Line #32 Fridge/TheOfficeUS


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2	* In the season 2 premiere, it is discovered that accounting has one more employee than is needed and in "Scott's Tots" it is revealed that Kevin originally applied for a warehouse job but Michael had a "good feeling" about him and gave him an accounting job. Dwight ends up firing Kevin in the finale due to realizing that he has virtually no purpose in his department.
3	* Why would Dwight have Meredith, of all people, help him put the raccoon in Holly's car during Toby's good-bye party? He insisted it wasn't rabid, but he had no way of knowing for sure - and since Meredith had already been exposed to rabies earlier in the season, [[FridgeHorror he probably thought she wouldn't die if she was bitten!]]
4	* It has been a long time since Angela had interacted with Andy at all, so why did she suddenly go tell him not to let pride get in the way on his last day of Dunder Mifflin? Let's backtrack here. Angela wasn't talking about her recent scandal with the senator, she was actually talking about her life for the past 9 years. She was also apologizing to Andy for using him to get revenge on Dwight, which caused a chain reaction that lead to her downfall.
5	* During the episode "Casino Night", Oscar is the one who is opposed to giving the money to the Boy Scouts. Not only because of the reason stated, but because Oscar is gay and the Boy Scouts are homophobic.
6	* During the Pilot, Dwight unlocks one of his desk drawers and pulls out his telephone handset. Cut to end of season 2, Conflict Resolution, where we learn of a prank Jim pulled involving adding nickels to the handset to make it heavier.
7	* Dwight's unlikely overt friendship to Jim is at the heart of the final season and culminated in Jim being Dwight's wedding. It wouldn't seem logical until you consider that all of the other contenders were all taken out of contention in one mass swoop when they all got alienated from each other during Dwight's failed attempt to thwart Clark. Dwight also felt he outgrew his friends so it made sense.
8	* One might wonder how Michael and the rest of the office are allowed to get away with their numerous unprofessional shenanigans, but it's occasionally brought up that Scranton is the highest-performing branch in the company, so clearly the bosses are reluctant to take a heavy hand with the branch for fear of killing their golden goose. However, this does raise the question of just how incompetent the ''other'' branches are at their jobs.
9	** On that note, one may also question how Jim gets away with pranking Dwight in so many elaborate and sometimes dangerous ways. While its clear that management and HR are disengaged and seemingly oblivious to the potential for litigation, the question remains why none of their colleagues ever intervene or question the ethics of this behaviour. In addition to Dwight's tendency to annoy everybody in his vicinity, the workers of the office appear to be quite amoral. This is perhaps best shown in 'Classy Christmas', when Dwight repeatedly pelts Jim with snowballs. Even after he's bludgeoned Jim to the point of bleeding and Jim attempts to escape, their coworkers simply lock them out and watch as Dwight continues to attack Jim.
10	** The others don't usually intervene when Jim pranks Dwight because for most of the series the office almost unanimously finds Dwight an annoying and insufferable man who needs to be taken down a peg or two, and they simply don't care about him being humiliated. As for the reverse, they simply may decide that Dwight, despite the former point, is entitled to get his own back every so often.
11	* On the episode "Lecture Circuit" in season 5, Michael asks a very pregnant Karen if she had a man or if it was a non-conventional method. At first, it might appear that he is just being his usual tactless self, but it makes more sense once you realize that Michael had a very similar situation happen with Jan, and that he now sees this as a distinct possibility.
12	* By the time Michael resigned for good, he had 8 men and 6 women under his management (not counting Toby or Darryl, since they don't directly work for Michael). The next two new employees were both female (Jordan and Nellie, with Cathy as a temp). This was most likely due to Sabre's policy that stated no male applicants could be considered until the manager had an even number of men and women working for them. Once David Wallace reclaimed the business, he probably scrapped that policy, allowing Pete and Clark to be hired.
13	* Andy's "Threat Level Midnight" rap over the end credits of the episode of the same name throws out references to [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra apartheid]] and "free Mandela", showing how long Michael's film has been in DevelopmentHell. The various movie cliches from TheEighties in the script also point to Michael either writing it back then, or just being so obsessed with the pop culture of his youth he's not aware things have changed (like not knowing that Mandela was freed in 1990).
14	* Michael being a ShipperOnDeck for Jim and Pam may have more motivation then just wanting his friends together. 1) Michael has shown some friction with the warehouse workers and add in Roy's {{Jerkass}} tendencies, especially towards Pam, you get a solid reason for him not wanting her with Roy, 2) Michael is shown as desperately wanting to get married and have kids while Roy and Pam had a long engagement which given his affection for Pam probably led Michael to think Roy wasn't the right guy for her, 3) One of Michael's earliest good moments with Jim came when he opened up about his feelings for Pam so Michael could have been touched enough by anyone from the office actually approaching him as something other than the boss that he dedicated himself to supporting them.
15	* In Season 8's "Trivia" episode, Meredith correctly answers the question of what is the most common learning disability among high school students. (Dyslexia, not ADHD). At first, you think it might be because Jakey's got a learning disability. In the finale, we find out she's been working on a [=PhD=] in "school psychology," so she would know.
16	* Why is Angela so weird about her initial relationship with Dwight and keep it a secret? She says doesn't "want people in her business" - not necessarily her coworkers, but ''the documentary crew''. She's uptight, and I'm sure she realizes that they're looking for a story and didn't want to be it (as they say near the end of the show, the crew really stuck so long to follow Jim and Pam). And once Jim and Pam become the clear focus of the documentary, she's more comfortable being open with Andy, the Senator, and eventually Dwight.
17	* In one of "The Accountants" webisodes, Kevin correctly guesses that Angela has a crush on Roy when she defends him against the theft accusation because of his "good character". Angela had before done the same for Dwight and his "integrity", but the guys don't think much of it beyond looking weirded out. If the guys had just applied to same logic to Dwight, his and Angela's relationship could have been outed much sooner.
18	* In Last Day in Florida, why would Robert, the CEO, tell Jim, a salesmen he's never really bonded with, that he had planned all along to kill the Sabre store? Because he knows that Jim will stop Dwight from taking the VP position. Robert can't fire Nellie because she's Jo's best friend, and Dwight has the best sales record of anyone in the company. If Dwight's fired, he's just going to take his talents to a competitor. Todd Packer is an easy token firing. Since Robert intended to veto the Sabre store all along, he probably invited Jim to Florida specifically so he could tell Dwight not to take the VP job while saving face.
19	* Why does Bob Vance mention his business name as many times as possible? Simple: he's advertising his own business.
20	* The Scranton branch's shift from one of the worst branches in Dunder-Mifflin (leading to Jan's attempt to shut it down in Season 3) to the most successful in Season 5 is not explicitly explained. Until you remember that Scranton absorbed the successful Stamford branch, and presumably its client base, but then Michael drove out all the salesmen except Karen and Andy. So Scranton absorbed all of Stamford's revenue but nearly none of its payroll.
21	** The same happens after the Buffalo branch closes, except Scranton absorbs none of their employees and the surge of new customers almost instantly overwhelms Michael, making the Scranton branch even more successful despite Michael's leadership.
22	** 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 been able to connect those two dots himself. The show never gives any specific figures, so I believe that David Wallace took this possibility into account already.
23	** The departures of Andy and Jim mean that ultimately, the Scranton branch lost ''all'' of the employees who transferred from Stamford.
24	* Angela's cheating on Andy with Dwight at first seems to just make her a heartless bitch to her completely devoted and loving fiancee, until you remember that after transferring to Scranton, Andy had caused Dwight to get fired, which had left Angela an emotional wreck (as they were dating at that point). When Andy begins hitting on her, Angela at first is repulsed by him, but then accepts his advances, planing to make him fall in love with her and then break his heart, leaving him an emotional wreck just as he had done to her. She never loved Andy, it was all part of the plan. Additionally she lied to Dwight about sleeping with Andy to get back at him for killing her cat. If you notice she never seems all that regretful for any of her actions during this period.
25	** That is ''not'' the case. Basically, Angela was in a LoveTriangle and dealt with it in an unhealthy, selfish matter. She kept her engagement going and slept with Dwight because she didn't want to choose between him or Andy. She treated Andy like crap despite him going all out for their wedding and being genuinely enamored with her and treated Dwight like crap as well, even cheating on him with Andy. Andy revealed that she had sex with him, which revealed to Dwight that Angela lied to him about having sex with him, and the two called a truce, breaking up with Angela.
26	* Jim's briefly mentioned poor human resources review, which Michael uses in "The Meeting" to convince David Wallace not to promote Jim, would have been written by Toby, who has a crush on Pam.
27	* Also from "The Meeting" Jim's plan to have Michael promoted to oversee all the northeast branches while Jim takes over Scranton is almost identical to Jan's plan from "Branch Closing." Of course Jim was a part of the plan and simply recycled it later with Michael instead of Josh.
28	* When Holly briefly returns To Scranton, Erin (who had not previously met her) takes an instant, seemingly irrational dislike to her. This would seem to be out of character for the sunny Erin until you remember that she sees Michael as a surrogate father and is thus behaving ''exactly'' like a BrattyTeenageDaughter suddenly confronted with [[ParentWithNewParamour her father's new girlfriend.]]
29	** Also consider the possibility that she probably sees Holly as the woman who broke Michael's heart. Even though the breakup wasn't Holly's fault, Erin probably got a grossly inaccurate account of it, especially given Michael's habit of exaggerating and passing blame (not to mention Erin's gullibility).
30	*** Considering Michael had nothing but nice things to say about Holly (at least onscreen), it may just be that Erin prefers to pin all of the blame on Holly, regardless of what she heard or who she heard it from.
31	* Why would Pam be so vehemently opposed to Michael dating her mom? She remembered his reaction to her landlady.
32	** And considering Michael dumped her the instant he found out how old she was, Pam would have been completely right if this was the reason.
33	** Also, when Michael asks the office what is so wrong with him that he shouldn't be allowed to date her. Nobody has a response because they were trying to spare his feelings, not because he actually made a good point. They are all well aware of all of his flaws, including an inability to take even the slightest bit of criticism, and as insufferable as Michael is, a dejected Michael is worse.
34	* When Michael is at the New York bar and explains that he'd like a tattoo on his back that reads "Back To The Future", it's obvious that he is living in 80's nostalgia. If you think about it, it can also mean that he's literally living in the past by ''turning his back to the future.''
35	* One of the earliest examples of Andy's parents' disappointment in him and his status as TheUnfavorite is when he mentions, in a talking head, that his parents originally named him Walter after his father but instead gave it to his brother when he was born and gave him the name "Andrew" which they got "from a baby name book." Andy starts with "A." Implying his parents only opened the first few pages of the book before picking a name.
36	* The cold open of Stanley not even noticing any of the office's shenanigans except for the clock basically says that Stanley has worked at Dunder-Mifflin for so long, nothing fazes him any more.
37	* Michael getting back together with Jan is portrayed as completely unreasonable - things are exactly the same except for her breast enhancement surgery, and he'll be just as unhappy with her as he was before they broke up. Until you take into consideration that on Michael's pro-con list on what to do about an, being unhappy when he was with her was below her flat chest. In fact, her "shrunken chesticles" were on the con list TWICE. By Michael's logic, Jan actually addressed a lot of what was wrong in their relationship.
38	* Michael asking the camera crew when the show will air means that in the show's universe, the documentary has never been released to the public before. It makes sense, because, if the show had already aired, wouldn't they be famous by now?
39	* The season 6 episode "The Chump" seems to brilliantly lampshade the show's GrowingTheBeard status by lampshading many different tropes:
40	** All of the CringeComedy style of previous episodes, by the use of Toby's brief appearance. He seems to be the only StraightMan left from season 1 after the mass amount of CharacterDevelopment / {{Flanderization}} (whichever you think it is) for all members of the office. Also, as the show went on he seemed to be appearing less and less....
41	** [[OutOfFocus Which is a trope]] lampshaded by how the office seemed to somewhat have evolved into TrueCompanions, a stark opposite from the start of the show. Pam assumed Michael was upset due to finding out that [[spoiler: his girlfriend is a married woman]], so she proposed that the whole office try to cheer him up. Michael clearly hates Toby, so when he walked out of his office the whole office [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments very vocally asked him to leave]], which actually further [[TheWoobie Woobified]] him.
42	* When a mysterious prankster takes a dump in Michael's office, Michael speaks with his former boss Ed Truck who mentions he's had that done to him as well. It's later revealed that it was Todd Packer's doing. Keeping in mind that Packer and Michael worked together as salesmen before Michael's promotion, it becomes clear that crapping in the manager's office is a standard trick in Packer's book of unfunny humor.
43	* The talking heads segments are a brilliant way of showing the thought process of the characters as the scenes are progressing without compromising on either the narrative or the chosen medium of documentary style which allows neither for an omniscient narrator or thought bubbles.
44	* This scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqb0y2nVCgA) may just seem like Creed being his usual self, But once you realize that the actor is actually Creed Bratton and his character is heavily based on the real Creed, He's actually right. Creed is the only person on that show that's "real"
45	* Stanley's resolution in "Ultimatum" is "Be a better husband and boyfriend", implying he's ''still'' cheating on his wife, failing to keep his resolution just by writing it down.
46	* "Branch Closing" has a great comparison between Michael and David Brent. During the episode, Josh leaves his branch to die for money, something Jim says Michael would never do. This is exactly what Brent tried to do at the end of the first series.
47	* One of the clues in Michael's treasure hunt from "New Leads" is to "look to the man that never breeds". Dwight deduced that he meant Kevin, but Michael could have also meant Oscar.
48	* Roy's last name is Anderson. If he and Pam did get married and she took his name, that would make her [[Creator/PamelaAnderson Pam Anderson]] - Michael would probably be making constant inappropriate jokes about that.
49	* Dwight complains about being labeled a security threat...but it's not wrong to label him as one. He's hidden weapons around the office, fired a gun that injured one employee's hearing, set up a disturbingly accurate fire scenario that trapped everyone inside, and attacked a few employees (even if it was for the purpose of demonstrating self-defense).
50	* In "Goodbye, Toby", Michael defends Holly against anymore hazing, due to him becoming infatuated with her, by declaring that she's the best thing that had happened in this company since World War II; this comparison makes Michael sound like an idiot, but considering that World War II ''did'' help to bring up the economy in the United States after the Great Depression, which lead to businesses running again, he's not wrong.
51	** In the same episode, Michael sings the song, "Goodbye Stranger", as a goodbye song to Toby, with "stranger" being replaced by "Toby"; the song's lyrics reflect Michael's relationship with Toby, for example:
52	*** "''Goodbye [Toby], it's been nice / Hope you find your paradise / Tried to see your point of view / Hope your dreams will all come true''" (Toby is moving to Costa Rica and Michael could never agree with Toby)
53	** "''You can laugh at my behavior/ And that'll never bother me/ Say the devil is my savior/ But I don't pay no heed''" (referring to how Michael never listens to Toby when he criticizes Michael's inappropriate behavior)
54	** The song also foreshadows Toby's return in the next season:
55	*** "''Goodbye Mary, goodbye Jane / [[TheBusCameBack Will we ever meet again]]?''"
56	-->'''Toby''': Hi, Micha-
57	-->'''Michael:''': NOOOO! GOD! No, God, please no! No! No! NOOO-!
58	* Michael claims to have soft teeth and makes some minor lifestyle changes to address it, like monthly dental appointments, but what he actually has is a terrible diet. He has a giant SweetTooth and ingests massive amounts of sugar to the point that he is shown adding sugar to his soda at least once. Since he is all but completely incapable of connecting his own behavior to its consequences, he either genuinely believes he has soft teeth or is lying to himself because it is easier for him to just blame his dental problems on soft teeth than to deal with the actual problem.
59	* Why does the conference room lock from the outside, as shown in the "The Convict", considering that would be a blatant fire code violation? There's RuleOfFunny, but there's also the possibility that Michael had the lock installed that way so he could escape from his employees if they ever became unruly.
60	* Creed Bratton mentions that he avoids bankruptcy by occasionally transferring all of his debts to his alter ego, "William Charles Schneider" [[note]](This is implied to be Creed's original identity before he [[KillAndReplace killed and replaced]] the original Creed Bratton)[[/note]]. Later in the "Blackmail" webisode Creed mentions the "William Charles Schneider Memorial Fund" hinting that the way Creed ultimately escaped responsibility for the debts was by faking the death of William Charles Schneider.
61	* Darryl messing with Michael by outlining his "gang's" punishment ritual of "fluffy-fingers" becomes even funnier when you realize that it's probably a game he really does play with his young daughter, and that the "gang" he's discussing is in fact his family.
62	* Notice how, in "The Coup", Michael only releases his pent-up anger about Dwight trying to steal his job after Dwight ''also'' makes dismissive comments about Michael's work-lease car, despite having previously claimed to admire it. It might just seem like ArsonMurderAndJaywalking, but remember how in a later episode Michael will side with the company over Jan when it comes to Jan's lawsuit, despite having been knowingly interviewed for a promotion he was never under consideration for, after Jan steals his diary and uses it to further her case by humiliating him. Remember also how Michael points out after that moment that while he expects to be screwed over by his company, being screwed over by his girlfriend crosses the line. Michael could probably at least tolerate, if resentfully, someone trying to steal his job, because for better or worse that's something that happens within the workplace; it's the fact that it was Dwight, coupled with Dwight feigning friendship and loyalty he obviously doesn't feel towards Michael, that really pisses him off.
63	* In "Shareholder Meeting", there's debate over whether Jim has the authority to fire anyone (specifically Ryan, for his blatant insubordination and undermining of Jim). The real problem, however, is that even if Jim ''did'' have the power and used it to fire Ryan, it wouldn't do any good, as Michael is so besotted with Ryan that he'd end up just hiring him back anyway.
64	* Why is Michael so brilliant at confronting David Wallace and pushing him in a corner when he negotiates a Dunder-Mifflin buyout of the Michael Scott Paper Company when Michael has always shown himself so terrible at almost anything he touches? Throughout his entire career, Michael has proven that if he negotiates one on one to sell paper, he is an unstoppable vending machine and with this buyout ''he is selling his paper company to Wallace.''
65	* Jim and Darryl's friendship throughout the series makes even more sense when you realise that the two have at least one thing in common -- they very much enjoy pranking people in their workplace who irritate the living snot out of them.
66	* The "Bill Buttlicker" prank that Jim pulls during his shared training session with Dwight is clearly just intended to wind Dwight up, but each part of it nevertheless adheres to the principles of the training exercise and good salesmanship in general, which Dwight fails: you're occasionally going to come across a customer with an odd or humourous name that you'll have to tactfully ignore, they're occasionally going to put you on hold and you don't get to know why, and you'll have to address any physical conditions such as hearing loss tactfully.
67	* In the season 6 episode "Manager and the Salesman", it is mentioned that Sabre does not have a commissions cap on sales, allowing sales staff to potentially make more money than managers. However, by the season 7 episode "WUPHF.com", there is one. Why? Maybe because in the season 6 finale "Whistleblower" the information that the printers catch fire gets to the media, causing a scandal for the company. They obviously are making less money due to defective products and some customers probably no longer trusting them, so they need new ways to save money. This probably includes instituting a commissions cap.
68	* In the finale, Dwight fires Kevin on the day Stanley retires. When the other employees point out that Toby has blocked firing before, Dwight then fires Toby. It was established when Michael was boss that he couldn't fire an HR employee, because they don't report to him directly, they technically are corporate employees who work remotely in the branches they are assigned to. Andy also complained about Toby but did nothing about it for presumably the same reason. So why would Dwight be able to fire him? Perhaps David Wallace, sometime after the documentary aired, gave him the authority to fire an HR employee.
69	* In the last few episodes of Season 7, Jordan Garfield, the personal assistant hired by Deangelo, still works there after Deangelo's accident, though has disappeared by Season 8. She doesn't get any storylines, but deleted scenes suggest she's developing a crush on Jim. In Season 8, another new female employee, Cathy, tries to seduce Jim. Evidently the writers decided to continue Jordan's plot in some form.
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72	* In the DietEpisode, Creed sells Kelly a tapeworm from Mexico. She explains that in a few weeks, she'll take medicine and get rid of it, then Creed states "That wasn't a tapeworm." What did he sell her?
73	* Dwight's fire drill. How idiotic of him, right, right? But...the office did not follow any safety procedures and started panicking. It was 2009 and not one of them had the idea to use their cell phones to call for help. Despite his insane line of thinking, Dwight was right all along. What would happened if the staff was trapped in a real burning building?
74	--> '''Lawyer''': Did you shout "fire", causing a panic?\
75	'''Dwight''': Yes I shouted "fire"! I shouted many things. I also shouted instructions on ''how to get out of the building''...
76	** Though they only start panicking because Dwight both stacked the decks against them in terms of his "fire drill", continually fuelled their fear and paranoia regarding the situation, and kept barking questions at them rather than actually guiding them through the situation. Had Dwight not been hovering around continually questioning/goading them and doing needless things like throwing firecrackers around -- in short, had he actually doing his job as safety manager -- they might have remained calm enough to think of it, and almost certainly would have done much better.
77	* One of the warehouse employees, Hide, claims to be a heart surgeon from Japan who is hiding from the Yakuza after deliberately botching the surgery on a high-ranking member. He isn't seen in the series finale, which is set one year after the documentary had aired around the world.
78	** Although he may have quit after Lotto having won the lottery
79	* Hopefully Pam washed that teapot Jim gave her. She got it back right after Dwight put the spout up his nose.
80	* Roy is repeatedly shown to be quick to violence and shallow. It's revealed through multiple conversations with coworkers, Pam expects Roy to either not want to hear about or to ignore her emotions. Pam appears to believe there's nothing she can do about their relationship up until she calls off the wedding. It's not clear how bad Pam and Roy's relationship was, but given Roy's reactions after their break-up it might have been past emotional abuse and negligence.
81	* In "Dinner Party", Jan claims that the broken screen window in Michael's apartment was due to him running through it in his excitement to get to an ice-cream truck coupled with how incredibly clean it was. Given how toxic their relationship and how abusive and prone to violent temper tantrums Jan is shown to be, however, the rather more sinister possibility that it was actually broken during a fight between them can't help but present itself...
82	* Also in "Dinner Party", it's shown that Micheal is ''really'' desperate for someone to come over to dinner with him and Jan, even actively faking an order from corporate to ensure Jim has no excuse to avoid it. Now, this ''could'' just be his well-established DesperatelyCravesAffection trait, sure. Or, given Jan ''is abusing him'', maybe he has other reasons for wanting his trusted friends and a camera crew around when he eats with her...
83	* Over the course of the show, Kevin [[TookALevelInDumbass becomes increasingly dumber]]. While Angela's throwaway line in Season 8 ("He's always been like that. I mean, it's gotten worse over the years") is most likely just LampshadeHanging, it also means that Kevin's noticeably declining mental faculties are noticed InUniverse. He might be developing dementia and nobody seems to care.
84	* Dwight's fascination with the male twins at Jim and Pam's wedding might come off as goofy at first, until you learn what [[ThoseWackyNazis Dwight's German relatives]] had been up to and his interest in twins might [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_human_experimentation#Experiments_on_twins run in the family]].
85	* For all the people who say that Jim was “mean” for alway pranking Dwight, “Classy Christmas” shows us just how physically and psychologically violent Dwight is capable of being. Imagine if Jim wasn’t around to keep him in line.
86	* The warehouse worker who almost assaults Pam is not only clearly capable of hitting a woman, but also has a casually misogynistic attitude before she even did anything to him. That guy was working in the same building as multiple women for who knows how long? Who knows if something already happened off-camera?
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Context Fridge / TheOfficeUS