It’s a glorious day, mates. A long awaited day. A day anyone with access to a streaming TV service and a semi-regular hangover has been tonguing for for yonks. Today, January 25th, is the day that the US version of The Office arrives, in full, on Stan.
That’s every single episode.
Nine seasons.
Two hundred and one episodes.
All online, on demand, right now. Huge.
So to celebrate the gang from Dunder Mifflin Scranton once again gracing our lives, we’ve decided to delve through the show’s remarkably well-stocked YouTube account (it’s still being updated to this day) and pull some of the funniest moments from the show out for you to enjoy.
Is it an exhausting list? Fuck no. Not even close. But lord are there ever some gut-busters to be had here.
Sit back, kick your feet up, and ride out the clock on this public holiday-eve with a few absolute crackers.
HARDCORE PARKOUR
Season 6’s opening scene gave us one of the show’s most beloved and outright-funniest bits of physical humour, with the blithering trio of Michael, Dwight, and Andy trying to recreate 2009’s hottest YouTube crazy, parkour. Dwight riding Andy like a rodeo bull and Andy then disappearing into a Vance Refrigeration™ box are the very good icing on a very good cake.
JIM IMPERSONATES DWIGHT
Are you a real fan of The Office if you haven’t looked someone dead in the eye at some point and deadpan sneered “Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica“? A shake of the magic bobblehead says no.
OSCAR GETS OWNED BY KEVIN
Later seasons of The Office were a little hit-and-miss by the show’s own lofty standards, particularly after Michael Scott left Scranton. But one gem from season eight had the smugly intellectual Oscar get his ass handed to him at the world’s hardest pub trivia night by Kevin and a series of strokes of dumb luck. It’s good gear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5F6AE_0xCM
GIANT ASSHOLE TOBY RETURNS
Toby sucks. He is a man with no sympathetic qualities, who should go live in a bin. In this season five moment, Toby’s return to the office as HR rep is handled with professionalism and humble aplomb by Michael Scott. If anything, it’s an under-reaction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYZn-xUxmO0
DWIGHT EVISCERATES A CPR DUMMY
Real talk, most of the funniest moments in the history of The Office involve Dwight K. Schrute in one way or another. He is the perfect foil for everything and whoever came up with the idea for him to skin the face off a CPR dummy and wear it like Buffalo Bill should never have to another day in their lives.
DWIGHT & THE MIRACLE LEGUMES
There’s a longer conversation to be had about whether Jim was too much of a dick to Dwight, often needlessly so, but that doesn’t change the fact that the bulk of the pranks were simply opened doors that Dwight willingly walked through. Case in point, conning Dwight into swapping a telescope for a single packet of “Professor Copperfield’s Miracle Legumes.” The best pranks tend to come from when you’re just one single step in front of someone else.
DWIGHT THE DICTATOR
Funnelling a retro-fitted Mussolini speech through the mouth of a sociopathic small-town paper salesman with a severe fear of public speaking. A perfectly normal thing to put in a network TV sitcom.
THE GARDEN PARTY ARRIVALS
*inhales deeply* MISTER JAAAAAAAAAAAMES HAAAAAAAALPERT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEXk5QQMHkI
BIN LADEN, HITLER, & TOBY
Flawed logic is a critical tool in writing jokes, but sometimes the jokes are simply bulletproof. Find me the logical fallacy in Michael Scott wanting to shoot Toby twice over Bin Laden and Hitler. Go ahead. Try and find it. You absolutely cannot do it.
MICHAEL DECLARES BANKRUPTCY
Who among you has not thought of marching onto the street in your underwear and bellowing this clearly legally binding declaration to the heavens in times of financial strain? Not a single one of ya, I’d wager. Not even one.
MICHAEL FOLLOWS THE GPS INTO A LAKE
There’s commitment to a bit and then there’s putting two core cast members and a small film crew into a car and physically driving it into a lake. Steve Carell’s at his flustered best here, and Rainn Wilson trying to drag him out of the extremely shallow water isn’t far behind.
CRENTIST THE DENTIST
You, an academic moron: “There’s a certain sadomasochistic element to the Michael/Dwight relationship that comedically illustrates both Michael’s rudderless failing and desperate determination to hold onto what little real power he has, as well as Dwight’s faux-alpha bravado and deeply rooted desire for subordination within entrenched power structures, personality traits that are constantly at odds with one another to great humorous effect.”
Me, a TV watching genius: “That bit where Michael stares into Dwight’s mouth and it looks like Dwight gets a fear stiffy is a real pisser, ayy.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIokp8sK4RM
PRISON MIKE
Is any moment from The Office more wholly hilarious that Michael Scott’s insane Prison Mike rant? You could certainly argue that there is, but you’d be a bloody fool for doing so.
ASIAN JIM
The best Jim pranks take a stupidly simple concept and spin them out into wildly executed masterpieces. Think about how sodding much planning and prep work must’ve gone into this. All the variables. Did they know the questions Dwight would’ve asked of their actor friend, or did they give him a dossier of knowledge that rivals Jim’s own brain.
The mind boggles.
Happy viewing, mates. Your long weekend just got sorted.
