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• Panicky Expectant Father: Jim turns into this when Pam goes into labor in "The Delivery." To be fair, he didn't start panicking until she refused to go to the hospital even when her contractions were getting close together (Pam finally relented once her contractions were a mere TWO MINUTES apart- at which point even SHE had begun to panic).
• Paranoia Gambit: Dwight ambushes Jim by hiding inside a snowman. Later that day, when Jim is walking to his car, he finds himself surrounded by snowmen. As Jim snaps and starts destroying every one of them, Dwight watches from the roof. "In the end, the greatest snowball isn't a snowball at all. It's fear. Merry Christmas."
• Parental Substitute: Michael learns Erin, an orphan, thinks of him as a father figure in "Viewing Party."
• Le Parkour: Mocked in the season six premiere, when Andy, Dwight, and Michael "parkour" through the office. It's basically them jumping on furniture and kicking things over while shouting "parkour!"
• 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 bigboobz is figured out when Michael recalls that when the IT guy told it to him, Michael laughed, but Pam got upset.
  • Michael's computer password is revealed to be "password123," which the IT guy spots written on a post-it note stuck to his computer monitor.
  • At the end of "Gossip," one of the interns says that half of the office members use the password "password."
• Payment Plan Pitch: In an episode, Michael buys an insurance policy that is "...only a cup of coffee an hour."
• 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. When the time comes for his job to schmooze with clients, his talents as a salesman shine.
  • When Jim starts making some advances in the company, eventually as co-manager, he starts making rational, firm, boss-like decisions and simply assumes the rest of the office will be mature about it. When the employees start complaining and accusing him of nepotism or other ulterior motives, something he never had to deal with as a salesman, the look on his face is a realization of why Michael avoids making such decisions.
• 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.
• Pie in the Face: In "Work Bus", Kevin tries to goad Oscar into doing this to him. Oscar realizes what he's doing, but indulges him anyway.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: For all the talk that the Scranton office is Dundler-Mifflin's most productive, the episodes constantly show the employees fooling around during the work hours. That being said, they're dedicated to it - specially if it's an excuse to fool around, such as when there is a massive productivity spike for the purpose of getting Andy to do an Embarrassing Tattoo.
• Pixellation:
  • Used to hilarious effect in "Benjamin Franklin", when Michael visits a sex shop and everything in the background is pixellated.
  • Seen again in the cold opening of "Body Language". When Michael has trouble with the gender aspect of Spanish, he uses drawings of genitalia on Post-its to help, which are partly pixelated.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Ryan and 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.
• The Pollyanna: Erin, the new receptionist. She actually seems to like working for Michael! In one of her earlier episodes Michael pulls the "fake fire" stunt on her, she seems to get the joke and laugh it off. Compared that to Pam, who was reduced to tears and anger.
• Poorly Disguised Pilot: "The Farm". See Spinoff.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis: The production of the musical Sweeney Todd that Andy is in is clearly based more on the movie version than the actual stage versions. Though they get points for performing the opening ballad, which is not in the film version, and by having costumes that look more like the original stage version than the movie.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Invoked intentionally by Jim when he's trying to goad Dwight in a non-work related discussion to prove that he does "steal time" from the company.
  • Darryl admitted that he was, at least in part, banking on this when he applied to the Regional Manager position after Michael left.
• Potty Failure:
  • A young Michael Scott as ring bearer at his mother's wedding (which led to the poor boy being swapped out in favor of THE FAMILY DOG at the last minute).
    Michael: I was understandably emotional and somehow my pants became wet.
  • After Michael and Dwight fall down the stairs in "Branch Wars", the former announces that he just wet his pants.
• Privacy by Distraction: The cameraman falls for this in "Weight Loss" when Jim and Pam want to get some private time. He is distracted long enough for Jim to close the door on him.
  Jim: Hey, did you get a shot of Pam's art over there?
• Product Placement:
  • To add authenticity, flyers and tchotchkes from Scranton-area businesses adorn the office, and real Scranton businesses are often mentioned.
  • For "The Convention", companies were invited to provide their own materials and staff, with the understanding that the show would try but could not guarantee that they would appear on screen. One of them (Hammermill) played a significant plot point.
  • Trip Advisor. Check out Schrute Farms's stellar rating.
  • Michael does this a lot, though it's arguably justified in that it's completely in character for him to do so.
  • The original broadcast of "The Merger" has a small subplot with Kevin gushing over his new Staples shredder. The very first commercial during the next ad break was for the exact same shredder. This was extremely jarring because Staples is one of Dunder-Mifflin's biggest competitors and the company is usually mentioned on the show with various levels of contempt.
  • Dwight and Jim both play Second Life in one episode. Reasonably accurate game footage is shown.
  • "Dwight, do you want an Altoid?"
  • Jim sucks at Call of Duty.
  • Countchoculitis.
  • The 2005 Dundies Award Show is held at Chili's. Later that same season, Michael and Jan take an important client there to work out a big sale.
  • Michael burns his foot on a George Foreman grill. In a talking head, Jim makes a point of noting how he does most of his cooking on a Foreman grill.
  • 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 pretzel snacks can often be seen in the breakroom's vending machine. As Utz is a Lancover PA based company whose products are largely distributed in the NY/NJ/WV/Penn area, this is realistic for a Scranton PA workplace.
  • When Michael goes to New York, he likes to enjoy the "authentic New York pizza" at Sbarro (a nationwide fast-food pizza chain often found in mall food courts).
  • Try to count all the close-ups on the back of their monitors to show the HP logo.
  • Every phone in their company is provided by Cisco, although the logo is only shown on close ups of the phones which are relatively rare.
  • Michael's Chrysler Sebring and later PT Cruiser.
  • According to Creed Thoughts, Creed likes Minecraft.
  • "Break me off a piece of that Fancy Feast" (Plus every time Andy recited the first part of the slogan the audience is reminded "Kit Kat").
  • An advertising standee of Keebler's mascot Ernie is decoration in Dwight's Day Care center.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: Dwight to Michael in the early seasons.
  • Gabe to Jo Bennett.
• Promoted to Love Interest: Ellie Kemper was originally signed on to do one or two episodes as Erin Hannon. However, as the popularity of her character increased, she was (thankfully) worked into the script as Andy's love interest.
• Promoted to Scapegoat: This is what gets Todd Packer fired in season 8.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Ed Helms (in season 6), James Spader (in season 8).
• Proud Warrior Race: Invoked. In one episode, Dwight reads a speech by Mussolini shouting 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.
  • Mirrored in Season 8 when Andy gets frustrated that Nellie had stolen his job, and takes his anger out on the same wall.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "I...declare..........BANKRUPTCYYYYYYYYY!!!!"
• Pursue the Dream Job:
  • In the ninth season, Jim decides to become the co-founder of a new business in Philadelphia.
  • Also in the ninth season, Andy decides to quit his job and pursue his dream in the arts, including singing, acting, and dancing. He even defecates on David Wallace's car in effort to burn his bridges to make sure he'd have all the motivation to succeed.
• Put on a Bus: Roy, Karen, Jan, Charles, David, Gabe, Holly, Michael, Jo, Robert California and Kelly all leave the show before its conclusion. Ryan is present in the final season's premier episode, literally waiting for a bus.
• Queer People Are Funny: To Kevin, due to his immaturity. Oscar does not appreciate this trope, for that matter, no one else laughs at Kevin's jokes either.
• Race for Your Love: Erin chases down Andy as he's driving away in "Get the Girl."
• Rambling Old Man Monologue:
  • Michael is unaware that Phyllis's Uncle Al's rambling is due to dementia.
  Michael: I listened to you for half an hour even though most of that stuff went right over my head.
  • Michael invites Robert Dunder to speak to the employees. Dunder's rambling story flits from subject to subject until Michael kicks him out.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Dwight while he's running towards the obscenely vandalized DM ad billboard that he and Andy were featured on. Followed by a Big "NO!" when he sees that it was in fact defaced.
• Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: Done by Deangelo when cohosting the Dundies with Michael and about to present Dwight with an award:
  Deangelo: They say he's going to be my right-hand man. Ad-lib masturbation joke. (cut to Erin holding up a huge cue card)
• Ready for Lovemaking:
  • Cathy pulls this on Jim at the end of "After Hours". Jim tells her to get out (and then calls in Dwight as a Moment Killer when she refuses to comply).
  • Angela, of all people, attempts to pull this on Dwight in "The Convention". Her plan goes awry when Jim decides to prank Dwight by sneaking into his hotel room, but leaves as soon as he notices that there's a woman in the room. (Hilariously enough, Jim thinks that the scantily-clad woman perched seductively on the bed is a prostitute that Dwight hired. He never realizes it's actually Angela!)
• Real Fake Wedding: Dwight gets a priest who only speaks German for Andy and Angela's wedding. He does a practice ceremony where he stands in for Andy, and makes the priest believe Dwight's the groom and it's a real ceremony. Angela does not accept it as a real marriage, however, and immediately has it anulled.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Jenna Fischer's real-life pregnancy was written in during season eight. She was noticeably more pregnant than she was during Pam's first pregnancy.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • After his brief stay as office IT, Nick delivers one to the entire office before leaving while Flipping the Bird to everyone.
  • Stanley gives one to Michael in "Did I Stutter?"
  • Also Michael with his quickfire "Boom, roasted!"
  • The deleted scenes for the above episode, "Stress Relief," have Jan delivering a scathing one to Michael.
  • Kevin of all people has given two:
    • First to Angela in "The Duel" for cheating on Andy with Dwight.
    • Then one to Senator Lipton in "Vandalism" for not only cheating on both Angela and Oscar, but using them to further his political career.
  • Michael to Toby: "Why are you the way that you are? Honestly, every time I try to do something fun or exciting, you make it not that way. I hate so much about the things that you choose to be."
  • Oscar gives a short, yet particularly powerful one to Michael in "Gay Witch Hunt," after Michael forcibly outs him to the entire office.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: David Wallace.
• Reckless Gun Usage:
  • In "Survivor Man," Dwight is observing Michael through the scope of his hunting rifle.
  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 (at least for the moment- in season 9 he DOES become the permanent Regional Manager).
  • Nice foreshadowing here: When Dwight's revolver first appears in a display case on his desk, it's fully cocked. When he starts carrying it around the office in a holster, the hammer is still on full cock. Viewers who are familiar with revolvers can tell something bad is going to happen here.
• Redundant Romance Attempt: Michael—unaware that he's being romantically set up—is quirkily joking his way into the heart of Pam and Jim's friend. When Michael learns the truth, he exits the bar, unbuttons the top button of his shirt, puts on a backwards hat, and re-enters as "Date Mike," whose antics are so obnoxious the girl leaves early.
• The Reveal: The Scranton Strangler is the person originally convicted for the crime back in season 7. This reveal was so low-key that quite a few fans didn't notice it, even after the series had ended.
• Revenge via Storytelling: When Michael makes his homemade movie, Threat Level Midnight, his grudge against Toby is reflected in the final film. Toby plays one of Goldenface's hostages, who gets brutally killed, by being shot in the head. The film exaggerates his death, by showing the head of Toby's character explode on replay. Michael reveals that the scene was the most expensive in the film, but justifies the cost by saying it was "integral to the story". Moments later, Michael Scarn unnecessarily reveals that the hostage was a wanted "Animal Rapist".
• Riddle for the Ages:
  • In "Drug Testing" Dwight says "I like the people I work with, generally, with four exceptions," but never elaborates, leading to lots of fan theories on who the four people are. On the Office Ladies podcast Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey speculate that it's Jim, Toby (because Dwight is sycophantically following Michael's lead in disliking him), Creed (who just seems disliked in general) and maybe Kelly or Ryan as the fourth.
  • Office Ladies also mentioned that it's not clear who began working at Dunder Mifflin first, Jim or Pam. In "The Secret" Jim says he was working there when Pam was hired, while in "Launch Party" he says Pam was already there when he was hired. Fischer says she consulted the "show bible" issued to the writers and cast, but it didn't specify any answer to the question, leaving it officially up in the air.
• Ridiculously Long Phone Hold: Downplayed in an episode where Dwight and Jim team up to make a sale. At the beginning the meeting, Dwight uses the client's phone to make a call while Jim speaks to the client directly. After working through an extension directory Dwight places the phone on the desk as it plays hold music. Once Jim finishes the pitch, he reveals that Dwight's phone call was to the client's current paper vendor and they have been on hold for the entire time. They then call up Kelly (their customer service) to show that Dunder-Mifflin has superior service when she answers the call immediately.
• Road Apples: Andy: "Why is that in the kitchen?!?"
• The Roast: Michael has his employees roast him. He does 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 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.
  Gabe: [to interviewer] Yes, Erin and I are still dating. Why do you ask me so often if we're still dating?
• Romantic Runner-Up: Holly's Nashua boyfriend A.J. and Dwight's late Season 9 girlfriend Esther are both attractive, decent people, but only exist on the show to be the ones who ultimately get rejected for Michael and Angela, respectively.
• 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 season 4, Michael keeps forgetting that Jim is dating Pam and is surprised every time he's reminded of it.
  • Dwight claiming to be the Assistant Regional Manager and being corrected that he's Assistant to the Regional Manager.
  • Phyllis and Michael are the same age. They went to High School together, remember?
  • Trends making it to Scranton way after they've passed their prime elsewhere.
    • After even that, Michael keeps parading them around like Bernie after he starts to smell.
      Michael: WASUUUUUUUUUUUUP!
      Jim: Wow, seven years later it's still funny.
    • Not to mention Parkour, the internet sensation of 2004.
  • People thinking Jim says "dude" a lot and acts like a slacker and stoner.
  • Michael's love of the phrase "That's what she said!". The show regularly mixes it up (like having Dwight say it once, annoying Michael). Jim seems to find it amusing most of the time, leading to one scenario where after Michael declares that he isn't allowed to make racy jokes anymore, Jim prods him with multiple innuendos to tempt him into saying it again, or another time where after Dwight says something that would qualify, Jim chuckles, clearly waiting for Michael to say it, only to be a little annoyed when Michael doesn't seem to catch it. It was even Michael's last words before leaving the show. And his first words to Dwight when he appears at Dwight's wedding.
  • Andy, we get it, you went to Cornell University, and was in Here Comes Treble. That's great and all...now please move on.
• Runs with Scissors: Played with when Michael calls out Erin to "Scissor me!" and she throws him a pair blades first. Pam reacts with alarm the first time and then tries to shout, "No, don't!" the second.

S-T

• Sadistic Choice: In order to cover its ass after the altercation between Michael and 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 ("foliage", for anyone who's curious) is the first sign that it's exploitative and that Michael should get out of his relationship with her.
• Same Language Dub: Technically same language subtitle, a Japanese warehouse worker is given subtitles when he tells his story of being a surgeon asked to perform an operation on a Yakuza boss. His accent is thick but he is still speaking English.
• Save Our Students: Michael tries and fails spectacularly to do this in Scott's Tots where he promised a class of mostly African-American eight year olds that in ten years he will pay their college tuitions. Of course when the ten year mark arrives Michael is in no way financially capable of fulfilling such a promise. He now has to disappoint the group of now high school seniors that it was all a pipe dream. Interestingly enough, he does wind up doing some good for them:
  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.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Ryan and Kelly in the first 3 seasons.
• 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 he learns that Charles is himself a suck up.
  • Stanley's Game Face had the same effect on Jim during the inflatable sumo suit duel.
    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.
  • In "Christmas Wishes", Andy threatens to cancel Jim or Dwight's Christmas's bonus and give it to the other if one pranks the other. What follows is Jim and Dwight deliberately leaving themselves completely open to pranking to egg the other on (Dwight by leaving things like his wallet and keys at his desk and leaving his computer and e-mail accessible, Jim by openly advertising his credit card information with Dwight obviously in earshot).
  • In the garage sale episode, Jim tempts Dwight with a packet of magic beans. Dwight repeatedly scoffs at such obvious and poorly-disguised Schmuck Bait ... and still ends up trading Jim a $150 telescope for the beans. In a credits gag, we see Dwight planting the beans in pots outside the office with Jim waiting for Dwight to leave to replace the pots with fully-grown plants in them.
• Screaming Birth: Pam, when she's delivering her and Jim's baby.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Stanley tends not to put up with the office's more ridiculous goings-on, and on a couple of occasions, just walks out when things start getting weird.
  • Done spectacularly by Jim in "Pool Party":
    Jim: And there's my talking point. (proceeds to plow through the driveway)
• Series Fauxnale: "Goodbye Michael", even though it isn't even the season finale, has all the hallmarks of a series finale and functions as such for some fans.
• Secretly Wealthy: Dwight, on a minor level. His family beet farm "Schrute Farms" is fairly successful and has utilized the land for other business opportunities such as agricultural vacations. He doesn't technically have to work for Dunder-Mifflin for the money, but does so because of his own (skewed) desire for power and authority. In season seven he actually bought the building they work at, owning the rented office space for the company he works as a salesman for.
• Secret Relationship: Dwight and Angela, Pam and Jim (for one episode), Andy and Erin (also for one episode).
• Second-Hand Storytelling: Characters sometimes describe unseen events during interviews with the filmmakers, though their descriptions are often skewed. Used especially when characters refer to events predating the documentary filmmakers coming to Scranton.
• Self-Deprecation: A meta example. Ryan and Kelly are two of the least sympathetic characters on the show, and both of the actors who play them are also staff writers.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: Dwight and Jim often engage in this.
• Sensitivity Training:
  • Andy has to go to this after punching a hole in a wall in "The Return." He comes back to work five episodes later, far less likely to become angry than he was before.
  • 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.
  • Pam also went from claiming PMS to get out of volleyball ("Job Fair" in season 4) to being an enthusiastic volleyball star/ringer in the company picnic episode.
  • Meredith changed from an accountant to supplier relations rep, and her birthday went from being about a month apart from everyone's in the spring in season 1 to being clumped in a group of fall ones in season 4. She has also had both one and two children, but this particular case is Subverted by the webisodes, where she states that she does have two children, but her ex-husband has taken custody of her daughter, leaving her with just her son.
  • Dwight's sister's son is one of the kids who visits Hay Place in season 7, but Dwight's sister doesn't show up until season 9, and her son and Dwight have seemingly never met each other.
  • In the penultimate episode of the series, Angela's son is revealed to be Dwight's, despite Dwight having run a DNA test on his diaper, and the test confirming that Dwight is not the father. Word of God is that they planned to explain it by planting hints and/or outright stating that Dwight submitted the wrong diaper to the DNA test, but didn't in order to avoid Continuity Lock-Out.
  • The show at some point seemed to forget that Erin's actual first name is Kelly, and that the other office employees only called her Erin out of convenience, since even characters like her foster brother are for some reason shown referring to her as Erin.
• Serious Business:
  • Is Hillary Swank hot?
  • Ping pong, to the players' significant others. A mini-training camp may have been involved.
  • The Party Planning Committee, but only for its members. Angela's Control Freak tendencies really come out during these moments, and she utterly terrorizes the other members (when she kicks Karen out after her first meeting, no one makes eye contact with each other, bringing to mind extensive psychological abuse). When Phyllis takes over by blackmailing Angela about her affair with Dwight, the conflict turns Phyllis from an example of Beware the Nice Ones into a full-on Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. When Pam becomes office manager, one of the first things she does it to disband it, citing its toxic effect on the office.
• Shared Universe: David Brent appears in two episodes, placing the show in the same universe as The Office (UK) and, by extension, the 2016 movie Life on the Road. The obvious (though unstated) implication is that the documentary itself is a sequel or spinoff of the original British Office documentary (also indicated by the In-Universe title of the documentary series, The Office: An American Workplace), but Brent himself never seems to mention or notice this.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Apparently, the camera crew. Jim and Pam asked in the ninth season premiere why they were still there collecting footage from a paper company, and one of the cameramen answers that they're interested in seeing how they turn out.
  • Michael tries to be this in "The Delivery" by setting up a date between Erin and Kevin. This instead provokes Andy to finally ask Erin out, but Michael still looks on to this development with a smile on his face.
  • Michael has been a major Jim and Pam fanboy since day one.
  • They, in turn, appear to be major Michael and Holly shippers.
  • Nellie actually tries to avoid being this when she notices that one of her projects is causing Erin and Pete to bond while Erin is still technically in a relationship with Andy. However, after Toby notes that Andy has been a terrible boyfriend to Erin, she actively embraces this role and actively pushes the two together more.
  • Pam acts as this in "Secret Santa" when she tries to get Oscar and Matt together.
  • She is also clearly this for Angela and Dwight in "Email Surveillance".
• Shout-Out: So many that they have their own page. Some notable examples include:
  • Two toward The Lonely Island: in one episode, Dwight and Michael make an instructional video—a cringe-inducing music video featuring a lyric rewrite of "Lazy Sunday." Another episode has Michael wear a dick-in-a-box.
  • "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 Kelly was almost certainly imitating Gaga, not Bowie).
  • In Season 3, an episode about the power of art has Michael attempting to be inspirational to a room of straight-laced business students by ripping pages from a textbook.
  • In season 3's "Women's Appreciation", Michael throws some coins in a fountain, wishing for Pam to get courage, Angela a heart and Kelly a brain.
  • During the beach episode, Michael actually shouts out "Watch out for snakes!"
  • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in "Andy's Play."
  • In "Andy's Play," Dwight says "The last time I went to the theater, 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 baby-sitter's club."
  • While demonstrating his wooden train whistle to one of the young visitors, Michael references The Jack Benny Program.
    Michael: Train leaving on track five for Anaheim, Azusa, and Cuc...camonga!
  • 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 one red paperclip.
  • After the final credits of Threat Level Midnight Michael looks to the camera and says, "What are you still doing here? It's over, go home!"
  • Also in Threat Level Midnight, Creed's character is named Cherokee Jack.
  • Michael's (inaudible-to-the-audience) farewell exchange with Pam in "Goodbye, Michael" is reminiscent of the end of Lost in Translation.
  • In "Jury Duty", Andy slaps Jim in a show of punishment imitating King Baldwin slapping Raynald of Châtillon in Kingdom of Heaven.
  • An entire episode is named Survivorman, and Michael attempts to create his own scenario in the Pennsylvania wilderness in homage.
  • In the Halloween Episode "Here Comes Treble", Erin is dressed as Peanut from the webcomic Housepets!.
  • In "Business School", Dwight pushes open the ceiling tile to come face to face with a bat, just as Michael Biehn did with the Xenomorphs in Aliens.
  • Darryl claims to have been a member of The Warriors and the Film/Newsies when Michael talks to him in "Did I Stutter?"
  • Angela refuses to go to Kelly's Diwali celebration because she thinks the hosts will serve monkey brains.
  • Dwight compares meeting the warehouse workers with meeting The Others, and one of his questions during Ryan's hazing/initiation is "What is the Dharma Initiative?"
  • In "Grief Counseling" Michael asks the staff to tell stories about deceased loved ones. This leads to them telling stories based on scenes from Million Dollar Baby (Pam), The Lion King (1994) (Ryan), and Weekend at Bernie's (Kevin). ^note Michael fails to catch on to the trend until Kevin's story
  • Dwight has a whole bunch of reluctant caterers reenact The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci to impress some dinner guests.
  • In "Two Weeks," when Pam decides to join Michael after he leaves Dunder-Mifflin, they are initially beaming and excited as they walk away, but as the walk goes on, their smiles fall and they begin to look nervous, referencing the famous scene from The Graduate.
  • Michael says, "Dwight, you ignorant slut!" referencing the famous line from the Point/Counterpoint segment of early Saturday Night Live.
• Shown Their Work: This show put insane detail into actually making the set feel like a Scranton, Pennsylvania office. They even went through the trouble of importing snacks exclusive to the area.
• Show Within a Show: Fundle Bundle, a kids show that a five year old Michael Scott appeared on.
• Side Bet: An entire episode's worth.
• Sitting Sexy on a Piano: Jan in "Threat Level Midnight".
• Skewed Priorities:
  Gabe: I should probably get involved in this but, I think my energy is better spent on the Cookie Monster issue.
• Sleep Cute: Pam nods off on Jim's shoulder in first season episode "Diversity Day".
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Mostly on the cynical end but has its fair share of heartwarming moments.
• Smelly Feet Gag: Kevin. At Jim and Pam's wedding, he leaves his shoes outside his room to be waxed but their smell overpowers the employee in charge of this service. So the hotel has them destroyed.
  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.
• So Bad, It's Good: invoked What the members of the office see Michael's movie Threat Level: Midnight as, though Michael wants it to be taken seriously. He eventually accepts the fact that he doesn't need to make a great movie so he lets them enjoy it as they want to.
• Soaperizing: The show indulged in quite a few extended dramatic character arcs, particularly in seasons 4 and 5 when it was juggling the Dwight/Angela/Andy Love Triangle and Jim and Pam finally becoming an Official Couple. Michael renewing his relationship with Holly and ultimately leaving Scranton in seasons 5-7 also counts. In fact, you can make the case that by season 9 it had become a full comedic Soap Opera using a Mockumentary format. There were lots of continuing storylines in that final year, with Andy's misadventures and Jim/Pam tension as the major themes.
• Sommelier Speak: In the episode "Pool Party", Oscar mistakenly thinks Toby is a wine connoisseur. Toby tries to keep up the charade:
  Oscar: What's compelling about this is the note of persimmon. Right?
  Toby: Note? It's...a symphony.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The upbeat, drums-and-guitar rocking tune is played over several completely mundane shots of a typical day at the office.
• Special Edition Title: In the credits for the first episode after Michael starts The Michael Scott Paper Company, Michael's Pam's and Ryan's opening credit shots reflect their new surroundings.
  • The episodes following Michael's departure in season 7 each feature the various replacement managers doing a variation of his "placing a figurine on the desk" at the end of the credits.
• Spinoff: In 2012 it was 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. It was not picked up. Most of the footage was repurposed into the season 9 episode "The Farm". It introduces Dwight's sister and brother.
  • Several years earlier, the show that eventually became Parks and Recreation was initially conceived as an Office spinoff.
• Spinoff Babies: The Office: A Day at Dunder Mifflin Elementary, a children's book reimagining the cast as grade schoolers.
• Spiritual Antithesis: To the original UK series in many regards.
  • The original series was created as a "fly on the wall" mockumentary that was always intended to end after two seasons as the creators felt that it would be unbelievable that the camera crew would be filming the office staff indefinitely. The American version of the show, once it found its own footing, evolved into Work Com framed as a documentary, with the camera crew's years long presence handwaved away as them simply being enthralled by the antics of the Scranton branch. The UK show humor is also relatively grounded in reality while the American show is much more absurdist in nature.
  • A major theme of the UK series was the soul crushing nature of office work and having to give up your dreams in exchange for a steady paycheck. The American show in much more idealistic, with many members of the Scranton branch learning how to balance work and life enough to be able to pursue personal happiness.
• Stable Time Loop: One of Jim's pranks involves sending Dwight faxes .... from "Future Dwight".
• Standard Office Setting: The series shows off the full range of the setting, from the open workspace filled with desks where the regular office workers sit to the private office with a door for the office manager.
• Star-Crossed Lovers:
  • Michael and Holly, the most adorably dorky pair of "soup snakes" (soulmates) that you ever did see, cruelly separated by Dunder-Mifflin corporate for business reasons (he's the Scranton office manager, she's in HR). Michael fully intends on waiting for her as long as it takes. Awwwww. After reuniting, and some strain because she was seeing someone else initially, they decide to get together anyway, get engaged, and when Holly moves back to Colorado to take care of her family, Michael decides to go with her. The finale reveals they are now married with children, and supplementary material reveals they have three children with one on the way- and they "couldn't be happier". DOUBLE awwwww.
  • Andy and Erin. During Erin's first year at the company, she and Andy awkwardly dance around each other. By the time something comes out of it, Erin enters a loveless relationship with Gabe. As soon as Erin dumps Gabe and asks Andy out, he reveals he already has a girlfriend. Eventually, Andy dumps her and starts dating Erin, but between his newfound confidence and family issues, Erin starts realizing Andy is too childish and self-absorbed for her liking. After Andy leaves Scranton for three months, Erin starts hanging out with a new coworker named Pete and gives up on Andy completely. Suffice to say, They Don't, and are Amicable Exes by the finale.
• The Starscream: After Michael quits and is rehired, Dwight stops hero-worshiping him and begins viewing him as weak.
  • His admiration of Michael more-or-less seems to be on-and-off throughout the series. However he is a very straight Starscream towards Jim in Season 6.
  • His attempt to convince Jan to give him control of the Scranton branch from Michael is definitely befitting of this trope as well.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Dwight feels this way about anything that "elevates" women to the status of men.
• Steel Drums and Sunshine: Michael, who just came back from a trip to Sandals, Jamaica with his girlfriend Jan, is reminiscing in his office playing the titular riff from The Merrymen's "Feeling Hot Hot Hot" on a steel drum.
• Stock Lateral Thinking Puzzle: Dwight tries to test Ryan with these, but of course he's heard them all. Ryan quickly starts belting out the answers before Dwight is even finished asking them.
• Stupid Boss
• Straight Man: Jim, Pam, and Oscar.
  • Not to forget the straightest of all straight men, Toby. Stanley counts as well.
  • Lampshaded by Oscar in "Mafia" where he refers to Jim, Pam, Toby, and himself as the "Coalition for Reason."
• Straight Gay: 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.
• Straw Fan: In the finale, the characters answers questions from fans of the documentary. It's mostly a easy going, lighthearted parody of the criticism for the final season.
• 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 pulling the viewer's heartstrings, it's actually pretty cool.
  • Michael's movie, Threat Level: Midnight.
  • Any video produced by Michael qualifies as this. His office training and/or sensitivity videos especially.
• Suck E. Cheese's: The episode "Happy Hour" takes place at a Dave & Buster's knockoff called Sid & Dexter's.
• Super Gullible: Michael and Dwight will both believe anything they're told if it fits their odd view of life. This makes them easy targets for pranks: Dwight for Jim's various attempts at Gaslighting, Michael for Darryl's ridiculous list of "things us Negroes say."
• 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.
• Tableau: In "Garden Party", Dwight interrupts some heartfelt toasts to do a live tableau reenactment of The Last Supper with Dwight as Jesus.
• 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," when it's Jim's turn at "Who would you do", instead of picking Pam and risking revealing his feelings, or picking any other woman instead of Pam, Jim jokingly picks Kevin.
  • 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:
    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.
  • In "The Surplus," Oscar informs Michael the business has a surplus of $4,300 & Michael is torn between A) using it on a new copier as Oscar suggests or B) replacing the chairs as persuaded by others like Pam. When Michael calls David for advice, David reveals C) - return the surplus & take an employer bonus of $645. Michael swiftly used that $645 to buy a fur coat. Thus Michael screws everyone & leaves them to decide on which items to replace, although judging by the large fake blood stain on his new coat, Michael's choice wasn't without consequence.
• Take Our Word for It: Creed tells everyone to check out his blog, www.creedthoughts.gov.www\creedthoughts. You can read it here. Ryan explains:
  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.
• Take That!:
  • In "Nepotism," Creed complains about Betty White's new surge in popularity.
  • Michael's obnoxious nephew Luke says that one of his favorite films is The Boondock Saints, a dig against that movie for being beloved by obnoxious college guys.
  • An in-universe example can be found in Threat Level Midnight.
    Goldenface (played by Jim): Now, I will show you all how really serious I am! (*executes hostage, played by Toby, whose head exploding is shown from multiple angles)
    Michael (*as a talking out): That was far and away the most expensive shot of the movie. But it was integral to the plot. I really think it was worth it.
    Goldenface: Sorry about your little friend, Scarn!
    Michael Scarn: The joke's on you Goldenface! That man was actually a wanted animal rapist.
• Theme Tune Extended: The Instrumental Theme Tune actually has a full version that is extended to a little over two minutes long
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That: When Holly returns in season 7, Michael prepares two contingency kits to react on whether she's engaged or not. She has no ring, so he breaks out the "Happy" kit and launches a pre-recorded message on his computer, resulting with Michael talking to himself as the recording acts as Only Sane Man to happy partying Michael.
  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.
• Temporary Scrappy: Deangelo Vickers is introduced in "Training Day" as the first replacement for Michael. He is consistently written to be a horrible person in general with apparently no experience in business. Many fans cried Replacement Scrappy, but he was only intended to last one episode past Michael's exit anyway. Also, according to his actor, the entire point of Deangelo is to briefly bring in a big-name actor as a bit of Stunt Casting so that people wouldn't immediately abandon the show once Steve Carell (Michael) left.
• Tempting Fate: In the episode "Sexual Harassment," Michael tells the office staff that he can no longer say "That's what she said". Jim responds with a barrage of comments deliberately made to invoke that phrase("Wow, that's really hard." "Can you really go all day long?", "Well, you always leave me satisfied and smiling."). Predictable results ensue.
  • Discussed 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 does blurt out that his company is worth nothing but manages to spin it as it's only personally worthless and he has no problem making more and more companies just to be a thorn in Wallace's side until they cave and hire him back.
• That's What She Said: Michael Scott is physically incapable of resisting an opportunity to use this joke. Even in the midst of a legal deposition.
  • Shortly after he first meets Holly, they have this exchange while riding a Ferris wheel together:
    Holly: They kept hiring from the outside. It was easy to get in, but impossible to rise up.
    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, 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.
  • It's even infected Jan to some degree as of "Cocktails", a prospect which horrifies her.
  • Michael tries learning how to say this trope in Spanish, only to find he's been saying "That's What He Said", much to his chagrin.
  • Dwight tries this in "The Injury" and "Traveling Salesmen". Michael angrily shoots it down both times.
  • Michael delivers a truly epic one in the finale.
• Theme Music Power-Up: Dwight listens to 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 Naming: The three accountants have the surnames Malone, Martin and Martinez.
• 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 the time comes 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 fetish material 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.
  Dwight: You can't protect her! I can!
  Andy: PROTECT HER FROM WHAT, YOU IDIOT?! BEARS?!?!
• Time Skip: The series finale takes place one year after the events of the previous episode.
• Token Black Friend: Subverted with Darryl, who takes it upon himself to teach Michael some "black man phrases," such as "pippity-poppity, give me the zoppity" because he "just can't help himself." He also schools Michael on the inner workings of gang warfare, such as the use of "Fluffy Fingers," in which gangs tickle one another to the point of surrender.
• 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.
  Dwight: These things aren't built to stand the weight of an adult, 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, Dwight crosses here in his serious attempts to frame Jim for wrongdoing and get him fired; Ryan again joins this alliance.
  • Phyllis and arguably Pam went from Shrinking Violet to this.
  • Andy as well, and in his case it's somewhat cyclical. He seemed like a smarmy jerkass at first but over the next few seasons became more of a put-upon nice guy. Season nine, however, reduces his character to being neglectful at best toward supposed true love Erin, pettily vengeful, and mostly a disaster as manager.
• Transatlantic Equivalent
• Tricked into Signing: "Stress Relief": Dwight resorts to increasingly desperate tactics to get people to sign a letter of recognition that he paid due apologies for pretending there was a fire in the office, such as pretending they need to sign the paper for a delivery or need to sign in to a party.
• Troperiffic: Michael's movie 'Threat Level: Midnight'.
• True Art Is Angsty: Ryan's 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, after all.
• True Companions: By the sixth season, the office had truly become this.
  • 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 Michael proposed to Holly. After everything the staff has been through, you know their goodbye will be bittersweet.
• Tuckerization: Jim Halpert and Andy Bernard are both named after lifelong friends of showrunner Greg Daniels, as was Hannah Smotrich-Barr, the nursing mother who briefly worked at the Scranton branch after the merger with Stamford. It's also widely suspected that David Wallace is named for David Foster Wallace; Michael Schur has often expressed admiration for Wallace, and John Krasinski directed the film Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, based on a series of Wallace stories.
• Turn Off the Camera: At the end of "Customer Loyalty" after Pam's big fight with Jim. It was spoken by the soundman, who until then had been unseen and unheard and eventually gets fired for it.
• Twice Shy: Andy and Erin
• Two First Names:
  • Of course, Michael Scott. The naming convention was inherited from the UK original where his counterpart was named David Brent.
  • In Search Committee, it bordered on Theme Naming for characters who, behind the scenes, had the best chances of getting the job of regional manager: Fred Henry, Nellie Bertram and the one who got the job: Andy Bernard. David Brent was also among the interviewees.
  • Other characters as well: Ryan Howard, Angela Martin, David Wallace, Hank Tate, Gabe Lewis, Jo Bennett.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: 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 every time they use the photocopier. To reinforce the image, he keeps a piranha in an aquarium 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.
  • Deangelo Vickers shows a bit of this during his extremely brief managerial reign.

U-Z

• Ungrateful Bastard: Michael is repeatedly shown to be completely unappreciative to anyone who saves his ass. Specific examples include:
  • In season 5, Jim helps Michael get his job back after his independent paper company failed hard. The next episode has Michael expecting the entire office to apologize to him for not joining his company. Especially stupid, since they warned him it would be a terrible idea.
  • Intentionally screwing Jim (and unintentionally himself) out of a promotion and then begging him for forgiveness and agreeing 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.
  • He is especially this toward Toby, who he expresses hate for... even when Toby is actively helping him.
• Unholy Matrimony: Before their character development, Dwight and Angela are an admittedly rather low stakes example. Still, they're constantly conspiring to take control of the office and take petty revenge on their co-workers, while genuinely in love and ending up Happily Married at the end of the show.
• Unplanned Crossdressing: In one episode, someone tells Michael he's wearing a woman's suit. Michael denies it vehemently, but eventually admits that he bought the suit from a sale bin. Later, as he's complaining about his day, he says "Also, I accidentally crossdressed."
• Universal Driver's License: Nellie apparently just stepped into a Formula 1 car with no preparation whatsoever and drove it for the slowest recorded lap time in history. In real life, just getting an F1 car going with no prep is quite unlikely, for example, Richard Hammond, then-presenter of the world's leading car show had significant trouble even right after he had just practiced on a Formula Renault car (which itself took multiple tries for him to be able to launch it).
• 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.
• Unrequited Love Switcheroo: All of the major Office romances not involving Michael are subject to this.
  • Jim pines for Pam in Seasons 1 and 2 as she’s engaged to Roy. Pam breaks up with Roy and pines for Jim as he starts seeing Karen in Season 3. They finally get together in Season 4 and remain so for the rest of the series.
  • Several times with Dwight and Angela in later seasons. S4/5: Dwight —> Angela. S6/7: Angela —> Dwight. S9: Dwight —> Angela then Angela —> Dwight. They finally click again at the very end, and get married in the series finale.
  • In early seasons, Kelly is obsessed with Ryan, who mostly seems standoffish and annoyed by her. In later seasons, Ryan is the one who is pursuing Kelly and is jealous of her other relationships more often than not. But after leaving in Season 9, they come back for the finale and leave off together (with Ryan abandoning his son to do so).
  • Andy and Erin. Late S5/Half of S6 and Late S6/Most of S7: Andy —> Erin. End of S7/S8: Erin —> Andy. S9: Andy —> Erin. They do get together, but it ultimately does not last. Erin ends up with Pete at the end of the series.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist. Michael is one of the poster childs for this trope. The first season especially he was almost a villainous character, albeit one who had an overinflated opinion of how important he was to the other office workers. From the second season onward every handful of episodes would show him as at least pitiable, he had a Friendless Background and would demonstrate a sensitive side when things didn't go his way. By the end he's actually pretty likeable compared to his UK counterpart (who himself demonstrated to be a lot more sympathetic than first appearances might suggest).
• Unwanted Harem: Charles immediately has Kelly and Angela competing for his affection.
  Charles: I am aware of my effect on women.
• Urine Trouble: When Pam's prank of rigging the elevator controls fails and both she and Dwight end up trapped, it takes Dwight all of ten seconds to kick into survival mode and pee in the corner.
  Pam: [laughing] Ok, Dwight— Oh my god! [turns to see Dwight peeing in the corner]
  Dwight: Well don't look, freak!
  Pam: Dwight what are you doing! We've only been in here for like two seconds!
  Dwight: I've got fifty six ounces of fluid in my bladder, and we have to establish a pee corner!
• Vanity License Plate: Todd Packer has one that reads "WL HUNG".
  Ryan: You a big William Hung fan?
  Packer: Why does everybody ask me that? Who the hell is that?
• Victory Gloating: Erin annoyingly gloats and imitates a pig over her winning the paper airplane competition quarterfinals against Clark.
• Villain Episode: In-Universe example with "Dwight K. Schrute, (Acting) Manager"
• Violence Really Is the Answer: Both averted and confirmed by Dwight during Meredith's drinking intervention.
  Dwight: I don't care for Meredith, but I don't believe in this stuff. In the Shrute family, we believe in a five-fingered intervention: (raises his fist... then counts on his fingers) Awareness, education, control, acceptance and punching.
• Virus-Victim Symptoms: Invoked for a prank.
• Visual Pun: Jim's Halloween costume in "Koi Pond." "...Yes, I am the popular social networking site known as Bookface."
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Jim and Dwight. Whether they care to admit it or not.
• Vomit Discretion Shot:
  • In "Niagra", Dwight eats hard boiled eggs at his desk, intentionally ignoring Pam's request for her coworkers to avoid introducing harsh smells around her because of her pregnancy. She defiantly throws up into a garbage can.
  • In the cold open of "Murder" Michael can be heard retching in the men's room. When Kevin confronts him about it, he quickly denies it.
    Kevin: Michael, did you just throw up in here?
    Michael: Nah. Just poopin'. You know how I be.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot:
  • The same scene from "Niagra" in the previous trope leads to a chain reaction of this from Andy, Meredith, Erin, and Angela (meanwhile, Creed is calmly eating noodles).
  • Dwight vomits all over his car after he receives a concussion in "The Injury".
  • In "Fun Run", Michael demonstrates to the cameras why carbo loading on fettuccine alfredo before a marathon- and refusing water during it- is a bad idea.
  • In the extended Superfan version of "Booze Cruise", multiple characters (Michael, Meredith and Ryan) get sick during the episode. This partially mirrored real life, as Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer and David Denman suffered nausea during production of the episode.
• Vomit Chain Reaction: The cold open of "Niagara Part One".
  Andy: Watching people get sick always makes me sick. And frankly, so does talking about it.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: Michael's speculative methods for proposing to Holly in the "Garage Sale" episode fit this category: pouring gasoline on the office parking lot in the shape of a heart and setting it afire, tossing "a corpse dressed like me" from the office roof and decapitating it so he can tell her, "I lost my head when I fell for you", etc.
  • His actual proposal to her kind of straddles the line between this and Grand Romantic Gesture.
    • Which was his goal; he intentionally ruined Holly's small, sweet, in-the-moment proposal in the breakroom because he wanted something "people would admire, and talk about for ages to come".
• Wax On, Wax Off: Threat Level Midnight: "Mop the ice."
• We Didn't Start the Billy Joel Parodies: "Ryan Started the Fire".
• Weirdness Coupon: See Karma Houdini 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 five. This is most clearly shown when Charles shows himself as intolerant of Kevin and Stanley's more laidback tendencies, and of him favoring Dwight rather than Jim.
• Wham Episode:
  • "Booze Cruise": After constantly putting off their wedding, Roy decides that he finally wants to get married to Pam and re-proposes to her during the titular cruise. A heart-broken Jim breaks up with Katy and opens up about his feelings for Pam to Michael.
  • "Casino Night": With Pam getting married soon and Jim planning to leave to Stamford, it seems as if they will never end up together. However, the finale ends with Jim confessing his feelings to Pam, and the two kissing in the office. In the next episode, Pam decides to proceed with her engagement to Roy, only to end it after Jim leaves to Stamford.
  • "Branch Closing": The Stamford branch closes, causing Jim, Andy, Karen, and a few other characters to move to Scranton.
  • "Traveling Salesman": Dwight quits.
  • "Cocktails": Pam, having recently gotten back together with Roy, confesses what happened with Jim back in "Casino Night." Roy snaps, breaking a bar mirror and storms out. At the end Roy declares he will kill Jim (and attempts to in the following episode, only to be stopped by Dwight and pepper spray).
  • "The Job": There is a position open at Corporate, so Michael, Jim, and Karen all go to New York to get interviewed for the position. However, Michael learns that not only was he never considered for the position, but said position was actually Jan's old job, since she was just about to be fired. Meanwhile, Jim breaks up with Karen and returns to Stamford to be with Pam. The episode closes with Ryan getting the job.
  • "Goodbye, Toby": With Toby leaving to Costa Rica, Michael meets his replacement, Holly. While he starts to develop a crush on Holly, he ends up returning to Jan when he learns that she is pregnant. Meanwhile, with Pam leaving to art school soon, Jim is planning to propose to her during Toby's goodbye party. However, Jim is unable to do so since Andy proposes to Angela and steals his thunder. Also, Ryan gets fired from Corporate, and Phyllis walks in on Dwight and Angela having an affair.
  • "New Boss": New DM exec Charles Miner arrives and starts changing things around. David Wallace ignores Michael's calls, and Michael quits in protest of the way he and the Scranton branch were treated.
  • "Company Picnic": Pam and Jim discover that she is pregnant.
  • "Garage Sale": Michael debates proposing to Holly, only to learn she wants to move home to Denver to take care of her elderly parents. He proposes anyway, she says yes, and he declares he will be moving with her.
  • "Company Loyalty": Jim's work with the sports agent start-up company puts pressure on both his job at Dunder Mifflin and his family life, leading to their first genuine argument in the series while talking over the phone. Alone in the office, Pam breaks down in tears and, also the first time in the series, the documentary crew is seen as Pam asks Brian, the boom mic operator and a friend of hers, for help.
  • "Vandalism": A warehouse worker vandalizes Pam's mural and when Pam fights back, he tries to attack her. She is saved by Brian, who hits him with the boom mic. Both Brian and the warehouse guy end up fired. Meanwhile, both Angela and Oscar realize that Robert, Angela's husband, was using them to further his political agenda, with Kevin giving him a verbal beatdown.
• Wham Shot: The last scene of "Moving On" shows an ad on Oscar's computer for the premiere of the in-universe show of "The Office" that had been in the making for eight years.
• What Does She See in Him?:
  • Pam with regards to Roy, who is a bit of a Jerk Jock and isn't supportive of her artistic dreams (but then again, Roy was a lot nicer compared to his UK inspiration Lee).
  • When Jim and Pam are revealed to be dating, Dwight bluntly states in his interview, "I don't see it. I think they both could do better."
  • Erin's reaction to Michael and Holly.
    Erin: Her sense of humor is a 2. Her ears are like a 7... and a 4. Add it all up and what do you get? 16. And he treats her like she's a perfect 40. It's nuts!
  • Asked of Andy by Oscar, regarding his courting of Angela.
• What Happened to the Mouse?
  • In one season 6 episode, Erin accidentally destroyed Pam's watercolor painting of the building when she was trying to be helpful and clean it. This subplot was written out of the episode (though left in the description thereof) and the painting was back by the end of the season, despite having been replaced with a poster for some time. Behind the scenes, Jenna Fischer was vehemently opposed to the destruction of the painting, as she considered it "the heart" of the show. She eventually had to make a request to the editors to drop the subplot during post production of the episode
  • Gabe only shows up once in Season 9, when Andy hires him back as a means to get back at Erin for breaking up with him and dating Pete. Gabe subsequently disappears after this episode and doesn't appear again for the rest of the show.
  • Nellie and Clark are not present in the last scene of the finale, with Nellie being last seen at Dwight and Angela’s wedding and Clark popping up for a final time at the warehouse party. This might have to do with how late into the series both were introduced (Nellie guest starred in Season 7 and then became a regular at the end of Season 8 while Clark was a Season 9 addition), with Clark’s fellow Season 9 addition Pete only being present because of his relationship with Erin.
• 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.
  • Pam's reaction when Jim turns down the Office Manager job, and the role is subsequently given to Dwight.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Show Within a Show example. During Threat Level Midnight, Michael Scarn murders Oscar's character. The audience was visibly disturbed even with the bad acting.
• 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.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The series finale serves as this, taking place a year after the previous episode. The reunion panel that occurs in the episode serves as one for the documentary.
• Who's Laughing Now?: Dwight with Jim in the snowball fight. For the first time one of Jim's pranks backfires and in the rest of the episode Jim ends up being terrorized by Dwight in a series of surprise snowball attacks.
• Wild Mass Guessing: For most of the show's original run, fans put a lot of effort into explaining exactly why a documentary crew had been filming the Scranton office for nine years, with no indication that the documentary ever airs (unlike the UK version). Theories included 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. (Which would explain why they never film during the summer.) Either way, the question was Serious Business to some. Then the final few episodes of Season 9 established that it was a production by Real Life Scranton public television station WVIA, ultimately assembled into a 9-part miniseries aired on PBS and exported to foreign countries (including Denmark). That still left some questions: Why was that particular office chosen? ^note Greg Daniels and some of the other writers opined that the death of Tom, the suicidal accountant mentioned in Season 2's "Performance Review" was the initial inspiration for the documentary. The original goal was to document how a workplace handled a suicide, but the filmmakers quickly realized that the quirky personalities of the employees made for more compelling television Did the Wernham Hogg documentary from the UK version exist In-Universe, and did anyone notice that two paper company branches on opposite sides of the Atlantic had people with similar personalities holding the exact same jobs? And why did filming drag out so long? (That question was actually answered on the show: they stuck around because Jim and Pam were interesting.)
  • Spoofed in this article in The Onion: "Sheffield said that the footage will be drastically cut down and used primarily as B-Roll for the planned 90-minute educational film about paper manufacture and production."
• Will They or Won't They?:
  • Jim and Pam. They do, sometime between seasons 3 and 4).
  • Andy and Erin. They do... for a short while, until they permanently break up in the final season.
  • Michael and Holly also seemed poised to become this until they began going out a few episodes in (which Michael hilariously lampshades):
    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.
• Wondrous Ladies Room: It has a couch! And magazines!
• Worth It: In the second episode "Diversity Day", Jim has a pretty rotten day as Michael's diversity meetings interrupts his sale with an important client (a slam-dunk big sale for him every year), then Dwight steals the client away from Jim in the meantime and winds up closing the client for himself. However, towards the end of the meeting, Pam falls asleep on Jim's shoulder, which leads to this in his talking head that closes the episode:
  Jim: [smiles] Not a bad day.
• Worthless Foreign Degree:
  • Vikram, an admittedly good telemarketer, was a surgeon back in India. Michael references this trope, wondering what high status job he would have held in the old country, apparently assuming that the reason for high number of immigrants with these qualifications was that these professions are common abroad, rather than the reality of immigration laws heavily favoring highly skilled immigrants. Vikram gives him a look of disbelief.
  • A Japanese heart surgeon who works in the warehouse. However, this one is justified, as he is in hiding from the Yakuza after (apparently intentionally) botching a heart transplant operation for their boss.
  • Michael mentions that one of the cleaners was a neurosurgeon in his home country, but it turns out he was kidding.
• Would Hit a Girl: Frank, the warehouse guy who vandalized Pam's mural, attempts to severely injure her after she gets him back by doing the same to his truck. Fortunately Brian the boom mic guy, who had been forming a friendship with Pam during the past few episodes, steps in and saves her...only to get subsequently fired.
• Writers Cannot Do Math:
  • Michael believes 47+9=53...after he goes through it on paper. Even worse in Stress Relief, when Michael learns that the destroyed CPR dummy costs "Thirty-Five Hundred Dollars" to replace, Micharl thinks that means $5,300. Even David Wallace becomes confused by Michael's gaff!
  • Kevin's mental math leading him to conclude Pam weighs over 200 pounds. Or any math he does, really. It explains a lot that Michael confesses to Erin in "Scott's Tots" that Kevin had applied to the warehouse, but Michael had a good feeling about Kevin as an accountant.
    • Kevin's spelling is equally bad as he proves in the Cookie Monster parody plot:
    Kevin: C is for suspension.
    • Everyone, when they sing "Seasons of Love" to Michael. They're close if they're calculating 19 years x 168 hours a week x 60 minutes = 9,959,040, and perhaps the other "minutes" were up to that exact point. But they're calculating 19 years at forty hours a week, the number is considerably lower.
    • It makes perfect sense if you take 525600 (the number of minutes in a year from the original song) and multiply it by 19 years to get 9,986,400 minutes. Take away 6 hours (as if they were 2 hours into the workday) and you have 9,986,000 minutes.
• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • Both Michael and Dwight seem to operate under the assumption that they're the Gary Stu hero of their own Hollywood movie. In particular, Michael seems to think he's in a romantic comedy, while Dwight's living in an apocalyptic action movie.
  • Because Stanley is the only black employee at the office for the first five seasons (Darryl would join them after being promoted from the warehouse in the sixth), Michael thinks of him as his friend and street-smart mentor. He fails to pick up on the fact that Stanley can't stand him, and that he's even more solidly upper middle-class than the other employees.
  • Michael combines this with Horrible Judge of Character when assembling his basketball team. He first refuses Phyllis who turns out to be great at passing and dodging as well as Kevin who later proves himself a three-point shooting wonder. He insists on Stanley joining but is absolutely terrible at the game. He also grudgingly accepts Dwight, but only because he's unable to assemble a team after dismissing just about everyone who would have otherwise been a star player on the court. Dwight does prove to have good skill and unflinching determination to win.
• Wrong Song Gag: For a CPR course, Michael is supposed to press on a dummy's chest at one hundred beats per minute. To help him stay on track, the instructor tells him to do it to the tune of 'Staying Alive'. Michael then proceeds to sing 'I Will Survive' by mistake, causing him to push down at an extremely slow rate.
• X Days Since: Michael caused an accident, requiring the sign (which had a high number on it) to be reset.
  • In "A.A.R.M." there is a "X days since last nonsense" sign.
• X Meets Y:
  • "Yankee Swap is like Machiavelli meets Christmas."
  • Under Charles' leadership, Dwight laments that The Office used to be a combination of "...the Roman Empire, the Wild West, war-torn Poland, and Poland."
• Yes-Man:
  • Andy and Dwight were huge yes-men at first. After his anger-management, Andy toned it down, while Dwight seems to have become more contemptuous of Michael as time has gone on.
  • Everyone in the office has a tendency to become this whenever a new person takes a spot among management. Most notable are with Charles Miner(who turns out to be one himself), Deangelo Vickers, and Robert California. Well, all except Dwight.
  • Clark and Pete are this to Andy in the first episodes of season 9, expecting that sucking up will help them rise in the company. They start to worry when it becomes two-way and everything Andy does start to seem awesome and even they can't tell what's pretense.
• 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:
  Dwight: When Michael is not there, Jim is 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."
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame:
  • The stripper at Bob Vance's warehouse bachelor party gets two of these when she tells Pam she's hot enough to strip and Angela that she loves her baby posters.
  • Michael does this to Ryan as a guest speaker to his business class when he claims that Ryan is better than all the other students despite having never made a sale, started a fire with his pita bread and "everybody thinking he's a tease". Also doubles as an unintentional "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  • When Andy forms a band with Darryl and Kevin, he asks several people their opinion on the first song they create. Everybody hates it, but Andy perseveres in claiming it has potential for success. Then Creed says he loves it, which totally bums him out.
• You Must Be Cold:
  • Inverted. Erin puts her coat on Andy in "New Leads." He kisses her right then and there.
  • 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".
  • Played with in "Garden Party". Kelly remarks that she's cold, but Ryan just tells her she should have brought a jacket. He later gives his jacket to Robert California instead.
• Your Costume Needs Work: Dwight reacts this way once he realizes that Jim has dressed like him and adopted his speech patterns and mannerisms as a prank.
• Your Favorite:
  • Michael REALLY likes crisp bacon.
  • Pam (and apparently Erin, despite knowing him for only a year) are able to prepare all of Michael's favorite things, food or otherwise, whenever they fear he'll come into work in a bad mood, such as post-breakup.
  • Jim says his favorite is soft shell crabs during the first Halloween episode.
  • Pam's favorite yogurt flavor is Mixed Berries.
• Your Mom:
  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!: Jim pulls this on Dwight to prevent him from entering a meeting where Robert was planning to fire him. Jim manages to physically hold Dwight back just long enough for Todd Packer to unknowingly step up to get the axe instead.

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