Bloopers In The Office That Were Better Than The Original Scene

While watching Michael embarrass everyone or Jim prank Dwight on The Office, you've probably often wondered "how do these guys keep a straight face?" The short answer: they didn't. If you think watching the brilliant cringe comedy madness is funny, imagine having to act it out for the first time or read it in a fresh script. Thing is, there were so many fantastic bloopers and gags produced during the creation of The Office that they could almost make up their own show. (We know we'd watch it.) In fact, some of those gags were even funnier, more memorable, or just all around better than the final version of the scene we actually got. We've taken the liberty of compiling the best of exactly those character-breaking, line-fumbling moments of hilarity for you here. We'll admit, though, this is not an exhaustive list. Go watch Office bloopers yourself for even more fun. You can easily kill hours doing it, and they're as funny as the series itself.

Warning: some spoilers ahead.

The original scene: Now that he's broken up with Jan (as per the events of "Dinner Party"), Michael is pitifully lonely and desperate enough to become borderline obsessed with the model in an office supply catalog. Desperate for companionship before he gets too old and can't have kids, Michael demands his subordinates each write down the name of a single woman they know that he could go on a date with. After a whole afternoon of Michael's self-pitying antics, Pam relents and says she has someone for him: her poor, unsuspecting landlady. 

The better blooper: This is a classic blooper in the form of a poorly delivered line. In this take, after Pam tells Steve she might have someone for him, he looks up and asks if she's "hot" in the most awkward, childish way imaginable. It sounds like something got caught in his throat. There's a brief moment when everyone tries to move forward with the scene, but nobody can hold it together. Carrell eventually admits, through fits of laughter, "that was the worst take ever."

The original scene: Ryan Howard, introduced to us in the pilot episode as a mild-mannered temp, has risen to the rank of corporate VP by the beginning of season four. When he reintroduces himself to "his favorite branch" in Scranton, neither his five o'clock shadow nor his Bluetooth nor his new, expensive suit succeed in getting anyone to respect him the way he wants. The people who don't like him continue not liking him, and the people who do (mainly Michael) won't stop treating him like he's still the adorable little office temp that everyone likes to pick on. Wanting to nip this in the bud quickly, Ryan snaps and admonishes Michael in front of the office, demanding respect as his superior.

The better blooper: Steve Carrell and Brian Baumgartner (Kevin), flanking BJ Novak (Ryan) on either side, clasp their hands together and start jokingly mimicking his gestures as Ryan addresses his former coworkers as their superior for the first time. When BJ notices this, he cracks up mid-sentence, causing everyone in the room to do the same. "I'm really sorry I broke," he apologizes. "That was too good."

The original scene: This episode begins with a despondent Phyllis telling her coworkers that she was flashed by a man in a trench coat after she stopped to help him with directions in the parking lot. Michael goes back and forth between making crass, inappropriate jokes and trying to host a series of women's appreciation seminars and events for which, as Jim points out, he is completely unqualified to manage. Meanwhile, Dwight announces the creation of a very serious indeed anti-flashing task force that will be run entirely by him, even though he has no clue how to investigate a crime and local police are already on the job. While explaining the task force to his coworkers, he refers to Phyllis as "phallus" before apologizing. "Sorry," he says. "Penises on the brain." Cue a classic Jim look into the camera.

The better blooper: naturally, a scene like this would be hard to get through with a straight face. The cast tried it multiple times, breaking constantly. At one point, Rainn Wilson (Dwight) tried to muscle through and complete the scene, even though he was laughing as hard as anyone else and the take was clearly unusable. Steve Carrell's "why do you keep going?" causes him to break, and makes everyone else laugh even harder.

The original scene: with Michael and Pam out giving sales training presentations to the other regional branches, Jim and Dwight are in charge of the office. Things immediately take a turn for the worse when they realize they've forgotten Kelly Kapoor's birthday. She's having none of it when they go to her desk to apologize, rejecting their peace offerings and being so hostile that Dwight even stands up for his archenemy Jim. This prompts her to say "screw you, beet farmer." Jim quickly salvages the situation before Dwight yells back and makes it worse by promising her a cake and a party that afternoon.

The better blooper: It's probably not that surprising that a scene like this might've been a little too much fun to shoot. Every time John Krasinski steps in to lower the temperature, Rainn Wilson shoots him a shocked, wide-eyed look that causes them both to crack up. Rainn then tries to tone down the expression, but the fact that John is expecting it at all is enough to cause him to break again and again. By the third failure, they're all a little bit frustrated, but still having plenty of fun.

The original scene: The Scranton branch participates in a company-wide weight loss competition. Naturally, things go astray. Kelly starves herself and tries to buy a tapeworm from Creed, and Dwight, after insulting Phyllis, Stanley, and Kevin for their weight, tricks Phyllis into going on a non-existent sales call, only to abandon her five miles from the office without her purse or phone, thus forcing her to burn calories on her walk back. Holly sets up an HR meeting to address the madness, but Michael ruins it by donning a semi-deflated sumo suit (bought for season 3's finale, "Beach Games") and appearing in character as "Michael Klump," an insulting "celebration" of overweight people.

The better blooper: It's simple, really: Steve Carrell waddling into the conference room in the suit and hitting everyone with a comically delivered "Hello, everybodyyyy" was simply too much for anyone to put up with. He had to try it multiple times before everyone was able to hold in their laughter for a usable take. The original scene is an Office classic, but the gag version is even better.

The original scene: An excited Andy and a not-so-excited Angela have decided, at her insistence, to book Schrute Farms as their wedding venue, and are planning a lunch break trip to check it out. Problem is, proprietor Dwight doesn't know how to give acceptable directions like "go five miles to such and such a road, then take a right." Instead, he opts for bizarre instructions like "walk 156 paces from the light red mailbox, make a left," and "walk until you hear the beehive." When Andy brings this up, Dwight insists the directions are perfectly normal and can't seem to grasp why anyone would have an issue getting to his farm.

The better blooper: nobody can keep a straight face as Ed Helms (Andy) tries out some bizarre, obviously ad-libbed lines as if Dwight had actually written them down. "If you are attacked by territorial crows," he says, before everyone loses it and cuts him off. "If you smell bear pee," he says later, "turn the other way." He barely finishes the sentence before they laugh again. Clearly it took quite a few tries to get a usable take.

The original scene: Pam's pregnant with her and Jim's first child, but she's resisting everyone's attempts to get her to the hospital. If you ask her, she'd say she wants to wait until after midnight for insurance purposes, but the reality is that she's scared of going into labor and wants to drag it out. Jim is slowly losing it trying to get her to the hospital, and at one point relies on Michael to tell him when her contractions start coming every five minutes. When he finds out they're now coming every two minutes, he yells at Michael for not informing him earlier. "Two minutes?" He says. "I told you to warn me at five minutes. We waited too long. Two minutes doesn't do us any good. Well, what happened to four and three minutes?!"

The better blooper: In one take, Steve Carrell takes John Krasinski aside, holds him by the arms up against the door post and says "you gotta hold it together, okay?" However, it's so abrupt and strange that neither actor can hold it together, instantly bursting into laughter and walking away from each other while Jenna Fischer laughs hysterically in her chair.

The original scene: The kickoff to season 4 is Meredith ending up hospitalized after Michael hits her with his car in the parking lot. She has a minor pelvic fracture and gets a rabies shot after the doctor finds out she might've been bitten by a bat when one was trapped in the office during the previous season. This prompts a guilt-stricken Michael to launch a "Fun Run" race for the rabies cure, despite the fact that Meredith likely doesn't have rabies — and, as Jim pointed out, it's already been cured. While he's organizing all that, Pam rallies the coworkers for a lunch break carpool to visit Meredith in the hospital.

The better blooper: In one take, when Jenna Fischer (Pam) tells everyone, "Okay, we're leaving for the hospital at one," Steve Carrell is supposed to respond with "like a freedom tree?" Instead, he trips all over the line, saying something like "yeah, so fab-fub-freedom tree." This inevitably causes Fischer to break, and the scene to be reset. He says the line correctly in the next few takes, but the damage has been done. Every time he says "like a freedom tree," everyone on set laughs hysterically.

The original scene: Jim, Dwight, and even Michael, all seasoned and talented salesmen, lose a major potential client to rival traveling rep Danny Cordray, of Osprey Paper. Michael promptly calls the sales team to a brainstorming session upon returning to the office, and asks everyone for ideas to outmaneuver Cordray. Stanley says "sell better," prompting an annoyed Michael to mistake his sarcasm for indifference and demand he leave, making comments about diabetes. Stanley insists he doesn't have diabetes and would like to stay, for once, as Cordray affected his paycheck. Eventually, he gets exasperated with Michael's insensitive comments and gets up to leave, grunting while he does it. Michael says "See? I could tell [you have diabetes] by the sound you made when you stood up."

The better blooper: That scene took several tries to nail. In the final scene, nobody reacted when Michael made that last comment, but every cast member in the room lost it the first time he said it. Even Leslie David Baker (Stanley) cracked up hard enough to stumble back from the door he was about to walk through. Luckily for us, the clearly ad-libbed line made it to the final cut.

The original scene: one of the major storylines of season three was the merging of the defunct Stamford, Connecticut branch with the one in Scranton. Martin, one of the Stamford transplants, is a former convict who'd been briefly imprisoned for insider trading, long before starting his career with Dunder Mifflin. Once he finds out about this, Michael tries awkwardly defending Martin, even though he doesn't need to be defended, simply because he's Black and Michael is worried about stereotypes. Then, when his subordinates start inquiring about prison and pretending to wish they were in it, Michael sees Martin as a threat to office morale and his "fun boss" shtick. In one scene, Michael barges into the break room, where Martin is casually explaining his prison time to his new coworkers.

The better blooper: not knowing the camera was rolling, a crew member audibly shouts "Mel?" in the background, forcing everyone to reset for a new take. In another take, Steve Carrell bursts into the room and mockingly says the same thing, causing everyone to crack up.

The original scene: The office is holding an event to celebrate the impending launch of Dunder Mifflin Infinity, new VP Ryan Howard's pet project. Michael announces he's ordered pizza from "Alfredo," prompting Kevin to ask if he ordered it from Alfredo's Pizza Cafe, which everyone loves, or Pizza by Alfredo, which they don't. Oscar explains the difference between the two. Naturally, Michael accidentally picked the latter, not having been aware of the difference. This invites groans of disappointment from the workers.

The better blooper: in one tossed take, the whole cast decides to have some fun by turning the moderate disappointment in the script into hysterical wailing and flailing. Oscar collapses into a screaming fetal position. Jim tosses things off his desk before going over and pretending to pummel Andy for no reason. Creed and Dwight dance. Michael watches it all, unimpressed, from the threshold of his office. It's a fun, bizarre blooper made more notable by the fact that it was quite clearly staged.

The original scene: Dunder Mifflin Infinity, Ryan Howard's new paper-buying online portal that he hopes will modernize the ailing company, is going live. To celebrate (even though most of the characters see the website as a threat to their careers), the office decides to order some pizza for a branch party. Michael comes out of his office to announce that hot food is en route, saying, "I have some good news." Stanley replies, in his distinctive deadpan sarcasm, "we get to go home?"

The better blooper: In one take, Leslie David Baker (Stanley) doesn't just say that line — he shouts it, joyously, wide-eyed, throwing his hands into the air and leaning back in his seat so far he almost tumbles out of it. This prompts Steve Carrell, followed quickly by the entire cast, to break into uncontrollable laughter. Leslie himself is laughing harder than anyone. John Krasinski is howling so hard he holds his hands over his face and rocks back and forth in his chair. Carrell goes back and forth between his office and the main room, unable to stop laughing long enough to speak. If you don't at least crack up watching this, you may be dead inside.

The original scene: If you're reading an article about The Office, you've almost certainly seen what's arguably its greatest episode: Season 4's "Dinner Party." Michael and his borderline psychotic girlfriend and former boss, Jan, host an after-work get-together at their condo with Jim, Pam, Andy, Angela, Dwight, and Dwight's former babysitter, who he brought as a date. The episode, in which Michael and Jan's relationship unravels before the eyes of their squirming guests over the course of an evening filled awkward house tours, failed business pitches, games that nobody likes, a screaming match about having kids, passive-aggressive arguments between the hosts, a very late meal that both Pam and Michael think Jan has poisoned, and much more, is a triumph of cringe comedy that's never been matched.

The better blooper: And yet the blooper reel is even more entertaining. The episode was famously hard to shoot because everyone in it simply could not stop laughing long enough to get good takes. In one take, Steve Carrell brags about how he can push Michael's tiny plasma screen TV into the wall before saying "eyes over here, Jim" to John Krasinski. After everyone stops laughing, Carrell quips that they'll never finish the episode. Said co-writer Lee Eisenberg, "There's nothing more satisfying than having Steve Carell barely able to get through his lines."