Office Ladies - All About Michael Scott
Episode Date: November 13, 2024This week the ladies break down everything you want to know about Michael Scott. Jenna shares how Michael Scott was written in the show bible, Angela gives a Michael Scott quiz to the Office Ladies te...am that involves Michael’s disgusting comfort snack and the ladies share some of their favorite Michael Scott moments like how he mangles words and his tumultuous relationship with technology. So what are you waiting for? Listen to this episode ASAP as possible. Check out Office Ladies Merch at Podswag: https://www.podswag.com/collections/office-ladies Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.
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In Life, Interact. Hi, everyone.
Steve Carell here.
Happy Wednesday.
Angela and Jenna, my good, dear, wonderful friends, told me that they are doing a show
on all things Michael Scott.
So I thought I should say hello, welcome you to the show, and also congratulate the
Office Ladies on Office Ladies 6.0. Let us begin with the Michael Scott episode. Enjoy.
I'm Jenna Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together and we're best friends. And now we're doing the ultimate office lovers podcast just for
you. Each week we will dive deeper into the world of The Office with exclusive
interviews, behind-the-scenes details, and lots of VFF stories. We're the Office
Lady 6.0.
Hello! Hi! How adorable is Steve Carell?
Love him.
He's so sweet.
Just love him.
He said a special hello to everybody today.
He sure did.
Well, today on Office Lady 6.0, as Steve said, it's all about Michael Scott, and we got a
lot of great mail from you guys on this one.
I am so excited about some of the things we uncovered about Michael.
Jenna has been so secretive.
Can I just tell you, she's clearly got some nugget.
She won't even tell me or hint about it.
And Lady, you gotta share.
I will.
I will.
Today is the day you find out.
I just have to wait.
But first, I think we need to reveal our new format
for Office Ladies 6.0.
This is important.
For me, it is.
It is.
Instead of doing fast facts,
we are going to start our episodes with a top-of-show share.
Jenna is very happy to ditch fast facts, y'all.
I really am.
But I still need my structure.
You still need an outline. OK, so a top of show share can be office news, office ladies
news, personal news, or a fan mail share.
So there's lots of options.
Today, we have office news and a fan mail share.
Yeah.
Why don't I start?
Do it.
It's official. Office ladies is going to the paper.
Yes, we are visiting Greg Daniels' new show, The Paper.
We're going to be on the set, lady.
They are in production right now.
They have been very protective of things leaking out.
Oh yeah, it's locked down.
But we've been invited to visit.
They said we could bring a little portable recording thingy.
Jenna is right now with her hands motioning to her imaginary
like little microphones. Yeah, I'm taking it out of my closet and I'm bringing it to the set of
the paper. We're going to meet the cast. We're going to be reunited with so many of our crew.
So much of our crew is working on the paper. We're gonna
see Veda, our script supervisor. Kelly Cantley and Rusty Mahmood are the first ADs.
Yeah. Ben Patrick is the sound mixer. And there are so many fun people from the office who have
been directing episodes of the paper. Jen Salata, Ken Quapis, Jeff Blitz, Matt Sohn, and the week we're visiting, guess
who's directing? Dave Rogers! Yes, Dave Rogers is also a co-executive producer
and an editor on the show. And directing. That's triple threat right there. It sure
is. And you know, Paul has been in the writers room, so we might get to see him
too.
I just can't wait. I'm so excited about it.
I think it's gonna feel like a mini reunion.
I think it's gonna be emotional.
Oh, for sure.
But I mean, we get emotional a lot over things like this.
We do.
How can we not?
This is like our favorite thing.
Well, there you have it.
That's our office news.
Angela? Well, my top have it. That's our office news. Angela?
Well, my top of show share is inspired by this fan question from Erica H. in Portland, Oregon.
Erica wrote in and said, Is there a story to the origin of Michael Scott's name?
There is a Michael Scott in Dante's Inferno, and I wondered if that inspired anyone in naming the character.
Oh, I love this question.
I know. So I reached out to Greg Daniels.
It is not from Dante's Inferno.
Okay.
So as you know, on the British show,
the manager's name is David Brent,
which is two first names.
And that has become sort of a tradition
in the various versions of The Office.
Yeah.
But I was curious, how did Greg settle
on the two names, Michael and Scott?
He said this, my name is almost two first names
and there is something kind of lame I always felt
in a funny way about having two first names
and no last name.
And Michael is a pretty generic name for our age group.
There are a ton of Michaels.
And I knew a guy named Scott who was kind of a derp,
so I just put him together.
I love the term derp, I know.
I've never heard that.
So there you go, Erica.
That is how Greg Daniels came up with the name Michael Scott.
Well, my husband Lee Kirk has two first names,
and I can tell you it causes him a lot of
grief.
We've talked about this.
I texted Greg back and I said, you know, Greg, Jenna and I have talked about the fact that
Lee has two first names, Lee Kirk, and Greg responded with the emoji that's the two exclamation
points.
I mean, I can't tell you how many dinner
reservations, hotel reservations where people call him Mr. Lee. Yes. Mr. Lee
welcome. Mm-hmm. We don't correct people anymore. You just go with it. We do. I know.
It's like me and Kingsley. If you I'm just gonna say okay sure. Yep. Well
finally we have some office ladies news. Yeah, so I guess this would be our third thing. Oh my god. We
just did fast facts. We kind of did. You can't get away from it.
Yeah. The hell.
HG double hockey sticks.
Well, I can't believe it. I actually can't believe it. I
okay. Well, you know what?
I'm gonna just say,
I bet that's not the last time you do fast facts.
I'm just saying it.
Why would you say that?
You're saying it like, what?
I want to be rid of these.
I've just jinxed you.
Okay.
Well, we had a super fun trip.
We were gonna share about it.
We went up to Santa Barbara
and we finally got to meet in person
Kendra Adachi, the lazy genius. Yes, she was the keynote speaker at an event that weekend,
but we got to have a very girly fun lunch with her. We took pictures and then Angela and I
decided to stay over. We really wanted to mark the occasion of five years of office ladies
with a really luxurious work trip
as a reward for ourselves.
We did.
We treated ourselves
and we also though had an amazing work session.
We did.
I mean, that's very much like us,
but it was so fun from the beginning.
We drove up together, Angela drove,
and I did get nauseous, but it's not your fault, Ange.
I really tried not to take any turns too fast.
You did such a good job, but you know,
with the medicines that I'm taking,
they just cause a low level of baseline nausea.
I pretty much feel like I walk through life
with like first trimester morning sickness all the time,
but it gets really triggered in vehicles.
You travel with your saltine crackers everywhere you go.
With a sleeve of saltine crackers and ginger juice.
I have to tell you, when I got back,
I had to pick up the kids from school
and Josh was gonna ride with me and he said,
what happened in your passenger seat?
What did you wear?
There are all kinds of crops.
I'm so sorry.
I said, oh, I said poor Jonah ate probably a sleeve
of saltine crackers in the car.
I really tried not to be swervy lady.
I hope I'm sorry.
You were great.
You were great.
But what was really cool was we went to this hotel
that was on the beach, but we had booked garden rooms.
But when we checked in, they upgraded us to on the beach.
Jenna started to cry.
I did cry.
You were so excited, because we had talked about
how we'd love to stay on the beach,
but we're like, no, it's...
It was a little extravagant.
It was like pricey, and we're like,
we'll just stay, and I love a garden.
I love a garden nook.
And then we got the upgrade and that was so fun.
And I got to wake up to the ocean right there
and we took walks on the beach and we worked
and then we had a big celebration dinner
that I forced us to have.
I'm sorry, Angela.
I love a tasting menu. She does and you guys I
don't do tasting menus. I don't I mean I just don't know much about them and it
was eight courses of seafood. Of seafood. And it was really good. It was really
good but by the end I said I can't do it anymore. Yeah although then they wheeled
out a cheese cart and you said I will take some of that
Okay, fine. I mean you had me a cheese cart
Yeah, but the coolest thing during the dinner I think was when they brought out that bread, Ange
And it was this sourdough bread with a starter that was like 30 years old that the chef
Travels the world travels the world with. He travels the world with his starter.
You know I loved that.
Your eyes about fell out of your head.
And there were like flavored butters,
like a butter infused with seaweed
that I wasn't sure about, but was really good.
It was salty. Really, really good.
But yes, anyway, we had a fantastic trip.
And I want you guys to know, Kendra is the real deal.
Sitting with her, having lunch with her,
I felt like I had known her my whole life.
She is so warm and just a delight to be around
and smart and funny.
And that was such a highlight as well.
And we took a bunch of pictures and videos
on our work trip, which we never posted
because I was nauseous for two days.
And then we had no wifi. We had no wifi when we got there. And when we never posted, because I was nauseous for two days. And then we had no Wi-Fi.
We had no Wi-Fi when we got there.
And when we got home, I was like,
I can't look at a screen anymore.
So we'll throw them up in Office Ladies Pod, finally,
this week.
You can check it out.
Yeah.
So happy five years, and happy getting to meet Kendra.
Well, listen, why don't we take a break?
And when we come back, I really did a deep dive on Michael's mangled words and phrases.
It is my favorite thing about Michael Scott, and I had so much fun.
And my favorite thing about Michael Scott is how much he hates technology, and I dive
into that.
Hey, friends. And I dive into that. Hey friends, I'm Sharon McMahon, host of Here's Where It Gets Interesting.
Each week I speak with authors, experts and thought leaders on everything from American
history and democracy to how to be a better person on the internet.
And don't miss my extremely popular Dacu series, which educate you on
things you never learned in history class. Follow and listen to Heroes Work. It's interesting
on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.
All right, we are back. Let's get started on our Michael Scott breakdown. I thought
we could start by cracking open the show Bible and seeing what all we know about Michael.
It's sort of a summary of Michael Scott. You just had to get a summary, didn't you?
You noticed? I did notice. All right, here is your summary. Michael Gary Scott is the regional
manager of Dunder Mifflin Scranton and he believes that the most important
thing about a company is the people. He was born at 1123 in the morning and
raised in Lackawanna County. 1123, so specific. He grew up on Kenneth Road
down the street from Chilies. He failed the first grade at least once.
Prior to working at Dunder Mifflin,
he worked in a fast food restaurant
to save up money for business school,
but he lost it in a pyramid scheme.
So I guess you could say he's a little gullible
because he also fell for the Nigerian Prince banking
email scam and got tricked into thinking
there was a sport called poop ball.
He also worked as a greeter at Men's Warehouse and invested in Blockbuster.
He loves working at Dunder Mifflin, but he is not crazy about the name.
He thinks it should be called something like Paper Great or Great Papers Are Passion or
Super Duper Paper.
Super Duper Paper's pretty great.
He would love to start a restaurant
called Mike's Cereal Shack
or maybe a fancy men's shoe store called Shoo La La.
His heroes are Bob Hope, Abraham Lincoln, Bono and God.
He claims to be part English, Irish, German, Scottish,
as well as 215th Native American.
Hmm. Michael enjoys improv. He really loves sugar. He has milk and sugar in the
mornings. He adds sugar to his diet cola. He likes Scotch and Splenda, and his
favorite drink is grenadine. That's just the red syrup that you put in a Shirley Temple. Isn't that just like
a sweetener? You don't drink that by itself. Michael does. Okay. He has
also been known to stress eat. He likes Filet-O-Fish, sausage, egg and cheese
biscuits, bologna, tomato, and ketchup sub sandwiches. He orders the sweet pretzel with the 18 different toppings.
He once lived on Cup of Noodles in college
and he loves mint chocolate chip ice cream cake.
He would actually kill himself if he was allergic to dairy.
He is however-
He did say that in the Alliance.
He did, yeah.
He says it to Meredith when they're eating cake and she's like, oh, I can't have any, I'm allergic to dairy.
He is sick of Chuck E. Cheese
and he is not a fan of apricots.
He plays Who Would You Do all the time
when he's falling asleep
and he loves to wake up to the smell of bacon
in the morning.
He's a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates,
does not like the New York Mets,
is a great hockey player but not good at basketball.
He wears Rite Aid Nightswept cologne, which is the perfect smell-alike for Drakkar Noir.
He loves a party, loves a holiday, loves to dress up as different characters.
He claims to be the king of email forwards, but he doesn't really read memos.
He dry cleans his jeans.
He claims he can bench press 190 pounds,
but also only works out with two and a half pound weights.
He's a big fan of fear factor.
He's afraid of being buried alive,
but his greatest fear is being alone.
He would love to be part of an inside joke one day.
Aw.
He enjoys cuddling and spooning.
He longs for a wife and children.
He's good with kids.
He keeps a diary, has soft teeth,
and has had multiple vasectomies.
He eventually met the love of his life at work, Holly.
They married and moved to Colorado and have two kids.
Well, I just loved that. What a wonderfully like huge picture we got to see of Michael.
Jenna, you must have worked so hard on that. Was that I mean, I don't know what the show
Bible looks like. I haven't ever seen it. This show Bible is just lists of facts about
each person. Okay. And it starts with season one, episode one,
and then it just goes through every episode.
So you have to go through all the seasons
for that one character and compile it all?
That's what I did.
Oh lady, that was a big job, thank you.
You're welcome, well I had a lot of fun doing it.
It was pretty cool, but yeah, I mean,
I think the section of Michael Scott
in the show Bible is something like 14 pages long
of facts about Michael Scott.
Wow.
You know, he also has the most episodes named after him,
Michael Scott.
Oh.
Followed by Dwight and then Andy.
So Michael has six episodes named after him and Andy and Dwight and then Andy. So Michael has six episodes named after him
and Andy and Dwight have three each.
That's good trivia, lady.
Yeah.
I should have hit you up when I made up a quiz.
I made up a quiz for Michael Scott.
Oh, okay.
You might have covered some of it in the show Bible,
but I still have a few that are gonna surprise you.
Okay.
Some deep cut Michael Scott. Well, I have a fan that are gonna surprise you. Okay. Some deep cut Michael Scott.
Well, I have a fan question, Jenna, I wanted to answer from Michelle M from Berkeley.
She wrote in and said,
"'Where did Michael get his Dundee's?
"'He created the award.
"'Does this imply he also awarded one to himself?
"'Which Dundee's did he receive?'
I have always wondered this.
Well, I did some digging
and I read our table read
draft of the Dundee script, the shooting draft, I found some fun stuff, and then I also reached
out to Greg. Poor Greg, I was just texting him like crazy. I texted Greg like crazy as well.
Oh my goodness, he's going to be like, ladies, what are you doing? I literally texted,
one more random question about Michael Scott. Okay, last one.
So Michelle, to answer your first question,
where did Michael go to get his Dundies?
I found this scene in the table draft.
Interior trophy shop.
Michael stands at the counter of a trophy shop.
He points to a Dundee man on the shelf.
He says, there he is.
Isn't he a handsome son of a bitch, the mythical golden
dundee man. The clerk says, it's acrylic laminate. Michael says, uh-huh, perfect. Okay, I'll take 18
please. The clerk says, we have none in stock that size. I can get 18 of the larger ones.
And then he shows Michael the larger ones. They're twice as big, much nicer. And Michael's like,
all right, you know what? Yes, sign me up.
And then the clerk says, they're $30 each.
And Michael's like, okay, well, what else do you have
while we're looking?
Then the next scene is Michael at the register
and there are a bunch of smallish trophies.
The clerk says, okay, we have six swimmers,
four football players, three lacrosse girls,
and five forensic plaques. That's very funny.
And Michael says, gorgeous, do you take diners club?
So there was a scene where he went to a trophy shop and he went looking for the Dundee's.
And to answer your second question, here's what Greg had to say about how many Dundee's
Michael had.
He said, well, we always had one on his desk and then Jan throws one at him and in
Shareholder meeting he does say that he's won over
17 Dundee's. The man has a lot of Dundee's so it's clear he's given himself a bunch of awards
But as far as what they say, we actually don't ever see one. I mean in the beginning credits
He's positioning one at the end of his desk,
but the way the camera crops it,
you don't see the little plaque.
And then in the Dundee's episode,
he holds up a few, but you can't see what's on them.
I see.
But Jenna and I both just rewatched the pilot,
and we both looked to see if we could see
what the plaque says on the Dundee's,
but the way the camera crops it, we couldn't see it.
No.
If someone out there saw it, let us know, but we could not see it.
In fact, fan catch in the pilot, his Dundee is on his back credenza.
It's not on his desk.
Like the opening credits.
That's right.
Nice, Jenna.
This is when I really wish that we could reach out to Phil Shea, because I know that he did
put something
on each one of those plaques
and he could probably tell us what it is.
Yeah.
And so I miss you, Phil.
Yeah.
Well, lady, I thought we could each discuss
our favorite thing about Michael Scott.
Okay.
We talked about this and for me,
it is his tendency to mangle words and phrases.
You love this about him.
I really do.
The Office Alliance Facebook page
posted a compilation video
of Michael's mangled words and phrases.
This is not complete, but it does have the greatest hits.
Why don't we listen to it?
Colored green.
It's nebulos.
Those things are like ticking timebags product the progenome effort
Leslie documentary and I had an epiphany early worm gets the worm
Sedimentary lifestyle and escape code R. Yes, peace VT
Crescent Allen that is sort of an oaky afterbirth
Euthanize this place mig Migraine worker. Downloading some N3P cathartic.
There's the exa-xix.
Ergonomically correct.
Improvisation.
Prophilagate.
It's a little hypercritical.
How the turntables.
I am not to be truffled with.
Gotta keep yourself dehydrated.
She's an anorexic.
You're going to H-E-L-L double hockey sticks.
He can heal leopards.
A woman has you slurped my role as Santa.
Contraptions!
She's contrapting.
We're insurmountable.
You're all successories.
I have your baguette.
And like I'm going to believe one of his sperm lovers.
A day which will live in famously.
Integral to the story.
We're all successories. I forgot about that one.
So I think the reason why I love this so much is that initially the character of Michael
Scott was based on David Brent from the British office.
But this character trait is uniquely Michael.
This was not something that was based on the British show.
And it got me wondering, when exactly did we key in on this? Like when did this change happen?
And the first time that Michael mangles a word is in the pilot. That is when he
says incalculable. Mm-hmm. So I thought that was really significant because
we've talked about how the pilot was basically the pilot script of the British show.
But this little detail leaked in. And when we did our breakdown of the pilot, we talked a little bit about this.
We said there was this talking head that was brand new to our version.
Greg asked Steve to write down a list of who he thought Michael Scott would consider his heroes.
And that's when he lists all the people
and he goes on to talk about their contributions
to the world and then he said, incalculable.
Well, I asked Greg about that.
And he said, Steve came up with that on the day.
Just on the day in one of his takes,
he throws out this mangled word.
And I just love this so much because I feel like we can credit Greg's collaborative spirit,
Steve Carell's amazing improvisation, and it gave birth to this whole character trait.
Yes, it reminds me so much of how a Post-It note led to sprinkles.
Right? Well, you know, eventually we started writing to this. It reminds me so much of how a Post-It note led to sprinkles, right?
Well, you know, eventually we started writing to this. And I got very curious if there was someone
in the writer's room who specialized in these,
because they show up in so many episodes.
So I did a major deep dive.
Thanks to Dunderpedia, they have a list
of every single word or phrase Michael has gotten wrong
divided up per episode.
Wow.
In most episodes, he has one or none.
But I noticed that there are a few episodes where Michael has several misused words, like
three or more.
And those episodes were the convention, dinner Party, Job Fair, and New Boss.
Guess what all of those episodes have in common?
The same writer.
Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg.
Huh.
So I reached out to them and I was like, guys, what do I do with this?
Are you guys the mangled word guys?
Yeah, like Brent Forster is the pun guy. He loves the puns.
Yes. Aaron Schur was our cold open fella.
Right. Right. So tell me, were you the mangled word guys? And they said no.
They said it was no single writer.
And they said it was a combination of written lines and Steve improvisations.
Then they told me the ones that Steve improvised in their episodes. So they said, prodigal son returns from the convention was a Steve
improv, make yourself to home from dinner party was an improv, and oaky after birth
was a Steve improv from dinner party. And then they said that their personal
favorite mangled word, escape goat from product recall,
was written by Justin Spitzer.
I just love the system that we had in the office.
I feel like our system of including the actors
in the creation of their characters,
trusting us to improvise,
it just led to this amazing character trait
of Michael Scott that we all love.
Yeah. And lady, if I could give you a dundee right now, I would give you a
dundee for being the Michael Scott of Office Ladies for your mangled words. Me,
Sam, and Cassie, we traded some text messages trying to remember all of the
words you've mangled. So Angela, I shared
my favorite and it is kid in a candy jar. Oh yes that's a classic. I love the
Kinsey right there. The kids inside that candy jar. Yeah, that's me. God that brings me back.
The one I immediately thought of because I got it from you in a postcard on a frame is
peep shot.
Peep shot instead of spy shot.
Yeah.
And life intimidating art.
Yes.
Those are our favorites.
Life intimidating art might be my favorite.
Kidney candy jar.
I think about that once a week.
That lives in your brain.
Well, you know, I just spent a week with my mom.
It was so wonderful and I just come by this so honest.
So I wear it like a badge of honor because my mom said, are you on Twitter?
I was like, no, I'm not on Twitter.
Really, mom?
Not really. Well, maybe this is why I love this quality so much
in Michael Scott is because I love it in you.
Yes.
I really enjoyed that so much.
You know, one of the things I loved most about Michael Scott
is how much he hates technology.
I hate technology.
You know, I don't want, gosh,
I don't wanna go through emails
and I hate it when I have to update my phone
or if we get a new remote for the TV,
it just pisses me off.
I just want my damn old technology.
I'd be so happy with a flip phone, I really would.
It's true.
And I feel like Michael and I have this in common.
And like you, Jenna, I found some amazing compilations that people have put together
called Michael versus technology.
But the clip was so long, I'm just going to share a few.
He hates technology so much every single season.
Well, I don't know what you're going to share, but I love when he lies about having a PowerPoint
presentation ready. Well, that's't know what you're going to share, but I love when he lies about having a PowerPoint presentation ready.
Well, that's one of them.
But before I get into all that, I have a fan question from a Joshua Snyder in Los Angeles,
California.
Oh, really?
I know a Joshua Snyder in Los Angeles.
What is his question?
So do I.
I told him I was doing Michael versus technology
and he was very intrigued.
He said, ladies, I have wondered what Michael Scott would
do with ChatGPT.
Oh my goodness.
I know.
Josh said, so I asked it what the character Michael Scott
would use it for and here's what it had to say.
No.
No.
Yes.
What did it say?
Josh, look what he did. He did a document and everything.
What would Michael Scott do with AI? This is what AI says Michael Scott would do with
AI. This is very, very funny to me. These are the top 10 things. Ready? Okay. Number
one, Michael would ask ridiculous questions. True.
Like what is the world's best office prank, for example?
Okay.
Number two, Michael would write movie scripts.
Yes.
Perhaps a Michael Scarn the prequel.
This is what AI said?
Yes.
How does AI know Michael Scott so well?
I don't know.
It also says his scripts would spend hours
detailing extravagant and nonsensical plot twists
that always end with him as the hero.
Wow.
Number three, Michael would use it to plan office parties.
They would be fun, but also professional, but mostly fun.
I'm not gonna give that one to AI.
I don't think Michael ever is gonna plan anything.
Number four, he would use it to seek business advice. Maybe. Number five, he would use it
to practice jokes. Yes. A hundred percent. And he could even say if no one was laughing,
it was AI's idea, not mine. That's what AI said? Yes. AI gave Michael Scott permission to blame it? Yes. Oh my
gosh. Number six, Michael would use it to get dating advice. Yes. Mm-hmm. He might
ask it for some smooth pickup lines. For sure. Number seven, reinforce his ego. He
might ask AI questions like, am I the world's best boss? And then look at the answers, waiting for validation.
Okay.
Number eight, impromptu raps.
Yes.
Michael would use AI to help him write new versions
of the Lazy Scrant rap,
or to help him with his roasts at the Dundee Awards speeches.
Okay.
Number nine, create office training exercises.
Maybe.
Number 10, daydream about fame.
Oh, how does AI help you daydream about fame?
You know what?
He could ask AI to make him the star
of a movie poster or something.
Well, this prompt was from AI, said Michael might say,
"'How do I become a celebrity and create a list of steps
to go viral so he can finally become an internet sensation?
OK.
AI is terrifying.
Well, there you go.
Josh was very curious about Michael Scott and AI.
And I really feel like he would have done some of those things.
100%.
Okay, well now I want to start my Michael versus technology section with a clip from
business school because it perfectly sums up what Michael thinks computers are for.
Okay, well we can do questions. Okay, very good. First hand up.
Sir, as a company that primarily distributes paper, how have you adapted your business
model to function
in an increasingly paperless world?
We can't overestimate the value of computers.
Yes, they are great for playing games
and forwarding funny emails,
but real business is done on paper, okay?
Write that down.
So what I love about that is he says computers
are for games and forwarding joke emails.
This is all you need to know about Michael, truly,
about his work day, about what he does all day.
And I was really curious when the writers
first started writing this relationship of Michael
with technology, it starts as early as the Alliance.
So when Meredith has her birthday card and she's reading all the messages on her card,
and Michael has written this lame joke about downsizing her and her age because she's getting
older, and then he says, wait, there's so many more I didn't even use, okay?
And then he says, she's so old, she went into an antique store and they kept her. And he says, that wasn't even mine, I got that off the internet.
So this is the first time we learn about Michael digging through
the internet to get jokes.
That's what he is, he's a comedian, you guys.
These are his bits he's gonna do all day.
So that is proof early on that he uses the internet to get jokes.
Then in Hot Girl, we learn more about Michael
and technology in two scenes.
One made it in the episode.
It's when he asks Ryan if he wants to buy a purse
and Ryan says, I'm installing FileShare on all the computers.
And Michael goes, yeah, well,
bladdy, bluddy, blah, blah, technology babble.
Just do it.
And then there would have been another mention
of Michael and the internet.
So there's a version of this in the deleted scenes
on the DVD and in the super fan episode.
But I wanna read you what was scripted
in the shooting draft.
Okay.
Michael and Katie enter the annex.
Michael points to a computer.
He looks at it and says, internet.
This just made me laugh.
I don't know why.
He just looks at a computer and goes, Internet.
Okay.
Then he says, whole office is wired.
Could you have imagined 10 years ago
that we'd be sending messages from one side of the world
to the other in the blink of an eye?
And Katie goes, yes.
And Michael goes, 20 years ago?
She doesn't say anything back.
So there you have that moment, right?
Then in season two, the writers really start diving into this theme of what Michael uses
his computer for.
I mean, there's a whole episode dedicated to email forwards. He is, as you said from the show Bible, the king of forwards. And I read
the shooting draft for sexual harassment. There was a cold open scene that starts
with Michael on his computer. It's not in deleted scenes. I want to read it to you.
Okay. Interior Michael's office. Michael is at his computer giggling. He gestures
for the camera to come around and shoot the screen. We angle at his computer giggling. He gestures for the camera to come
around and shoot the screen. We angle on his screen. It's an outlook-like email program.
At least half of the emails are Michael's forwards. They have Michael Scott in all caps
as the sender and subject lines like this. Forward semicolon. This is a really funny
exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point,
exclamation point A plus.
Forward semicolon, top 10 reasons
a beer is better than sex, B plus.
And then Michael goes on to say,
I rate my email forwards with a humor grade.
So you know what you're getting.
Important, it's very important.
He says it definitely makes people
more excited to open their email. It's like how. He says it definitely makes people more excited
to open their email. It's like how I like to do business. Everybody's joking around.
That's how he does it. Yeah. But you would get emails that were A+, B+, some
got a C grade but still sent them. Mm-hmm. And as each season goes by, there's all
of these big epic technology fails for Michael. In season
three he emails pictures of Jan of course to packaging at Dunder Mifflin
instead of to Todd Packer and then in season four he gets a car that can talk
to him. Yes it does not go well. Nope let's hear it. Everybody likes new inventions, new technology.
People will never be replaced by machines. In the end, life and business
are about human connections and computers are about trying to murder you
in a lake. Oh yeah. And then as I was like researching this, every single season has so many Michael computer,
internet, email, mishaps.
I feel like there could be a whole book written Michael versus technology.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of Michael versus technology.
But I think your favorite moment is my same favorite moment. And we
need to hear it. And by the way, if you watch this scene, we are both breaking. You are
completely like smiling through it, like not at all in character.
Okay. Today we're going to be talking about PowerPoint. PowerPoint, PowerPoint, PowerPoint.
Yes, I forgot about Ryan's presentation and yes it would have been nice
to do well with the first presentation that he'd given me. But you know what else would have been nice?
Winning the lottery. And the best way to start
is to hit start and up comes the toolbar that's
what she said what we have to do here is go to run and then you look up to
PowerPoint and we are in we are are going to register. You hit register, updates are ready.
I should update. Estimated time 12 minutes, so this should take about 5 or 10 minutes.
This is the first time you've opened PowerPoint. Why? You didn't prepare a presentation at
all, did you? You know what? I had a really rough night. You know what's so funny is just now playing that the part where you laughed is the same part where you break in the scene.
Oh really?
Yes.
The part where it's like now you have to register.
Oh my goodness.
Oh my goodness.
So I am curious why you laughed both times in the same place.
Once, what, 15 years ago?
Yeah.
And once today, what is it about the fact
that he had to then go register?
Because it became so obvious he had never opened it.
Correct.
Like, that was the giveaway.
Like, up until that point, you could maybe
believe that he thought his job
was to walk you through it from the very beginning.
Right.
And that we're a room full of idiots. And so that's how he's giving this PowerPoint
presentation. But when it's clear he never registered, you know he has put no effort
into it. I mean, we all knew that he was just tap dancing his way through this anyway, but that is the
moment where he's caught.
Yeah, that's funny.
I love that.
I think I loved that.
I did too.
I also loved when he said, okay, now it's just going to take 12 minutes.
I was the PowerPoint expert in my office when I was an administrative assistant in St. Louis, Missouri.
I would make the PowerPoint presentations for all of the salespeople, for the wholesale staff.
If they had to go off and meet with a client, they gave me the information they wanted,
and I put it into a PowerPoint for them, and I taught them how to use it.
That is maybe my favorite thing
that I have heard this whole month.
You labeled yourself the PowerPoint expert.
I was of that office
and I was the youngest person in the office
and I think today how,
Angela, we run into this all the time
trying to post on Instagram
and I don't know how to get the ratio and then the tagging
and the this is very high effort for me.
And then we had this babysitter over this young gal and she was like, Oh, didn't you
know you can just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I'm like, Oh, no, I did not.
No, I did not know that.
So I feel like that's who I was to those people in the office.
I was this young in who just immediately knew how to use PowerPoint and they were always so clunky with it.
You were Ryan.
I guess I was.
I'm Michael Scott and you're Ryan.
Well listen, why don't we take a break
and when we come back, I did a deep dive
into Michael's family of origin.
Ooh, I can't wait. ["Dreams of a New World"]
All right, we are back, and before the break,
we discussed everything we do know about Michael Scott,
but there is one very big thing
that we do not know much about,
and that is his family of origin.
And we got a ton of questions about Michael and his backstory.
This was our fan mail flurry when we asked people to write us about Michael Scott.
Here is just a sampling.
This one from Victoria L. in Hollis, New Hampshire, who said,
I always wanted to know more about the relationship between Michael and his mother.
I so wish that we could have seen at least one episode
with them interacting that wasn't just a phone call.
I have always wondered why there wasn't more
of this relationship.
Was there ever a storyline pitched
where we met Michael's mom?
Well, Victoria, you are correct.
We do not ever meet Michael's mom.
I don't even think we learn her name.
I looked everywhere and I never found her name.
The first time we hear from her is in season two,
The Injury, Michael calls her on the phone
and we hear her voice.
She was played by June Squibb.
We also got the impression that Pam
and Michael's mom talk quite often. Then in season four, Michael calls his mom from the nightclub in Night Out,
and in season five, he calls and tells her he's engaged to Holly.
He's not engaged to Holly.
This was a thing he was doing with his mom.
And then in Michael Scott Paper Company, he calls her again and says that Ryan and Pam are annoying him.
So we set up that he calls his mom pretty often.
And while we never ended up meeting her,
there was a very famous person who lobbied very hard
to play Michael's mom.
And you're going to be so incredibly bummed
when I tell you who it is.
You love this person.
Wait, let me get this straight.
There was an actor who would reach out and say,
please can I play Michael's mom, please, please, please?
Over and over and over again.
And they were like, nah, we're good?
They were like, you're too famous
and we don't cast famous people on our show.
Is it Carol Burnett?
It's Carol Burnett.
Get out!
Carol Burnett.
Ugh!
Yeah. And Greg said, if we ever did see Michael's mom, she had the role. But in early seasons, he was hesitant to cast her because she was so famous.
By the way, we don't hear anything about Michael's mom in like seasons six and seven when we
had broken our rule but she has given
several interviews where she said I keep calling them but they keep changing
their number I don't know and this was confirmed on our season four DVD
commentators the writers said that if we ever meet Michael's mom Carol Burnett
would play her she has volunteered for the role. Oh my gosh. I know. Carol Burnett. I know. Yeah. Maybe she could play one of our moms on Mom
Detectives. Yes. Maybe not the role she was looking for. She might be like, ladies, I'm good.
All right. Well, that's your tidbit about Michael's mom.
We also got a fan question from Stephanie M in Iowa,
who said, what's the story with Michael's dad?
We hear about his mom, his stepdad Jeff, and even
his step half sister, his nephew.
But I don't remember him ever talking about his dad.
Is that ever addressed?
Was there ever a back story to Michael? Was this discussed?
Well, I traded messages with Greg Daniels who said, I know. How many texts did he get from us
for this episode? Too many. So many. He said for a very long time there was a card on the wall
A very long time there was a card on the wall that said Michael reunites with Dad.
Oh.
We just never got to it.
Yeah, Greg said that we almost met Michael's dad
in season seven.
That is the season where we met his nephew.
You know, that's when he spanks his nephew in nepotism.
Yeah.
And then he has to go to counseling with Toby.
Well, some of the early concepts for that episode
were that Toby would draw out this really personal
information from Michael about his family of origin,
particularly his dad.
We were going to find out that Michael only saw his dad
three times a year growing up, and Toby
was going to reunite Michael and his dad. The dad would come
into the office, it would be a surprise, but they ended up changing it. It never
happened and we never even got so far as to like put out a casting notice for the
role or anything. They just pivoted. But that is the closest we got to meeting
Michael's dad. And then finally in my deep dive on Michael's family of origin, I did find one moment,
a story from his childhood that we shot and it was deleted.
It's a deleted scene from the surplus.
This is part of the Peacock superfan episode, but I thought it would be fun to listen.
I would like to tell you a little story.
Let me call you right back. Okay.
About a boy named... that doesn't even matter. Could be any one of you.
And like any other 12 year old boy, he wanted a pippy long stocking doll for Christmas.
But his evil stepfather, Jeff, said,
no, you may not have what you want.
You must have a football.
And the boy cried, and he cried, and he cried,
and he held his breath as long as he could,
and he wouldn't eat his dinner.
But you know something?
It turns out that Jeff was right.
Because I already had a GI.I. Joe and a Stretch Armstrong
and a Malibu Barbie and a Major Matt Mason,
which technically is enough for a tea party.
So my point is this.
I didn't need what I thought I needed.
What I needed was to learn how to appreciate what I had.
Which in this case was enough dolls to have tea with.
Exactly. Got it.
So there you go, a little sad insight into his childhood.
Jeff is such a dick.
I know, I know.
And you know, people were very curious
if it was like a decision to keep his backstory kind of vague.
But Greg said it was not.
He said they pitched a lot of different stories,
but they just never really took root.
But after they introduced the idea of the stepdad, Jeff,
that happens in season three,
it sort of became part of Michael's backstory
that he was basically raised by Jeff and his mom.
Yeah. And so sometimes you got speeches like the one in the surplus. Right. But
there wasn't much more than what we saw. There was not some like big decision
they were holding back or anything like that. Well everyone we got so many
questions on that topic. I really tried to deep dive that for you so I hope that
was a little bit satisfying that we got a little more information about that.
Yeah, I mean it still paints a pretty bleak picture for Michael growing up.
Yeah. Yeah. Well you know since this is all things Michael Scott, we got a fan
question that I was really curious about as well. It's from Emily V in Kansas and
she says, how did the original casting call announcement describe the role of Michael
Scott? Well, Emily Allison was very excited to
get this question. She said, oh, Ange, I can find my notes for that.
And then she gave like five exclamation points, smiley face,
and here's what she wrote. She said her notes were pretty simple for the role.
They said, male, age range 35 to 45,
and for character description, it simply said,
the manager at a small paper company,
Michael is a bit of a jerk with no self-awareness.
Wow.
Yeah.
They threw out a pretty wide net.
Yeah.
I always loved the little trivia
that like Rainn Wilson first auditioned for Michael.
Right. Because how different the part would have been if Rainn Wilson first auditioned for Michael. Right.
Because how different the part would have been if Rainn played Michael.
Oh yeah.
Right?
I mean you can only imagine him as Dwight Schrute.
But what about some other people?
I think about like Ben Falcone.
Auditioned for Michael.
Auditioned for Michael.
It's so crazy to me when you go through these audition processes and how you hone in on a character and then who ends up playing them.
Because in hindsight, I can wondering what scene Jenna and Angela
do you think perfectly embodies the relationship
between Michael and Angela and Michael and Pam?
Oh, it's such a good question.
You know, one of the ones that comes to mind for me
is maybe not one that people would think,
but it's actually in the Christmas episode
where Angela's hemming Michael's pants.
Okay?
Because I do feel like that she like helped him with little things like that, you know?
He would probably go to Angela and Pam for different things like that. And I also, of course, loved
when he was heartbroken about sprinkles.
He was like, oh no.
He was one of the people that showed true emotion
about Angela's cat passing away.
I mean, he did get the name wrong.
But his emotion was genuine.
Yeah, that's true. Well, I think for me, it would
be the scene where Pam finds out that Michael is dating her mom. Yes, that's such a good
scene. And the reason is because when she first comes in the office, she is like genuinely
invested and excited about his personal life and his relationship.
And you see their friendship,
you see the way that they connect.
And then by the end of the scene,
she finds out who he is dating
and she is absolutely horrified.
And I just feel like that turn,
that whole journey of that scene perfectly embodies
the Pam Michael relationship.
It's just like a combination of horror and bonding,
I guess, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
I love that question.
Well, and you know, we also asked people to reach out to us
if they had a boss like Michael Scott.
We said, we want to hear about it.
And we got more letters than I was expecting. A lot of people have a boss like Michael Scott. We said we want to hear about it. And we got more letters than I was
expecting. A lot of people have a boss like Michael Scott. I don't know if I ever shared
with you that I had a coworker that was my personal Michael Scott and it was at the job
that I had right before I auditioned for the office and I would imagine this person during
my audition process. What were they like? They were an aspiring comedian. Oh my gosh. And my
desk was right next to the like break room. Mm-hmm. And so in order to like go
see what the treat of the day was or to refill your coffee,
you walked right past my desk.
And this guy would chat me up every day with some new pun or
some joke that I knew was probably going to be in his stand-up.
And I had to do a lot of Pam-like things.
You know, he wasn't my boss,
but he was a superior.
And so I remember that feeling of just being kind of trapped by a person.
And I remember looking around the office and wondering, I wonder if another desk could
become available, because I really am am I was in a high traffic
area. Well you know it's the combination of comedy bits plus trapped audience. Yes
yes exactly. Lady this is reminding me so much of this last Southwest Airlines
flight I was on. Uh-huh. Speaking of a trapped audience. Yes well the flight
attendant really went for it and folks were loving
it. They were cracking up. He had so many bits and I started jotting them down. I
actually have them on my phone. Oh my gosh. I have to read them because I feel
like I flew with the Michael Scott of flight attendants. The first one I
jotted down was this one. He said, please do not open any previously purchased alcohol
on this flight, save it for your mother-in-laws.
What?
Then during the safety announcements, he said,
parents, pick your favorite and most promising child
and save that one first.
Oh my gosh.
Wait, then he puts on the, you know,
the little life preserver thing
and they talk about which thing to blow into
and what to pull.
Oh no, I feel like that's what she said coming.
No, there's not.
Okay.
He goes, please use the yellow tube to inflate
and call Tom Brady to deflate.
Oh boy.
Oh boy, that's an old reference.
I know, I know. Then this was a very early morning flight Oh boy, oh boy, that's an old reference.
I know, I know.
Then this was a very early morning flight and people wanted to nap, you know.
So he says, well, we all look better with a filter, so we're going to dim the lights.
So okay, then as we're about to take off, he goes, give your seatbelt a tug and your
neighbor a hug.
This bowing is a goin'.
Wow.
Mm-hmm.
And then when we landed,
because we were landing in Austin, Texas,
he goes, as we landed, as the wheels hit the tarmac,
he goes, whoa, there Nellie, whoa.
Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck.
No, he did not make clunking sounds.
He did the clip clops.
Then he said, that bump when we landed wasn't our pilot's fault.
It wasn't the flight attendant's fault.
It was the ass fault.
And the last thing he said was, well, welcome to Austin.
Enjoy this overcast kind of scary looking day.
Oh my gosh.
You know what?
I'm gonna say in general, I love a Southwest bit.
They must encourage their flight attendants to make it fun
because they usually do.
That is off the charts though.
That's a lot, but I am usually an enthusiastic audience on a Southwest flight.
And you know what? That was Michael's philosophy. Michael's philosophy was I could give you a boring
sales speech or you know this guy is like I could give you a boring safety announcement or I could
make it fun. Yeah or I could be the guy that's like, click, click, click, click. Exactly. Welcome to Austin.
Amazing.
All right, well, this letter is from Amelia W. in Poland,
and of all the letters we received from people
who said they had bosses like Michael Scott,
Amelia, I think you win.
Here is what Amelia said.
I have a Michael-like boss. He is a good
man but very distracted and here are a few of the things he has done instead of
working. I love this already because this is Michael. He's like playing games on the
computer. He's doing email forwards or he's planning a party that we don't have
the budget for. Amelia said, I work in transport,
just to give you some perspective.
OK.
But I really feel like any one of these
could be an episode of The Office.
Here is something Amelia's boss has done.
For a whole day, he was going through different apartments
for sale, commenting on every one of them,
even though nobody in The Office was about to make
this kind of purchase.
On another day around noon,
he suddenly stood up and shouted that he has to go
because he left his son at school and the school is closed.
Oh no.
Another time he left the office without a word,
came back with the blood pressure monitor
and proceeded to measure the blood pressure
of every employee.
That's Michael.
100%.
One time he called me in his office so I could spend an hour watching him calculate my loan
rate which I'm not taking for a random apartment I'm not buying.
What is his obsession with apartment hunting?
I don't know.
Once he found an old numerology book in a garage sale and made us listen to him telling
what the day of birth meant about every person.
That is definitely Michael Scott.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
And then finally, once he wanted to cheer us up by buying pizza, but of course he picked
a very bad one, and in the end of the day, I was just happy he hadn't kidnapped the delivery
boy, which is what Michael did.
But those were really good.
And I feel like if we ever reboot the office, Greg might want to file those away somewhere
on some cards for the wall.
I just want to go to Amelia's workplace just for one day.
I like want to meet this guy.
Yeah. Well, we also got a lot of mail
about people named Michael Scott, whether people listen to them on the
radio or saw them as weathermen on their TVs. There are people living in
the world with the name Michael Scott. We were super curious about this. So
we reached out to one fella and asked him what it was like to share a name
with such
a famous television character.
I want to say thank you to Michael Scott Souza for chatting with us about this.
So I asked Michael when did he become aware that he shares a similar name to such an iconic
television character?
And he said the show started airing when he was around 15 years old, but he was super
late into getting to know the show and watching it.
He didn't start watching it until college.
Here's a little something about Michael.
He does not work in paper.
He is a consulting meteorologist.
And I asked Michael when did he become aware
that he shares a similar name
to such an iconic television character.
He said he was super late to getting into the show
and started watching in college. And he only super late to getting into the show and
started watching in college and he only found out that he shared the same name
when Michael, the character, was leaving for Colorado. He said everyone on his
Facebook page was saying, we love you Michael Scott, we love you Michael Scott,
and he said it was really strange. He didn't understand why everyone was
saying this and then he found out they were talking about the character.
Oh.
So they're like, goodbye, Michael Scott, we love you.
Where am I going?
What are you talking about?
He also said that when he meets people and they hear his name, they immediately ask him
if he watches The Office, and they ask him so frequently that he made up a little bit
that he does.
Oh, he started to have fun with it. He would say, yeah, NBC actually wrote to me and all the other
Michael Scots in the world for permission to use our name. And I said, yes. And people would look
at him and say, really? Are you serious? And then he'd be like, no, no, not really. And he said,
they'll share a laugh. And he said, it's been a really nice icebreaker for him
when he meets people.
But lastly, and this just cracked me up,
he shared this story about how it can pop up
in his work life.
So he said he once saved a report as Michael Scott,
just to name it quickly,
and he sent it to a coworker to double check a few things.
And when the email came back to him, they signed it at the bottom, thanks Dwight Schrute.
Oh, that's cute.
Anyway, there are many more Michael Scots out there, but I thought it was really fun
to see what it's like to have that same name.
Well, it just makes me think of our former sound engineer named Steve Martin.
Yeah.
Right?
You share a name.
That's with like a famous person but I've never talked to anybody who shares their name with a
fictional character which is so crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Well Jenny you know earlier I
said I made up a quiz about Michael Scott. Yes. I was just trying to find like
sort of like interesting tidbits that maybe aren't just in your normal Google
search and I thought we could play it today. Sam Cassie it's just five like sort of like interesting tidbits that maybe aren't just in your normal Google search.
And I thought we could play it today.
Sam, Cassie, it's just five questions.
All right.
All right.
And then maybe everyone listening, you guys can play along too.
And you can yell at your radio.
Do I say radio?
I don't know.
Your headphones.
And you can yell at your answers out and be like, Angela, that one's so easy.
Oh my gosh.
Well the first one got covered in the show Bible, so you guys should all get this correct
because you just heard it, Sam Cassie.
What cologne does Michael wear?
Well it's a perfect smell-alike for Drakkar Noir.
Yes.
And it is from the drug store and it is Night Swept.
Ding ding ding, correct. It is from Rite Aid and it is night swept. Ding ding ding, correct.
It is from Rite Aid, it is called night swept.
Great job.
I will share you guys when I watched it,
I thought Ryan said night sweats,
which I thought was a horrible name for it.
That's what I do every night now.
That's the menopausal cologne.
Exactly.
Okay.
I can promise you no one wants me to wear that either.
No one wants night.
I don't want it.
Night sweats.
Yeah.
Okay, number two.
What snack does Michael say is his comfort food?
Hint, I brought some today and we're all gonna try it.
That is his comfort food?
Did you just Google that? No. Oh yeah. Did you just Google that?
No.
Oh yeah.
Did you seriously know that?
It is mayonnaise and black olives.
Why did you bring it Angela?
Because we're going to try it.
I am not eating it.
I am going to try it.
I'll try some.
Thank you Sam.
All right.
Are you trying some Cassie?
You do not have to.
I am not trying it because I have still not completely recovered from Stanley's three
by five or whatever that was.
And I am not going to eat mayonnaise with olives in it.
I can promise you that.
Let me just tell you, let me tell you how disgusting this looks.
I got two forks, Sam.
Oh, good.
Do we ever see it in the show?
Like, is it that much mayonnaise?
It is because Jim mistakes it for ice cream.
Yeah. Yeah.
It looks like a bowl of ice cream.
Okay, ready?
Mm-hmm.
I'm just gonna get, I'm just getting one like that.
I can't believe you put that in your mouth.
Oh my God.
No.
That's what she said.
Oh guys, it's making me sick just looking at you.
That's advertised.
Oh God.
Why would it be good?
It's, you know, it's a little tricky mistress
because there was one moment I liked it.
What?
What moment?
Quickly didn't like it.
When it hit your mouth?
Yeah, I was like, oh mannays.
And then when I got to the olive,
I was like, okay, I got this,
but then more mannays came through.
Yeah.
Tell me about the phrase tricky mistress.
I don't know.
No, did I just have a Michael Scott moment?
No, I like this phrasing.
It's a bit of a tricky mistress.
I don't know, I just made that up.
I got it, it's like, oh my Um, I retired from the business of trying disgusting things after I drank that iced tea.
Wow, that is pretty disgusting. It's a tricky mistress, y'all.
Oh, gross. Grody gross. Okay, I gotta take some iced tea once I get.
Gross. Okay, I gotta take some ice tea one second.
Okay
Question number four. I thought we were on number three. That was number two. Sorry that one took everything out of me. Yeah
Question number three. Oh, sorry. I just burped a little bit of mayo. You should have made this number five, Angela. Yeah, why did I make that so early in my list?
Okay.
Question number three.
I feel so gross.
I have such a bad aftertaste.
It really coats your mouth.
My entire tongue is a nice mayonnaise coating.
That's the truth.
Okay.
Why?
What is Michael Scott's greatest weakness?
He shares it in the job, the episode, The Job.
That's your hint.
Oh, he shares his greatest weakness?
I think I know it.
Doesn't he love too much?
Yeah, he loves too hard.
It's close.
Oh.
He works too hard and he cares too much, y'all.
That's what it is.
Yeah, that's his greatest weakness.
All right, number four.
What is Michael's ringtone in season one?
A Mambo five? Sam! Yeah? Sam! You are crushing it! Good job. Yeah, it is not my
humps. That's later. That's in branch closing. And number five is about Michael Scott's suits. Okay?
Okay.
Mysterious? Yeah.
No, am I jumping ahead?
I found the actual suit that Steve wore
because it's being auctioned off
and so I found out who makes it.
Okay.
But how would we know?
You guys aren't gonna know that.
Of course not.
Maybe I'll just take...
Tommy Hilfiger.
Men's warehouse.
Stafford Essentials.
Oh! Doesn't that sound fancy? That sounds right. Navy blue polyester wool. There you have it.
That's who makes Michael's suits. That's my quiz. That was the worst quiz I've ever been. I'm so
sorry. Sam, you won. Sam, you were the clear winner. What do I win? There's an entire bowl of untouched.
No.
You win a can of black olives that's in the fridge
and a jar of mayonnaise.
I don't recommend mixing them,
but maybe on their own they'll be okay.
Well, I think that's a pretty great way to end this episode.
I would like to share this final thought before we go.
It is an amazing Michael Scott Haiku
from Kat M in North Carolina.
Are you ready?
Yes, I mean, a Michael Scott Haiku, come on.
A boss with no tact who just wanted a family.
We cried when he left.
Kind of sums it up.
Really does.
Well, in doing research for this episode,
there was just so much fun stuff online about Michael Scott.
In addition to all of the episodes we have
and shooting drafts and candy bag alts,
I love this character.
He's just amazing.
But I wanted to share one fun thing I stumbled across.
It's a really great article
if you love all the props on Michael's desk.
It is titled,
The Ultimate Guide to Michael Scott's Desk Toy Collection.
It lists all the toys on Michael's desk
and gives you a link where you can buy them.
Oh.
So if you wanna recreate your very own Michael Scott desk,
I will put that link in stories to the article.
Well, I feel like we could do six episodes on Michael Scott desk, I will put that link in stories to the article. Well, I feel like we could do six episodes on Michael Scott.
There's so much we didn't even talk about.
I know.
But I do think we uncovered some really fun new stuff about his character.
I really enjoyed this.
I did too.
And I'm excited to do this for other characters.
Yeah.
Let us know who should we do next.
We do not have to go like in any particular order, right?
Nope, we don't.
Do whoever we feel like. That's what she said. A big thank you to Steve Carell, Greg Daniels,
Jean Stupnitsky, Lee Eisenberg, and Rob Burnett for helping us get all the dish on Michael Scott.
And thank you to Allison Jones for answering our question and to Michael Scott Souza for
sharing with us about having the same name as Michael.
And really just a huge thank you for everyone who wrote in questions about Michael Scott,
their observations about this character.
You really helped us make this episode.
We love you so much.
And before we go, I just wanted to say thank you to people who have shared with me that
they're going to watch my Hallmark Christmas movie, you guys.
This weekend?
Yes, it's this Sunday.
It's Sunday evening.
Check your local listings.
I think it's either 7 p.m. or 8 p.m., depending on where you are.
It is called Confessions of a Christmas Letter.
Brian Baumgartner has a fun, fun cameo in it.
It was so great to work with him again.
And it's just a really sweet Christmas movie.
If you watch it, will you tag me?
I want to share if you get together with friends and family.
We're gonna get together and watch it.
I can't wait.
Yeah, we're having a viewing party
and it's gonna be just super fun.
So thank you guys.
And yeah, I'm excited.
All right, well, we will see you next week
when we break down the accountants webisodes.
And don't forget, you can watch the webisodes on YouTube
before you listen to our breakdown.
And when you put them all together,
it's about 20 minutes long.
It's kind of like an episode of the office.
We'll put a link in our stories about where
you can watch it as well.
And we can't wait to see you next week.
Have a great rest of the week.
Bye.
Bye. the week. Bye!
Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey
and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our executive producer is
Cassie Jerkins. Our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer and our associate producer is
Ainsley Bubbaco. Odyssey's executive producers are Jenna Weiss-Berman and Leah Reese Dennis.
Office Ladies is mixed and mastered by Chris Basil.
Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.