EP. 174 — Trivia

Jenna [00:00:04] I’m Jenna Fischer. 

Angela [00:00:05] And I’m Angela Kinsey. 

Jenna [00:00:06] We were on The Office together 

Angela [00:00:07] And we’re best friends. 

Jenna [00:00:08] And now we’re doing the ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you. 

Angela [00:00:12] Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind the scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you. 

Jenna [00:00:20] We’re the Office Ladies. Hello, everyone! 

Angela [00:00:25] Hey, there! 

Jenna [00:00:27] How’s it going? 

Angela [00:00:29] You know, it’s going fantastic. 

Jenna [00:00:31] Uh huh? 

Angela [00:00:31] I’m ready for some Trivia. 

Jenna [00:00:33] I hope so, because that’s what we’re talking about today. Season eight, episode 11, written by Steve Healey and directed by B.J. Novak. How about a summary? 

Angela [00:00:43] You know I love it. 

Jenna [00:00:44] Andy recruits the gang to compete in a trivia night in hopes that their winnings will close the gap on their quarterly sales goal. Meanwhile, Dwight flies to Florida in pursuit of a management position. 

Angela [00:00:56] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [00:00:57] Very bold move. 

Angela [00:00:59] I mean, Robert did invite him, but I think Robert invites people. I mean, much like Jo Bennett. 

Jenna [00:01:04] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:01:04] Maybe sometimes invite you, but they don’t really mean the invite. 

Jenna [00:01:08] Yeah, it’s like a soft invite 

Angela [00:01:09] I think it’s a- 

Jenna [00:01:10] What do you- what do you call it? 

Angela [00:01:11] I don’t even think it’s a soft invite. 

Jenna [00:01:13] It’s a… 

Angela [00:01:14] I think it’s a non invite invite. 

Jenna [00:01:17] A hypothetical invite 

Angela [00:01:19] Yes. 

Jenna [00:01:19] Okay. Yeah.

Angela [00:01:20] Dwight doesn’t live in hypotheticals. 

Jenna [00:01:22] No. 

Angela [00:01:23] No. 

Jenna [00:01:24] Well, fast fact number one, or perhaps I should call it trivia number one, because this will be a little trivia for all of you Office lovers, this episode was originally called Cliques. 

Angela [00:01:35] Oh, yeah. Yeah. 

Jenna [00:01:37] Called Cliques.  

Angela [00:01:38] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:01:38] Well, I still have my copy of Cliques and I reread it.

Angela [00:01:41] Look at you! Look at you!

Jenna [00:01:43] That’s right. Talk about digital clutter. Who’s showing up today with the digital clutter? 

Angela [00:01:48] You are! 

Jenna [00:01:49] Well, it’s very different. First of all, the storyline with Dwight going to interview in Florida, it’s all in there. That was the same. 

Angela [00:01:56] Okay. 

Jenna [00:01:57] But back at the office, here’s what happens. Kelly finds out that Cathy and Erin hung out over the weekend. And she is not having it. 

Angela [00:02:05] Oh, she was left out. 

Jenna [00:02:07] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:02:09] Hmm 

Jenna [00:02:09] She goes to Andy and she says there are cliques in this office, and you need to do something about it. We can’t have people hanging out outside of work, gossiping about work. 

Angela [00:02:19] Although Kelly’s never cared before. 

Jenna [00:02:20] No 

Angela [00:02:21] No. 

Jenna [00:02:22] So Andy calls a group meeting to talk about it. And, you know, he says, Listen, it’s not against the rules to hang out with people outside of work, but you can only do it in a way that doesn’t exclude people and you can’t gossip about work. And then he gives an example. He says, For example, this Saturday I went to Jim and Pam’s house, but it wasn’t a clique because there was no gossiping. And then I left. And Erin is like, Oh my God! I went to Jim and Pam’s house on Saturday. I must have just missed you. I was there for dinner! But guess what? 

Angela [00:02:53] What? 

Jenna [00:02:53] Darryl was also there for dinner. And Cathy was there for dinner 

Angela [00:02:59] At Jim and Pam’s house? 

Jenna [00:03:00] Yes!  They invited everybody over to meet the baby and they explained, Listen, we weren’t trying to exclude people, but these are the people who expressed interest in meeting our baby. So we had them over. If you had expressed interest in meeting the baby, you could have come over too. Suddenly everybody starts confessing who they hang out with outside of work. And this is when it is revealed that Oscar, Ryan, Jim and Toby are on a trivia team together. 

Angela [00:03:25] Mmmm. 

Jenna [00:03:26] This is where trivia starts to make its way in to cliques. Andy decides that the best way to break down office cliques is for them to all form a trivia team together. And they’re going to play as the Dunder Mifflin Scranton trivia team. So they do. So there was a trivia element to cliques, but it was only at the very end. I got in touch with writer Steve Healy, and he said that after we did the table read for cliques, they got a network note that network said, We don’t understand this idea of cliques. We don’t understand what they would mean to the office. It’s not clear to us. 

Angela [00:04:00] We don’t get it. 

Jenna [00:04:01] We don’t get it, basically 

Angela [00:04:04] They’re like, We don’t get it. 

Jenna [00:04:05] So Steve Healy and Paul Lieberstein, they kind of agreed and they did this massive re-imagining of this A storyline, and they decided, let’s just lean into the trivia night part. Like that part was so fun. The network liked that part. 

Angela [00:04:19] They were like, We get that. 

Jenna [00:04:20] We get trivia night. And that is how it became the focus of the episode. 

Angela [00:04:25] Ohh. 

Jenna [00:04:26] But they only had a week to do that. 

Angela [00:04:27] Yeah, it’s a big rewrite. 

Jenna [00:04:28] We did the table read and one week later we started shooting and we get this new script called Trivia. We’re like, What?

Angela [00:04:34] Huh? 

Jenna [00:04:35] There you go. 

Angela [00:04:35] I like that. Good fast fact. 

Jenna [00:04:38] Thank you. 

Angela [00:04:39] Or trivia fact. 

Jenna [00:04:41] Trivia fact number two, Steve Healy, our writer, told me that he was very excited to lean into Trivia because he used to play a lot of bar trivia when he lived in New York City back in 2003. He said it was just sweeping the East Village and the area around NYU where he lived, and he said he would go with his roommate. And they took it super seriously because the prize was a $25 bar tab. 

Angela [00:05:06] Hey! 

Jenna [00:05:07] Yeah. He was like, We needed that. 

Angela [00:05:09] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:05:09] He said they also had a couple of ringers that they would bring along. They had this friend who was a super smart attorney who would come out once a month for the big game. 

Angela [00:05:17] How fun! I want to be the ringer at trivia night. I mean, it will never happen, but that’s so cool. 

Jenna [00:05:23] He said this was fun because he got to write what he knew. 

Angela [00:05:27] Oh. 

Jenna [00:05:28] And I always love when the scripts come from someone’s personal history. 

Angela [00:05:33] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:05:33] All right. Well, speaking of trivia nights, fast act number three, Angela, you said you did a little digging around about Office trivia nights? 

Angela [00:05:41] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:05:42] Which are very popular. 

Angela [00:05:43] They’re super popular. You can basically look up your city and type in the Office trivia night near me, and things are going to come popping up. 

Jenna [00:05:52] Yeah. 

Angela [00:05:53] Trust me. I did one for my area. And Jenna, coming up, not too far from us is a painting with a twist: trivia night. 

Jenna [00:06:03] Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Am I going to paint a picture while doing Office trivia? 

Angela [00:06:07] Uh huh. It is really popular. It’s called Paper Company Trivia. And on their website, it says, Bring your office coworkers and your world’s best boss mug and test your Office knowledge at this paper company themed trivia night. Everyone paints the Dunder Mifflin office building. 

Jenna [00:06:26] I want us to go. 

Angela [00:06:27] I know. 

Jenna [00:06:28] We have to show up at this thing one night. 

Angela [00:06:30] I’m telling you! 

Jenna [00:06:31] The sad part is I think we’ll lose. Even though we’ve been doing it, we’re doing good since we’ve done the rewatch. 

Angela [00:06:36] Much better. 

Jenna [00:06:37] Remember our trivia with Billie Eilish? I was a stinker. 

Angela [00:06:41] You did not do well that day. 

Jenna [00:06:42] I did horribly. 

Angela [00:06:43] I did horrible when we did it on the Today show. I froze. 

Jenna [00:06:46] I know. This is the problem. 

Angela [00:06:49] We could freeze, but we would also be painting and having a glass of wine, I think. 

Jenna [00:06:53] How many people do you need for a team? Does it say?  

Angela [00:06:56] I don’t know. All right, I will dig deeper. I just was very excited that we got to paint and do Office trivia. 

Jenna [00:07:02] Well, find out because I think we could maybe recruit a couple of other Office mates. 

Angela [00:07:06] Oh, I bet Kate would go with us. 

Jenna [00:07:08] And Oscar would be good. 

Angela [00:07:09] Probably Creed. Creed, you know, came to my 50th birthday painting party where we painted hummingbirds, and he painted a little alien ship. 

Jenna [00:07:19] With his hummingbirds. I remembert.  

Angela [00:07:21] You’re like, Wait, where are the aliens? 

Jenna [00:07:23] Well, you know who be horrible at a trivia night is Rainn Wilson. And Rainn, I’m sorry to say this, but you never remember anything. 

Angela [00:07:29] You’re not wrong. 

Jenna [00:07:30] I’m like, Oh, my gosh, Rainn. Remember that episode where you get hit by the car and you throw up on the hood? He’s like, What? 

Angela [00:07:37] I’ll have to re-watch it. 

Jenna [00:07:39] Once he rewatches it, he gets all these ideas, but like, he has no trivia knowledge of The Office. 

Angela [00:07:45] None. 

Jenna [00:07:45] Brian Baumgartner might be good. 

Angela [00:07:47] Brian would kick some butt. And then also you guys, if you love Office trivia, Dave Koechner is hosting trivia nights. He travels around to different bars and we’ll put the swipe up in our stories. But it says, Test your knowledge of The Office with the Pack-man himself, David Koechner. Teams compete for prizes while also hearing behind the scenes stories from David about playing the hit show’s favorite obnoxious paper salesman. 

Jenna [00:08:16] That’s pretty cool. 

Angela [00:08:17] I know. 

Jenna [00:08:18] Well, listen, why don’t we take a break and when we get back, we’re going to have total silence. We won’t speak. 

Angela [00:08:26] For 14 minutes. Enjoy that in your commute. 

Jenna [00:08:30] We’ll be right back. 

Angela [00:08:35] We are back from break. While we were on break, we decided our trivia team is going to be our Office Ladies team. Sam, Cassi, get ready. Polish up your The Office trivia and get your paintbrushes, because I think we’ve all got to go 

Sam [00:08:49] We’re ready. 

Jenna [00:08:49] Listen, they watch it every week just like we do. 

Angela [00:08:52] I know 

Jenna [00:08:52] This is the team. We might actually win now. 

Angela [00:08:55] Team Office Ladies. 

Jenna [00:08:56] Yeah 

Angela [00:08:56] I’m excited. 

Jenna [00:08:57] Oh, my gosh. This is so crazy if we really did that. That is so crazy 

Angela [00:09:01] We’re going to do it. 

Jenna [00:09:02] What if we won? That would be- I feel like people would be angry. They’d be like, that’s not fair. 

Angela [00:09:08] It’s rigged. 

Jenna [00:09:10] All right, listen, this cold open is very, very, very, very quiet. No one is speaking. In fact, people are signaling to each other to keep quiet. Shh, don’t talk. We had a fan question from Jacquelyn K in San Diego who said, A few episodes back, you were talking about the longest silence on The Office. You both agreed that it was Jim and Pam on the boat in Booze Cruise, but wouldn’t this cold open technically be the episode with the longest silence?

Angela [00:09:39] Well done. 

Jenna [00:09:40] Yes, Jacqueline.  

Angela [00:09:41] Well done, Jacqueline. 

Jenna [00:09:42] I timed it. It’s one minute and 22 seconds. 

Angela [00:09:45] Oh yeah? 

Jenna [00:09:45] This is it. 

Angela [00:09:46] This is it. This cold open reminded me a lot of earlier seasons when the whole bullpen would get in on some prank together. 

Jenna [00:09:53] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:09:54] I loved it. Well, Andy’s having a really hard time during this game of being silent because he sees a raccoon eating a burger out of a paper bag in the parking lot. He is trying so hard to, like, act out what he’s seeing, because this is crazy. 

Jenna [00:10:09] He needs to share it with someone. 

Angela [00:10:11] He needs to share it with someone. This whole scene, all I could think about was Sam. Because Sam loves raccoons. I don’t know, Sam. You might have watched more raccoon videos than any person ever. 

Sam [00:10:22] I bet I might have. 

Angela [00:10:23] I mean, if you go to Sam’s insta stories, it’s almost all raccoon shenanigans. 

Sam [00:10:27] They’re just they’re perfect. They’re all fat and chubby, and they have little squirmy hands and beady eyes. 

Angela [00:10:34] I want to know, Sam, what’s the craziest thing you’ve seen a raccoon do? 

Jenna [00:10:38] Hmm. I think I’m drawn to the videos where it’s like a dumpster and somebody knocks on the dumpster, and then the lid opens, and there’s, like, 60 to 70 raccoons in there. Like an insane amount of raccoons. There’s just thousands of them in there. Those always get me. 

Angela [00:10:53] Will you send me one of those that I could share in our stories? 

Sam [00:10:56] I certainly will. I absolutely have some saved on my phone. 

Angela [00:10:59] Okay. That was our Sam Raccoon moment of the day. 

Sam [00:11:01] Thank you for checking in. 

Angela [00:11:02] You’re welcome. 

Jenna [00:11:03] When I was in New York, I was walking through Central Park and I saw a raccoon doing something funny. And I was like, I need to send this to Sam! 

Angela [00:11:11] I know. 

Jenna [00:11:11] So I videoed and sent him a raccoon. Now, I don’t remember what it was doing, but not as interesting as what you just described. 

Sam [00:11:18] That update made my day. 

Angela [00:11:19] Oh, good. 

Jenna [00:11:20] Well, I have to tell you, Angela, there is a moment in this cold open that caused a fan mail flurry. 

Angela [00:11:26] What?

Jenna [00:11:27] I investigated it. I have no answer, and it’s driving me crazy. 

Angela [00:11:31] I want to know. 

Jenna [00:11:32] Okay, it’s the Jim talking head. 

Angela [00:11:34] Okay, where he explains what they’re doing and he has the notepad he holds up and- 

Jenna [00:11:38] Yes 

Angela [00:11:39] They’re on a silent streak. This is their biggest record. 14 minutes. 

Jenna [00:11:43] Yes. So when he first holds up the sheet of paper, it says like no one has spoken in dot, dot, dot. He looks at his watch, he turns the pad of paper over, writes 14 minutes, and then he holds it back up again for the camera. 

Angela [00:11:58] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [00:11:59] Tegan L from Great Barrington, Massachusetts, said, I have been waiting since the beginning of this podcast to ask this 

Angela [00:12:05] Wow. Tegan, this is a long wait. 

Jenna [00:12:08] In the cold open when Jim writes down 14 minutes with two strokes underneath to emphasize the point, the sound does not match that many strokes. And from the time he puts his paper down to write to the time we see the paper again, it’s less than 2 seconds. Even at my absolute fastest, it takes at least 3 seconds- closer to four- to write out 14 minutes with two strokes underneath Tegan timed it. It’s 11 strokes of a pen in order to write everything Jim wrote. Tegan says, My question is, did Jim write that out himself? Does he just write faster than I do? Was it already written out? Anna S from London also noticed this. Lady, it doesn’t match. It doesn’t match. The scribble sounds of the pen, they are not enough strokes to equal that amount. And also there’s no cut. There’s no cutaway. He doesn’t flip a page. I don’t know how he- it’s mystifying. It’s confusing. And now I’m part of this. I’m a part of this with Tegan and also with Anna. 

Angela [00:13:12] Well, I thought when he was holding up that very first piece of paper, you know, that says the longest streak dot semicolon… 

Jenna [00:13:21] Yeah? 

Angela [00:13:21] I thought I could see writing under. 

Jenna [00:13:24] But he doesn’t ever flip the page. How did he do it? 

Angela [00:13:27] He does flip the page. 

Jenna [00:13:29] No, he doesn’t flip it over. After he shows it, he brings it down. He writes something. He holds it back up again. There’s no cut. 

Angela [00:13:37] Seriously? There’s no flip? 

Jenna [00:13:39] There’s no flip, there’s no cut. I don’t get it. I can’t figure it out. It’s driving me nuts now. Someone tell me how he does it. 

Angela [00:13:46] I thought he flipped it over? 

Jenna [00:13:47] He doesn’t flip it over. It’s maddening. 

Angela [00:13:48] My god. I trust you and Tegan and Anna? 

Jenna [00:13:50] Yeah. 

Angela [00:13:51] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:13:52] I don’t know. 

Angela [00:13:52] I don’t know. Maybe John has, like, crazy super fast fingers or something. I don’t know. 

Jenna [00:13:57] Well, they clearly added in sound effects. 

Angela [00:13:59] Yeah 

Jenna [00:14:00] Because the sound effects are not accurate. I don’t know. Um we also had a fan question from George P in New Hampshire who says, When Erin asks for a first aid kit during the cold open, she has clearly cut her hand. Why did the safety officer, Angela Martin, or assistant to the safety officer, Dwight K. Schrute, not jump up and offer to help her? 

Angela [00:14:18] I want to create a little backstory here that doesn’t exist. 

Jenna [00:14:21] Okay. 

Angela [00:14:22] I want to say that Erin harms herself fairly regularly in the office, and Angela has just given up and probably left a kit somewhere for her. 

Jenna [00:14:31] Because Erin’s just such a klutz. 

Angela [00:14:32] Such a klutz. Angela is like, I’m done. It’s over there if you need anything. The episode is going to begin in the conference room. Andy is writing down things that can be done with paper on the whiteboard. 

Jenna [00:14:45] I loved that, by the way. He’s using a whiteboard to talk about how much you need paper. 

Angela [00:14:51] Exactly. 

Jenna [00:14:52] I just thought that was a great touch. 

Angela [00:14:53] I know. That was very funny. So this is what is written down so far: ransom notes, anonymous threads, paper airplanes, love letters, books, and the infinity sign. 

Jenna [00:15:05] Mm hmm. Andy is doing this so his own employees will purchase paper from the company, because there’s a gap in his sales goal. They have to sell $830 worth of more paper so that they can reach their sales goal. So he would like everyone in the room to please buy some paper. 

Angela [00:15:24] And apparently Andy’s been buying paper for a while. He has like $2200 worth of paper in his garage. For my background catch folks, during Andy’s talking head in the parking lot, it was very foggy. 

Jenna [00:15:36] We got mail about that. People wondered if there were any fires in the area causing that smoke. That was a question we got, but I couldn’t figure out how to find that information. 

Angela [00:15:49] I think it was just really early. I think it was first thing of the day. 

Jenna [00:15:53] We do have that here. 

Angela [00:15:54] We have that marine layer. 

Jenna [00:15:55] Yeah. 

Angela [00:15:56] There was an Andy talking had alt that might have happened here. It’s in deleted scenes and I couldn’t help but think of Phil Shea. So Andy has a talking head where he’s describing all the paper he needs to sell, but he also says, You can use all this extra paper to make an amateur animation book. 

Jenna [00:16:14] Okay? 

Angela [00:16:15] And he has a detailed animation book that he’s made. In the script it says, Andy shows a flipbook he made showing a stick figure labeled Andy, shaking hands with a stick figure labeled Robert. Then exclamation points appear above their heads as they do a celebration dance. Robert’s stick figure says, I am so proud of you! And the 8% like exclamation point symbol dances over their heads and they’re dancing. They’re so happy. It’s, I mean, probably 100 pages of stick figures that you flip to make this little thing play out. And I was like, Oh my gosh, Phil Shea had to make this whole animated flipbook for a talking head that wasn’t even used. 

Jenna [00:16:57] Oh, my gosh! 

Angela [00:16:59] But it’s in deleted scenes. So Phil, I did watch it and I saw it and it was really cute. 

Jenna [00:17:04] Well, next up, Dwight is going to pull up to the Sabre headquarters. He is showing up in a cab. I got the location details from Steve Burgess. He said we shot this at Baxter Pharmaceuticals in Thousand Oaks. It is a huge office complex, and we did all of the shooting there. We did not build anything for this location. We shot the exterior drop off, the lobby with that crazy floor. 

Angela [00:17:28] Palm trees?

Jenna [00:17:30] Yes! And all of the office interiors. 

Angela [00:17:34] Dwight is super pumped. He’s walking through. He shoves someone. He does like one of his high kicks in the air, and then he announces himself to the receptionist. I couldn’t get enough of the Sabre corporate receptionist. I just thought she was amazing. Everything she said made me laugh. 

Jenna [00:17:50] Well, we got some mail from Sydney B in Toledo, Ohio, who agrees with you, who said, I have always been obsessed with the receptionist in Florida. Her character makes me laugh so hard and I want to know everything about her. Well, her name is Laurel Coppock, and she has been on Modern Family. She was in Crazy, Stupid Love. She played Jeff Garland’s assistant in season six of Curb Your Enthusiasm. She’s in the main company of the Groundlings in L.A., but she is probably best known as Toyota spokesperson Jan. 

Angela [00:18:20] Oh! 

Jenna [00:18:20] She’s done a string of commercials. I looked into this. It was really cool. In the middle of this campaign, she got pregnant and then Jan got pregnant and she’s just like a fan favorite. 

Angela [00:18:32] Oh, wow. 

Jenna [00:18:33] Steve Healey, our writer, brought her up. He said they actually added more stuff for her during this episode because she was so fun to work with and so funny. He said she just put this spin on the role that they really loved, which was that she was doing her best to tolerate Gabe and that inside she was actually rooting for Dwight because she sensed he was Gabe’s enemy. So that was like just something that was for her to know about her character. But when you make a little decision like that, I feel like it comes off, you know? She’s great. 

Angela [00:19:07] Yeah. She is. She reminded me like a second grade teacher when she was like, How frustrating for you. Do we want to talk about our feelings? 

Jenna [00:19:15] Yes. We also got a fam catch from Ryan C in Mexico. He noticed that there’s a hole in the wall behind Stephanie’s desk. And there is. 

Angela [00:19:24] At reception? There’s a hole? 

Jenna [00:19:25] Yeah, it’s over her right shoulder. 

Angela [00:19:28] Okay. 

Jenna [00:19:29] He wanted to know what happened. I don’t know, Ryan. But now, every time we cut to her, I see the hole in the wall. This is what happened to me in this episode. People wrote in. They pointed things out 

Angela [00:19:38] And then you couldn’t unsee them. 

Jenna [00:19:39] Correct. So I’m passing that along. 

Angela [00:19:41] There’s going to be a very funny moment now between Gabe and Dwight, as Dwight sort of takes in where Gabe sits and he says he is surrounded by shrubbery like a squirrel’s office. That just cracked me up. Gabe is going to have a talking head. We’ve spoke about this talking head before because that was in deleted scenes for another episode. 

Jenna [00:19:58] Yeah 

Angela [00:19:59] But he’s going to explain how often he has to fly back from Scranton to Florida and back and forth. And also he has this fear of flying. So what better way to tackle that? Robert is going to show up and is surprised to see Dwight and says, You know what? He’ll be with him shortly. Let me settle in. There was a Robert delete a talking head where he shares his assessment of where Dwight is at within the company. And he references the Peter Principle. 

Jenna [00:20:28] Okay? 

Angela [00:20:28] Yeah. I’d never heard of this. Let’s hear the clip, and then I’ll tell you what the Peter Principle is. 

Robert California [00:20:34] There’s a funny law of business known as the Peter Principle. Every employee gets promoted until he reaches the level of his incompetence. Right now, Dwight, as a salesman, has reached his highest level of competence. Now he’s feeling the pull of moving up or moving on. My job is to make sure that neither of those happens. 

Jenna [00:20:59] Wow. 

Angela [00:20:59] Yeah. Isn’t that interesting? And I looked it up, and it’s a real thing. It’s a real sort of theory within business. The Peter Principle. It’s this paradoxal idea that competent employees will continue to be promoted, but at some point will be promoted into positions for which they are, in fact incompetent. And then they will remain in those positions because they don’t do them well. 

Jenna [00:21:23] Wait, So you get to keep moving up and doing well and doing well and doing well. But then the job you end up in is one you can’t do well? 

Angela [00:21:30] Is one that you weren’t qualified to do. 

Jenna [00:21:33] Which you only find out once you get the position, but you can’t be demoted. So then you just stay in this role that you aren’t really fit for? Wow. That is blowing my mind. 

Angela [00:21:43] Yeah. So sometimes I feel like if you run into someone who’s in a position that they seem totally out of their depth and you’re like, How did they get this job? Maybe they just got promoted into it. 

Jenna [00:21:54] Yeah. They were really good at all the other jobs that led up to it. 

Angela [00:21:56] Yeah, it’s called the Peter Principle. 

Jenna [00:21:58] Oh. I feel like I know some Peter Principles. I do. I’ve come across some of those. 

Angela [00:22:06] I know 

Jenna [00:22:07] Am I a Peter Principle? 

Angela [00:22:07] No! At what? 

Jenna [00:22:11] I don’t know. That’s what I’m asking myself. I’m sure I have Peter Principled sometime in my life where I’ve gotten some job, and then I was ill equipped. Right?

Angela [00:22:19] Oh, I mean, for sure. I mean, there’s been a few jobs I had where really, I should have just been, like a spokesperson. And then I got promoted to where I actually had to use the skill sets of things I talked about that I couldn’t really implement. 

Jenna [00:22:34] Well, I loved that. That was very interesting. Back in Scranton, Andy is going to approach Oscar, and he’s hoping that Oscar can make a little rounding error. He wants Oscar to basically cook the books and cover up the fact that he’s $830 short this quarter. 

Angela [00:22:49] But you know what? Oscar can’t cook the books for Andy today because he’s got to get two triviocolypse. 

Jenna [00:22:54] That’s a mouthful. 

Angela [00:22:56] Mm hmm. That’s what she said. 

Jenna [00:22:58] Kevin offers to do it. Kevin’s happy to make a rounding error. He does it all the time probably. This is when Andy is going to find out that the prize for triviocolypse is $1,000. 

Angela [00:23:09] A thousand bucks? That’s a big prize. 

Jenna [00:23:12] This gives Andy an idea. 

Angela [00:23:14] It does. I mean, Steve Healey only got $25 at the bar when he won. 

Jenna [00:23:17] I know. 

Angela [00:23:19] A thousand bucks. Well, Andy now sees this opportunity. He’s going to try to get a group together to go to trivia night. So he’s talking to Jim and Darryl in his office, and they’re all in. 

Jenna [00:23:28] So there were two things about this episode that caused a stir with fans. 

Angela [00:23:32] Okay. 

Jenna [00:23:33] One actually required NBC to make a press release. 

Angela [00:23:37] Okay. 

Jenna [00:23:37] Responding to the comments they received. That’s later. I’ll save that.

Angela [00:23:42] Okay. 

Jenna [00:23:43] But the other one was the fact that Jim agrees to go to Philadelphia without any concern for his wife and their newborn child at home. 

Angela [00:23:54] Ohh. Can’t wait to get out. 

Jenna [00:23:55] There was so much mail about it. For example, I grabbed this one. This is like when the episode aired. I found this on OfficeTally.com. Robert wrote, quote, I just can’t let go that Pam’s ignored again. Even if Jenna isn’t seen or heard, which I get, I have no problem with, Jim should still acknowledge Pam’s existence. Driving off to Philly without even a thought to his wife and infant son and toddler daughter defies belief to me. Many letters of that nature. So when I was rereading Cliques… 

Angela [00:24:26] There was the storyline where everyone came to Jim and Pam’s house. 

Jenna [00:24:30] Yes! One of the things that I really liked was that Pam was mentioned. The new baby was mentioned. And by the way, also in that script, it was revealed that Pam is the person who told Jim to invite Cathy, because Pam suspected that Cathy might have a hard time fitting in with the group and she wanted her to be comfortable. I thought that was very interesting. But all of it got cut. You know, when the episode changed and Steve Healey actually said he wished that that reference to Pam back at home, he actually said he thought this episode would have been better with more Pam and Angela. 

Angela [00:25:08] Oh, well, thank you. 

Jenna [00:25:09] And he said he’s not just saying that because he’s on our podcast 

Angela [00:25:12] Even if you are, Steve, thank you. 

Jenna [00:25:15] But that was a big controversy that Jim seemed to have 

Angela [00:25:21] Zero problems hauling ass. 

Jenna [00:25:22] Made the decision to go prior to speaking with his wife at home. 

Angela [00:25:25] I wonder if- I found a little scuttlebutt thing as well. 

Jenna [00:25:30] I wonder if it’s our same scuttlebutt. 

Angela [00:25:31] It happens later in the episode. 

Jenna [00:25:33] That’s right. 

Angela [00:25:34] Okay. All right. Let’s wait. We’ll see if we can surprise each other. 

Jenna [00:25:37] Okay. 

Angela [00:25:38] Back in the Sabere lobby, Gabe is really giving it to the bagel store. They better step it up. Dwight’s listening to this conversation and just kind of rolling his eyes. And this is when Gabe is going to share with Dwight that he considers himself the toilet of the office. He flushes away annoying problems. 

Jenna [00:25:56] Yes, he’s using that analogy as a compliment to himself, that he is the toilet. 

Angela [00:26:01] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:26:01] Very interesting. Well, we had a fan question from Vivian A in San Francisco who said, Hi, Office Ladies, My name is Vivian. I’m 13 years old and I absolutely love your podcast. 

Angela [00:26:11] Thank you, Vivian. 

Jenna [00:26:12] Mmhmm. My question is, on Gabe’s desk in Florida you can see an S.F.U. hat. Is this when we learned that that is the college that Gabe attended? Thank you. Well, great catch, Vivian. We can learn a lot about Gabe from his desk. However, I have to say, I don’t think that Gabe’s desk reflected the same interests as his condo. 

Angela [00:26:37] Oh yeah. 

Jenna [00:26:38] Remember when we did Viewing Party? I was expecting to see 

Angela [00:26:40] Like a sword? 

Jenna [00:26:42] More from his travels. Yeah. 

Angela [00:26:44] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:26:44] But I did see the hat. In addition to the hat, he has a framed photo of a knight on a horse. 

Angela [00:26:51] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [00:26:51] He has some very giant paperclips. I don’t know what he’s using those for. And he also has, I want to point this out, a framed medal. I’m going to discuss more about that later. 

Angela [00:27:04] Mmhmm. Yes, because it’s going to surface later. Someone keeps a drawer of them, apparently. 

Jenna [00:27:09] That’s right. 

Angela [00:27:10] I saw that as well. Well, Robert is going to ditch Dwight. He’s going to say, Listen, I can’t meet with you. But Bill, my COO, will. And then Robert immediately calls Gabe and says, Listen, don’t pass this on to Bill. Just meet with Dwight. 

Jenna [00:27:25] Don’t bother Bill with this. 

Angela [00:27:26] Don’t bother Bill with this. Hear Dwight’s speech, okay? And just hear him out. And now Dwight has to face the toilet man. 

Jenna [00:27:35] Well, our Dunder Mifflin folks are about to arrive at the bar for trivia night. I think we should take a break. And when we come back, we will discuss Oscar’s reaction. 

Angela [00:27:47] Yes. And you’re going to hear from my friend Brian Gaddis, who played Oscar’s team mate. 

Jenna [00:27:55] We are back and I’m going to start things off with a fan question from Sean P in Saint Louis, Missouri, who said, Can we have a location breakdown for the trivia bar? In addition to this episode, it also shows up in It’s Always sunny in Philadelphia. The Always Sunny cast made it clear that at some point they started filming on the same stages as The Office. So was this a fakey bar that was first built for The Office and then used again for Always Sunny? No. This was a real location, Sean. We did not build this bar. This bar is called The Federal. It is on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood. You can still go there. We used the main bar for the trivia contest. And we also used their back room bar for the tag of this episode where our team is at the state championships. But The Federal is a great location. It’s been used on a lot of other shows, including It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. So you did spot that. And yes, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia took over our stages after we left. So there’s a little crossover there. 

Angela [00:28:55] So Andy and the Dunder Mifflin crew walk in. Oscar spots them and he is like, What are you doing here? 

Jenna [00:29:03] I mean, wouldn’t you react similarly? 

Angela [00:29:05] Yes! They drove all the way from Philadelphia! 

Jenna [00:29:07] Yeah. 

Angela [00:29:08] And and, you know, he’s like, I can’t believe you guys did that. And Darryl’s like, Well, sometimes- and then Darryl kind of clocks the room and goes, Wait, is this a gay bar? 

Jenna [00:29:16] And Oscar’s like, Yes, don’t you want to leave? And Andy’s like, I do not want to leave. I want to win that trivia money. 

Angela [00:29:23] And Oscar’s like, Really? You’re going to win at trivia night at a gay bar? He scoffs. He thinks his team’s going to like ace those guys. Andy’s going to be like, All right, guys, let’s break into teams. You all know yourselves. Put yourselves in the right group. 

Jenna [00:29:38] We’ve got the A-Team, we’ve got the backups, and then the just for funs. 

Angela [00:29:45] And Meredith’s like, just for fun with me! Meredith knows. Everyone seems to sort of know where they fit in except for Kevin. 

Jenna [00:29:52] Yes. You know, we had a fan question from Kathleen M in Davidson, North Carolina, who said, I would love to know which trivia team you guys would be on. Angela, Jenna, but also your characters. Would you be Dunder Mifflin A-Team, Dunder Mifflin B-team or the Just for Fun team? 

Angela [00:30:08] Well, Angela Martin clearly did not come. 

Jenna [00:30:10] Right. So she’s on no team.

Angela [00:30:13] She’s on no team. She doesn’t want to participate in bar games. Are you kidding? 

Jenna [00:30:18] Yeah. I wonder where Pam would have ended up if she was there. Hmm. I think B team. 

Angela [00:30:24] I think, you know Angela Kinsey real life is just for fun team. 

Jenna [00:30:29] Uh huh. And I think Jenna Fischer real life I think I’d put myself on the B-team as well, because I want to take it somewhat seriously. Like I would be frustrated on a just for fun team where we’re not trying, but I wouldn’t have confidence in my trivia knowledge to be on an A-Team. 

Angela [00:30:43] Yeah, I wouldn’t want the pressure of being on the A-Team. 

Jenna [00:30:46] So I think Jenna and Pam are the same. We’re B-team. 

Angela [00:30:49] Yeah, well, you know, you and I weren’t there for the bar. We didn’t get to film any scenes there, but I reached out to Brian Gattas, who plays Oscar’s teammate, Xander, because I was like, Brian, we’ve known each other for years- and I said, Brian, what was it like on the day in that bar? Can you tell us any stories? And he had some fun stuff to share. 

Jenna [00:31:08] That’s so cool, Ange. I didn’t know you knew him. 

Angela [00:31:10] Yeah, I’ve known Brian a really long time and he sent in an audio clip because Jenna, he’s responsible for a very funny joke that made it in the episode. 

Brian Gattas [00:31:19] So after auditioning for the pilot and multiple episodes of The Office, I was totally psyched to finally be a guest star on such a cult show. All the series regulars were really sweet and they came up and introduced themselves to me on set, which makes stepping into this well-oiled TV machine so much less daunting as a guest star. As far as anything that sticks out in this episode was I, I actually pitched a joke on set, which is not common as a guest star and also not very common to pitch a joke for another character. So in this episode, the trivia announcer busts BJ for like being on his phone and says something to the fact of like, I’m sure you’re just checking your dating account. And I was like, Hmm. Grindr was an app that was fairly new in the gay world. So I asked Oscar. I was like, Who’s the writer? And I was like, Do you think it would be okay if I would just could pitch a joke? And Oscar was like, Yeah, sure, why not? So I went up to the writer and I said, Hey. And he was like, Hey. And I said, I actually have a joke I want to pitch you. And he just looked at me with a blank face. I’m sure he was like, Really? A guest star is going to pitch me a joke now? Okay. And I said, You know, it’s not for my character. It’s for another character. And I think that made him a little even more intrigued. So I pitched him the Grindr joke and he immediately was like, What is that? And, you know, I was like, Oh, clearly this guy is straight. So I told him what the Grindr app was all about. And he was like, Oh, that’s actually pretty funny. So then he called B.J. over, who was actually the director of the episode, and I pitched BJ the joke and BJ was like, That is funny. So all gay men would know what this app is? And I was like, Yeah, they totally know what it is. And then B.J. was like, Hey, Mindy. And so he pulled Mindy over and I pitched her the joke. And Mindy was like, Great. Love it. So they actually shot it. And it was in the final episode, which was awesome. Other little things, like when we filled out the answer cards, they let us write in our own answers. So instead of Atlanta, I wrote Atlant-duh! 

Jenna [00:33:44] Oh, my God. I love that story so much! 

Angela [00:33:46] I know, right? 

Jenna [00:33:48] Yes. 

Angela [00:33:49] Cracked me up. 

Jenna [00:33:50] But also, I just love that everyone was like, so gay people will know what this Grindr app is? I mean, it must have been very new at the time. I think we all know Grindr now, right? We all know.

Angela [00:34:00] Yeah. But I like that he was like, Yeah, just trust me in this. 

Jenna [00:34:03] Yeah. Well, the trivia gets underway and it starts with our question about the capital state that was on Ray Charles’s mind, Atlanta. 

Angela [00:34:11] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [00:34:13] And I wanted to give a shout out to our trivia announcer who was played by Dan Gill, who’s a very funny comedian. I went down a tiny rabbit hole looking at his stuff. And one of the things that I found very funny was the story he told on a podcast where they asked him, What’s kind of like an audition that you went on that was a total fail? He said that there was an audition for a television show, and in the break down- the breakdown, we should tell people, is a casting director sends out to all the agents a description of the character. 

Angela [00:34:44] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:34:44] The person they’re looking for for this role. And then the agents go through their files and they’re like, Who do I have who might match this description? I’ll send them on an audition. The breakdown said, looking for a Dan Gill type. So guess what? He got the audition. He did not get the role. 

Angela [00:35:00] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:35:01] He didn’t get it. But then later they brought him back onto the show to play himself. Dan Gill. 

Angela [00:35:09] So I thought that was like such a funny story. But he’s awesome and he’s so good in this episode. 

Angela [00:35:15] Yeah. The next trivia question was, quote, You’re not an All-Star of the NBA, but you did get your game on when you won the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award in 2011. Who are you? 

Jenna [00:35:28] Well, guess who’s going to get this one right? 

Angela [00:35:30] No one could guess. 

Jenna [00:35:32] No one on our A-team. No one on our B-team. The just for fun’s. Kelly knows it’s Lamar Odom. 

Angela [00:35:39] Yeah, because it was a really big storyline on Khloe and Lamar. 

Jenna [00:35:42] I loved this. 

Angela [00:35:43] Well, Andy is going to start to freak out because the A-Team missed this question. He really thought Darryl and Jim had this one. 

Jenna [00:35:50] Yeah. 

Angela [00:35:51] I wouldn’t have gotten this question. 

Jenna [00:35:53] Same. I would have gotten Atlanta. 

Angela [00:35:55] Yes. I would have gotten Atlanta. You know, it made me really curious about trivia questions, and I kind of went down the rabbit hole of like, what are some of the best trivia questions? There’s so many websites that list top trivia questions. And what a lot of them have in common is a mix of information. So you really need a good mix of people on your team that are from different backgrounds and have different jobs or different interests, because the questions are all over the map on a good trivia night. 

Jenna [00:36:24] That makes sense to me. I feel like you need a sports expert. You need someone who can handle pop culture. But then you need someone who knows just like historical facts. 

Angela [00:36:34] Yeah. Well, Andy thought he had all that, and he didn’t. But it did make me curious if team Office Ladies could answer a few random assortment trivia questions that I found on the Internet under most popular trivia questions. 

Jenna [00:36:46] Okay, Sam, Cassi, get ready. I need to know this before we go to our painting trivia night. This is our test. 

Sam [00:36:52] Okay, we’re ready. 

Jenna [00:36:53] Okay. Now, granted our painting night, it’s going to be all Office trivia, but I think this is still important. 

Sam [00:36:59] Okay 

Jenna [00:36:59] How are we as a team? 

Angela [00:37:00] Okay, I tried to pick very random different questions from this website. 

Jenna [00:37:04] Okay. And Angela, you just be honest. Just say if you would have gotten it right or not, because you know the answers. 

Angela [00:37:11] I will be honest. I will be honest. Question number one, what are the names of the four March Sisters in Little Women? 

Jenna [00:37:19] Oh, gosh. 

Sam [00:37:21] Oh, wow. I have nothing. 

Jenna [00:37:24] In Little Women. 

Angela [00:37:25] Cassi? 

Jenna [00:37:26] Is someone named… Oh, oh, oh, oh, Jo? Is there a Jo? 

Angela [00:37:31] Yep, Yep. 

Jenna [00:37:31] Jo. Is there a… Oh, dang it. I saw the movie. Florence Pugh. She’s a sister. I don’t know. Anybody? Sam? Cassi? 

Sam [00:37:47] I have nothing. 

Jenna [00:37:48] Now, Angela, would you have gotten this right? 

Angela [00:37:50] I would have gotten three, and I probably would have forgotten the fourth one. 

Jenna [00:37:53] Okay. Who are they? 

Angela [00:37:55] Jo and Beth. Beth is who passes away. 

Jenna [00:37:57] Okay. 

Angela [00:37:58] Amy’s who goes abroad to France. Sorry, spoiler alert. Sorry. And then I think the one I would have forgotten is Meg. Meg. 

Jenna [00:38:07] Poor Meg. 

Angela [00:38:08] I know. 

Jenna [00:38:09] The forgettable one. 

Angela [00:38:10] I know. Sorry, Meg. Number two. In chess, which direction can a bishop move? 

Jenna [00:38:15] I got this one. Diagonally? 

Angela [00:38:18] That’s correct 

Sam [00:38:19] Yes. 

Angela [00:38:20] Woop woop! I might have gotten that one because Cade plays chess all the time. All right. Question number three. How many colors will you find in a regular bag of M&Ms? 

Jenna [00:38:31] Six? I have to count… Red, blue, green, yellow, brown, orange. I think it’s six. 

Angela [00:38:38] Six is correct! 

Jenna [00:38:41] Hey! I’m going to tell you why I know that. 

Angela [00:38:43] I would not have known that. 

Jenna [00:38:44] As a mom, when we hand out the M&Ms, they always want one of each color. Has to be even. And I had this immediate, like, picture of like six M&Ms in my hand 

Sam [00:38:55] My brain flashed back to remember when there was two browns? 

Jenna [00:38:58] Yes! There was dark brown and light brown. 

Sam [00:39:01] I couldn’t remember. They got rid of it for blue. 

Jenna [00:39:03] They did.

Sam [00:39:04] That’s right. 

Angela [00:39:04] Oh my gosh, I would not have known that at all. I’m very impressed with your knowledge of M&M’s. All of you. All right. Question number four. Which marine animal holds hands in their sleep to prevent drifting apart? 

Cassi [00:39:18] Otters! 

Angela [00:39:19] That’s correct! 

Jenna [00:39:21] Yay! 

Angela [00:39:22] Sea otters! Isn’t that the cutest thing? They hold hands so when they fall asleep. 

Jenna [00:39:26] When they’re tired, but they want to be together 

Angela [00:39:29] Don’t want to drift apart. 

Sam [00:39:30] They also balance rocks on their bellies. 

Angela [00:39:31] They do. They’re very cute. 

Jenna [00:39:33] Why do they do that? Just because they like it? 

Angela [00:39:33] Because they can.  

Sam [00:39:36] They juggle rocks on their bellies. 

Jenna [00:39:39] Oh, my gosh. Clearly, we know a lot about sea otters. 

Angela [00:39:42] Okay. All right. Next question. Who was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? 

Cassi [00:39:51] I have a guess. 

Jenna [00:39:53] I have a guess. 

Angela [00:39:54] All right, let’s hear them. 

Cassi [00:39:55] I’m thinking Janis Joplin. 

Jenna [00:39:57] I was thinking maybe Tina Turner? 

Angela [00:40:01] Okay, final answer. 

Sam [00:40:02] Going to say Joan Jett, but that feels too late. 

Angela [00:40:05] Final answer? 

Jenna [00:40:06] Or Bonnie Raitt? 

Sam [00:40:08] Would they take Aretha Franklin? No.

Jenna [00:40:10] I know I was- does Tina Turner qualify as rock and roll? Who is it?

Sam [00:40:15] I’m going to say Aretha Franklin. 

Angela [00:40:17] Final answer, please. 

Jenna [00:40:18] Oh, we have to decide, team. 

Cassi [00:40:20] Have we said the name? 

Jenna [00:40:22] Are we anywhere? 

Angela [00:40:23] I cannot give hints! Write on- write your answer out and hold it up! 

Sam [00:40:29] Tina Turner. 

Cassi [00:40:29] All right, let’s do Tina. 

Jenna [00:40:31] Really? I’m nervous. 

Cassi [00:40:32] Final answer? 

Jenna [00:40:33] Sure. 

Angela [00:40:34] Aretha Franklin. 

All [00:40:36] Ohhh! 

Angela [00:40:36] Sam had it.  

Jenna [00:40:39] (UNCLEAR) rust me. 

Angela [00:40:40] Okay. All right. Last question. What was the first and still only horror movie to win the Oscar for best picture? 

Cassi [00:40:50] The Shining? 

Sam [00:40:52] Exorcist? 

Cassi [00:40:53] Oh Exorcist. 

Sam [00:40:55] Oh. 

Jenna [00:40:55] I know. You guys are looking at me. I don’t know what horror movie won Best Picture. 

Cassi [00:41:01] First and still only one. 

Jenna [00:41:03] I think The Shining is a pretty good guess. 

Cassi [00:41:07] What about Poltergeist too? 

Jenna [00:41:10] I don’t know if that made it up to um so I kind of knew for a while every best picture from 1970 to 1990. It was a weird thing I did in college where I watched every movie. And I can’t remember. 

Angela [00:41:26] Is this when you decided not to use a calculator. Is it the same time or…? 

Jenna [00:41:29] No. This was a different time period, but you can tell I was a lot of fun in college. What I did instead of attending parties. 

Angela [00:41:38] All right, final answer. 

Jenna [00:41:40] I like The Shining. 

Sam [00:41:42] Okay, We can do The Shining. 

Jenna [00:41:42] Stanley Kubrick, right? 

Sam [00:41:44] Yeah. 

Angela [00:41:45] Okay. The answer is Silence of the Lambs. 

All [00:41:48] Ohhh! 

Angela [00:41:52] That concludes our Office Ladies trivia. I hope you played along with us at home. 

Sam [00:41:57] I’m sure people at home were screaming at their radios. 

Jenna [00:42:00] Horribly?

Cassi [00:42:00] I think we’re a just for fun team. Sorry, y’all. 

Jenna [00:42:04] We’re a just for otters team. 

All [00:42:06] Yeah. Yeah. 

Jenna [00:42:07] Oh, that was fun, Ange. Well, speaking of trivia questions and how you come up with trivia questions, Heather H from California wants to know, How did they write this episode? Did they have to work backwards and tailor questions to the teams? Were there any good questions or answers that didn’t make it? Well, I asked Steve Healy, our writer, and he said that Heather is exactly right. They reverse engineered the script because they wanted the Einsteins to win. And they said, Of course, Oscar is very sharp. And so we wanted to see him winning a little bit because they felt that it would further torture him if he was beat by just a little bit by the Einsteins. And Steve also said there’s probably a file with dozens more questions somewhere. And he went through all his digital clutter looking for it. And he said, I am so bummed that I couldn’t find it for you. 

Angela [00:43:02] I did love that one of the questions the Einsteins missed was the question about Albert Einstein. 

Jenna [00:43:08] That was an amazing joke. 

Jenna [00:43:10] Well, listen, meanwhile, back in Florida, Gabe has explained to Dwight that Bill, our COO, will not be available. He’s putting out a fire nine miles away. Gabe is going to listen to Dwight’s pitch. 

Angela [00:43:23] Mhmm. The toilet. He’s gone to the toilet. 

Jenna [00:43:26] He has. 

Angela [00:43:28] And Dwight knows it, but he still commits. 

Jenna [00:43:31] Well, listen, it becomes very clear to Dwight very quickly that Gabe is just flushing him. 

Angela [00:43:36] But he says I’m a crap too big to flush. 

Jenna [00:43:39] And he demands that Gabe take him to Robert California’s home. 

Angela [00:43:43] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:43:43] We’ll get to it. First, we need to discuss what’s happening at the trivia night and the controversy that was created by one of our teams, The Queerenstein Bears. Is that your thing, Ange? 

Angela [00:43:55] I don’t know. I, I think mine is different! 

Jenna [00:43:58] Oh, we have different tidbits! When we got here this morning. 

Angela [00:44:01] We thought we had the same surprise. 

Jenna [00:44:04] Now I’m very interested 

Angela [00:44:05] You go first. 

Jenna [00:44:05] Me go first? 

Angela [00:44:06] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:44:07] Okay. Well, we’re going to get an update on how the teams are and their standings. The host is going to give the teams in order of their points. And as he announces each team, you get to see a shot of that team. 

Angela [00:44:21] Oh, it is the same! It is the same. 

Jenna [00:44:23] It is? 

Angela [00:44:23] Is this about a picture? Is this about someone on a team? 

Jenna [00:44:26] Yes. There is a moment where we cut to the Queerenstein Bears. This is where all the guys act like bears. 

Angela [00:44:32] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [00:44:33] The third guy from the left wearing a green plaid shirt set off a fan reaction so big that NBC had to make a press release because people thought that this man was 

Both [00:44:43] Steve Carell. 

Jenna [00:44:45] In disguise. Making a cameo on the episode. Sam, Cassi, I have a picture. 

Angela [00:44:51] Yes. Fans thought this was an uncredited cameo by Steve. 

Sam [00:44:55] Oh, my God. Looks like Robin Williams 

Cassi [00:44:58] Whoa! 

Jenna [00:45:02] We will put a picture up in Office Ladies Pod, because for the third time in this episode, once a fan pointed something out to me, I became obsessed with it. It was such a crazy thing. Did you read about it? 

Angela [00:45:13] I did read about it. And sorry, the way you set it up, I thought maybe the Queerenstein Bears had cheated or something or the math was wrong. Or and then people were like, They couldn’t be in the top three or whatever. But yes, I did read about this. There was a whole scuttlebutt after the episode aired. People were all over the message boards thinking they spotted Steve. 

Jenna [00:45:32] I pulled one of the comments from Pat M who said, quote, I think it was Steve because first of all, it looks like him with a fake beard and fake eyebrows. Plus, later on the show, when they showed that table again, he’s the only member of the group that isn’t seen. I think this is an indication that Steve came to visit, did the cameo for one day, but didn’t hang for the whole filming. This was the conspiracy! 

Angela [00:45:56] I love that in this scenario, Steve comes to the set, makes the effort to come, but then dons a fake beard and eyebrows? 

Jenna [00:46:05] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:46:06] This is a lot of effort 

Jenna [00:46:08] To sit in and just act like a bear for one shot. And then he’s like, That was fun. I’m out of here. 

Angela [00:46:14] I really wish he would have now. 

Jenna [00:46:16] Well, this really blew up. So much so that NBC gave a quote to The Washington Post saying it was not Steve Carell. They had to announce it. 

Angela [00:46:27] Oh, my gosh. That’s so funny. Well, you know, when they list the top three teams, I became very curious about what the other teams were. There’s a lot of other teams. Do they have names? I went to the shooting draft because I figured this was something the writers would have had a lot of fun with. And there are lots of other team names. 

Jenna [00:46:46] Oh, let’s hear them. 

Angela [00:46:47] Yes. In the script, the trivia host had a whole rundown of all the scores. It was the bigger speech. And this is what he would have said: The Queerenstein Bears was seven. Joey Trivia-ani- get it? Was seven. The Impish Impresarios with three. Two Broke Dorks with six. Late Onset Bieber Fever with five. Dunder-Mifflin A-Team with four, DM Backup Team with three. Jason So-gay-kiss, zero 

Jenna [00:47:22] Oh. 

Angela [00:47:23] Einsteins with eight. And The Ladies Gaga with five. 

Jenna [00:47:27] Ah, all right. We got a fan question from Alexa P in Oceanside, New York, who said, Hi, Jenna and Angela. I am 15 years old and I’ve been listening to Office Ladies pretty much since it started. For this episode, I have always wondered, why isn’t Kelly on the Dunder Mifflin A-Team when she clearly knows more about pop culture than anyone in the office? I feel like she would be my first choice to have on my team for a trivia night. 

Angela [00:47:51] Same. 

Jenna [00:47:52] Alexa, I agree with you. And this is exactly what Andy is discovering. He has completely underestimated the people in his office and their use in a trivia night. I mean, Meredith is about to throw down some great answers. 

Angela [00:48:05] Meredith is going to get one right. I mean, Erin, who Meredith calls Princess Ding Dong is gonna get flying jib. I mean, you know, I wouldn’t have got that. 

Jenna [00:48:17] I did love when they get to the speed round and they’re like, first team to ring in gets to answer. And so Erin rings in first and she’s like, Guys, I did my part. What’s the answer? That was a very funny joke. 

Angela [00:48:29] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:48:30] I think we should head back to Florida because Dwight is going to arrive at Robert’s condo. This was an apartment complex in North Hollywood that was very close to The Federal. Steve Burgess told me we shot at The Federal during the day one day, and then after we finished, we moved over to this condo complex. 

Angela [00:48:48] Yeah, Dwight and Gabe are going to arrive, and Robert California is having a wrestling lesson, I guess? 

Jenna [00:48:55] Yeah. A wrestling workout with Stu, who was played by Peter Gammon. I wanted to know, is this person a real wrestler? You know, you get cast in a role. 

Angela [00:49:08] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:49:09] And all he does is, like, wrestle real hard. I was like, What’s the story? 

Angela [00:49:14] I mean, he looked like he knew what he was doing. Also, there’s nothing funnier to me than what Robert looked like as he was at first kind of like, he looked like a turtle on his back. He was trying to, like, flip the other guy over and flailing about. And that’s a very small space, you guys. Imagine watching two grown men wrestling as hard as they can, but just like one foot in front of you. 

Jenna [00:49:36] Yeah. Like between a couch and a coffee table they’ve moved. Well, I found Peter Gannon’s resumé, and it does not look like he is a wrestler. He listed many special skills which were martial arts, taekwondo, boxing, scuba diving, horseback riding, golf, baseball, skiing- both water and snow. So I reached out to Steve Burgess and and Steve Burgess said, No, he is an actor they hired. And both Peter and James met with our stunt coordinator, Tom Dwyer, and they just spent the morning wrestling and they came up with this wrestling choreography to make sure everyone would be safe in the scene. That just blew my mind. I don’t know why. What a crazy job to get. 

Angela [00:50:19] I know. What did you do today? I wrestled James Spader for most of the morning. 

Jenna [00:50:23] I didn’t have any lines, but that was my job. 

Angela [00:50:26] Well, I have a question for you. 

Jenna [00:50:28] Yes. 

Angela [00:50:28] What happened to Gabe? 

Jenna [00:50:30] What do you mean? 

Angela [00:50:31] I mean, Gabe walked in with Dwight. 

Jenna [00:50:33] Oh, yeah 

Angela [00:50:34] He said yayyy while they were wrestling then we never see him again. 

Jenna [00:50:39] What happened? Oh, gosh, you’re so right. I didn’t even notice that. Well, here is what I got obsessed with in this scene, and I’m glad I did, because it really pays off. When Robert is done wrestling, he offers Dwight an Oreo from a platter of Oreos because he says they haven’t really improved on the Oreo, have they? I did a deep dive on Oreos. 

Angela [00:51:01] I love that he brought them out on a platter. And I love that you’re doing a deep dive. I’m going to sit back. I can’t wait to hear this. 

Jenna [00:51:07] Well, first of all, you know, there’s the Oreo and there’s the Hydrox cookie. They’re both sandwich cookies that have like chocolate with a cream filling. Right? Which one do you think came first? 

Angela [00:51:19] I’ve never heard of the Hydrox cookie. I don’t know what you’re saying. I don’t know what you’re talking about. 

Jenna [00:51:22] You’ve never heard of a Hydrox cookie?!

Angela [00:51:25] It sounds like something you like clean like your sink with. Put it in the Hydrox! 

Jenna [00:51:30] Cassi. Have you heard of the Hydrox cookie? 

Angela [00:51:31] Make sure you put in a Hydrox cookie in your dishwasher once a month. 

Jenna [00:51:34] Cassi has not heard of the Hydrox cookie. Sam has.

Angela [00:51:36] Oh, my gosh. 

Jenna [00:51:37] All right. Growing up, the Hydrox cookie was always kind of like, what? Like it was like the knockoff Oreo, right? Sam is nodding. Yes. I’m going to blow your mind, Sam. The Hydrox came first. Oreo is a rip off of the Hydrox! But it ended up just surpassing the Hydrox in popularity, such that Cassi and Angela have not even heard of it. 

Angela [00:52:07] Why was it- what did Oreo do differently? 

Jenna [00:52:11] I don’t know. But it tastes better, right? The Oreo tastes better than the Hydrox. Well, I don’t know what they did 

Angela [00:52:16] The first error was naming it Hydrox. 

Sam [00:52:18] Hydrox is a terrible name. 

Jenna [00:52:19] It does sound like a cleaning solution. All right. But Oreos were created in 1912, which was about three years after the Hydrox, which was invented in 1908. Oreos were invented in New York City. And they are so popular that the street in which the first Nabisco factory is located, where the Oreo was first manufactured, is actually called Oreo Way. It’s in Chelsea, New York. This blew my mind. It takes 2 hours to make one Oreo cookie. That’s how long it takes to make the whole thing. Today, they produce 40 billion Oreo cookies per year. And if you stacked them all together, they would circle the earth five times. 

Angela [00:53:06] Wow. 

Jenna [00:53:07] Every year. 

Angela [00:53:08] Wow!

Jenna [00:53:09] Also, in 2011, the Oreo cookie received the Guinness World Record for the world’s biggest selling cookie, with sales in excess of 500 billion since its debut. The Oreo cookie, while it takes 2 hours to bake it, only contains 11 ingredients. And Oreo cookies are kosher. And they’re very popular with vegans because they contain no animal products. However, in their frequently asked questions, they do want you to know there is a risk of cross-contamination because they are made in a facility that does make things with milk, although there is no milk in the Oreo. But here’s the other crazy thing. No one knows the origin of the name Oreo. We don’t know why it’s called an Oreo. Doesn’t stand for anything. There’s a lot of speculation that maybe it has like roots in some Latin word, but yeah. 

Angela [00:54:03] Hmm. 

Jenna [00:54:03] I was very excited when I did this deep dive. And at dinner I announced it to my whole family. 

Angela [00:54:08] What did they think?

Jenna [00:54:09] They were fascinated by it. My son has heard of the Hydrox, by the way, and he knew that the Hydrox came first. 

Angela [00:54:16] Because you talked about it. 

Jenna [00:54:17] No! He knew!

Angela [00:54:18] What?! 

Jenna [00:54:18] I was shocked that the Hydrox came first. 

Angela [00:54:21] How does he know? 

Jenna [00:54:22] He was like, Mom, everyone knows that. Everyone knows the Hydrox came first. 

Angela [00:54:26] I did not know that. 

Jenna [00:54:28] I know! So anyway, my family was like, where the name come from? That was their big question. I was like, No one knows. Nobody knows. 

Angela [00:54:36] Hmm. 

Jenna [00:54:37] That, my friends, is your Oreo cookie deep dive. 

Angela [00:54:41] It’s making me want an Oreo. 

Jenna [00:54:43] While I was doing this deep dive, I ate two Oreos. And by the way, the gluten free Oreo is delicious as well. 

Angela [00:54:49] My favorite Oreo is the yellow one. 

Jenna [00:54:52] The lemon cream? 

Angela [00:54:54] No. Isn’t there one that- 

Jenna [00:54:55] The vanilla one? 

Angela [00:54:56] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:54:56] Mm hmm. Yeah, it’s very good. 

Angela [00:54:58] I like to put it in the fridge and eat it cold. 

Jenna [00:55:01] You like a cold vanilla Oreo? Fascinating. 

Angela [00:55:05] I’m bringing sexy back. What?! Well, Robert is really trying to do the thing he set out to do; the Peter Principle. He’s trying to get Dwight to stay right in the position he’s in. He’s like, You don’t want to live in Florida. And you know what? He said, I want to give you something. He says that he wants to give Dwight his grandfather’s medal, that his grandfather was awarded for acts of courage and excellence. But he pulls it out of a drawer that, I’m sorry, it looks like that catch all drawer in your kitchen. 

Jenna [00:55:37] It sure does. 

Angela [00:55:38] It’s got everything in it. 

Jenna [00:55:39] And this special medal, apparently. 

Angela [00:55:41] Yeah. And Dwight’s like, You know what? I don’t need a trinket from a flea market. You know? 

Jenna [00:55:46] Yeah. 

Angela [00:55:47] I think Robert has a lot of these medals. I think this is his go to drawer. 

Jenna [00:55:50] Well, this is the thing. So the fan catch from Scott P in Tennessee said, Did you notice that the medal that Robert gives Dwight also appears framed at Gabe’s desk. We talked about this. 

Angela [00:56:01]  Yes. When you see Gabe’s desk throughout this episode, you can see it plain as day.  

Jenna [00:56:07] Thor M from Washington, D.C. also spotted this and added that he feels like this really shows the difference between Gabe and Dwight, that Gabe cherished this object and needed to display it, you know, maybe to impress Robert or maybe to impress other people. 

Angela [00:56:23] Or Stephanie in the lobby. I mean, it’s right there in his squirrel desk area. 

Jenna [00:56:29] Thor also said, I actually have that medal. I was awarded it twice. 

Angela [00:56:35] Oh. 

Jenna [00:56:36] Thor said, Humblebrag, but the award that Robert is attempting to give Dwight is an Army Achievement medal. And this adds another level of irony to the show that I love as a veteran, because an AAM would never be given for bravery or valor, but it is more like an exemplary service medal, like as a commemoration of your time in a military unit. And they are given as a going away medal, as like a summary of all your achievements at your unit before you move on to the next chapter. So he thought it was very interesting that Robert is handing out these sort of going away medals. Take this medal and now go away. 

Angela [00:57:18] Go away 

Jenna [00:57:19] Exactly. 

Angela [00:57:18] And in fact, he says to Dwight, I’ll think of you if something comes up. Now get the hell out of my condo. 

Jenna [00:57:24] Yes. But you know what? Dwight likes it when he talks straight to him, when he says, I’m not giving you this job, but if something comes up that you’re right for, I’ll tell you. Dwight’s like, I accept that. 

Angela [00:57:35] That’s enough for him. Back at the bar, we’re in the final round of trivia. 

Jenna [00:57:40] We are. And I have a fun little background catch. During this scene, you can see out the windows, and it looks like night. 

Angela [00:57:47] Is Steve there in a beard and eyebrows? 

Jenna [00:57:49] No. You never see him again. But that was fakey night. It was really day. Steve Healey said that we had to do day for night shooting. And day for night shooting is when they have to cover the windows with like big black scrims. But then they also have to put enough light outside the window that it looks like nighttime. They did a really good job. I became slightly obsessed with looking out the windows and being like, that’s not really night. 

Angela [00:58:18] You had so much to look at in the background in this episode. 

Jenna [00:58:21] I really did. 

Angela [00:58:22] You were very busy. 

Jenna [00:58:22] I was. 

Angela [00:58:23] Well, in this final round, things are getting heated. The trivia host reads this question: The standard American analog scale has a maximum capacity of what weight? Kevin rings the bell. 300 pounds! 

Jenna [00:58:35] He knows the answer. 

Angela [00:58:36] Knows the answer. Einsteins get it. Final question. For all the cinephiles out there, put on your memory berets. The final question is a doozy. It’s about a French film. 

Jenna [00:58:49] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:58:50] Oscar thinks he has this in the bag. He’s very confident with his answer. But no, it’s incorrect. And who has the right answer but Kevin. And the Einsteins win! 

Jenna [00:59:00] The Einsteins win because Kevin answered the last two questions correctly. Kevin, the person that Andy forced off the A-team in the very beginning. 

Angela [00:59:11] Yes! 

Jenna [00:59:11] Kevin has a great talking head where he says, You know, maybe tonight was a fluke, but fluke is the most common fish in the sea. It’s the fish you’re most likely to catch when you go fishing. 

Angela [00:59:21] There was a Kevin talking head. It’s in deleted scenes and he talks about his level of education. Here’s what he said: When I dropped out of school to watch more sports, a lot of people thought I was nuts. Well, who’s laughing now? 

Jenna [00:59:37] What’s funny is that Kevin never answered a sports question. 

Angela [00:59:41] I know, I know. But we found out he dropped out of school. And then there’s a deleted Oscar talking head where he sort of sums up the day. It’s pretty funny. I’m going to read it to you. It gets better, kids. It gets so much better that one day your stupid coworkers will be excited to show up at your gay bar and ruin your trivia night. 

Jenna [01:00:05] Oh, boy. I don’t think I want to be in that accounting clump tomorrow. 

Angela [01:00:09] Hey, Angela had nothing to do with it. 

Jenna [01:00:11] That’s right. 

Angela [01:00:12] But it would be kind of icy between Kevin and Oscar. 

Jenna [01:00:15] So the tag for this episode is another trivia night. The Einsteins have made it to the state championships. 

Angela [01:00:23] The state championships in all of Pennsylvania. 

Jenna [01:00:26] That’s insane. 

Angela [01:00:27] The host of this trivia night is played by comedian Dan Levy. He is hilarious, by the way. And here’s a crazy, odd coincidence, just one of those things, how life comes back around. Dan was my husband’s roommate when they were in their twenties. 

Jenna [01:00:43] No way! 

Angela [01:00:43] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:00:44] Oh, my gosh. 

Angela [01:00:46] They were roommates. They had met in an acting class. They’re still friends. He is hilarious. And he tours with John Mulaney. He’s so funny. I’m going to put a little swipe up to Dan because he’s he’s fantastic. 

Jenna [01:00:57] Well, I remember him from his role in the TV show Enlightened. He is awesome. 

Angela [01:01:01] Oh, yeah. 

Jenna [01:01:02] Well, guys, that is Trivia. I want to give a big thank you to Steve Burgess and Steve Healey for all your tidbits. You know, Angela, Steve Healy was so sweet. I have to read you what he said at the end of our email chain talking about Trivia. He just said thank you to both of us. And he said, Any time I think back on The Office, it’s a deep wave of memories. Some of them just of the late nights and stress and weird food, but it’s also so fun to remember. And more than anything, I am grateful I was part of such a project that people love so much. I think that sums it up. 

Angela [01:01:36] That’s how I feel too. And a special thank you to my friend Brian Gattas for sharing with us what it was like being on set shooting those bar scenes. Brian has been in a ton of things and you can check him out on Instagram at Built by Gattas. He does his own ceramics, Jenna 

Jenna [01:01:52] Really? 

Angela [01:01:52] I know! 

Jenna [01:01:54] I might be in the market for some ceramics. I love handmade things. 

Angela [01:01:57] You really do. 

Jenna [01:01:59] Well, guys, thanks so much for listening. We have a two week end-of-summer break and then we’ll be back with a new episode.

Angela [01:02:07] Take care, you guys. 

Jenna [01:02:09] See you then!

Jenna [01:02:21] Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. Our senior producer is Cassi Jerkins. Our in-studio engineer is Sam Kieffer. Our editing and mixing engineer is Jordan Duffy. And our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico. 

Angela [01:02:37] Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For ad free versions of Office Ladies, go to Stitcher Premium dot com. For a free one month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code “office”.