Dunder-Mifflin has a photographer in the office, taking ID photos. Michael overhears Oscar ranting to Toby, and decides to take on conflict resolution using a corporate guide. Dwight finds out about a position open in Stamford, and suggests Jim take the job.
Air date: May 4, 2006
Tropes
- Asshole Victim: Though Jim feels a bit bad about the sheer number of pranks he's pulled on Dwight, he also notes that the guy often deserves them. Since this is coming directly after "Drug Testing", which features Dwight at his most Jerkass, it's a good point.
- Continuity Nod: Oscar is disgusted by the poster in Angela's cubicle, which was a Christmas gift from Toby during "Christmas Party."
- Dramatic Irony: As Michael attempts to resolve Oscar and Angela’s issue involving a giant picture of babies dressed as jazz musicians, Michael warns them about a possible lose/lose situation. When it becomes clear that neither will budge on their demands, and Michael disregards a compromise as a non-permanent solution, he has the bright idea: Oscar will wear a poncho of the picture, reasoning that he won’t have to look at it and Angela will start associating her positive feelings of the picture with him. Totally unaware that Oscar will be forced to wear something he hates, and Angela will start associating her feelings of Oscar—whom she hates—with the picture.
- Dude, Not Funny!: In-Universe. After hearing Michael list off all the pranks he pulled on Dwight, Jim realizes that quite a few of them were excessive and uncalled for.
- Entertainingly Wrong: One of Dwight's complaints."This morning, I found a bloody glove in my desk drawer, and Jim Halpert tried to convince me I committed murder. I think he may be the real murderer."
- Gaslighting: The descriptions of the various past pranks Jim pulled reveal that this is one of Jim's favorite tactics. Among other things, he paid everyone to call Dwight "Dwayne" for a day, and moved Dwight's desk slightly every time he got up from it.
- Gilligan Cut: While going through the complaints box, Michael boasts that none of them are about him. Toby then shows a very heavy accordion file in a locked drawer containing complaints about Michael from just the first quarter of the year.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Michael's attempt at conflict resolution, predictably. The day ends with everyone (even the normally inseparable Jim and Pam) awkward and hostile towards each other.
- Heel Realisation: A mild one, but Jim realises just how many times he pranked Dwight, and more importantly, how little actual work he does on a daily basis.
- Heroic BSoD: Jim has a mild one when he realizes that he spends his days playing often unfunny pranks on Dwight, spending his time being unproductive.
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance:
- Dwight lectures about how he never smiles because it's a sign of submission in primates. It's actually a sign of aggression.
- Also, listening to all of Jim's past pranks on Dwight, it's clear that a lot of them only worked because Dwight is so Super Gullible. But Dwight never seems to learn from his mistakes.
- Internal Deconstruction: This episode points out how enraging having a coworker like Jim would actually be. Dwight snaps and tells Michael to either fire Jim or Dwight leaves, furthermore, Jim realizes that the pranks are not actually funny, but rather mean in scale and number and he rarely does actual work in the office.
- In-Universe Catharsis: Subverted. Micheal attempts to invoke this, revealing everyone's grievances with each other so as to allow everyone express and heal past emotions. All it does is tear open a lot of emotional wounds and send the office into a spiral of awkwardness and hostility.
- Noodle Incident: Michael reads off a list of offscreen pranks Jim pulled on Dwight in the past.
- Oblivious to His Own Description:Dwight: Security in this office park is a joke. Last year, I came to work with my spud gun in a duffel bag. I sat at my desk all day, with a rifle that shoots potatoes at sixty pounds per square inch. Can you imagine if I was deranged?
- Oh, Crap!: Toby, when he realizes he's let it slip to Dwight that he hasn't been reporting Dwight's complaints about Jim to corporate.
- Perpetual Frowner: Dwight never smiles.Dwight: I never smile if I can help it. Showing one's teeth is a sign of submission in primates. When someone smiles at me, all I see is a chimpanzee, begging for its life.
- Red Herring: Angela is shown to be bitter about not being invited to Pam's wedding in an early scene. Later, Pam finds out someone filed a complaint about her openly planning her wedding in the office, and both she and the audience thus immediately zero in on Angela. Eventually, Jim absolves Angela by confessing that he was the one who complained.
- Refuge in Audacity: One of the complaints Michael pulls out is that Dwight hit himself on the head with the phone, to which he gives Dwight a puzzled look. However, Jim is seen beaming, and he reveals that this actually was the result of him filling Dwight's handset with nickels little by little until he got used to the weight, and then taking them all out.
- Schmuck Bait: Jim's pranks. He even points out that one after the other, the pranks are not really that funny.
- Shout-Out: At the end of the episode, Toby takes the complaints box and puts it away in the warehouse amongst hundreds of identical boxes, like the ending to Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Stage Mom: Referenced by Oscar, who says the poster reminds him of the "horrible, frigid stage mothers," who force the babies into performing.
- Super Gullible: This trait of Dwight's is played up this episode. The audience is treated to a list of ridiculous things Jim got Dwight to believe, and they are all pulled out of a box Toby convinced Dwight was a file in New York for four entire years.
- Wham Shot: At the end of the episode, Jim talks to Jan about that job opening in Stamford.
