A Look Back on Heavy Competition

I'm Jenna Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on the office together and we're best friends, and now we're doing the ultimate office rewatch podcast just for you.

Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you.

We're the office ladies.

Hey kiddos, it's Uncle Creed here. Buckle up because the Office Ladies just hit 100 episodes. Amazing.

100 episodes. Baby, I am already starting to cry. This is amazing. I brought champagne, I'm gonna open it up.

We're drinking again before 10 a.

We are because it's 100 episodes and we could not have done this without you guys. We wish you were all here with us.

Oh my gosh, okay, Jenna, don't be afraid, I've opened champagne before.

I'm slightly scared, Oh, you know what?

I shouldn't point it towards the glass, Sam, I won't point it towards the glass.

I appreciate that. Okay, here we go.

Congratulations Jenna, congratulations Sam, Cassie, Cody, Colin, Marissa, Ileana, Hannah, Ainsley, everybody that helps us make this show.

Oh my gosh.

We're gonna be celebrating with our team later after we record.

Yes, and we got some fun gifts.

Oh, we do. Speaking of fun gifts, I promise you, the bags are unrelated to the gifts, but under the table there what those are for you. Happy 100..

Oh my gosh, oh Sam, it's a....

Domino's Pizza.

It's the only bags. Did you get us pizza? The bags are unrelated.

How do you have Domino's pizza? Sam, get out.

Sam, you are the cutest person on the planet, you guys.

Okay, how do we describe this? It's one of those tornado....

No, it's one of those volcano bowls.

Oh my gosh, it's like PaM's Art School, it's PaM's Art School bowl.

Congratulations guys, Oh my gosh.

Sam and he has little bottles of alcohol and straws.

Sam This is the cutest, most thoughtful thing.

Now, remember, the key to a punch is it's literally whatever you want, oh.

Oh my gosh, we can't have a volcano bowl, and.

Okay, we're gonna have champagne today, we'll save the volcano bowl for our company get-together.

Sam I love it, that is so sweet.

Surprise gift under the table?

Under the table.

This is like Oprah, when she's like, Look under your chair, you get a car.

You get a volcano bowl.

Sam, Thank you and we have something for you guys. I can't wait for you to see, but we're gonna give it to you all at the same time.

That's right, because Cassie's on Zoom today.

Hi Cassie on Zoom.

Hi guys.

You're missing champagne, Cassie.

I know.

Cheers, Jenna.

Cheers lady, I've got a glass of champagne and a cup of coffee, a nice way to start the day. Listen, today we will eventually be discussing heavy competition, so we would like to dedicate our fast facts to office ladies today.

To our 100th episode, that's right.

So should we get into it?

I can't wait.

Fast Fact Number One Office Ladies podcast debuted on October 16th, 2019.

I'm getting on the table. Oh, no. 200 million downloads.

I'm on the table. This isn't from champagne, this is excitement.

It's an audio program, they cannot see you.

I'm on the table.

Now I don't know how to get down, she's tangled.

Oh Jesus, oh my gosh, you're my mom. it's Lucy. I'm your mom with your glasses, you're lucy-ing our studio.

Oh, no, I Tom cruise-ed it.

Oh, no, the couch, Oprah's couch, I know.

You did it.

Listen, when we started this podcast, we never could have imagined that it would grow this big. I did not imagine it.

No.

Or that it would be as popular, or that it would resonate with people, or that we would have this community that we have. And it means so much to my life, it means so much to me. It's changed my life in all the ways that the office changed my life. This has changed my life as well, because it has brought me a job that brings me closer to my family and closer to my best friend.

Well, it's true, I feel the same way. I am just deeply grateful, me, too, truly grateful.

I love it.

I have a really fun, fast fact number two.

A fun, fast fact I'm going to take a sip of champagne while you say that.

I love our mail, I go through a lot of our mail with Ainsley. you go through a lot of our physical mail, Angela.

If you write a letter to the Earwolf offices and send things, I go through that, Jenna and Ainsley go through our digital mail, yes.

In our digital mail, we got a letter from Dr. Peter Thibodeau.

Dr. Thibodeau I know a lot of Thibodeaus in Louisiana.

Here's what he said Angela, My wife, daughters and I noticed how much you both love saying two things on your podcast.

Oh, no, what?

Lady and amazing.

So I tracked down just how many times that comes up in the podcast.

Oh, Dr. Thibodeau.

Lady, he tracked it.

Was it amazing?

It was amazing.

He was only able to track up to our 92nd episode.

Okay.

But over the last 92 podcasts, we have said Lady, 636 times, Oh.

On average, we say the word amazing nine times per episode.

And we say Lady seven times per episode, he said. There was a stretch from episodes 31 through 47 where our use of both words really went up. We said amazing and lady. A total of 34 times in the Cocktails episode.

What was up with us that day?

Well, I looked it up. And episodes 31 through 47 ran from June of 2020 to September 2020.

Summer, it's summer vibes.

It was also right in the heart of the pandemic. We were recording from home, in our closets. I think we were coping, I think we were throwing out the ladies to cope.

I think amazing because we were in closets. We're like, this is amazing.

I think so.

Or, you know what I think?

What?

I think doing our podcast felt amazing and it was such a great healing thing for us through the pandemic, really and truly.

It was an escape for me.

It was an escape. Like every time I walked into that closet, I was like, And we get to talk about really fun things.

And that's really when Cody and Cassie and Sam and you became my best friends, because you were the only people I ever saw on that Zoom.

One hundred percent, yeah, we would start our podcast, just sort of sharing, yeah, like in school, where you have circle time and you share.

I think that's why we thought they were so amazing.

I agree.

Well, our biggest lady episode was The coup.

Made me snort, laugh.

Our biggest amazing episode was Traveling Salesman. We said it 20 times, but then this was my favorite thing.

Oh my gosh.

That, Dr. Thibodeau wrote.

Dr. Thibodeau.

He said Sadly, there were a few times when the office ladies weren't feeling amazing, and we only used it one time.

What?

Episode Diversity Day, boys and Girls and take your daughter to work day.

Wow.

And then he says, And lady? There were four podcasts where there was no use of the word lady at all, and those were sexual harassment. Booze cruise Dwight's speech and customer survey.

I find it hard to believe that we didn't say Lady one time.

Yeah.

But Dr. Thibodeau has the stats.

Well, we had to ask Dr. Thibodeau why?

Why track it?

I mean, we love to track stuff, but what compelled him to track all of this? And he said, I am a P.h.D. scientist and I love tracking data of any kind.

Jen this is like your soulmate.

Am I a P.h.D. scientist on the inside? And I don't know it.

You love to track things, lady.

Maybe I'm a P.h.D. scientist.

Maybe you are.

He said For whatever reason, this is something that my family and I caught on about early.

Dr. Thibodeau, We have got to send you a lady sweatshirt.

We're going to send your whole family lady sweatshirts.

Yeah, everybody gets a lady sweatshirt, thank you.

Thank you so much, Dr. Thibodeau, that piece of mail, it made my day.

I want to see the bar graph chart, I want to see it. We got to post it. Oh, we'll put it in stories.

And his daughter made some graphics to go along with the facts and put those up as well.

I love this family, same.

Now, Angela, you said, Save me a fast fact, so you are fast fact number three, and I don't know what it is.

Yes, Jenna, I am fast fact number three. And I want to give a huge shout out to our Office Ladies podcast fan page over on Facebook. And they submitted a song to celebrate our 100th episode. We have to hear it.

Okay, now, have you heard this yet? because I have not heard this, I have not heard it.

So we're going to hear it together in real time for the first time, all right, so here we go.

584,800 seconds that's how many seconds are in the podcast.

Oh, for all who worked on the pod.

Inspired us OH 100th episode celebration.

Great.

Celebrate from your office, ladies Facebook fan page.

You've inspired us.

I can't really tell, Hey, just check it in. We're all crying, right? We're all crying. That was so, so kind.

I'm still kind of speechless, I know I pretty much wept through that whole thing. You really got me with the cat eating the bird and the backpack. That's a reference to a bonus episode that we did, where I shared a little about my social anxiety and my coping mechanisms.

I know, I know, lady, I know. And just when you had us crying, you told us that, basically, if you've listened to office ladies, you've only watched the office twice.

I love that.

Okay, well, gosh, I think we need a minute, I think we need a minute.

Let's take a break.

And when we come back, we will dedicate the rest of this episode to breaking down heavy competition.

All right, we are back.

We've had a laugh, we've had a cry.

We've had a little champagne, it's really good.

Thank you.

Champagne, it is brut, classique by Francois.

I'm always classique baby.

You know what, my eyesight's so bad, I can't read it.

It's all right, but it's very good. It's Francois. That's what we need to know. By the way, during break, both Sam and Jenna were just making fun of me getting on the table.

You know, it's a podcast.

I know it's a podcast.

We appreciated it.

200 million downloads, that's a big deal. I knew I had to do something, I was like, I gotta do something, what do I do?

I appreciated the energy I did, I appreciated it. You always show up with that.

Thank you. Sam videoed it, Cassie took photos. It'll go in the pod stories.

Should we break down heavy competition?

Let's do it.

This is season 5, episode 24, written by Ryan Coe and directed by Ken Whittingham. I'm gonna give you a summary.

Do it.

Michael forces Dwight to choose between either his loyalty to Charles Minor and Dunder Mifflin or Michael, and this results in the two of them going to war.

Yeah.

And Michael trying to steal Dwight's top clients.

It's gonna get ugly.

Yeah, and still hurting from his breakup with Angela. Andy suspects that maybe Pam is being controlling of Jim, maybe mistreating him. So he starts offering Jim a bunch of unsolicited advice, which backfires when Jim pranks him into confiding that things are terrible between him and Pam. It starts this whole runner.

Yeah.

But this episode begins with a very famous cold open.

The cheese puff cold open.

It is.

I titled it the Cheese Puff.

I loved doing this cold open so much.

I have so many questions for you, I have so many questions.

Should we describe it?

Describe it.

All right.

It's Pam, Michael and Ryan tossing cheese puffs into one another's mouths in various ways, right?

The things you see on YouTube of where the guy bounces the basketball off the back of a wall and it hits the other side of the wall and it goes in the hoop. That's what you guys are doing, but you're doing it with cheese puffs. And I love the callback. Because remember, this is what Michael took when he ran out of Dunder Mifflin on that last day.

You have questions. We got a fan mail flurry about this. So first, we reached out to writer Ryan Ko to find out what was the inspiration for this cold open. His response was so funny.

It's so good.

I actually spit out my coffee while listening to it.

Yeah, we gotta play it.

Hi Jenna. Hi Angela, thanks for letting me talk about my episode, Jenna. You had mentioned that you love shooting that cold open with the cheese balls, and you were wondering where it came from. I remember that it was, most of all, a product of exhaustion.

RYAN That made our day.

I mean, look at this amazing piece of comedy that came out of just everyone being so tired.

Fatigue.

Yes.

You guys might remember, Ryan is our writer who wiped out while running past the Speed Reader sign.

Yes.

So Ryan, thank you so much for sharing your memory with us of the Cheese Ball Cold open.

And sorry, if we were assholes that week, I guess we were all tired and grouchy.

I guess so.

Lady, you said you had some questions. I do. I'm here to answer questions, all right?

So I know from other episodes where anytime we had to throw something, you don't get it. On the first take. But that shot of Steve throwing the cheese puff ball at you, you caught it, you chomped it, you looked right camera, and I was like, my girl, look at her.

I was so proud.

I was like, Okay, Sydney Bristow on alias Can you do that? Jenna? This is like your moment.

All right, I'm going to tell you something.

Okay.

When I was in high school, I did not have a vibrant social life.

So you threw cheese balls at your face.

No, what?

I watched a lot of movies.

Okay.

And when I watched the movies, I would eat popcorn, and I started throwing the popcorn up in the air and catching it.

By yourself, Yeah, okay.

Listen, it paid off later in my life.

It sure did so. Don't feel sorry for me.

I'm not feeling sorry.

I also saw tons of great movies and I have a great mind for the cinema.

Yes.

So I am really good at catching food in my mouth.

I know.

Also, my sister and I would throw popcorn at each other.

Sure, sure.

So when I read this Cold Open, I was like, I'm going to nail this ding ding, ding, ding, ding ding. And then I got really scared that they were going to want to cGi it.

Because you were like, Guys, I got this.

It's not CGI. No, I know I want everyone to know those are real cheese balls. We had the best time shooting this.

It looks like it. I was just delighted by every moment of it. Jenna I'm great at catching food in my mouth as well, but just because I have good hand-eye coordination, because I'm a little bit of a sport-o.

Why have we never thrown food at one another?

What do we have in here? Can we throw something at each other?

We have a little bit of granola bar.

We have granola bar and alcohol. That's not going to work.

We can film that Sam's going to the kitchen, oh God.

Maybe we'll get some food in a second.

It took us a whole afternoon to shoot this and the one that took the longest was the three-way.

Where?

Just phrase that differently.

I'm going to phrase it how I want to.

Okay.

Continue, You know the one where?-?

Yes, I know.

Like, we're each throwing a cheese ball into a different person's mouth. You had to time it out.

Between the three of us.

Oh, oh.

Oh my god.

We have some rice krispie treats.

Sam brought us rice krispie treats. Will these hurt our teeth if we throw them?

Are they gluten-free?

This is going to hurt.

All right, that's all we have. I mean, don't throw them hard.

Here you got to put a little piece.

Okay.

Okay, ready? yeah, one, two, three. Oh, that was a terrible throw.

What was that toss? That was a terrible throw. Okay, wait, wait, okay, hold on. okay, ready.

Yeah.

She hit me in the eye.

Oh my god.

Okay, you try to throw to me?

Wait, these are so sticky, that's what I mean.

When you try to throw it, it won't leave your finger.

We might need something other than rice krispie treat bars.

It was a good toss.

Why are we doing visual gags on our podcast?

Okay, stop, okay, we're going to stop. Okay, we got one, you guys, we got one.

Okay, riveting content.

Well, throwing rice krispie treats is a little difficult. You were talking about the three-way.

Oh yeah, that was the hardest one. You know, that reaction that you see at the end when we finally make it.

Yes, because you were probably genuinely excited.

That was real, I think you can see the look on my face. I knew I caught mine and then I had to look and see if they really caught theirs. And then we were genuinely excited. That was the only time we ever got that toss correct.

And they got it on camera.

They got it on camera, but we spent a whole afternoon on the cheese puffs sequence. We got a fan question from Aaron B at the end, when the cheese ball lands in Pam's hair so perfectly. Was that in the script, or just pure luck? That was pure luck?

Right?

I didn't even know it was stuck in my hair.

It's so perfect because you look directly at camera, thinking you've brushed the other one off and that you're cheese ball free. Yes, and then one little dude's hanging in your hair.

Ah, without a doubt. This was one of my favorite sequences to shoot ever on the office, and I feel like it bonded me and Steve and BJ. I would think so in a real way, yeah.

Jim, Pam and Andy are in the break room. I don't even know what to title this break room scene. Shopping over misery. I don't know. So Andy is showing them photos of wedding cakes.

Yeah.

He's trying to get Pam and Jim to buy these elements from his not-happened wedding.

Failed wedding?

One of the things that he plays for them is a song that Pam could walk down the aisle to.

By his Acapella group.

Yes, it's sort of a combination of Pachelbel that morphs into Call me Al, Yes.

Should we hear it?

I think we need to. Randy Cordray sent us in the whole song, Let's Hear It.

That's right, Andy tells Pam. She can walk down the aisle to this song for the low price of $9,000, which Pam says. Seems like a lot. For an acapella group from a college that neither her or Jim attended, yeah.

Wait.

Before we move on, I just want you guys to know I played that this morning in my kitchen with dancing and Ed's guitar. Acapella solo will never, ever disappoint. If you're having a day where you're down in the dumps. Listen to Ed Helms as Andy go Ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

Like, it's so good.

Do you think anyone's ever actually walked down the aisle to this?

Oh, I hope so.

Me too.

Oh, I hope so. If you walk down the aisle to this, will you tag Office Ladies pod?

Please, we got a fan question from Harmjan v. Did Ed Helms do all the voices in this Acapella song? No, No, he did not.

That's right, you guys.

He was in launch party.

He and Ed sang Take a Chance on me to Angela in that episode over Speakerphone.

Yes, so, he did the lead vocals on this, Ed did that bass line, he did it in a studio at Universal Studios. Randy told us that they did this in three takes.

Amazing, amazing, Dr. Thibodeau.

Amazing.

Well, after this episode aired, they updated the Angela and Andy wedding website. They posted the whole song, along with an advertisement for the Acapella group for the wedding services. For $9,000. Just like Andy says in the scene.

That's incredible. Well, next up, we see Dwight in a white long-sleeve shirt.

This scene was so funny to me, I thought Rain was so funny. The way he kept struggling in the long sleeve and saying how it was affecting his attack readiness.

He said It was like a straight jacket.

Yeah.

He's in the kitchen, he's talking with Phyllis. I guess this is Charles new dress code.

Yeah.

I had something happen to me when I was watching this scene and I want to apologize for it in advance. Because it became a little bit of an obsession. As I watched this episode, it didn't happen to me until my third time watching the episode.

What happened?

I became obsessed with what I believe was my observation that Dwight's sleeves are too short. Oh Lord, they're too short. I think they're not long enough. And I found an article that breaks down exactly how long a man's dress shirt should fit.

Okay.

So I created a photo side by side.

You really did get obsessed.

I mean, I spent way too long on this. Here is their illustration, Angela of Just Right, Too Short and then Rain's Arm.

Oh yeah.

Now I know that photo is not super convincing, I know that I tracked it through the whole episode and I have more evidence.

Oh my gosh, you and Dr. Thibodeau. Well, I actually, it's so funny that you bring this up because I became obsessed with Charles Minor's shirt.

Oh.

If you look at his shoulders, there's an extra stitching across his shoulder, and I think it's because his shoulders were so broad. I don't even understand why they would do that, except that maybe Idris had such broad shoulders, they had to have an extra stitch.

I'm going to have to go look at that.

I'm going to show it to you, I will find it, because once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. Okay, I have a picture of it, Jenna. Please look at this extra stitch and pleat on his shoulder.

What is that?

What is that?

See.

Okay.

Okay.

We did get a fan question for this scene from Evan T. and Pearl C at 2 minutes 49 seconds. When Dwight says his shirt is a straight jacket, and then he bumps into some wooden sticks and coffee mugs. Was that scripted or did that happen by accident? Because Phyllis's reaction is so genuine? I looked at the script.

No bogeys.

That's right.

No random straw where it shouldn't be. I love Dwight's talking head, though, when he said When Michael was in charge. This place was like the Roman Empire and the Wild West, and war-torn Poland and Poland. There was just a lot going on, so what you wore to work was the least of anybody's worries.

In this talking head, you can totally see his watch because his sleeves are too short, okay?

Okay.

I just want you to know.

All right.

Well, now Michael is going to meet Dwight outside by the dumpster.

Dwight tells Mike that Ed's Mike, I don't know, all right.

Dwight tells Michael that Ed's tires is looking to make a change, so Dwight is-.

He's helping him out, he is, he's giving him some intel.

Inside info.

And Michael gives him $6 for his trouble.

Well, Dwight says he doesn't need compensation, but he does remind Michael that he owes him $10.

From four years ago.

I know I loved that. I had to know if that was scripted because I thought Steve was so funny. When he was like, it's four years ago. Why won't you let that go?

Was it scripted?

It was, I also want you to know. At three minutes and 30 seconds. You can clearly see Michael's shirt sleeves coming out of his suit jacket, but you cannot see Dwight's.

Jenna, you're onto something, you're onto something. Idris had broad shoulders and Rain's shirt was-.

It was too short, too short, you believe me.

I believe you. Back inside, Andy is going to tell Jim that he's worried, you know, Pam bosses him around. He's really worried that their relationship maybe isn't so healthy. And he says, Listen, I know a few things about love.

Yeah, there's a lot to unpack here. Andy is projecting his own hurt onto Jim because Pam shot down this idea of using any of Andy's wedding stuff, and he thinks Jim was bulldozed, right?

Yeah, and Jim sees his opportunity now for a day long of pranking, yeah.

Because I think Jim's a little offended.

Well, it is ridiculous.

Yeah.

He's making a lot of assumptions. So now Michael is going to take this info that he got from Dwight. He's headed back to Michael Scott Paper Company, and he tells Pam to give Ed's tires a call.

Yeah.

Here's what she needs to say She needs to say that Michael Scott Paper Company has fewer clients, so they can spend more time with each of them. And also somehow mentioned she distrusts women and he recommends she do it over Indian food.

Pam's like, I'm not going to say that, Ryan's like, I can get there. That made me laugh out loud.

This is a little foreshadowing for something that's going to come up later, which is that Michael takes kind of meticulous, detailed notes about each client.

I feel like when I saw Michael's Rolodex Jenna, it reminded me of my note cards. Because I usually put a few words that mean something to me right now, I put it all in a document, but if you look at my notes, I give myself words that only mean something to me.

Boo.

Why does it say Boo?

Because I don't know what that means.

I think he's being mean to Andy, so I wrote, Boo.

And then right here.

What does that say? Trophy? That means something to me.

We'll get to it.

But I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm Michael Scott.

I have, like, a few key words.

Well, you know, in my early actor days, when I would go to casting offices, I would come home. And I had a little card file, like a rolodex, where I would write down little notes about anything like that. Chocolate chip cookies. So that the next time I went into that casting office, I could have something that might spark a moment of connection.

You're like, Hi, Tammy. Had any good chocolate chip cookies lately? Pretty much.

Yes.

So casual? Yeah, okay, so back to the scene.

I have a little thing I spotted at five minutes, nine seconds. There is a poster hanging in the background of the scene. It's over to the left of Michael's desk. It says diversity. So that poster was made by Phil Shea using the hands of our hair and makeup crew.

That is their hands and, like, I guess, their arms, right? Yes, yeah.

So now Pam has a talking head. They've done their little chant.

Their cheer.

Their morning, you ugly cheer, Yeah, yeah. And she just said, Listen, she's here, she's part of this now.

That's right.

And I had a little catch at five minutes and 16 seconds.

This is a on my face catch, oh.

Did you notice in this episode that I have a darker pigmented lip and eyeshadow? It's a much richer color?

No, I did not. Oh my gosh.

Okay.

I noticed because this was a huge thing.

Listen, when you had dark nail polish out of nowhere, I noticed, I know your lipstick, I didn't quite notice.

We usually alternated between two neutral lip shades, but my makeup artist, Laverne, she said, I really think we could go a little bolder. For Pam. She made her first sale last week.

Yeah.

She's got her blazer, yeah.

Yeah.

So how can we continue to tell the story of her growing confidence? So we went with a bolder lip.

I like it, thank you. Our next scene is Charles and Dwight. they're in Charles's office. Note his shoulders, please.

Also, please note that Rain's entire watch is exposed because his sleeves are too short. Five minutes, 39 seconds.

All right, so basically, Charles wants to know if Dwight is happy at the company, you know, and he invites him out to drinks. So in the background of this scene, you can see Jim Jenna John has angled his computer because he's clearly like surfing the internet or checking email or something. So while I was watching the scene the first time, I just watched it just to watch it. Then I was like, Wait a second, John's doing email in the background and the way back. This scene also has a line I love when Charles says to Dwight, You're so focused.

Well, Rain was asked in an interview what he thought drinks between Dwight and Charles might entail.

Yeah.

And this was his answer, he said. Probably Charles getting really bored after about eight minutes and making up an excuse to leave. He was also asked about his decision to choose Dunder Mifflin over Michael Scott Paper Company.

What do you say?

He said Dwight is loyal to whoever values loyalty the most, and in this case, Dunder Mifflin honors loyalty with an actual paycheck, and that is why he chose Dunder Mifflin. I also want to point out in this scene that Charles is still drinking out of his Satakoy steel insulated coffee mug. And I have to say, I think it's a betrayal.

Let it go.

Get a Dunder Mifflin insulated mug already. What is your attachment to your Satakoy steel mug?

You know, corporate gave him a mug, but he's not using it. That's a choice. Why not? That's what I'm saying, yeah.

I think Michael knows this guy, he's a steel man at heart.

Right?

This next scene is amazing. Michael calls Dwight to ask about Dunder Mifflin's pricing for Ed's tires. Yeah, he wants to undercut them.

Right?

And this is when Dwight's internal conflict begins.

Yeah, he starts to waffle.

Michael never invited him to drinks.

I know.

So he tells Michael, something's come up, and Michael's like, Oh my gosh, is it Moe's? Did you cover up the well? What is that backstory?

I don't know.

Has Moe's fallen in the well numerous times?

Of course he has.

He's probably fallen and been gone for like two days, and then they find him in the well.

I love comedy like that, it's there and then it goes away.

Yeah, you just throw it away, Michael's not getting it, he's not.

He's kind of like, things are changing fast, there's a cool new guy and I don't think he'd like it if I helped. Even my personal hero. And Michael's like, What are you talking about? what are you talking about?

And then Steve, as Michael reads the notepad, all the expressions that come over Steve's face, as Michael figures this out. I was blown away. I said, Give Steve all of the awards.

It is really hard to play realization as an actor. Because you know the information, you had to memorize it, you had to read the script, you know where the scene is going.

Yes.

And so to play all of that, it is like one of the hardest things to do as an actor, and then to do it comedically amazing.

Amazing.

We got a fan question about this scene from Kelton O, who said, How is it that Pam and Ryan can hear both sides of this phone call?

Yeah.

They seem to hear Dwight so clearly through the phone. Well, this is very funny, Kelton, because Rain was actually right off camera.

Yeah.

Doing his side of the phone call, we could totally hear him. Rain actually had to come into work that day. He did not have anything else to shoot, all he did was stand off camera and read his side of the phone call.

Right?

Like we did upstairs.

Because it was a closet and a Fakie phone. Yes, I thought I could see how they were cheating it a little, because Michael is kind of holding the phone out. So you would assume if he had the volume pretty high up. It's a tiny room that you guys could probably hear. We also had a fan catch from Maya R.

Who said this, Angela?

What?

This went right to my heart, she said. I noticed a paper Pro stapler on Pam and Ryan's table, and my mom actually works for the company that sells these staplers. It originated in Pennsylvania before merging with Boss Stitch. Could this be why the stapler was used in this episode?

I got to try it out.

All right.

I brought champagne, Jenna brought a stapler.

Here it is now watch.

Do I get to do it? yes.

I am going to do it with a single finger. Wait, wait.

Here.

Now I wish I'd brought a regular stapler, I had meant to bring a regular stapler.

I'm sure there is one.

Okay, ready, watch this.

I heard that.

It is amazing.

Try it.

Okay, I'm going to try it, staple something, I'm going to staple something.

It's not a regular stapler, where you get a, it's like.

Okay, that's very hard.

You can do it with one finger.

Okay, ready?

Oh, yes, I see what you're talking about.

There's like, a spring or something.

I bought you a paper pro stapler, Sam, I have one for you, Cassie, I have one for you.

Oh my gosh, thank you.

You need to have it. Last thing I'll say about the stapler, I think.

I don't think you're done talking about it. Don't make that promise.

Sometimes when we do these acting jobs, you acquire a new skill, maybe that you didn't have before. When I did Blades of Glory, I had to train with a ice skating coach. I learned how to be quite a good ice skater.