear.
** Charles is something of this to Jim when they work together, although it's largely due to the fact that Jim can't catch a break whenever they're in the same room together. He gets past this when Charles leaves.
** Stanley's [[Game Face]] had the same effect on Jim during the inflatable sumo suit duel.
{{quote|'''Jim:''' I've never seen anyone coming at me like that. I thought I might die. ''On beach day
* [[Schmuck Bait]]: Pam accidentally downloads a virus (and potentially gets her ID stolen) after attempting to buy a celebrity sex tape from her office computer.
** A key component of several of Jim's pranks on Dwight.
Line 775:
* [[Secret Relationship]]: Dwight and Angela, Pam and Jim (for one episode), Andy and Erin (also for one episode).
* [[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
** Also seen in Season 1's "Diversity Day" wherein Michael does his best to undo anything positive that might have come of it by forcing the staff to act out racial stereotypes.
* [[Series Continuity Error]]: Pam's name has undergone multiple changes: Pam Beasley, Pam Beesley, Pamela Jean Beesly, the now-canon Pamela ''Morgan'' Beesly...
** Meredith has had both one and two children, and changed from an accountant to supplier relations rep. Similarly her birthday went from being about a month apart from everyone's in the spring in
* [[Serious Business]]: Is Hillary Swank hot?
** Ping pong, to the players' significant others. A mini-training camp may have been involved...
* [[Shout-Out]]: Two toward [[Sandbox/The Lonely Island|The Lonely Island]]: in one episode, Dwight and Michael make an instructional video--a [[Cringe Comedy|cringe-inducing]] music video featuring a lyric rewrite of "Lazy Sunday
** "Subtle Sexuality" also features Kelly wearing [[Lady Gaga]]'s once-signature eye lightning bolt.
*** [[David Bowie]] would like to have a word with you (though [[The Ditz|Kelly]] was almost certainly [[Fleeting Demographic Rule|imitating Gaga, not Bowie]]).
Line 788:
** During the beach episode, Michael actually shouts out "[[Eegah|Watch out for snakes]]!", which may be this troper's favorite hidden joke in the show.
** ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'' in "Andy's Play".
*** In the same episode, Dwight says "The last time I went to the theatre [[Cats|a man dressed like a cat]] sat in my lap".
** "The 13-year-olds in this town have a monopoly. It's almost like a [[The Baby Sitters Club|baby-sitter's club.]]"
** Michael showing off his wooden train whistle to one of the young visitors [[The Jack Benny Show|"Train leaving on track five for Anaheim, Azusa, and Cuc...camunda!"]]
** Dwight's attempt to start a [[Chain of Deals]] with one red thumbtack in the "Garage Sale" episode is a play on the [[Real Life]] project [http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/ one red paperclip].
** After the final credits of
** Michael's (inaudible-to-the-audience) farewell exchange with Pam in "Goodbye, Michael" is reminiscent of the end of ''[[Lost in Translation]]''.
*** That particular moment also reflects the moment when Jim and Pam find out she's pregnant, and a scene from the UK series in which Tim admits his feelings to Dawn.
** In "Jury Duty", Andy slaps Jim in a show of punishment imitating King Baldwin slapping Raynald of Châtillon in ''[[Kingdom of Heaven]]''.
* [[The Show Must Go On]]: Andy's theater performance of ''Sweeney Todd''.
* [[Show Within a Show]]: ''Fundle Bundle'', a kids show that a five year old Micheal Scott appeared on.
Line 805:
* [[Smelly Feet]]: Kevin. At Jim and Pam's wedding, he leaves them outside his room to be waxed but their smell overpowers the employee in charge of this service. [[Up to Eleven|So the hotel has them destroyed.]]
{{quote|'''Kevin:''' You threw out my shoes?
'''Manager:''' I had them ''incinerated.'' It was the best decision of my entire career.
* [[Smug Snake]]: Angela "It's not my taste" Martin, Charles Miner.
* [[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
* [[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.
* [[Stable Time Loop]]: One of Jim's pranks involves sending Dwight faxes
* [[Star-Crossed Lovers]]
* [[The Starscream]]: After Michael quits and is rehired, Dwight stops hero-worshipping him and begins viewing him as weak.
Line 821:
* [[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
* [[Stupid Boss]]
* [[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.
Line 828:
* [[Suck E. Cheese's]]: The episode "Happy Hour" takes place at a Dave & Buster's knockoff called Sid & Dexter's.
* [[Sure, Let's Go with That]]: When Dwight returns to working at the office and sees a party already in progress, he joyfully asks, "You did this for me?" Michael just decides to say yes, as the camera pans to the "Welcome Back Oscar" sign.
* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]:
{{quote|'''Jan:''' I tried calling, but I kept getting voice mail.
'''Michael:''' Weird. Yeah, I didn't get both of your messages.
* [[Take a Third Option]]: When Dwight was hiring a stripper for Bob Vance's bachelor party, he asks Jim which he prefers, brunette or redhead, while Karen and Pam are looking on. Jim wisely picks blonde.
** Also in the episode "The Fire
** In "WUPHF.com", Michael picks a third option regarding Ryan's failing company that he and several other people in the office had invested in. Rather than blindly stand by Ryan, as he had initially planned to do, or immediately sell off the company, as everyone else wanted him to do, he gives Ryan a strict ultimatum to get the company back on track, or he'll sell the company then. Particularly impressive is the speech he gives detailing why he's doing it:
{{quote|'''Michael''': I'm not blind! I know ''exactly'' who he is. He is selfish, and lazy, and image obsessed, and he's a bad friend. He's also clever, and he aims very high, and he just might make it.}}
* [[Take Our Word for It]]
{{quote|'''Ryan:''' Last year, Creed asked me how to set up a blog... Wanting to protect the world from being exposed to Creed's brain, I opened up a Word document on his computer, and put an address at the top. I've read some of it... Even for the Internet, it's pretty shocking.}}
** You can [http://blog.nbc.com/CreedThoughts/ read it here.]
* [[Take That]]: In "Nepotism
* [[The Tape Knew You Would Say That]]: When Holly returns in
{{quote|'''Recorded Michael:''' I know you're happy right now, but you need to calm down. Is that ''music''? ''Are you dancing?''}}
* [[Team Mom]]: Jim and Pam, occasionally.
* [[The Teaser]]
* [[Tempting Fate]]: In the episode "Sexual Harassment
** Also, arguably lampshaded and subverted when Pam and Ryan are constantly reminding Michael not to reveal that the Michael Scott Company is going broke in front of David Wallace, and when they enter the elevator Michael is saying something along the lines of "There is ''no way'' I'm gonna say it!". Cue him leaving the elevator, moaning "Aww... I'm really worried I'm gonna say it!"
*** At the end of the meeting, he is forced to admit that the company is broke; the real value it has is his years of experience in the paper industry (and an unlimited supply of corporate names).
Line 851:
'''Michael:''' That's what she--
(catches himself)
'''Michael:''' A lot of places are like that.
** It's spread to other members of the office now, too. For example, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFwsjhr8cb8 Pam excitedly contributes this] over the phone -- using a super small headset that her coworkers don't know about so she and Jim can be in touch all day.
* [[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.
* [[Theme Tune Extended]]: The [[Instrumental Theme Tune]] actually has a full version that is extended to a little over two minutes [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dBhlayFwFE long]
* [[They Do]]: Jim and Pam.
** Michael and Holly.
* [[This Is No Time for Knitting]]: In "Traveling Salesmen", Jim and Dwight are on a sales call together. While Jim is talking to a prospective client, Dwight asks if he can use the phone and subsequently starts yelling numbers loudly into the phone. At first, this seems like Dwight's usual bizarre behavior, perhaps even more bizarre than usual. However, when it comes time for Jim to demonstrate Dunder Mifflin's phone customer service, we find out that Dwight has been demonstrating a rival company's phone customer service the whole time. Jim then proceeds to call Dunder Mifflin's customer service line, and has Kelly on the line within a couple seconds, thus successfully demonstrating the difference between a large impersonal company and a smaller company.
** In the same episode, Phyllis and Karen's sales call. Phyllis takes them out to get incredibly gaudy makeovers... which just so happen to be pure [[Fetish Fuel]] for the specific client they were going to see. Successful sale.
* [[This Is Reality]]: In their duel for Angela, Andy has Dwight pinned to the hedge, but he is refusing to yield.
{{quote|'''Dwight:''' You can't protect her! I can!
'''Andy:''' PROTECT HER FROM ''WHAT'', YOU IDIOT?! '''''BEARS?!?!'''''
* [[This Is Sparta]]: "I... declare.......... BANKRUPTCYYYYYYYYY!!!!"
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Michael tried to eat unidentified mushrooms he found in the woods once. Also, it is unclear whether the bouncy castle was part of his scheme to convince his employees he was actually going to jump off the roof or if he actually thought that falling onto it would save his life.
** Given the amount of testing he and Dwight did and that the castle was discovered by accident indicate the latter.
{{quote|'''Dwight:''' These things aren't built to stand the weight of an adult, [[Insane Troll Logic|try to land like an eight year old.]]}}
* [[Took a Level in Jerkass]]: Ryan in Season four following his promotion. Also, most fans will agree the weaker episodes will elevate Michael from bumbling yet well-intentioned guy into this (the oft-cited episodes for this is usually "Phyllis' Wedding" and "The Double Date"). Also in Season 6,
** Phyllis and arguably Pam went from [[Shrinking Violet]] to this.
* [[Too Soon]]: Michael has a ''much'' more conservative view of this at most. He notes that the [[Abraham Lincoln]] assassination just became funny.
{{quote|'''Michael''': I need to see this play like I need a hole in the head.}}
* [[Trans Atlantic Equivalent]]:
* [[Troperiffic]]: Michael's movie '[[Show Within a Show|Threat Level: Midnight]]'.
* [[True Art Is Angsty]]: Ryan's [http://www.thousandandonewords.com/ photo blog] is an in-universe example; it exists as a means for him to sound deep so that he can talk women into doing erotic photography. [[It's Not Porn, It's Art]], afterall.
* [[True Companions]]: By the
** The Michael Scott Paper Company were briefly shown as something like this after everything they went through together in that arc, but this faded away after the following episodes.
** Taken to its apex when {{spoiler|Michael proposed to Holly. After everything the staff has been through, you know their goodbye will be bittersweet
* [[Twice Shy]]: Andy and Erin.
* [[Tyrant Takes the Helm]]: Charles Miner. When he's introduced he bullies Michael for no reason, and to cement his position he gets on to Jim for dressing too formally (he was wearing a tux as part of a social experiment) and to Dwight for not dressing formally ''enough'' (making him wear a white shirt with full-length sleeves instead of a short-sleeved yellow one).
** Deangelo Vickers shows a bit of this {{spoiler|during his extremely brief managerial reign
** When Dwight becomes acting manager he forces everyone to use an antiquated and dangerous punch clock, staggers their lunches so everyone eats alone, changes everyone's title to Junior Employee and has everyone enter a twenty one digit code everytime they use the photocopier. To reinforce the image he keeps a piranha in an acquarium in his office and gets a new desk that is modeled on one used by Saddam Hussein's son.
*** Prior to that, Dwight has repeatedly shown a fondness and/or lobbied for Draconian policies in the office and whenever given any power he instantly imposes them. Which begs the question of who thinks it is a good idea to give him any in the first place.
* [[Un Entendre]]: From Michael and Dwight, of all people.
{{quote|'''Michael''' (carrying a plate of steaks): Who wants some man meat!
'''Dwight''': I do! I want some man meat!
* [[Ungrateful Bastard]]: Michael is repeatedly shown to be completely unappreciative to anyone who saves his ass. Specific examples include:
** In
** Intentionally screwing Jim (and unintentionally himself) out of a promotion and then begging him for forgiveness and aggreeing to become co-managers to make up for it. The next episode, Michael reverts to a total jerk who viciously condescends to Jim and believes he never should have been made a manager
** After a bankrupt Dunder Mifflin is bought by Sabre, he shows his appreciation for saving his job by refusing to conform to any Sabre policies that differ from the previous ones, no matter how insignificant.
* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: The characters offer their viewpoints during interviews with the camera, which may conflict with what is shown on-screen, or may lead to skewed [[Second Hand Storytelling]].
** Noted in the pilot's DVD commentary, the in-universe documentary crew may look down on the office workers, judging by a shot of Pam blowing on the wet ink of a printed page while the audio from her interview explains her love of watercolor painting.
Line 901:
{{quote|'''Jim:''' Why don't you just crawl out of there?
'''Pam:''' I can't, there's urine on the floor.
'''Jim:''' [[Lampshade Hanging|Of course]] [[Deadpan Snarker|there is.]]
* [[Vanity License Plate]]: Todd Packer has one that reads "[[Getting Crap Past the Radar|WL HUNG]]".
{{quote|'''Ryan:''' You a big [[American Idol|William Hung]] fan?<br />
'''Packer:''' Why does everybody ask me that? Who the hell is that?
* [[Virus Victim Symptoms]]: Invoked for a prank.
* [[Visual Pun]]: Jim's Halloween costume in "Koi Pond
* [[Vomit Chain Reaction]]:
* [[Vomit Discretion Shot]]: Dwight vomits all over his car when he recieves a concussion.
* [[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.
Line 914:
* [[Wedding Day]]: Phyllis's, in Season 3; Jim and Pam's, in Season 6.
* [[We Didn't Start the Billy Joel Parodies]]: "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPcuwZlJShE Ryan Started the Fire]".
* [[Weirdness Coupon]]: See [[Contractual Immortality]] above. The employees of the Scranton branch get a lot of leeway since they belong to the most successful branch, so they stay on in spite of some incredibly weird shenanigans.
* [[We Want Our Jerk Back]]: Played with twice with Dwight. Subverted the first time; he gets a concussion and is a lot more pleasant to be around. When they realize what's up, they have to take him to the hospital, and it's clear that everyone (and especially Pam) will miss "nice Dwight" when he's gone. The second time, he quits, and things are a lot less smooth at the office without him, until Michael convinces him to come back.
** And for Michael when is he is replaced by Charles Miner in Season
* [[Wham! Episode]]: "New Boss".
** "Special Project
* [[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
** 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?]]:
Line 926:
* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?]]: When Andy sings "There's a place in France where the naked ladies dance", Angela chastises him for singing about [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|nudity and France]] at Christmas time.
* [[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?
* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: In one
* [[What Have I Done]]: Dwight's reaction when he realizes that his machinations to take the Sabre affirmative action management program away from Daryl and claim it for himself actually placed it squarely in Kelly's hands instead... and she makes a veiled threat that ''she'll remember what he's done.''
* [[When You Snatch the Pebble]]: Amusing in that Dwight would apply such a teaching to sales in the first place, but also subverted - Ryan is easily able to take the seed from Dwight's hand.
* [[Why Didn't You Just Say So?]]: "Meredith was hit by a car this morning, I took her to the hospital. The Doctors did everything they could do.... and she's now recovering comfortably."
* [[Wild Mass Guessing]]: Some fans have put a lot of effort into explaining exactly why a documentary crew has been filming the Scranton office for the past five years and counting, with no indication that the documentary ever airs (unlike the UK version). Theories include the documentary airing only in a far-away foreign country, or that it's an ongoing project assigned to filmmaking students at the local community college and never meant to be aired
* [[Will They or Won't They?]]: Jim and Pam. They did, sometime between
** Andy and Erin.
** Michael and Holly also seemed poised to become this until they began going out a few episodes in (which Michael hilariously lampshades):
{{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.}}
** {{spoiler|Andy and Erin have finally gotten together too}}.
* [[Wondrous Ladies' Room]]: It has a couch! And magazines!
Line 955:
* [[You Are in Command Now]]: Dwight explaining to the office why they should obey him and stay at work despite no one else being there to force them to:
{{quote|'''Dwight:''' When Michael is not there, Jim in in charge. When Jim is not there, Andy and I are in charge. When Andy is not there, you have to listen to ''me.''}}
* [[You Do NOT Want to Know]]: The "Full Disadulation
* [[Artistic License: Biology|You Fail Biology Forever]]: In the quote below, Dwight is predicting what will happen as a result of all the women in the office being in the same room for a "women in the workplace" seminar.
{{quote|'''Dwight:''' They stay in there too long, they’re gonna get on the same cycle. Wreak havoc on our plumbing.}}
Line 961:
{{quote|'''Dwight:''' There are an enormous amount of yeast infections in this county. (looks thoughtful) It must be because we're downriver of that old bread factory.}}
** When he sees that Karen is pregnant, Michael immediately asks if it is Jim's kid, even though they broke up almost two years previously. When he finds out Pam is pregnant and is chewing her and Jim out for not telling him sooner, he asks, "How long have you known? A year? Two years?"
* [[Artistic License History|You Fail History Forever]]
** Pause... "98% sure."
*** 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 Logic Forever]]: After Meredith is hospitalized (Michael hit her with his car), Angela's cat dies (Dwight murdered it because it was "weak"), and Pam's computer crashes (she was downloading porn), Michael comes to the honest conclusion that Toby is Satan, and has placed a curse upon [[The Office]].
Line 972:
*** Kevin's spelling is equally bad as he proves in the Cookie Monster parody plot:
{{quote|'''Kevin:''' ''C'' is for ''suspension.''}}
* [[You Must Be Cold]]: Inverted. Erin puts her coat on Andy in "New Leads
** Subverted when Dwight looks like he is comforting Pam after she helped Jim and Karen solve a dispute they were having. Dwight starts to take his jacket off, looking like he is about to offer it to her, then simply ties it around his waist, noting that "It's hot in here".
* [[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.
Line 985:
{{quote|'''Kelly''': "I don't talk trash, I talk smack. Trash talk is all hypothetical, like '[[Your Mom]] is so fat, she could eat the internet.' But smack talk is all like 'You're ugly, and I've got the evidence right there.'"
'''Kelly''' (to Pam): "Your man is so skinny he needs steroids just to ''watch'' baseball."
'''Kelly''': "Were Jim's parents first cousins who also sucked at ping pong?"
* [[You Shall Not Pass]]:
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