Office Ladies - The Paper Ep 4: TTT vs The Blogger

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

This week on Office Ladies 6.0 Jenna and Angela break down the fourth episode of The Paper, “TTT vs. the Blogger.” When a group of high school journalism students visit the Truth Teller, Ned finds himself in a rivalry with a wildly popular teen blogger, while Mare and Oscar head to a local high school to investigate a beloved music teacher with a complicated past. The ladies spot fun wardrobe details, dig into Office Easter eggs (including a mysterious wooden bird), and provide a deep dive into revenge stories, viral songs, and an experiment involving scotch tape facelifts. So keep the presses rolling, don’t believe everything you read online and enjoy! Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question for Around the Town, Chit Chat and The Paper: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion  Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod Follow Us on YouTube Follow Us on TikTok 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

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 BFF stories. We're the Office Lady 6.0. Hi there, Angela. Well, hi there, Jenna.

How are you doing? You know, I'm good. Is that it? Oh, you're just good. Now, is this one of those times when, like, you know when someone says, how are you doing? Yeah. And you're like, I can't get into it. And so you say, I'm good.

Well, here's the thing. And I think you know this about me. I really have a hard time, like, just saying whatever the, like, normal responses. This is kind of true. Yeah. So, like, if people say, how are you? I might just say, well, you know, today, like everything feels a little shitty, but I'm out there. I'm living. I'm putting one foot in front of

the other. And then if you say that, though, people are like, uh, okay. But lady, this is why I love you. This is very Midwest of you. I notice this every time I go home to St. Louis, like, I go to the grocery store line and I'm checking out or something. And the person says, how are you? And I say, fine. I give the Los Angeles response. Yeah. And I say, how about you? And then they say something, like deeply personal. Yeah.

They're like, well, my sister was arrested last night. I'm like, oh, she what? And they're like, yep, I mean, she's been in trouble before. But I don't know. It's okay. I think we've got a lawyer. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. I mean, it happens all the time.

And so I think that's how you remind me of home. I love it. I don't mind it at all. It is true because my family does this. Like, I'll be like, you know, how's it going? They're like, well, the cattle guard's not getting fixed because, you know, Tommy went blind again. He's got that plate in his head, moves around every once in a while. Yeah.

That's a real statement my mom said to me. Yeah, I know. Yeah. I like it. All right. Makes you more interesting personally. Although I have been in your position and I have received blank stairs from people when I share in the same way. Like, it just happened at a school event.

Someone asked me how I was. And I just, honestly, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. It's not always a complaint either. It's true. It's true. It's true. But it sounds like it's always a gripe, but it's not. I will.

Like, someone like, how's it going? Great. I just found a pair of jeans. I thought I had lost for a long time. And they're like, really my favorite. They're like a lucky brand. They don't make them anymore. You know, like the low-wasted ones.

Everything's now is like up at your belly button. Who needs that crap? And I might say that. I know. But isn't that interesting. That makes for an interesting moment in a day. If you answer a question with like weird specificity. Or it clears the room.

It does. Okay. What should we do? Oh, we should do our chit-chat suggestion. Now it felt like a lot of chit-chat. Let's do it. This one is coming in from Nat S in Baldwin, Missouri. That's my hometown.

Literally, Ballwin, Missouri is my hometown. You're kidding. Ballwin? Yeah, it's a suburb of St. Louis. Okay. All right, let's listen. Hi, ladies. This is Nat from Missouri. If you had unlimited creative freedom and an endless budget, tell us all about the story you'd want to produce, either together or separately. It could be a movie or a TV show, chat about potential casting and plot lines, or maybe even chat about what kinds of stories you wish you saw more of in today's world. Thanks for picking my question. You ladies are so groovy. Love you lots and keep it up. I mean, that's a big question. Nat? Nat? I'm going to say there are so many stories I would love to bring to life, so many parts I would love to play myself. And I don't think it's a matter of endless creative freedom or endless budget, although that would help. For me, it would be, I need endless bandwidth and time.

I feel like, or to clone myself, I feel like there's so many things. I mean, the first one coming to mind is mom detectives, which I can't do because I just, don't have the time to bring that into the world. The way we would want to do it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I agree. I mean, I do love this question because it let me daydream a little.

Like, Nat, for one, there's a lot of great stories that haven't been told about women who were cowgirls, like real working cowgirls. And there's some great stories. And I've read a few, and I'm like, gosh, that would make an amazing movie. Just highlight one of them that rode horseback and worked. the land just like hardcore. I would love that movie. Like that would be something I would want to see. Yeah. So that's a story I always thought would be cool to tell like the women of the West, you know? Yes. And then for me also mom detectives. And I'll tell you why. Jen and I,

like, we don't do anything half ass. If we were to do this, we would do it and we don't have time to do it. But I even fantasize about the cast because that's where I have the most fun when I think about projects is like seeing who I would want. So Nat and Jenna, this is my daydream cast for mom detectives. Oh, I can't wait to hear it. Okay. Husbands, Steve Little, and Tone Bell. Amazing. Amazing. Neighbors that we drive crazy with our mom detectiveness. Bobby Lee. Mm-hmm. Rachel Dratch, Timberley Hill, who's hilarious. Then I also want the two guys across the street that hosts the 4th of July barbecue every year. year. This is also in my neighborhood. They're very serious about their meat. You're going to have to go over there. It's like a big deal. Okay. They're very intense. I want local cops that we butt heads with

because we're mom detectives. I want them to be Jim Gaffigan and Jason Antoon. Okay. I mean, I just think that would be a blast. That would be such a blast. Yeah. Yeah. Can't you just see us like getting in a scuttlebutt with Jim Gaff again? And Jason Antoon was in a pilot I did. called the 46 percenters. He's in NCIS, Hawaii. He's so funny. And Steve Little, my God, tone bell, we did bad judge together with Kate Walsh. And I couldn't even make eye contact with him for half his lines because I would just bust up. I want us to have a revolving door of directors we love, like Denny Gordon, Ken Quappas, Paul Figue. Yeah. See, we need the endless bandwidth. We do. And we do need funds because that's a big cast.

It is. Well, I have also always wanted to do a biopic on Ruth Fertle. She's the founder of Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Oh, yeah, you love her. You've talked about her on here before. I did. I gave a whole deep dive on her badassery and how she put her name on that steakhouse. And I think it would make an amazing movie. And I think that Julia Garner should play her. This would be my dream casting. I love her. I just. I saw her in weapons, and there's this scene and weapons in the bar, and she's just so good. I would love to also work with Julia Garner. You know another thing that I would really like? What? If we're just putting out. Sure. I wish I could go back and have all the shows that I've developed and pitched get made.

Like, there was this one I did called National Parker. It was written by my friend Alex Henriksen and Corinne Marshall. It was so funny. It was about like a kind of like socialized. woman, young woman from New York who decides to give up everything and become a park ranger. She's having just sort of like a midlife crisis at 22, basically. She's like, who am I? What am I? And then imagine like a young Goldie Hawn type. Yeah. And then she goes into the forest with all of these park rangers. And it was so funny. And we developed it for so long.

It was bought. It was developed. We wrote a pilot. It didn't get picked up. And I just, I would love to see those out in the world. There's so many. Yeah, I would love that too. I would love the pilot that I developed and sold and wrote for TBS Holiday. Yes. About my hometown of Archer City. I read it. It's so funny. And what about she bangs? Oh, she bangs. Oh, you guys, we have the funniest movie script that Jenna's husband Lee wrote. We did the story. We did the story. We would sit down at your kitchen table. It was so fun. We were laughing so hard. We were laughing so hard. we were crying, like just kind of like brainstorming scenes and these characters, and Lee would just be taking notes. And then he wrote the funniest script. I know. There's so many things.

But to develop something like that, it's so much sweat equity. Yeah. You don't get paid for it. It's a full-time job. It's a full-time job. And we have a full-time job, which is this podcast. And also when you get immersed in that sort of thing, it really takes away from your family. And I want to be really present to my family. So that's a full-time job. So that's a lot. That's why I don't do all the extras. I can do like one extra project a year and still have the home life I want. Yeah. We can do little mini things right now. And they're so creatively fulfilling. And I'm so thankful for them. But gosh, it's hard to beat the amazing creative freedom we have right here. Yeah. I love it. I do, too. Well, Nat, thank you.

Yeah. I think if we had to pick, we'd want to do something we can do together. Like she bangs or mom to objectives. Unlimited money, unlimited creative freedom, and unlimited bandwidth. And then maybe if we had all the bandwidth in the world, we'd produce all these other kick-ass things that we're not even in. Exactly. All right. Well, listen, why don't we take a break? And then when we come back, we are going to break down season one, episode four of the paper. All right. Hi, this is Jill Schlesinger, CBS News, Business Analyst, Certified Financial Planner, and the host of the Jill on Money podcast. With a new year upon us, there's no better. time to take control of your financial life and the Jill on Money podcast is here to help.

It's your questions that make it possible for me to provide unconventional and I hope entertaining insights on your money, more importantly, on your life. Follow and listen to Jill on Money wherever you get your podcasts. We are back. We're talking today about episode four TTT versus the blogger. Yeah. And it's a really fun episode. I do want to say one thing before we do.

dig in, which is, guys, we have not forgot about around the town. Yes, around the town. We're so excited. You have written in some great stuff, and I can't wait for us to share it. We just need a minute. We're having some transitions and we just need a minute. Yes, we're transitioning between our producers. It's the new year, but we have a goal that we're going to have around the town in the next

episode. Yeah, but they're fantastic, and I can't thank you enough. All right. This episode was written by Amanda Rosenberg and directed by, Paul Lieberstein. Yes, it was. Here is your summary. A visit from high school journalism students Stokes competition between Ned, Esmeralda, and a local high school news blogger. Mayor and Oscar investigate a retiring music teacher with a questionable past. Meanwhile, Detrick comes on too strong with Nicole. I mean, he whittled a bird. He sure did. I did go down a rabbit hole of watching

people make birds out of wood on YouTube. You did. Will you give us some details when we get to it? The only detail I want you to know is that I became fascinated. That's it. People have a lot of amazing skills out there, and they're sharing them. Okay. Let's get to this episode.

All right. This episode opens in the bullpen with a group of high school journalism students from Daryesburg High, and they are going to come into the Truth Teller offices to observe. Yeah. A real working newspaper. They start asking questions about journalistic practices. Oh, lady, I thought this was so funny. And I thought Travis was being classic Travis. I actually pulled a clip. Oh. Because two of the high schoolers throw shade right out of the gate. I love Travis's reaction. I just want you to hear a snippet of this cold open. Everyone give a warm welcome to the students of Derrysburg High School. Future of journalism, meet

Present of journalism. You can ask them anything you want. Don't be shy, guys. You do not need to be intimidated by us. We are here to help you, all right? No question is too stupid. Do you think an over-reliance on anonymous sources damages public trust? That's an amazing question, and it's very curious.

Who wants to take this one? I feel like I'm monopolizing the conversation. Cracked me up because it's one of my favorite things to do. Like, if I'm with someone I know really well, like Josh or you or whatever, and we're in like some kind of like party atmosphere. And I get like asked something and I don't really have a great answer. I'm like, you know what, Josh, I think you should go because you have so many thoughts on this. Well, isn't that like that's such a joke between comedians where you like set someone up by saying like, oh my gosh, they have the funniest story.

Take it away. And it's just like so hard to live up to that. But I loved it. Travis did that classic, pass the book. And then we go on to find out that the students have more experience writing articles for their school newspaper than the journalists at TTT. Yes. I need to talk about the wardrobe in this scene. Oh, okay. I really zeroed in on it.

Okay. Did you notice how the students and the reporters were all dressed basically the same? With the exception of Detrick, who is in a, like a suit coat and a tie. and Ned has on a tie, but he also has on like a suede jacket, but everyone is dressed really casually. And I thought that was really interesting. Also, none of the women are wearing skirts. Oh, none. Times have changed. Remember how you, me, Phyllis, Kate, Mindy, we all had to wear skirts. Our dresses, yeah. In every episode, there was not a skirt to be found.

Also, did you notice Mayer's cardigan? It was this slouchy striped cardigan. It was really giving like Freddie Kruger vibes. Was it? I didn't think of Freddie Krueger. It looked very Freddie Kruger to me. Okay. But I'm not the only person who notices Marr's cardigans. Oh.

We got a letter from Natalie M. in Portland who said, for many of the episodes, I would always think that Mayor reminded me of someone and then it hit me. Kurt Cobain. No. Mayor looks like a Kurt Cobain impersonator with the hair, the slouchy cardigans, the t-shirts, the dull-toe. the mix-match patterns, is this only me? Did you do a side-by-side? You know I did, lady.

You know I love any chance for a side-by-side. Did you send it to Chelsea? No, I should. Here it is. Oh, my God. It's amazing. That's pretty great. Natalie, you are 100% correct.

I see the vibe. I see it. Right? Yeah. Incidentally, the slouchy sweater that Kurt Cobain is wearing in this side-by-side picture is very famous. It is considered one of the most famous sweaters in music history, and it sold at auction for $334,000. Oh, wow. Yeah. You can put that in stories, lady. I will put your side-by-side. Yay. My side-by-side made the stories. Yeah.

That's sort of like, is that like the also news, or is it? The stories is the also news. I didn't make the feed. Instagram stories. I like our stories. Me too. I think they're better than the also news. I aspire to one day make the feed. The feed.

All right. Where are we? Oh, it's opening credits. Yep. Ned is meeting with one student in particular, and she asks him, what does it cost to run the truth teller every year? And Ned sort of flippantly says, I don't know, the monthly budget is about half a million dollars. And the student's like, whoa. And he's like, pretty cool, right?

And she says, how do you expect you can survive with so much waste? Yeah. Well, this did get me curious. About what? I mean, how much money does it cost to put a newspaper out? And there's a website that you and Dr. Tibido would love. It's called macro trends. And they run all this data.

And according to them, the New York Times, for example, their operating expenses for the 12 months ending September 30th, 2025 were about $2.3 billion. To put out the New York Times for a year? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I mean, they have a lot of reporters and really obscure places around the globe. Yeah. Whereas the truth teller does not. Those people who have never written articles. Well, the student that Ned's talking to, Davy, asked him, does he feel threatened by TTT's real competition, which is a high school-run blog called So Wesley. We learn it's by a student named Wesley, and it's the most popular blog in Lucas County with 300,000 subscribers. Yeah, he's like, did you say 300 or 3,000? And she's like, 300,000. I've got a guest star breakdown for you on

Davy. Okay. It's Julia Butters, and she's actually 16 years old. She was on the show American Housewife, and she was also in Quentin Tarantino's movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Lady. Yeah. Did you see Zach Woods' takedown of Quentin Tarantino last year? Did you see it? I did. Go just to the comments.

The comments are amazing. You know what happened is that for whatever reason, Quentin Tarantino decided to go off on like Paul Dano in an interview. And Paul Dano's just living his life? Paul Dano's like, what the fuck did I do? the hell just happened? Why am I in this conversation? And so Zach Woods decided to come to the defense of Paul Dano in like a hilarious, hilarious monologue on his Instagram. Zach Wood's Instagram is so funny. Because he's so smart. He's so, his brain is so fast.

Yeah. And he can do a thing like that that is hilarious, but also scathing. Yes. We need him on Office Ladies Burn It to the Ground. Oh. We need him. He needs to sit in the room for the whole thing. Yes, 100%. And just do commentary. Yes. Well, Mayor is now talking to the students, and she finds out that the high school music teacher, Mr. Kay, a very long-time, beloved teacher, is retiring. He's directing one last show. It's a gender-swapped production of mean girls titled Mean Boys. Yeah. And Mayor definitely gets a look across her face when Mr. Kay's name is brought up. And she's like, oh, yeah, I remember him. I remember all my teachers. But, you know, something's laying underneath the surface there. So, Mayor asks if she and Oscar can go to the high school.

Mayor's going to write a feature on Mr. Kay, and Oscar is going to review the play. Ned says that sounds great. Ned is a tad distracted, though. He's pretty rattled by this So Wesley guy. He is. And he goes online and looks him up. And he starts reading one of, Wesley's articles, and he thinks he's found an error. Wesley has used inflammable when Ned thinks he should have said flammable, right? Yeah. So he leaves a snarky comment. He writes, Ever heard of proofreading? Maybe you should have been in the journalism class at the truth teller this morning, a winky face. Lady, would you leave a comment? Well, I like to read comments. It's very hard for me sometimes to leave a comment. I like to have a more. I like to have a more.

more observational relationship with the news and with social media. Sometimes I know I should comment and I have to kind of like make myself leave a comment. Well, you are half of America. Half of us don't leave comments. But like for a friend's birthday, I should comment. And so I'll comment. But other than that, you're not going to hear from me in the comments. I think it's okay.

Okay, good. Well, you are going to hear from Ned, and that's going to blow up. Yes. All of a sudden, Ned is in his office, and he overhears Esmeralda laughing. He goes over to her office to see what's going on. Guess what? So Wesley has written a blog about Ned's comment. So Wesley says, in a pathetic attempt to clawback relevancy,

Ned Sampson, editor-in-chief and supposed grown man, decided to verbally assault me in the comments of this blog. But what's worse is he used this emoji? And then he has the winky face. Ken enters and he says, you have to apologize. You have to apologize. He has a lot of influence around town. More than you, Ned. And Ned is like, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to apologize. One thing we need to mention, too, that we didn't mention a minute ago is that there is an Oscar talking head where Oscar lets the documentary crew, know that he is going to the high school for his article not to be part of the documentary. Yes. He's still not interested in being part of the documentary. So don't think that's happening.

Make no mistake. Yeah. He will only speak to the documentary crew if it is about the newspaper and like his newspaper job. Which is, he says he's just here to promote art and leisure. That's it. It's very finer things club of him. And very much so is. I need to talk about Esmeralda's desk for a second. And I know you did a big breakdown of her desk in the first episode, but I don't believe that these two items were on her desk in the first episode. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they're very prominent in this episode. She has two mirrors facing her. Yes. Have they always been there?

And I just noticed them. Yeah. She's had the mirrors and all the lamps and all the stars. Yes. Okay. So when she's sitting at her desk, she has two mirrors. and she can look at herself, I would never. They're also kind of like at a low angle.

That is, I do not want to see that all day long. I told you about that house we rented for Josh's mom's 70th birthday. No. Why? Oh, my gosh. Okay, so it's her 70th birthday, and we all decide we're going to meet up somewhere warm because, you know, they had this cold winter in Colorado, and we're going to go somewhere warm for her birthday.

So we rent this house. for the whole family. We all chip in, and we rent this big house in Palm Springs. And we divide up the bedrooms. And Josh and I ended up getting this bedroom of this house. And we walk in it and we're like, oh, such a nice room. And then Josh, he goes in the bathroom to put the stuff down. And he goes, oh, God. I'm like, what is it? It is wall-to-wall mirrors in the bathroom, lady. Like 360? Like a 360 mirror view? Oh, I'm sorry, one wall had a window. One wall didn't have the mirrors.

Okay. But the whole entire wall on the side of the toilet and behind it had mirrors. So like when you're sitting on the toilet, you can see yourself? Every angle. It is horrifying. Oh, my God. It is the most horrifying thing. Who would do that?

Who would do that? I told Josh, I said, I have to turn the lights off when I go on the bathroom because this is horrible. That is seeing way too much of yourself too often. In ways you never want to see yourself. Oh my gosh. And you can't look away. It's everywhere. Where am I looking?

But also it sounds like there were probably like 12 of you. Were you getting like reflection upon reflection? Yes. It's just row after row after row of you taking a crap. It's just like. This house needs to be on like Zillow Gone Wild or something. I went to see if you could still rent it because I have a friend who's turning 50 and it's no longer. Were you going to recommend it?

I was like, well, it wasn't a nice house. Warning, the mirrors in the one bedroom, but whatever. If you go back, you need to, like, tape up, like, just bring a roll of wrapping paper and just tape up some wrapping paper over those mirrors. I mean, you got to do something. Wow. I did not know that by bringing up Esmeralda's mirrors, I was going to get that gem, but I sure I'm glad I did.

Sorry. Sorry for that visual. All right. Well, next up, we're going to come. Cut over to Nicole, who is at her desk, and she finds a box with a wooden carved bird inside. Yeah. Guess who it's from? It's from Detrick.

Yes. He spent hours. He watched a two-hour YouTube video, ordered special knives to make this bird for her. Yeah. And he even stained at the color of a bag she likes to use. He says it's just his way of saying, hey, what's up? Do you know what my first thought was when I saw this bird? Stanley carved a wooden bird for Phyllis. That was my first thought.

I wondered, is this little nod? A little Easter egg? Was this on purpose? I texted Greg. What did he say? He said in the pilot of the paper, there was originally this whole sequence with Nicole bringing her pet bird to work. Yes.

Prop Master Scott told us about that. Yes. He said they later replaced this because they found out that the Australian version of the office had something similar with something. bringing a bird into the office. So this wooden bird carving was a callback to a former scene from the pilot. He said it still worked in this episode because they do briefly discuss her pet bird in the Two Truths and a Lie episode. So long story short, it was not intentional, but this made me realize something. What? The lost episode of the office is Pet Day. Oh. And it is also about someone bringing their bird to work. I think Greg really wants someone

to bring a bird to work. Clearly. You know, we had an episode with a bird funeral. Yeah. What is it with Greg and birds? I hope it sees the lie today someday. I know. There's something in him that he needs to get out.

He has a bird story. He needs to tell. He does. So while this was not an intentional callback, we have been spotting things that are callbacks, like Oscar's gift from Michael, the clacky balls. And we got this question from Sarah L. in Ohio,

who said, it was so fun seeing all the office Easter eggs in the paper, what Easter egg would you plant as a nod to your office character or your favorite office character in the world of the paper? So I guess if we were to show up as our characters on the paper, what Easter egg would we plant? I mean, can I guess what yours is? Sure. Is it your pink mug?

Yeah, I would love that. I would put that pink mug back on my desk. Or maybe that crazy thing. that lucite lusite bobble thing. Yeah, that does nothing. It's just decor

that I still have. And I would also put I had this giraffe pen. It was like a blue wooden pen. I have it on my desk at home. And then it has a spring on the top where the eraser would be and then there's like a little

yellow giraffe. It doesn't work. I think it never worked. But it was always in my cup holder. So those are the three things that I would put. on my desk? I would have the cat with the chip deer paper clip holder that was on my desk and now was on my home desk, right? I would have the little frame that when we personalized our area

that I brought in the picture of me and my grandmother where my eyes are closed and it's in a frame that says I heart grandma. So I would have those two. And then I had a bunch of little cat figurines that lined the top of my cubicle. Yep. And also just in the midst of little cat figurine, cat figurine, all of a sudden there was a pelican. And that's a deep cut. So I think I would bring back the pelican.

Well, Greg would like that. Yeah. Oh, yes, he would. Well, that was a fun question. Thanks, Sarah. Well, Nicole is now talking to mayor. They're in some type of break room. There's a shelf with a lot of baskets I want to point out.

Oh, did you love that? that? I love that. I counted four that I could see. One, I think, has some Cheetos in it. There's also a big green water jug. Anyway, Nicole is saying to Mir that it's too much. What Detrick's done, he went overboard. It's like freaking her out. Yeah. And then Detrick is talking to Travis, and he's noting that Nicole doesn't seem to be responding to his gift. So he's like, oh, no, did I use the wrong kind of wood? Travis is like, dude, it's not the wrong kind of wood. I mean, it's like you carved her an engagement ring. You're freaking everyone out.

It was too much. Travis has, I guess this is going to be classic Travis relationship advice. He's like, just start icing her out. Like, that's what he's doing to his stepdad and it's working. Yeah. Like, ignore her. I loved the scene, but I like these two actors a lot. Me too.

Yeah. So this was one of my favorite exchanges in the episode was this. Dettrick Travis scene. I know. They're really funny together. Like if I was writing a sales call episode, I'd want the two of them to go out more. Because I loved it when they went and ran into Travis's ex-girlfriend. Exactly.

This is a good pair. Yeah. Well, listen, why don't we take a break? And when we come back, Ned is going to call so Wesley. It's going to go as well as you think. It might go worse than you think. He doesn't just call. We'll get to it.

He FaceTimes him. Yeah. So many mistakes. All right. We are back. Ned is now FaceTime. time calling so Wesley, I don't understand. Why would you FaceTime? Why? I don't know. No one does that. No. That's weird. And Ken is also there and so is as Marilda. And Ned is trying to apologize.

And Wesley's like, I don't accept your apology. Not accepted. And while they're on the phone, Ken does a fact check and notices that as Wesley claims, flammable and inflammable are the same. You can use them interchangeably. The internet begs to differ. Yeah. I was taking Ken's word for it, but that doesn't seem right. This is what I read. Flammable and inflammable neither mean the same thing nor are opposites.

Flammable refers to things that can catch on fire like wood or clothing. Inflammable refers to things that can generate fire like compressed gas. So neither of them mean not flammable. They both mean flammable. Yes. But just... In different ways. The source of their flammability is a different thing. Exactly. And because we don't know the actual sentence that Ned read, we can't say which one is appropriate.

Hmm. Okay. Well, take that so, Wesley. In your face. Or maybe not in your face. True. Depending on how he used it. Take that, Ned. We don't know. We don't know. Well, now Esmeralda is going to take the phone, and she's going to apologize for Ned. And she's going to try to sweet talk, so Wesley. And she's like, you should come work for me on TTT online. It's sexy. It has Riz. It's not suss at all.

She's like trying to, like, throw out all these useful terms. Yeah, every word that she's ever heard about, like what young people say. Yes. She's like, we have ice cream on Thursdays. And Ned is like, we all have ice cream on Thursdays. That's not an online thing. And then she does this crazy shade to Ned where she's like, you know, he's just weird around kids because he can't have kids because he's sat on. Like, what do you sit on?

She sat on something hot. A hot. And now he can't have kids. And he's like, no, I can't. He writes a little note. Holds it to camera. I can have kids. The whole thing is a hot mess.

So Wesley seems to like Esmerelda in this phone call. Yeah. He says, sure, I'd love to intern for you. And then Ken calls this a master class in talking to kids. Because he loves Esmeralda. Does he love her? Is this what's happening? Oh, is he kind of in love with her?

I think he might have a crush on her. He's certainly dazzled by her. He's dazzled. Well, So Wesley was played by Aidan Lepret. He also played the character of Max in two episodes of The Pit, which we love. And they're making a second season of, and my friend Rusty is in. and I can't wait to ask her all about how they make it. But also, according to IMDB, in addition to acting, Aiden is an award-winning singer-songwriter and music producer

who releases music under the name La Pratt. This character of So Wesley and Aiden have another thing in common. They both know what it's like to go viral. What did he go viral for? When Aiden was eight years old, he went viral on YouTube for playing the ukulele At the 2010 Hawaiian ukulele festival, he was singing Hey Soul Sister, and he got over 20 million views. Whoa! It's absolutely adorable.

Do we have it? I want to hear it. Well, that is adorable. It's so much cuteness coming at you. If you're in a bad mood one day, I highly recommend watching it because it's going to lift your spirits. Guess what I'm going to do? What? I'm going to put it in our stores.

Oh. Oh, there you go. I made the stories twice. It made the stories. I'm making the stories today. Well, technically Aiden's making the stories. Yeah, but who made you aware of Aden? Me. Yeah. Exactly. So I am a vessel for the stories. You know what? It's becoming very clear to me. What? I need a feature you more in our stories. Get ready. This did get me wondering, there's a ukulele festival? I did not know this. There is, and it is every year in Hawaii, usually in July, and it's always at Capiolani Park in Waikiki. It started back in the 1970s. And their dream, when they started it, was to present a free concert to encourage local and

international interest in the ukulele to show that it could be played as a solo instrument, not just a rhythm instrument in the background, that it can be front and center. Yeah. Well, now mayor and Oscar are going to show up at the high school. They walk into the theater. They enter the auditorium and they find Mr. Kay berating his cast. Mr. Kay is played by Michael Hitchcock, Jenna. He's just amazing. Well, he's a legend. He's a groundlings alum. He also shows up in all the Christopher guest movies. He's in everything and he always crushes it. He's just like a comedy master. He is perfection in this role. He is yelling at these kids. He's like, I have a clip. Oh, great. I was like, we have to hear him. Let's hear him. I don't know how I can sugarcoat this, so I won't.

At this point, we don't have a show. I repeat, we do not have a show. Pick that up. I see, some of you are getting emotional. Do you know what would happen if we cried at Juilliard? Do I have to remind you that Defiance High School is mounting an amazing production of Bye Bye Birdie that's going to blow your asses off? Lady, when I first moved to L.A., I joined this theater company. And the head of the theater company is total Mr. K. Vives. Except instead of the flex that he went to Juilliard, this guy had done like a single. big guest star role on a procedural. I can't even remember which one. But we were all very impressed. Yeah. He had experience in the world of television. That everyone aspired to be. He had done it.

He had done it. And everybody who was part of his theater company, there was the core theater company of people who were in all the plays that he would mount. And those were like his friends. He starred in every production. He was the star. And then there was this whole other group of people who paid dues, who never got cast in any shows, and we were all the new actors in town. And we didn't know any better. But what thing you did kit as part of paying to be in the theater company was you got free classes. Guess who taught them? He did. He taught them. He was so mean. He was so, so mean. And he would like yell at us like this. At one point, they put up this show. It was a moliere. It was a moliere show. And I got cast in it, even though I was a paying member of the company.

This was unheard of. So I'm in the cast now with him and all his friends. They needed a young person, and they were all older. So I get this part. He was so mean that throughout the course of the play, all three of the women who were playing lead roles in the play, including myself, we all quit before the show went on its feet. I hope you quit right before, like really screwed him over. Yeah. One of the ladies who had a big part, she quit, and he replaced her with his wife. Oh. And then another woman quit, and he replaced her with a man in drag. And then I quit, and I don't know who replaced me because I stopped going and I never followed up. I remember we had this rehearsal,

and I stood up for myself and another woman. As you can guess, this guy seemed to get along with men and not women. I spoke up on behalf of me and the only other woman left in the play. And he was so pissed off. He called me at home after rehearsal, and he said, don't you ever challenge me again when I am giving direction on this play? If you ever do that again, you're fired.

You can just leave the play. Do you understand me? And I thought to myself, I won't be able to go back and not challenge him again. So I said, you know what? F*** you. And fuck your play. Good. And I hung up and I never went back.

Hell yeah. And I don't know whatever happened with that play. Well, it sounds like it was going to be amazing. But when I was listening to Mr. I know, exactly. When I was listening to Mr. Kay, I was like, oh my God, he's like that guy. He's like that guy. Yeah. It's a little window into my early acting career out here in L.A.

I like that you stood your ground. Incidentally, this theater guy, he told me I would never work in this town. He literally did the old, like, classic. You'll never work a day in this town as long as I'm here, lady. Yeah. That's how he sounds in my head. Well, I did DM with Michael Hitchcock because I love him. He's so great.

And I said, we are loving Mr. K. I hope you're well. He's just a wonderful person. And I was so excited to see him in this role. Well, if I ever make the biopic of my life, I'm going to have Michael Hitchcock play this abusive theater company director man that I told off in my youth. What was his name? Well, I'll tell you his nickname. I called him Stalin.

Did it rhyme with his actual name? Please tell me it did. Okay. All right, great. It did. I started the nickname. I'm proud of it. I don't leave a snarky comment, but I will make a snarky nickname out of your actual name.

And spread it behind your back. Ha ha! Well, in this next scene, Ned is in his office and he's eating the popcorn out of the tin again. This popcorn is still going strong. It's made a comeback. Esmeralda says, come meet me in the parking lot. Oh, yeah. Something's going down.

So Ned finds Esmeralda in the parking lot. She is pacing. She is freaking out. She shows him like something on her phone. She's like, did you see what this little brat did? And then she reads what Wesley has written about her. Quote, Esmeralda Grand, 51, editor of TTT Online, begged me to work for her, quote, sexy website. Was she hoping to violate more child labor law?

And Ned's like, well, you're a lot of things, but you're not. And Esmeralda goes, 51, I know, it's slander. It's so funny. This sends her, like, on such a spiral. She's, like, more pissed that he said she was 51 than anything else. She wants to get revenge. Mm-hmm. And Ned's like, yes, but ethical revenge.

Yeah. And Esmeralda says, okay, we cut his breaks, and then what happens after is in the hand of God. Yes, he's like, no, no. So then there's going to be this scene in Ned's office where they're brainstorming how to get revenge on Wesley. Asmeralda's like, why don't we convince him his father isn't real? Why don't we give him Lyme disease? She says she thinks she has the right kind of ticks. I don't even know what that's about.

I don't even want to know. Like, why does she have ticks on the ready? Ultimately, they come up with the idea that they should send Wesley a fake press release. and if he publishes it, his reputation will be destroyed for not checking sources. Ned says, yeah, how about layoffs, potential upcoming layoffs at Corning Glass? And then Esmeralda has her fantastic classic where she compliments but gives you a dig at the same time. She goes, wow, incredible. Such a perfect level of bland.

How do you do that? And Ned's like, I don't know, it just comes naturally. She's like so natural to you. Lady, this sent me down a rabbit hole. about revenge and getting revenge and like the perfect revenge. You know, revenge is a dish best served cold. Yeah. I came across this revenge story about a musician named Dave Carroll from the band Sons of Maxwell. He was on a United Airlines flight and he observed something. Okay. Here he is being interviewed about what happened. Well, I was sitting in the back of the plane in Chicago

on a United Airlines flight, and we were waiting to deplane to catch a connecting flight to Omaha. And a woman behind me looked out the window, and she cried out, oh, my God, they're throwing guitars outside. And our bass player looked outside to see his bass guitar being thrown, and mine was thrown before that, and ultimately it was damaged. Who's throwing the guitar? The baggage handlers. Okay. So he goes on to explain that the guitar in question, his guitar was worth about $3,500, but it also had sentimental value. It was damaged. He spent about $1,200 trying to fix it, but it still doesn't sound the same. He tried to file a claim with United for damages, but nothing came of it. And he just was like, this is not cool. So he wrote a song about it. Let's hear.

Nebraska The plane departed Halifax Connecting in Chicago's Old Air passenger said From the seat behind me My God they're throwing guitars Out there The band and I exchanged a look

Best described as terror At the action on the tarmac And knowing whose projectiles These would be Show complete indifference Towards me Fix it. Your life'll just admit it.

I should have flown with some because United. United Breaks guitar. Is that the name of the song? Yes. This song went viral. Within weeks of it being released, the United Airlines stock fell by 10%. He ended up writing two more songs about it,

and they became known as the United Breaks Guitars trilogy. Oh, my gosh. Sweet revenge by Dave Carroll. And the Sons of Maxwell, you know what? I love a story also where someone turns something like that, like something that's just stuck in your craw that's irritating you into art. Make some lemonade. Yes.

So he ended up writing three hit songs about his broken guitar and probably ended up making, I don't know, I'm assuming, more money than if they had fixed the guitar. So. I hope he got some kind of like card or something from United that was like our apologies. He said in the news story that since. the song went viral that they did reach out. So that's all it took. But you know what?

Also, we've all had that with an airline. I mean, not to dogg on United or anything, but any airline, they lose your bags. Someone's indifferent. They mess up your reservation. You're stuck at the airport. You know, we've all experienced it. And there's something cathartic about this story, I think, for all of us. Like, he touched on something, which is why the song went viral.

right? Yeah, for sure. I know what song I would write. Would it be called Oceanaut? What? That's what I was going to say. I want somebody to write me a song about my Oceionot watch. Oh my gosh, you just put a call to action out there. There's some really talented people listening to Office Ladies. I bet you get a good one.

Well, maybe we should go back to the school now because Mayor and Oscar are sitting down with Mr. K and Mr. Kay does not recall Mayor at all. Oh, that pisses her off because, Clearly, she's like, I auditioned. You didn't cast me. He doesn't even remember her. And he's like, do you even work for a real paper? And she's like, yeah, we work for the truth teller. He's like, fine. If you want the truth, here's the truth. I don't remember you because you probably weren't very good. I remember the ones that were good. Yes. Exactly. Oscar has a talking head where he's doing a classic talking head. He's like, yeah, mayor has a grudge against Mr. Craig. Wait, no. No. He stops himself. He says, I will not speak up. outside of arts and leisure. Yeah. He was almost drawn back in.

Almost. We didn't touch on Kin's talking head, which I think is a classic. He has a talking head that's he's basically like, no, I'm not jealous of Ned and Asmeralta getting along so well. Really, I'm not, but he clearly is. And there's the classic reveal. It'd be like when Michael Scott was talking and then you would pull back and see Dwight. I love this.

I feel like it's a nod to how we shot the office. Ken is going on and on, and then it pulls back, and we reveal the. he's talking to Kimberly. You just see the back of her head and she goes, you know, I really need to get back to work. Yes. It was so great. The next scene up is Esmeralda and Ned. They are, you know, working on this fake press release.

And Ned notices that Esmeralda is putting tape on her face. Yeah. She's trying to give herself a tape facelift. Well, Paul Lieberstein shared with us that this tape idea was a pitch from Sabrina. Yes. How great is that? that. Paul said Sabrina asked if she could tape her skin back. She said everyone's doing it. And I guess Paul was a little skeptical, but she said she'd show him what it looked like. And then she came back

with scotch tape all over her face and hair. And Paul said she's definitely in tune to her inner clown. I have a confession. Oh, yeah. Have you done this? Oh, my God. What for? I have tape. I'm going to try it. I watched a video last night. What? Yeah. You have scotch tape right? now in your hand. I can't, you're not doing this. You watched a video on how to do it with scotch tape. There's so many. And then I found this crazy article, well, it's fascinating about Marlene Dietrich. Yes. And how she made this tape facelift famous. It was called the Crodon. If I'm saying that right, Crodon facelift. And she used surgical tape to pull her face upward and then she'd wear really high ponytails. Lady, this is how all of the ladies in Hollywood, the grand dams of Hollywood, this is what they would

Do. Lucille ball? Yes. Yes. Yes. All of them. You're doing it? Well.

But here's, I mean. You have to tuck it in your hair, though, and that is what I don't know how to do. Is that what the thing said on the- Yes. You know, it looks like is that you have tape on your face. I know. I know, because they would tuck it under a wig. Yeah.

So let me tell you, you don't. I mean, it's really nuts that you're just putting tape on your feet. Ow. I've got my hair. Let me tell you. what you need. This is what you missed by us not video engers. Yeah. Oh. It's not working. It's not working. A little bit. Well, you're holding it. Because I can't put it in my hair. You just have tape you look ridiculous. This is, you're getting more tape. Why? Well, because now I'm doing my chin. Those are my

eyes. Okay. My chin is what really needs it. Let's be honest. Let me. Hey, that worked. Oh. Oh. Okay. I can see the tape, though, from straight on, just straight on. Let's see. say you have a photo shoot. Take my picture. You could tape your chin like that, lady. For a photo shoot? Yes, because only don't turn your head, though. Okay.

If you turn profile, then I can see the tape. Okay. But if you don't, I can't. Okay, smiling. Well, don't smile. Oh, don't smile. Yeah. Oh.

It doesn't look as good when you smile. Here, see what you think. Wait, give it to me. Our desk is big. Wait. Wait, wait, I want to do two more on my. neck. Okay.

There's two more I can do on my neck. Listen, while you're taping up, let me tell you what I did. Okay. Okay. I bought the real stuff. You did? Yeah. So the real stuff has a string.

Oh my God, yes. And it's really strong tape. And it goes behind your ear or something. It goes around your head. I saw these. I saw them. This is what the old-timey Hollywood ladies would wear. And you put it like at your temples in your hair line.

Uh-huh. And then it pulls it and you have to like make it taught with the string. And it pulls it. And then you can also do it behind your ears to pull up your wrinkly neck. The waggle. So I saw an Instagram video of it. And you bought it? I fucking bought it because I buy everything that is fed to me on Instagram. It is a disease that I have.

I don't know why. But I bought it. It was while I was in Chicago doing the play because I thought, what if I put it on for like a photo shoot or for a red carpet? Did it work? No. Oh, I was... It didn't work at all.

It was stupid. It was stupid. It didn't stick. Like, I watched a whole video where you, like, part your hair so that then you, like, the string goes under your hair. I saw it. Back in the day, the ladies would wear it under their wigs. Yeah. Wigs are what really...

Okay. Okay. Here's the picture of you. It's from far away. I mean, you just... You have tape on your face, lady. I know. Me and Esmeralda.

I'm bringing us back. It's nuts. It's nuts. Now I got to... to take this shit off my face. Yes, you do. Anyway, I tried the tape thing here in front of you to don't work. We saved you all a lot of time. Don't buy it. Don't try it at home. I'm not sure who did a better job with the tape, me or Esmeralda, but we both just look like ladies with tape on our faces. Correct. So listen, now we're going to return to this Detrick Nicole storyline.

Detrick is going to play it really cool. He's going to start a conversation with Nicole, but he's going to keep it just about work, and then he's going to walk away. Yeah. She's slightly confused. She's like, oh, she wasn't expecting that. I have a time code. Oh, let's hear it. It's for this little scene. It's 20 minutes. This starts with Nicole at the coffee machine, and I saw a sticky note on the machine that

says needs more coffee. I found this confusing because there's coffee in the coffee maker, so it's not like you need to make more coffee. And sitting next to the coffee machine are three bags of coffee. So I don't think they need more coffee. However, the brand of coffee sitting next to the coffee machine is called actual coffee. That's the name of it, actual coffee. And guess what?

They're a local Ohio brand of coffee. Love it. Well done. We're in the school library now. Mayor has grabbed all the programs from the musicals. She's trying to figure out if basically Mr. Kay has been taking money in some way. Like whoever put the ad in the program, like kicked in some money and then their children are who gets the lead in the play? Yeah, I mean, she makes a pretty convincing argument. I mean, Oscar says,

I'm not sure this is definitive proof. Like, you can't make this accusation publicly, but he sort of privately says, Mayor, I think you've found something, which is that the lead in every play coincidentally, their parents took out some sort of full-page ad in the program for their local businesses. Ultimately, Mayor writes an article that does not take down Mr. Kay. She just decides against it. Her articles titled Mr. Kirby celebrates 30th year at Dary'sburg. Mr. Kay is a pillar of the community. And then she gets a phone call.

It's a tip about Mr. Kay. And then we find out that Mr. Kay apparently lied about going to Juilliard. There was more to this scene. It's really great. It's in the Peacock Extended version. It was cut from the NBC version. But Mayor goes to the source and it's a teacher at the time. the school, played by Paul Lieberstein's real-life wife, Janine Periba.

Yes! She's fantastic in this scene, and she gives us the dish on Mr. Kay. Let's hear it. Off the record? Yeah. Mr. Kay is a character. A lot of insecurity for such a tall man. Yes. Would you say he's also arrogant? I mean, some people can be both. He manages to drop Juilliard to every conversation. I went to Yale. I never bring it up. Is there anything else you can tell me about him? I just think it's all an act. Thank you.

Yes, it is all an act. That is so great. Can I use that as a quote? No, absolutely not. The last teacher who spoke poorly of Mr. Kaye got reassigned to a different school district like a bad priest in the night. Now, you want a quote? He's a pillar of the community. Hmm.

Yeah, this cuts to a mayor talking head, and she's like, he had it coming. He had it coming. And then she's like, oh, Actually, maybe I'm not that good. Maybe. She's like, no, I'm good. I'm just rusty. Well, I thought Chelsea sounded a little sick in this episode.

And when she's singing, her voice kind of cracks, guess what? What? She was sick. Chelsea told me that not only was she sick, she ended up getting Oscar sick because they worked together so much that week. I know. She said Oscar gave her grief about it in a joking way.

Well, wrapping up the storyline, Ned and Esmeralda's plot worked. He ran with the arboral. article. Wesley ran with the fake article about people getting laid off, and he got his ass handed to him. Yes. Here's the headline from the actual news that says, quote, popular child's blog spreads vicious lies. Esmeral de Grande 37, editor of TTT Online, led the investigation. We're going to end this episode. We're in the parking lot. Detrick is going to apologize to Nicole. He says, I'm sorry. I think I was a bit much. He says, you know, I like you 3.5%. Out of five. Out of five. But like casually. Like casually. Yeah. I asked Kelly Cantley, where did you shoot this? This was clearly not on the studio

lot. It was outside. She said that they used the standard oil building in downtown L.A. as the enervate exterior building. And they shot this in the Athena parking lot right across the street. Oh, that was an early call time to shoot downtown. That was some traffic, y'all. Ned is going to have this closing moment. He's back in the conference room with the students. He says, this quote, the most important part of any article is the byline. You get one reputation in this life, protect it at all costs.

The student says, who said that? He says, Geraldo Rivera. And then we go to a tag. Yeah. Travis is up on the roof. He's flying a drone. Yeah, he says, I come up here to fly my drone. It's like therapy to me. I mean, I also go to regular therapy, but this is awesome. It's just so beautiful up here. Can I bring something up? Mm-hmm. Dare I say, Greg also likes to go on roofs. Oh. Right? Birds and roofs. The Greg Daniels. He likes the roof P-O-V. He does. We went on the roof all the time. Mm-hmm. And here we are. We're back up on the roof. Well, Travis is flying his drone and he's looking at the little sort of camera lens of like what his drone is seeing.

And guess what he sees? A full-on makeout between Nicole and Detrick. Not just a little smooch. This is like smoo-smooch. Yeah. They are like at an outside table at a restaurant. A little cafe. Guess what?

It's a faky restaurant. I was wondering. Kelly Cantley said that that was an empty storefront. on a nearby corner by, you know, where they shot all of this stuff, the parking lot, they shot this little drone bit, the art department and set decoration. They just decorated the outside of an empty storefront and made it look like a restaurant, but you can't actually go inside. They're so good.

They're so good. They're so good. But yeah, cliffhanger. So here's my question. What is it? Was this just an act all day long? Are they already into each other, but they act like they're not. for the camera crew?

Oh, I didn't think of that option. That kiss was a very, not the first time you kiss someone kiss, in my opinion. I just assumed that this, like, weird freeze-out thing worked. I mean, her conversation with Mary, she seemed like legitimately kind of like, that was too much. Yeah, I agree. I just didn't know if they were trying to throw everyone off. Like, was this a Dwight Angela thing?

Yeah. Mm. to keep everyone thinking that they're not in a relationship. I just thought that kiss was a little intimate for two people who've never kissed before. Well, I guess we'll find out next week. I guess so. Well, everyone, there you have it. That is your breakdown of the paper episode four.

A big thank you to Chelsea Fry, Greg Daniels, Kelly Cantley for all your tidbits. And yes, Michael Hitchcock, thank you for responding to my DM. It was so nice just to chat with you briefly there. I guess you've learned a lot in today's episode, and I made the stories. And I'm real excited about that. You made the Insta story, lady. I did. Don't get cocky. Could go away. What? Wow. Keeping me on my toes. We love you guys. We'll see you next week. See you then. 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 Bubicoe. Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis. Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz. Our theme song is Ruppertree by Creed Bratton.