It's Take Your Daughter To Work Day at Dunder-Mifflin, and (almost) everyone is eager to make a good impression. Toby brings his daughter, Sasha; Kevin brings his fiancee's daughter, Abby; Stanley brings his daughter, Melissa; and Meredith brings her son Jakey, who is suspended from school.
Air date: March 16, 2006
Tropes
- Actually Pretty Funny: Angela briefly smiles after Dwight tells Jakey off.
- Bait-and-Switch: Michael shows everyone an old television show of him as a kid being asked what he wants to be when he grows up. Given that Young Michael Scott appears in a very similar suit and hairstyle to what he has in the present, it's easy to assume as a kid he wanted to have the job he has now, but his real answer is much darker. Given how taken aback by this Michael is, he probably also remembered the moment differently.
- Celebrity Paradox: Michael mentions Daddy Day Care. Later in the episode, young Chet Montgomery on the Fundle Bundle tape is played by Damani Roberts, who was in Daddy Day Care.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Kelly is jealous that Melissa is talking to Ryan, so she tells Stanley. For context on precisely how petty this is, Melissa is a fourteen year old girl.
- Cringe Comedy: The Ryan/Kelly/Melissa/Stanley subplot, with poor judgment from all involved leading to a very uncomfortable confrontation in the break room.
- Damned By a Fool's Praise: Pam is horrified with Roy winds up bonding with Jakey, a delinquent who's at the office because he was suspended from school, and tells her how great the kid is.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Despite shifting the blame to Ryan in a fit of jealousy, Kelly is correct that Melissa's flirting with Ryan needs to be nipped in the bud.
- Friend to All Children:
- While Michael is initially frustrated by the kids' presence (mostly because it means he can't tell adult jokes like he usually does), he eventually warms up to them and does a great job hosting the day's activities.
- Jim demonstrates a good knack for interacting with kids, developing a bit of an Intergenerational Friendship with Abby.
- Pam wants to be this, and frets a bit when she's unable to bond with any of the girls who show up over the day. She eventually ends up making a connection with Jakey, the only boy to show up.
- Friendless Background: Poor Michael.
- Friendly Enemy: Toby helps save the day for Michael by lending a sympathetic ear and assuring Michael it's not too late to become a father.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: What did a young Michael Scott want to be when he grows up? A father, specifically because then he'd be able to make himself some friends in the form of his children.
- Kid Has a Point:
- When Michael explains Dunder Mifflin's work to the kids, they correctly point out the company is just the middleman to the manufacturer, who could easily just sell the paper themselves.
- Phyllis does indeed look like the stereotypical portrayal of Mother Goose, as Sasha mentions.
- Mistaken for Pedophile:
- At the end of the episode, Michael decides to give Internet dating a try. He picks a username so that women will know where his priorities are. His username? "LittleKidLover."
- Stanley rather unwisely takes Drama Queen Kelly's story that Ryan was making moves on his teenage daughter at face value and reacts accordingly.
- Malicious Misnaming: Jakey constantly calls Dwight "Mr. Poop."
- Manchild: Kelly gets jealous when she sees Stanley's daughter, who's about 13-14 years old, flirts with Ryan and treats her as a legitimate threat to their relationship.
- Must Have Caffeine: Melissa drinks macchiatos...and nothing else. She's in eighth grade.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The normally apathetic and lethargic Stanley absolutely explodes when he thinks Ryan is flirting with his underage daughter.Ryan:Stanley yelled at me today. That was one of the most frightening experiences of my life.
- Odd Friendship: After utterly failing to bond with any of the visiting girls, Pam strikes up an unlikely rapport with Jakey over shredding paper.
- Oh, Crap!: When Kevin realizes how much porn is on his computer.
- Papa Wolf: Don't appear to be interested in Stanley's daughter.
- Punny Name: Edward R. Meow, the reporter cat puppet on Fundle Bundle, named after Edward R. Murrow.
- Retroactive Recognition: An in-universe example. When Michael shows his video of Fundle Bundle to the gang, one of the kids is a boy named Chet, who says he wants to be on TV when he grows up. Everyone recognizes him as a young Chet Montgomery, a popular local TV weatherman.
- Same Clothes, Different Year: You can tell which of the kids on Fundle Bundle is Michael because one of them is a boy with Michael's suit and hair.
- Scary Black Man: When Stanley yells at Ryan. Ryan later calls it one of the scariest moments of his life.
- Shout-Out:
- To children's literature, specifically Struwwelpeter and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
- Michael mentions Janet Jackson and frets that Take Your Daughter to Work Day forces him to adjust his humor style from Eddie Murphy in Eddie Murphy Raw to Eddie Murphy in Daddy Day Care. Michael is also enough of an old time comedy nerd to reference Mel Blanc's conductor character on The Jack Benny Program ("Next stop, Cu…camonga!").
- The episode ends with Michael and Dwight singing "Teach Your Children".
- Show Within a Show: The show Michael was on as a child, Fundle Bundle. It was based on The Land of Hatchy Milatchy, a real children's show that once aired on local Scranton television and was similar to Romper Room or The Bozo Show. The producers of The Office were unable to secure the rights to use Hatchy Milatchy, so the writers made up their own similar show instead. Viewers who grew up in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area before The '90s still would've gotten the reference. For example, Fundle Bundle was hosted by Miss Trudy, while Hatchy Milatchy was hosted by Miss Judy.
- Stunned Silence: Edward R. Meow's initial reaction to kid!Michael's answer to "What do you want to be when you grow up?".kid!Michael: I wanna be married and have a hundred kids so I can have a hundred friends and nobody can say no to being my friend!Edward R. Meow: (after a Jaw Drop and a long awkward pause) Uh... Oh, okay. Well, nice talking with you Michael.
- "Take Your Child to Work Day" Plot: The episode's plot revolves around this trope.
- Wham Line: Kid!Michael's statement mentioned above goes a long way toward explaining adult Michael's dysfunctional personality. Ryan even gives a "did you hear that?" Aside Glance to the camera, indicating that a big piece of the puzzle regarding Michael had just dropped for him.
- What, Exactly, Is His Job?: Michael says that Creed is in charge of ...something.Creed: That is correct.
