Second Drink: Did I Stutter?

Welcome back to our second drink of Did I Stutter? I wanted to kick us off, Jenna, because we got a lot of mail about this episode. Mm-hmm. Many people wrote in to say that the phrase, did I stutter, is offensive and should not be used. Some people said that while they could see a buffoon like Michael Scott using this phrase, they were surprised that Stanley used it. And it's the title of the episode. Yeah. I mean I think that's all valid. Yeah. I do too. Definitely an outdated phrase for sure.

And um You know, it makes me think of something else from my childhood that people also used to do if you couldn't hear them. Like if they said something and you said what? Okay. Right.'Cause that's what happens in the episode. Yeah. And then Stanley's like, did I stutter? Right. Another thing that someone might do is sort of like mimic the vocal pattern of a deaf person, like to mock you for not being able to hear them or whatever. Right. Well, you know.

My sister wears hearing aids. So did my grandfather, and my aunt and uncle were deaf. And it always kind of Like, I don't know, it I didn't like it. Right. It's like it's making this it's it's it's making a joke uh making light of this. Yeah. I mean it just I don't know. But that is something that we have phased out as well now. And I'm glad we have. Yeah. And also good that we have phased out this phrase. Because I don't he I don't hear people

Say say that anymore. I I don't either. And I I'm really glad everyone wrote in. Thank you guys. Yeah, thank you.

Well, listen, Brent Forrester and Leslie David Baker gave us some great behind the scenes details about this episode, but Angela, I believe you found more. I did. So here's the thing. I went digging into the candy bag alts for this one. And when we first broke down the episode, we talked about Michael's talking head at the very end of the episode. You know, him and Stanley, they've kind of

Come to some type of an agreement. And then Michael has this hilarious talking head where he does an impression of Rodney Dangerfield. He actually does a bunch of impressions. Yeah. And I shared that it wasn't in the shooting draft. Right. You found the shooting draft in your digital clutter and you wondered if there'd been candy bag alts for that. Yeah. But this was before we had access to all the candy bag alts. Exactly.

So yes, there are a bunch of candy bag allts. You were right. You were right. And I thought I'd read you one. Great. Okay. This one kind of made me sad. Oh no. Okay. It's sad, Michael. It's sad, Michael. Michael says, I have a lot of friends and I have a lot of employees and they're the same people, mostly. So if I lose an employee, I am also losing a friend. And I don't want to lose two friends. Oh well, sad Michael. But yes, there were lots of candy bag all.

Most of them are along the same vein of like him just trying to perform for the camera and thinking he's really hilarious. But I thought that one was like aw. Well, we also got a fun catch from Taylor in Vancouver, British Columbia. Taylor said, I noticed something. It's not an old tech alert per se, but it is a quote, out of date thing. I suppose. When Kevin asks Pam to say, quote, those will be due back on Wednesday because she is wearing glasses.

I noticed that I haven't had an actual person say when my library books are due back in so long. It's a machine that does the book checkouts now, at least at my library. That's so true. Yes, I volunteered at the library, you know, at the elementary school when my kids were little. This was a very coveted volunteer spot, by the way. There there was only two. parents that could volunteer and I snagged one of the spots and I coveted it.

Matt, I believe you are the uh library volunteer at your kids' school, is this correct? Oh yeah. I've been waiting years to become the library volunteer. Oh my gosh, Matt, it's such a big deal. Yeah, it's a good gig. So you have to you have to pay your dues. You have to pay your dues, you have to kinda lobby for it.

I didn't get it until fourth grade. I don't know about you. Well, I'm with my youngest and she's in kindergarten, but that took a few years of like you know, campaigning with the older kids. So yeah, no, I'm in now. You're in early. I went every Thursday and I was there for story time and I also helped restock the book.

and I would scan books in for kids when they came in to return something, you know? Mm-hmm. And it is. It's all I had it has a little barcode and you have like the little bing, you know, be little Zappy thing wouldn't. But you wouldn't remind people when their books were due verbally? You get an email, lady. Oh. You get an email. So now these are kids in elementary school. So Matt, I don't know how you guys are doing it, but they would get an email.

from the libraries, you know, at blah blah blah library school, right? Mm-hmm. That would just say your child has a book that has been out for three months. It's on arachnids. And it's due back or something. I feel like Taylor in Vancouver is saying that there's not even a person there, that it's almost like a self checkout, like the grocery store. Well, this is at school.

Yeah. So, you know, kids need a person. But yours I I'm sure all of your notifications are. Oh yeah, they I I scan their card and it pops up. And if they have I'm with the kindergartners, so if they have two books at home, I say sorry Joshua, you can't check out a book this week. Please go sit down.

You have to say no to the little face. That's my favorite part. What is that? Teaching them responsibility. Oh my gosh. I was such a softie, I'd be like, Okay, you're not supposed to check anymore out, but I'm gonna let you have this one, but your parents are gonna get an email. I say it very kindly, but I do like, you know, yeah. Yeah. I mean that's part of the job. It might be why you secured the job, Matt. I think so. Yeah. You you can be the heavy.

Um I also, Matt, oddly enjoyed restocking books. Did you did you enjoy that? Did you have to do is that part of your job to it is I prefer the scanning and beeping and interacting with the children. But it it is kind of Zen. You learn the Dewey Decibel. took me a while. I'm like, oh, and then then by the end I had the layout of the library and I knew where everything was. But it was a very coveted job. Um I left that question. It kind of brought me right back.

Well, listen, everybody, thank you for writing in. And now here is your second drink of this episode. Oh, and teaser, y'all. Jenna has a fantastic deep dive on mad libs in this one. You won't wanna miss.

I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on the office. And we're best friends. an episode of the office and give exclusive Ooh, Angela, we have a good episode today. It is so good. It's so simple, so wonderful. So much tension, conflict, little bit of drama, it's all there, and some laugh. It is called Did I Stutter? It is season four, episode 16, written by Brent Forrester and Justin Spitzer. And directed by Randall Einhorn. We've got a lot to cover. I say get into that summary, lady. Here it is.

Stanley challenges Michael's authority during a conference room meeting, leaving Michael speechless. Mm-hmm. Later, Michael responds to Stanley's insubordination by attempting to scare him into an attitude adjustment with a fake firing. What is with Michael and the fake firings? I don't know. He thinks it's like a go to. I mean it did not go well with Pam. No, he should have abandoned this whole idea back then. Yeah. But he's

Still doing it. Meanwhile, Dwight decides to buy Andy's car at a discount only to immediately flip it for more money. Mm-hmm. So shrewd. Did he shrewd it? He shrewded it. Pam has to deal with the unexpected inconvenience of wearing her backup glasses to work after spending the night at a friend's house. Her backup glasses from junior high? Perhaps. I'll have a lot to share about that. I bet. I bet. All right. Fast fact number one.

We're gonna talk a little bit about the inspiration for this episode. We had a fan question from Bianca O and Katie W. They wanted to know who came up with the idea for Stanley to sass Michael. It was me. No, I'm kidding. Well, Angela, you do love a sass. I love the sass. Well, we traded messages with writer Brent Forrester about this episode, and he told us he remembered being very excited when Greg assigned them the script.

Because it was the biggest Stanley story he had ever done at that point. It was really the first time that Stanley had ever been the sole antagonist in a Michael story. I remember we were all so excited for Leslie. Just as actors, to be able to have that big moment with Michael and to go head to head with Steve. That was like, you hoped for that, right? Oh, yeah. This was huge. Brent remembers Greg told him with great delight what the game of this episode was.

It should be this. Michael is an overpowering boss to everyone in the office, but is totally unable to stand up to one person, Stanley. No one ever dares to challenge Michael this blatantly, so when Stanley snaps at him, Michael just has no playbook for dealing with it. He said that Mindy referred to this as reversal of status comedy. And it was the first time Brent had ever heard that term. Mindy, you're so smart. I know, right?

I remember doing Commedia dell'arte in theater school, Angela. Oh, here we go. Did you ever do commedia? No, Jenna. I did my improv and my stand-up and my sketch comedy. So just let's hear it. Well, it's really very interesting because comedia dates back to long, long ago, and it is really all about status. And you're constantly switching status between these archetypal characters.

And this has some real comedia elements for all you theater nerds out there. This reversal of status comedy. No, it's fantastic. I mean, even in improv, we would make someone when you walk on stage choose status, high or low. And if you constantly played high status,'cause some people it's their go to in comedy.

Our teacher would make you reverse it and play low status. It was always a really cool exercise. Okay, getting a little nerdy. Okay, we can move on. No, I love that we're nerding out on status comedy. Guys, watch comedy shows and look for status and reversal of status. That's your homework. We're making your television viewing homework now. You're welcome. We're giving you homework.

Fastback number two, Brent told us that this episode produced a mantra for the writer's room and a standard for which all episodes would now be held. What? Here were the three words that applied to this episode that they believed make a great office episode. Small, real, relatable. Brent said by normal TV standards, almost nothing happens in this episode.

Stanley insults Michael. Michael doesn't know how to respond. He said on any other show this would have been considered a totally insufficient plot for thirty minutes of TV. But he said at this point in the series, they were so confident in the characters and their dynamics. that they fully committed to this very subtle interpersonal story and they wrote this slogan in the writer's room Small, Re, Relatable. And he said that he believes that this is the signature of the office at its best.

I agree. I always love those types of episodes. I mean, I know it comes before this one, but I felt like healthcare was in that vein, you know? Yes. But yeah, I love small, real, relatable. I love that kind of comedy. Mm-hmm.

All right, fast fact number three, Angela, Pam's classes. Oh yeah. We got a lot of mail. Abby S and Amy G want to know, Jenna, is your eyesight as bad as Pam's? And then Kat F, Jessica M, and Rachel G want to know how many pairs of glasses were given as options for this episode. I remember when we were filming this, at that time, you didn't need glasses. You had great eyesight. Yes, that's right. I did not wear glasses. I do now, but I didn't then. Those are totally fake glasses.

Phil Shea came on over with his tray of frames. Greg was there, and And we went through and I had to put'em on and we just talked about which ones did we like. We did discuss, Angela, that these were frames that dated back to maybe like

years for Pam. Like you said, are these her junior high glasses? Well you said something interesting on the DVD commentary for this episode. You said you gave yourself your own little actor backstory, right? That didn't exist on the page, hadn't been discussed with the writers. And for you, these glasses were the pair that Pam leaves in the glove box of her car for just in case. Yeah. Here's the crazy thing about these glasses.

Greg really, really wanted for my eyes to look super giant when I put on the glasses. But in order for that to be true, they would have had to put a true prescription in the lenses to magnify my eyes. And I said, but then I wouldn't be able to see all day. Right. But listen to what Greg said. Greg said, well here's what we'll do. We'll give you contact lenses to degrade your vision and then correct your vision with the glasses. Greg, what?

And I said, that sounds like a lot of effort for these few scenes where Pam wears her glasses. I've never worn contacts before. This sounds like it has the potential to be a real disaster. And possibly damaging to my future eyesight. So I told this to Lee as we were watching the episode. I said, Can you believe that Greg wanted me to wear like contact lenses and then glasses?

And Lee said, Oh, that would have been funny. Greg was right. You should have done it. Oh And I was like, Oh, Greg will be so happy to hear that because everybody poo pooed this idea. Like prop hair and make up, production. Everybody was like, Greg, the potential for mishap with this idea is too great. We can't have it. So Greg was very reluctant to let it go, but he did. He was like, All right, fine, fine. So I think Greg would be really happy to know that my husband backs up his idea.

Well, I have a few more tidbits about Pam's glasses, but I will sprinkle them into the episode as we say.

And that finalizes my fast facts, lady. Well, I have two things to share. First of all, little tidbit from the DVD commentary, Randall Einhorn, who directed this episode said that the editor's assembly cut came in at forty one minutes. And then he took that forty one minutes and he got it down to thirty one minutes for his director's cut. Thirty one. He didn't want to lose any more. And they had to get it down to twenty two minutes to air it on NBC. So there are a ton of deleted scenes.

But in addition to that, there's all these other scenes that they didn't even get to put in the deleted scenes. There's more. Wow. Yes. And Jenna, here's my big thing I wanted to share with you as I was prepping for the podcast. I found my shooting draft of Did I Stutter? What? I found the script! With all of those lost scenes? Yes, and some we actually shot. They're not even in the deleted scenes. They're out there somewhere.

But I found my shooting draft and there are some really hilarious discrepancies that I am going to share with you. There is a Jim Pam moment that is gonna make your mouth drop. But I am gonna sprinkle these in. I'm so excited. I had my shooting draft. I am so jealous. I couldn't believe it. I can't wait. So now with that knowledge, I want you to know that we filmed this episode.

Starting March 31st of 2008, we got an email from Kent Sabornak that said, Hey you guys, just so you know while we're filming Did I Stutter, Canadian Entertainment Tonight is coming by the set to do interviews in the warehouse. And they're gonna get B roll in the main bullpen. So we had Canadian ET here the week of Did I Stutter? Amazing. I love how you save every freaking email, Angela. It is so cool.

And really paying off. I'm just a pack rat. I'm a digital pack rat and a real life pack rat. Well, let's take a break because when we come back, we've got a lot of stuff. Mm-hmm. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Sometimes it can feel like everyone else has it all together, their love life, even whether they're married or dating or single, like they've got it figured out.

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All right, well we are back. Michael bursts into the bullpen with all of this excitement because you guys There is wet cement in the parking lot and this is a lifelong dream of his. He's gotta do something, write something. What is he gonna do? And Jenna, when I re watched this, I started laughing because I remembered How hard Phyllis kept breaking? How hard we all kept breaking at Phyllis Breaking? Yes. Because she has an idea for Michael.

Of what he could write in the cement. Oh, but she can't remember it. What was it again? And Michael's going, come on, come on, come on, go, go, it's dry. And watching Phyllis trying not to laugh, like fighting it so hard, we were all cracking up. And if you go to thirty-seven seconds, you can see Rain and John smiling really big because we had all just been laughing.

Well, I just think it's very funny that last week Michael got gum in his hair because he found something in the parking lot and now I mean the cement. The parking lot has been a real source of excitement for him lately. And trouble. I kind of just want to say, Michael, get out of your car and go straight inside. Exactly.

Somehow Kelly suggests via Pam that Michael put his hand prints. Pam translates Kelly. Yes. Pam speaks Kelly for Michael. But Jim one ups it and says you should put your face in the cement. Oh, ding ding ding. Michael is so excited. This is what's gonna happen. And so much went into this one gag. Oh yes. This simple sentence in the script was like a whole production. We got some fan questions from Anna V, Abby M, Sonia C, and Gabby C.

Please give us all the details about this hilarious cold open. Did Steve really put his face in cement? How many times did he have to do it? Well, it was not actual cement. Kent Sabornak told me that they had an outside prop house make an organic mixture to look like cement. It was made out of water and some ground oatmeal and a few other ingredients to create a wet cement look.

Jenna, I remember touching it and it kind of felt like a putty, squishy. Yeah. Kent said that we put that Vaseline all over Steve's face. Partially so that we would have quick cleanup and we could do multiple takes. And guess what? It wasn't Vaseline. The container he's holding says Vaseline, but Vaseline is too thick, so it was actually KY jelly. I remember. Yes. And then they saran wrapped Steve's head and put this like really big rubber band around it and then stuck a straw in there. Yeah.

Guys, Steve is a trooper. Oh yeah. Thankfully, Randall Einhorn shares that we got this in one take. So he only had to do that one time. And when Dwight says force it in as deep as you can, Steve improvised. That's what she said. I remember that. And none of us laughed, thank God. We couldn't. There was no way we were gonna ruin that. No. Steve had been like prepped.

forever with saran wrap on his head, we were not gonna ruin that take for him. We all wanted it to be done in one take for him. Oh yeah. Well, Jenna, at one minute thirty five seconds, we all help Michael up from the ground. And there was absolutely no way they could crop out my belly and I am full pregnant in the shot. It is hilarious to me. I couldn't believe it. I laughed out loud when I saw it.

There was just no way. It's a split second, but my big old belly is right there. Also, Angela, we have a fan catch from Yonina L at one minute twenty-six seconds. She would like to know, are you covering your mouth to stop from laughing? She caught you. Probably. I knew I couldn't ruin this take. We got a laugh catch and a belly catch in one scene. Oh yeah. In one scene.

Well, after he has placed his face in the cement, Michael has a wonderful talking head and he just wants you to know that today wasn't just about him. It's about his grandkids, his great grandkids. They can come back in a hundred years. And he can say, Look, kids, your daddy left that face hole. And that's really the gift you want to give your kids and grandkids, right? It's a face hole. Yeah. Look, kids at my face hole.

All I could think about was the number of people who were gonna trip in that face hole as they left the building. It's just gonna become like a rain puddle.

Yeah. Oh, Michael. Well, now we're into the episode. Angela and Andy are doing mad libs. In the kitchen. Yeah. Angela is delighted to be spending this time with Andy. She's having the best time. Well, I think what we learn in this scene is that Angela loves a mad lib. Mm-hmm. Who would have thought? I don't know if it necessarily is Andy that she's delighted by or just the idea of a mad lib. Maybe a little of both. Maybe.

So I went to the script, Jenna, I went to my shooting draft to see if this scene was written the way we did it. It is up until one point, and then there was an extra couplet that I remember us filming because Ed was so funny, and I'm so bummed. It's not even in the deleted scenes on the DVD commentary, and I'm gonna share it with you.

So in the episode, Andy reads the mad lib and it reads, The tall man entered the nice building to visit a very nice man. Sit down, Mr. Smith. Could I interest you in any good cat food? And Angela says, A man eating cat food and Andy says, A cat eating man food and they giggle, right? Yeah. Well the scene would have continued. Andy starts pantomiming being a cat, eating a hamburger, and he goes, hmm, meow, a burger. Ed was so funny doing this, Jenna.

And then I would have responded, a cat eating a hamburger sandwich? That's impossible. And then Andy goes, I know. And I say, Where do you think of these things? And we laugh. Amazing. A cat eating a hamburger sandwich. I'm really sad that you didn't get to hear that or see Ed pretending to be a cat eating a hamburger. Well, Angela Justin told me that Gene and Lee actually wrote this Mad Lib scene for Angela and Andy. So all of that was Gene and Lee. Well, it was so fun to do.

I became inspired by this scene, Angela, to do a deep dive on Mad Libs. Oh no! What'd you find? Oh my god. It is fascinating. Well, our kids love mad libs. I mean, Jenna, I did them growing up. We still do them. Same. Let me tell you the history of Mad Libs. Okay. Mad Libs was invented in nineteen fifty three by two men, Leonard Stern and Roger Price.

Roger Price had worked as a writer on the Bob Hope Show. Leonard Stern was his friend who worked as a writer on the honeymooners. They were comedy writers. Yeah. One day, Roger went to visit Leonard at work. And Leonard was working on a script for the honeymooners. He was trying to figure out the right word to describe the nose of Ralph Cramden's new boss. Before he could explain the whole thing, he just said to his friend

I need an adjective. And Price jumped in and started throwing out words like clumsy, naked. He just started throwing out adjectives. So they thought this was so funny, right? Like, oh, a clumsy nose, a naked nose. So this gave them the idea to write a bunch of stories with missing words. They took them to a cocktail party with their friends. They had people fill in the blanks without knowing the context. And it was a huge hit. People thought this was a hoot.

They tried to get these stories published, but publishers passed. Nobody wanted them. They said, we don't get it. Maybe sell it to a game company or something. It sounds like a party game. Mm-hmm. So they sat on the idea for five years. Ah. And then they decided to self-publish.

But now they needed a name for it, right? Yeah. They had all their stories, they're self-publishing. Get this. These two guys, they're out having breakfast in New York, and they overheard an agent arguing with his client at another table. And the agent was trying to tell this actor that he had to recite a certain script for an upcoming interview. And the actor was saying, No, I wanna ad lib my interview. I wanna ad lib it. And the agent said that would be mad to add lib an interview?

And that's where the name Mad Lib came from. And now they have sold over 110 million copies of Mad Lib's books. That was amazing. I loved every single moment of that. I also find it really inspiring that you can have this once in a lifetime idea. And you know, don't let go of it, even if it takes you six years to see it come like to fruition. Yeah. They were on to something and they knew it and they made it happen. I love that. Great deep dive. Thanks.

All right, well now Michael's gonna come out of his office and immediately he's gonna clock Pam and her glasses. And he says to her, You know what? In order to get hotter, you've got to take off those glasses. She's just going in the wrong direction. Yes. And Pam tries to explain to Michael what happened, why she's wearing these glasses, and he has this line that people quote to me all the time. He's like, uh, it's noise coming out of an ugly scientist.

Michael. I love it. That was really hard for me to get through every time Steve said that. I bet. I feel like I've seen that on a t-shirt, Jenna. Oh yeah. Oh, you have. Imagine for someone who's never seen the office and then like sees someone in these t-shirts like Dwight, you ignorant slut.

It's just noise coming out of an ugly scientist. I feel like the office has given some really random clothing choices for people. Well, when I got my glasses in real life and I posted my first picture on Instagram of myself in my new glasses. People started putting all of these comments. They were like, You're going in the wrong direction. You have to take off your glasses to get hotter. And then other people were like, it's noise coming out of I was so offended.

I forgot about this scene in the office. And I was like, why is everybody coming down on me? I thought my glasses were cute. I know. I so relate. One time I posted a photo early in my Instagram days in a green sweater and someone was like looking a little whorish, aren't we? And I was like, wow, how rude.

And then I was like, Oh right, green is horrorish. Okay, okay, got it, got it, got it. I know. Sometimes I forget. I'm actually grateful that we're doing this rewatch because I feel like I'm less likely to be offended by comments now because they're actually quotes.

Well, after all the insults, Michael tells everyone to go into the conference room for a brainstorming session. Oh lady, there is a scene between Jim and Pam that is not in this episode, and it's not in the deleted scene, so you have to tell me if you guys film this. It's kinda racy. You wanna hear it? What? So I'm reading the shooting draft last night and this is in there. As people head to the conference room, Jim smiles at Pam. Jim says, The price you pay for a night in heaven. Oh wait.

Cam glances at the camera stilted. Yes, the movies were good, Jim. Jim says, You mean the movies that we made of us making love? Pam panicking glances to camera. Shut up. We didn't film ourselves. Jim to camera. Hi, Pam's grandma. Sorry you had to find out like this. And then Pam hits Jim and they go into the conference room. I don't remember if we filmed that. If it's in the shooting draft, we must have People would have lost their minds if we'd left that in the show.

I know! Like, what the heck? I read it last night and I was like, like I did a spit take. I was like, what's happening with Jim and Pam? Just hearing that makes me feel like I've just walked in on my parents. I know. Having an intimate moment. Like I just like, no, no, no. Don't wanna see it. Don't wanna see it. Which is probably why it was edited out, but it cracked me up reading it.

Wow. Well, there you go, guys. There you go. Now we're in the conference room, and the actual scene they leave in between the two of you guys. is Jim proposing to Pam, which is also in the script. So I guess if they had to choose one, that one is a little bit more in character for you guys. Well, proposing that I go get him some more coffee. Right, right, right. But doing the fa you know, he's he's now doing this bit with you, right? Yeah.

Well Michael has written the words energize in block letters on a piece of paper up front. And he wants to know how can we energize the office? A few people are throwing out ideas. Andy suggests that we have a new outgoing message, something with Zang and Pep. Jim suggests we have an even better message with more zing and more pep.

Michael wants to get Stanley's opinion. Stanley's not having it. He's like, not me. He's not interested. He's not even answering him. I know. And Michael keeps pushing and pushing and pushing. And that is when he says the line Did I stutter? And everyone is stunned. We're like, whoa, this just took a turn. Michael excuses himself for a glass of water. Oof. Oof. Now, Jenna, per Justin Spitzer, this is the only episode title that was an actual line in the script.

Yes. Justin said he had originally thought they should call it insubordination. Oh. But they settled on Did I Stutter? Well, I like Did I Stutter better. Me too.

Next up, we're in Michael's office and Toby is sitting with him and he's trying to tell Michael that he needs to talk with Stanley about his insubordination. And once again, Toby is in Michael's corner. And Michael just refuses to see Toby as someone who could be there for him. Yeah. He tries to tell Toby that he misinterpreted what he saw, that they were actually a couple of pals, they're kind of joshing around.

Toby wouldn't know because Toby doesn't have friends, Michael says. Yeah. If you had a friend, you would say something like this. Hey, um, you're poor. Well, hey, your mom is dead. That's what friends do. Yeah. So um, there you go, Toby. Get some friends. But it's clear at the end of this meeting that Michael is gonna be expected to do something about what happened. It's also clear that Michael's really anxious about it. He says he has a stomachache.

Mm-hmm. And Jenna, there's a deleted scene. It's so great. First of all, it shows the geography of Dundra Mifflin in a whole new way that we've never seen before. So in this deleted scene, there's a talking head and it's over the action. You know what I mean? And Michael is talking about how him and Stanley are friends. In fact, Stanley is one of his oldest friends.

But while he's saying all this, I think He's walking out of his office and he clearly has to go pee and he sees Stanley and he pivots hard right. He goes out the front door of Dunder Mifflin, past the elevators, to the stairwell door next to Vance refrigeration. He goes down the stairs, out the front door of Dunder Mifflin, through the parking lot.

to a back door, that's another stairwell, up those stairs, and he comes out by the break room, by the vending machines. And then he walks through the annex, into the kitchen, into the men's room. That's what he did. 'Cause he had to go pee and he did not want to walk past Stanley's desk. Wow. And we've never seen anyone in the run of the show come up the back stairwell into the area where the break room is.

That's right. I loved it just visually, and that shows you the extremes he was going to to avoid Stanley.

Well now we're gonna get into the B storyline of this episode, which is that Andy is selling his car, his extera, and Dwight is going to buy it. His extera when he was driving a Prius, so I don't know what's happening here. I know. What's that about? You know what? In my mind, it was like his old car from college. Hmm. Maybe so. From his Cornell days? Well, we had a fan question from Barbara G and Rebecca H. At six minutes forty five seconds, Dwight points out that there's a scratch.

On Andy's Extera. In a deleted scene from safety training, Angela, you might remember, Angela keys Andy's car. Did Angela also key his Extera? I don't think so. I think she just keyed the Prius. But in the script, you guys, Angela is watching all of this interaction between Dwight and Andy. She is perhaps titillated by it, fascinated, curious.

But there are several scenes where she's peering through the window, the camera busts her at one point and she gets agitated. So she is sort of watching all of this all day long. Well, Dwight ends up bullying Andy into selling him the car at a very low rate, way under asking. He does that thing where he's like, do it, sell it, give it to me. Say yes now. Say yes now. Three, two, one, five, four, three. Say yes. And it worked. He says okay.

Now here's an interesting tidbit. This car, this Xtera, actually belonged to our hairdresser Kim Ferry. And she was actually selling it. She was. It was so crazy. She let us borrow her car for this episode. And then she sold it. Just like these guys. Well, I guess Michael is going to finally baby step up to Stanley's desk and he's basically going to forgive Stanley before Stanley has even apologized.

But the way he approaches Stanley really reminds me of like when my kids want something but they don't want to ask me and they just come and stand by you and kinda hover. Yeah. He just standing next to Stanley's desk and Stanley's like, Yeah, what do you want? Yeah, and he's like, you know, nothing. I think I just wanna say like we're cool, right? Like I forgive you and we've forgotten about what happened, right? Yeah.

Now, Stanley could just say yes. I know. But he does not. I think Stanley has had years of putting up with Michael and he's just had it. Yeah. Since that didn't work, Michael is gonna sit with Dwight and try to figure out is there a way that someone else might be able to discipline Stanley? Does Stanley report to anyone else besides Michael? And this is when Dwight gets out his very extensive, very hilarious employee org chart. It's so elaborate. It was really well made.

He has a like tripod he sets it on. There's like an overlay. I mean Jenna, this thing was not cheap. Well Brent told us. that the entire writing staff put a huge amount of time and effort into that org chart and that they had the idea that after this episode, NBC could sell the org chart as posters. So they filled it with all these little jokes that you can't even really spot in the episode itself. And unfortunately though, the poster did not become

the runaway bestseller they had hoped it would be. However, Kent Sabornak sent me a picture of it and we will put it in the pod so you can really unpack it if you'd like. Yeah, I looked at that last night and the detail of the menstruation cycles of the women. You know, Dwight has shared that he clocks all of that. Well, he wasn't kidding. Angela, we got a fan question about this scene. At nine minutes thirty-four seconds, did Rain improvise touching Michael's face with his pointer?

Yes, he did. And they could not get through it. They were cracking up something so sort of delicate and intimate about Dwight touching Michael's face with that metal pointer. And those two fellas were just disintegrating into laughter. It's in the bloopers. It's so fun to watch. Justin said before they started the scene they had to decide whether or not Rain would have that metal pointer or a laser pointer. Mm-hmm. And he's so glad. I'm so glad they gave him the metal pointer. Yeah.

Brent said that after Rain improvised it once, they loved it and they had him do it again. And it took over seven takes before they got even three seconds of usable footage.

And that's what you see in the episode was like take number eight. Well, back at reception, Kevin is complimenting Pam's glasses. I mean, they're kind of a turn on for him. Jenna, there's a lot more in the script. In fact, Kevin says you're basically in his league now.

So I think there were a few alts for this scene. I remember shooting it. We were laughing so hard. There's also that famous line where he says, Can you say these are due back Thursday? And Pam's like, No. No. At nine minutes fifty eight seconds at the very top of this interaction between Pam and Kevin, I want you to know that John is actively playing FreeSell on his computer. Oh, I saw it. It's not just on his computer. You can see him moving the cards. Oh no, he's full on playing.

But this interaction between Kevin and Pam is gonna cause Pam to take her glasses off now for the rest of the day. She's done, she's sick of the comments, she's just gonna not see. But how bad is this woman's vision? Because She takes her glasses off and then Jenna the phone rings and she has a hard time finding the handle of the phone. There is a talking head that did not make it in the episode. Oh yeah.

Where Pam says that her vision is 20 slash 400. I'll have you know, Angela, legal blindness is anything that's 20 slash 200 or worse. So Pam would be considered legally blind without her glasses or contact? And basically what it means is that Pam can see things twenty feet away, but normal people could see that same thing four hundred feet away. So it doesn't really track that Pam can't see the phone. Okay. What it should mean is that she can't see Stanley anymore. Okay. Yeah.

So maybe we didn't research her eyesight properly, but in general though, all of her vision would be fairly blurry. I do remember reading. that. Well, I thought you played it so well, Jenna, because that's not an easy thing to play. And the physicality of your comedy in this episode is fantastic. Well thank you very much. Y'all.

Well guys, Michael's gonna go down to the warehouse and try to get maybe some advice on how to deal with Stanley. But before we go there, let's take a break and then we'll come back to learn a little bit about Fluffy Fingers. Okay guys, we're back and as promised, we're gonna break down this scene between Michael and Daryl. It's amazing. Everything about it is amazing. Even just from a technical standpoint, this was such a tiny, tiny room and Randall had to shoot

through the door in a window and capture this moment. It's so beautifully done. Michael's gonna ask Darryl, Hey man, have you ever been in a gang? And Daryl needs to know what Michael needs to say. Yeah. So he says he has been in not just one gang, but several. Yeah. He has been in the Crips and the Bloods. And the Warriors and the Newsies. And the newsies on Broadway. And Michael is just like, Oh my God. Yeah.

Oh my god. And Michael can't believe that Daryl is now about to share with him his like deep gang knowledge. Yeah. What do you do if you're disrespected in the gang? Daryl's gonna tell him they do something called fluffy fingers. And that is where you surprise the person by tickling them. Mm-hmm. And you keep tickling them until they start to tickle you. And then you're just tickling each other. Yeah. And then you're over it. It's really effective, he says. And Michael's like, wow, I

I I I didn't think that's how it went in the gangs, but okay. Okay. Michael's like, all right, I I guess I should try this. It's so great. And both Steve and Craig play it perfectly. Oh yeah. Well, you know, Jenna, there was a deleted scene where Michael tries to get up the courage

To tickle Stanley to do the fluffy fingers. It's insane. Stanley is at the supply cabinet. He's kind of reaching up to grab something, and Michael sneaks up behind him and he holds his hands up like he's gonna tickle him. But then he just can't quite figure out how to do it and Stanley doesn't even notice and Michael backs away. And then Michael has a deleted talking head where he says it's not Daryl's fault.

It was a great idea. I just couldn't quite figure out how to do it. I don't know. I've tried everything. I'm running out of options. Yeah. And when you run out of options.

You decide to fake fire someone. That's what Michael does. Oh, Michael. So now Ryan has arrived. He pulls up in his convertible. His shirt is open. He winks at himself in the rearview mirror and Oh yeah, he's feeling real good. And there was a deleted scene, Jenna, that was so good. He comes in the office, he's got bagels, but Pam doesn't have her glasses on. He tosses a bagel at her. She can't see it. It hits her in the face. And then he goes on, Jenna, to show Pam how to eat a bagel. He just

with his own hands starts digging out all the good part of the bagel, all the middle part and he says, Yeah, you just eat that outer part, you know, so you don't gain weight and he kinda points to Pam's belly. Yeah. And I felt like that whole scene showed his state of mind, how manic he is, throwing the bagels, digging them apart, like, oh my gosh. I remember shooting that. I was sad it didn't make it in'cause that was really fun.

You were so good in it. I mean, he thro like he tosses a bagel at you and Jenna, I really believed you didn't see it. That's how good you are in the scene. Anyway, so Ryan is here. He's actually got some big business. He goes in the conference room. And he calls Jim in. Toby's there. And he's gonna give him a formal warning about his job performance. But the way he calls him in is so amazing. He's like, Hey Jim

Jim, I gotta ask you a question as a true Eagles fan. Oh, so slimy. I thought BJ was so good in this scene. He was like every douchebag I've ever had a meeting with. I actually recorded it off my computer and I texted it to him. And I said, BJ, we're watching Did I Stutter and you are so brilliant and

amazing in this scene. I just needed you to watch it so you can see how good you are. And he wrote me back and he was like, Jenna, oh my God, I forgot about that scene. Thank you for sending this to me. That was so fun to watch. But that happens when we are re watching this show. Sometimes I will see one of our friends perform just like

madness level amazing and I just send it to him. I'm like, you need to be reminded of what an amazing comedic actor you are. You're welcome. Oh, for sure. I had a whole text thread with Phyllis because I was like, Phyllis. You are so amazing. Back in Yankee Swap. She's so good. I know. Oh. Yes. BJ is so good in these moments. And Jim is like, is this because I talked to David Wallace? And Ryan's like, No, no, no. I appreciate, you know, constructive criticism. I thrive on it. Yeah. So do she.

And he says you can get more details from Toby. This leads to a Toby talking head. And dare I say that Toby seems smug? Oh, for sure. Yeah, Toby says I'd say all the goofing around at Pam's desk and hanging out with Pam has finally caught up with him. Fans were furious, Jenna. When this episode came out, they hated Toby so much. I mean, in the episode before, he put his hand on Pam's knee. Mm-hmm. And now it seems like he's going behind Jim's back to try to get him fired. Oh yeah.

And Jenna, if you thought you hated Toby with that talking head, had you seen the deleted scene between Jim and Toby? And then Ryan, y you would have been like, Oh my God. People would have Toby would not have been able to come back from it. Sam, can you play that deleted scene?

A formal warning, seriously? Well as you know, the wait has filed a lot of complaints against you over the years. And no one cared. But now it's being looked at as more of a productivity issue. Productivity? My numbers are good. I know. Um But Ryan thinks that uh they're not good enough. Wallace likes Jim, so going after him, that's a risky move for me. But in business, you gotta take risks. Sometimes you gotta get out on the open highway. With the top down.

Oh my god. And Ryan is trying to put the top down to his car and it won't go down. Wow. But yeah, can you imagine if those scenes have been left in? Ugh.

Well, Angela, speaking of treachery, Dwight has washed the Extera and he's now reselling it for over nine thousand dollars. He's selling it for a profit. Oh, and Andy is like, what the hell, man? Angela's impressed. Angela's like, Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. You got'em. You're smarter. She loves two men dueling over her. She really does. I know. You guys remember Michael has run out of options. Fluffy fingers isn't gonna work for him. So he's gonna have to do the thing he didn't wanna do and

He's gonna have to fake fire Stanley to teach him a lesson. And he comes out of his office and he announces it to everyone. He says, Guys, guys, guys, listen, I'm gonna fake fire Stanley, but I just want you to react as if I'm really firing Stanley. And everybody's like, if you hadn't told us what you were doing, we would have reacted correctly. And he's like, Oh my gosh, why aren't you understanding this? And the person that says it, the person that's the voice of reason is Kevin.

I know. You know you're in trouble when Kevin is the voice of reason. Stanley walks into the bullpen, and Michael fake fires him. And it does not go well. Stanley unleashes on him just a tirade of insult. I remember when we filmed this, Jenna, and you could have heard a pin drop. Yes. It was such a beautifully dramatic moment. Leslie crushed it. Yeah, you guys, we reached out to Leslie because we really, really wanted him to come on the pod today because this is just a tour de force.

storyline and performance by him in this episode. And he is filming this week. He is filming something and he couldn't come on. But he did want us to share with you that this monologue was completely scripted. This was not improvised. You know, and I remember Angela that he worked on this. And he delivered it like It was just an amazing performance and he nailed it every take. Every take. He was one hundred percent off book. He showed up ready to throw it down. And we were just all

so happy for him. This moment was amazing. And I remember us all applauding at the end of the scene. Yeah. Well, Michael throws everybody out. He yells and says, everybody get out. Everybody, except Stanley, everybody out. And everyone gets the hell out. And Jenna In the script. Which isn't in the deleted scenes, but in the script. Michael turns to the cameras and says, You two, cameras out of here, everybody. Wow. And that's why at eighteen minutes, seventeen seconds.

You see the cameras sneak back in, it's because in the script, Michael told them to get out. I loved that move. I loved it because when Michael is alone with Stanley or thinks he's alone with Stanley, he gets really vulnerable. There's tears in his eyes and he says, Why do you pick on me? Like why do you pick on me like this? And it's really vulnerable. And Stanley very matter of factly says I don't respect you.

And then I felt like Michael had such an honest moment that could not have happened if the cameras were there, where he says, fine, I accept that. You don't respect me? I accept it. But you can't talk to me like that. Here. I am your boss. And it just cannot be done. And I agree with you, Angela. Anytime Michael knows the cameras are there, he can't help but perform in some way for them.

And so I feel like we're seeing a side of Michael Scott that can only be seen when he doesn't know the cameras are there. Yeah. And that was such a fun part of our show, playing with who are our characters when we know the cameras are there and when we don't. And I loved that we got to reveal these little different parts of ourselves in these different ways.

Oh, me too. It made the show so rich, right? It's cool. And you know what? They have this moment of resolution. They're like, fine, we now know our rules of engagement, right? Yeah. They shake hands. Done.

This leads to Michael having a talking head. He's really stuck on the idea of respect, getting no respect. And this just sends his brain into Rodney Dangerfield land. So he's gonna do some real kind of like off the cuff Rodney Dangerfield impressions, which morphs into a Jeff Foxworthy impression, and then Borat, and then Jerry Seinfeld, and then back to Rodney Dangerfield again. It's a pretty epic talking.

It is. Well, you know, Jenna, that talking head, that whole Rodney Danger filled comic riff. is not in the shooting draft. It's a whole other talking head. Huh. So I have to imagine they handed Steve a whole bunch of alts. They would do that to us, right? And this is the one that they picked because that is not the one in the script.

Interesting. Well, I liked this one. I did too. And I have to think Steve improvised a little. I think it was on the page, but I can sort of see Steve doing his thing. I'm sure. While that talking head was happening, everyone else is in the parking lot, you know? Mm-hmm. They're heading home. There is a wrap up scene of the Dwight Andy Angela love triangle. It's in the shooting draft and it didn't make it to the deleted scenes. But Andy and Angela walk to the car. They pass by Dwight, who is

Scraping off a Cornell sticker from the back window of the Extera. And Andy says, Goodbye, old friend. May all your roads be downhill and the wind be on your back windshield. And Angela's like Andy And Andy says, I can't believe Dwight would do me like that. He took advantage of my kindness. And Angela says, He didn't take advantage of you. He bested you. You were bested. And then he tries to put his arm around her and she shoves it away and she looks at Dwight like he's super hot.

Wow. Yeah. Well, Angela, we should just call these deleted scenes feisty in the parking lot because I know that over by Pam and Jim's car, there is a scene that we shot that I believe is in the deleted scenes. Where Jim tells Pam the truth about Ryan and what Ryan said to him and that he's gunning for him to maybe get fired or put him on notice. And Pam is not having it. Oh, I titled it Pam's Piss. Yeah. And Sam, you gotta play that clip.

Hey, what really happened today? What do you mean? I mean, I don't need my glasses to know when something's stressing you out. What happened today? Ryan is trying to get rid of me. He came in today to give me an official warning about my job performance. What? God, he's such a creep. That really pisses me off. I'm gonna bash his face in. I'm gonna bash

with a stale bagel. Then I'm gonna throw a rock at his car. Come on, we're going to New York right now. I'm driving. If I hit him without my glasses, I don't think it's a crime. Great. I should have told you all about the sooner. What a jerk. What a jerk. Can you imagine if they had left in? The sex talk between Jim and Pam up at the top and then this scene of Pam saying she's gonna throw a rock at Ryan or maybe hit him with her car.

Oh my gosh. And in the shooting draft, it was much shorter. You just said, I'm gonna smash his face and that was it, you know? But in this deleted scene, Pam is going off. You do not mess with her man. I guess not. Not after the night they had last night. The one night in heaven? Yeah. Wowzers. Well, the tag for this episode brings us all the resolution we need. We're back in the conference room. Michael is proposing some more great ideas like a summer Christmas Caroling sales event.

He throws to Stanley. Stanley, what do you think? Stanley says. I think it might be your best idea yet. Yeah. And then Phyllis kind of laughs and says, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Michael says, everybody out except Phyllis. And that's the episode. It's such a great tag.

Guys, that was Did I Stutter? I can't believe I'm about to say this, Angela. We are coming up on the end of season four. We've just got a few more episodes. I know. Last night I had to put a whole new disc in my DVD player. Wow, you know it's serious when she's gotta put a new disc in, guys. Yeah, I'm on my last disc for season four. Thank you to Brent Forrester and to Leslie David. And having my shooting. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

Second Drink. This episode was initially created in collaboration with Earwolf. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our executive producer is Cassie Jorkins, and our audio engineer and associate producer is Molly. Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis. Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schulz. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.