Second Drink: Golden Ticket with Rainn Wilson

This week we’re breaking down “Golden Ticket”, and Rainn Wilson calls in to give an in depth interview about his experience playing the eccentric, unforgettable Dwight Schrute. When Michael’s Willy Wonka inspired “golden ticket” idea backfires, Michael tries to get Dwight to take the blame. Angela tells a story about her dad winning a pink car, Rainn reveals a mysterious white peacock named Ulma that’s moved into his yard and Jenna shares a great product idea a friend and her came up with in school that involves a baster. So enjoy this episode during your daily power stroll. Check out Rainn Wilson’s podcast, “Metaphysical Milkshake”: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/metaphysical-milkshake-with-rainn-reza/id1566052074 Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod https://www.instagram.com/officeladiespod/ Follow Us on YouTube https://youtube.com/@officeladiespod?si=D0oKJwFJuK9txzFM Follow Us on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@officeladiespod?_t=ZT-8y1gqTrJyOs&_r=1

• 0:02Speaker 00

  Hello and welcome to your second drink of Golden Ticket. This is a really great breakdown because it includes a long interview with Rainn Wilson. And it's not just about this episode, but it was also just about how he got his role as Dwight and his time playing Dwight on The Office in general.

• 0:20Speaker 01

  I mean, so fun to hear all of that from him. And we've been asking you to write us with your favorite moments from these episodes over in our Second Drinks folder on office ladies dot com. This week's winner, we need a sting, we need a winner sting.

• 0:36Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 0:37Speaker 01

  This week's winner, bibo bibo, is a moment between Michael and Daryl. Kate M. from Providence, Rhode Island, Lauren P. from Kansas City, Missouri, wrote in and they said, "Hi, Office Ladies. One of our favorite scenes in this episode is when Michael walks up to Daryl and says, 'Hey, you idiot.'" And Daryl says, "Start over." And Michael says, "Sir." I absolutely love that moment. It makes me laugh every single time I watch it. I often find myself saying, "Sir," exactly as Michael says it. Steve performed that perfectly. You know what? Why don't we hear it?

• 1:12Speaker 02

  Hey, hey, hey, you idiot.

• 1:17Speaker 03

  Start over.

• 1:19Speaker 02

  Sir.

• 1:21Speaker 00

  It is such perfect comic timing.

• 1:26Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:27Speaker 00

  Well, we also got a letter from Robin Y. in Redmond, Oregon, who said, "Backstory, I used to work as a bridal consultant. I helped brides find their wedding dresses and helped them through everything having to do with the dress. I got very used to lots of happy emotions and not so happy emotions. So one day, I was in between appointments and at the front desk when one of the brides I had helped came storming into the shop with her dress in the bag. More backstory, this bride was legendary at the shop for taking up two appointment time slots because she refused to take a dress off because she was crying. So I knew exactly who she was."

• 2:04Speaker 01

  Oh, gosh.

• 2:05Speaker 00

  So she storms in, throws her dress on the counter, and says to me, 'You idiot.' And without hesitation, I said, 'Start over.'"

• 2:17Speaker 00

  Only after figuring out what the problem was and after she left, did I realize that it was exactly like what happened between Michael and Daryl in the Golden Ticket episode. Since then, I've dealt with all sorts of people in weddings and all sorts of emotions, and I can say without a doubt that the best way to respond to someone in that situation is the way Daryl responds to Michael in Golden Ticket. If you work in customer service, absolutely channel the calmness of Daryl.

• 2:44Speaker 01

  That's such a great story.

• 2:46Speaker 00

  Start over. Start over. I wish I could remember that in the moment.

• 2:51Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 2:52Speaker 00

  You know?

• 2:53Speaker 01

  I always think of those things after the fact.

• 2:55Speaker 00

  I know.

• 2:56Speaker 01

  Okay, so the reason Michael is confronting Daryl is because Michael hid five golden tickets into boxes of paper, and he's mad that one company found all the tickets. We got this letter from Julia S. in San Jose, California. Julia says, "I am currently watching Golden Ticket, and something is bothering me. The whole plot of Golden Ticket is that one company gets all of the tickets, but each of the tickets were in separate boxes. How would Blue Cross have seen all of the golden tickets at once? Do they open each one when they arrive for a quality check? I feel like they would stack the boxes in a supply closet and open them when needed. I'm just wondering, is it realistic for Blue Cross to have found all of the golden tickets all at once?"

• 3:40Speaker 00

  Okay, I thought about this. And here's what I think happened. He wasn't putting the golden tickets into actual reams of paper, right? It was just in the box. So I could realistically believe that each of these boxes was going to maybe different departments, and that department was unloading that box and putting them into a cabinet. That's what I do. When I get my box of paper at home, I take the box, I open it, and I put all the reams of paper in my, you know, printer cabinet.

• 4:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:15Speaker 00

  At first, I was like, "You're right, that's totally implausible." But then I kind of like followed my train of thought. I'm like, "No, I could see it."

• 4:22Speaker 01

  So basically, your theory is, for example, like, an accounting department and human resources and IT and sales all got their box of paper and they all opened them on the same day. They all needed paper at the exact same time.

• 4:38Speaker 00

  I'm not even saying they needed paper. I am saying that they have a place they put paper. So yes, I guess I'm saying that five different departments received a box and all five of those departments were very efficient in putting away their paper immediately. Yes, yes.

• 4:53Speaker 01

  Well, I might call bullshit on it, but I'm also just here for the story because I love this episode.

• 5:00Speaker 00

  You know, it's almost a bullshit card. It's like bullshit card adjacent, I think. Okay. Well, lady, we got a mom detectives case in our mailbag.

• 5:10Speaker 01

  What?

• 5:11Speaker 00

  About this episode. It's from Denny M. from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. And here's the mystery. It's called, "Whose Leg Is It?"

• 5:22Speaker 01

  I'm in already. I love it.

• 5:25Speaker 00

  Denny says, "This is one of my favorite episodes. I watch it over and over again and notice that in the superfan episode, Kevin, Pam, Jim, and Andy are sitting in the break room and there is a leg between Kevin and Pam. It looks like there's a person there, but we never see their face. Who is that?

• 5:46Speaker 00

  Whose leg is it? Was there a deleted scene with someone else in the break room with them? It has been bugging me all of these years. Do you know the answer to this mystery? I love your show and appreciate all of the hard work you put into making shows and content for Office fans. Thank you." Well, Denny, I'm excited to report this was a very easy case. We're solving this one.

• 6:09Speaker 01

  We are. And are you ready for this? At 25 minutes and 43 seconds, I saw the leg.

• 6:16Speaker 00

  I saw the leg.

• 6:17Speaker 01

  And after doing a little mom detective work, we realized it is our camera operator sitting on a stool. They would often do that. They would have this little stool. You know, we've talked about it.

• 6:28Speaker 00

  Well, our walls didn't move, so they'd have to like sit in the corner.

• 6:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, they'd have to wedge in. So what he was doing was capturing the other angle of the scene on Dwight at the vending machine.

• 6:40Speaker 00

  That's right. That's exactly right. And as I was re-watching this scene, looking for whose leg is it, I noticed something else. And it's about Dwight at the vending machine. He has a line where he says, "Dating advice? Why didn't you ask me?" And I noticed that Rain pops the tab on his soda between saying "dating advice" and "why didn't you ask me?" And I know why he did that. But let's listen. I want you guys to just hear this little moment.

• 7:09Speaker 03

  Wait a minute. Dating advice?

• 7:12Speaker 03

  Why didn't you ask me?

• 7:13Speaker 00

  Uh huh. Dating advice? Why didn't you ask me? He did that for sound. Because in film and television, you can never do anything loud on your line, or else they can't cut around it.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 7:28Speaker 00

  Also, in the background of that scene, when Rain first enters and he's putting the money in the vending machine, and then he gets a soda, first of all, I'm convinced he's not really putting any money in there, because it would have made a sound. I think he's fakey putting coins in. And then, that soda was pre-planted at the bottom of the machine, so you wouldn't hear the noise of it going down.

• 7:48Speaker 01

  Kachunk, kachunk, kachunk.

• 7:48Speaker 00

  Because it would ruin the dialogue at the table.

• 7:51Speaker 01

  They need to get one of those vending machines on a set that is the arm that just goes

• 7:59Speaker 00

  Those are sometimes loud, though.

• 8:01Speaker 01

  Are they?

• 8:02Speaker 00

  I don't know. Not as loud as like the

• 8:05Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, yeah, the old school one.

• 8:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:08Speaker 01

  I love watching the arm.

• 8:09Speaker 00

  The arm is kind of cool.

• 8:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:11Speaker 00

  I hear you.

• 8:13Speaker 01

  Sometimes I don't even need anything, but I just want to watch the arm.

• 8:16Speaker 00

  Oh, so you'll be more likely to buy something out of a vending machine with an arm than a kachunk, kachunk one?

• 8:22Speaker 01

  Yes. I love the arm. I don't know, guys. It's the small things in life. All right. Well, acting students out there, that was a hot tip, you know? So if you have an envelope you have to open, don't open it on your line.

• 8:36Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 8:37Speaker 01

  Don't get that soda can on your line. All the things you learn right here on Office, ladies.

• 8:42Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 8:43Speaker 01

  All right, you guys, thanks for sending in your questions and comments. Now, please enjoy our second drink of Golden Ticket.

• 8:52Speaker 00

  I'm Jenna Fisher.

• 8:53Speaker 01

  And I'm Angela Kinsey.

• 8:54Speaker 00

  We were on The Office together.

• 8:56Speaker 01

  And we're best friends.

• 8:57Speaker 00

  And now we're doing the Ultimate Office Rewatch Podcast just for you.

• 9:01Speaker 01

  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.

• 9:08Speaker 00

  We're the Office ladies.

• 9:14Speaker 00

  Hello, everyone.

• 9:15Speaker 01

  Hi.

• 9:17Speaker 00

  Today is Golden Ticket, Season 5, Episode 19. This was written by Mindy Kaling and directed by Randall Einhorn.

• 9:25Speaker 01

  It's a big day for Michael.

• 9:28Speaker 00

  Oh, it's a big idea for Michael.

• 9:29Speaker 01

  It's a big idea day for Michael.

• 9:32Speaker 00

  Here's your summary. Michael decides to execute a Willy Wonka-themed promotional idea. He is gonna take some golden tickets. He's gonna hide them in some paper shipments, and any company that finds a golden ticket gets 10% off.

• 9:51Speaker 01

  And it's not limited to one.

• 9:54Speaker 00

  Well, we're gonna find that out. Yeah. This idea is gonna backfire. He is going to pressure Dwight into taking the fall, but then that backfires.

• 10:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:06Speaker 00

  A lot of ideas and a lot of backfires.

• 10:09Speaker 01

  Lot of layers here, playing games.

• 10:12Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm. Yeah. Meanwhile, Pam, Jim, and Andy are all giving dating advice to Kevin. It's somewhat conflicting. Kevin's a little confused, but he's gonna try to make a connection with Lynn from Blood Drive. From their Lonely Hearts mixer. Lynn is still in the mix from the mixer.

• 10:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:35Speaker 00

  Let's get into fast facts. Fast fact number one. This episode contains maybe one of the most famous Office GIFs of them all. You know what I'm talking about.

• 10:48Speaker 01

  A GIF for a GIF. It doesn't matter. You know the one we're talking about.

• 10:51Speaker 00

  Is it gif or Jif?

• 10:53Speaker 01

  I don't know, guys. I've never known. I'll never know.

• 10:56Speaker 00

  Let's ask the two hip young people in the booth.

• 10:58Speaker 01

  Please, young people, tell us how to say it.

• 11:00Speaker 04

  I say Jif. What do you say? No, I say gif. Sorry.

• 11:05Speaker 05

  I think the correct one is Jif, but it feels wrong. But everyone I know says gif.

• 11:11Speaker 04

  It's kind of like gift, but you take the T off. So I, I think it's gif.

• 11:15Speaker 01

  Well, I've been saying Jif.

• 11:17Speaker 00

  I say gif.

• 11:18Speaker 01

  There you have it. Also, what's a meme? What, what is a meme?

• 11:23Speaker 00

  A gif is if it moves and a meme is if it's still.

• 11:26Speaker 05

  And also, I mean, people say Jif is correct, but keep in mind, it stands for graphics interchange, whatever the F is. So it starts with a G. So it would be gif, right? Graphics, G?

• 11:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:38Speaker 05

  Right? There it is.

• 11:40Speaker 01

  Okay, we'll put a poll, but, okay.

• 11:44Speaker 00

  Jif is a peanut butter. I'm just saying.

• 11:47Speaker 01

  I like it.

• 11:48Speaker 00

  You know? I don't know. While you're putting a poll, and since I brought it up, are you a crunchy or a smooth peanut butter?

• 11:55Speaker 01

  Smooth.

• 11:56Speaker 00

  Same.

• 11:56Speaker 01

  Get your peanuts out of my peanut butter. So there is a very famous Jif.

• 12:02Speaker 00

  Or gif.

• 12:03Speaker 01

  Oh, I said it wrong again.

• 12:05Speaker 00

  Well, we don't know if you're saying it wrong, lady, but it's true.

• 12:09Speaker 01

  When Dwight looks at camera and has his hand up to his face.

• 12:12Speaker 00

  It's at the end of the cold open and he says, it's true. That's everywhere. It even made it to USA Today's ranking of the top 36 gifs of the office. It's true was number 13.

• 12:28Speaker 01

  What's number one?

• 12:30Speaker 00

  Number one?

• 12:31Speaker 01

  That's what she said?

• 12:32Speaker 00

  No, but that's on the list, but it's not number one. Number one was Michael from the Super Bowl cold open when he says, oh my God, it's happening.

• 12:43Speaker 01

  Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's stress relief.

• 12:46Speaker 00

  Stress relief.

• 12:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, where they're doing the fire drill.

• 12:49Speaker 00

  Yes. Do you want to know what number two is on their list? Is one of my favorites. It might be my number one.

• 12:57Speaker 01

  Don't throw garbage at my head?

• 12:58Speaker 00

  No, it's Kelly. It is. I have a lot of questions. Number one, how dare you?

• 13:04Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, that's a good one.

• 13:06Speaker 00

  But I would like to say that number 12 was Jim and Pam's air high five. We made it on the list, so I'm proud of us.

• 13:15Speaker 01

  I don't know that Angela Martin is on the list with dialogue, but I'm on every list. If you type in eye roll.

• 13:21Speaker 00

  You've got an eye roll.

• 13:22Speaker 01

  I've got an eye roll and I've got a real good one in this episode I'm going to point out.

• 13:26Speaker 00

  Fast fact, number two, speaking of the cold open, which gave us this famous gif. It's all about knock, knock jokes. The guys are doing these knock, knock jokes with each other and we'll break it down fully when we get there. So I watched this episode with Lee and he said, isn't it amazing how the knock, knock joke is so universal? That if one person walks up to another person and says, knock, knock. You just know to say, who's there?

• 13:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:54Speaker 00

  And then you know you're in a knock, knock joke. How did that begin?

• 13:57Speaker 01

  Well. Uh oh, somebody hit the Google button.

• 14:00Speaker 00

  Yes. As a lady who Googles, I'm going to give you the history of knock, knock jokes.

• 14:05Speaker 01

  I want to hear it.

• 14:06Speaker 00

  So the first written coupling of knock, knock, who's there? The first time it sort of appeared anywhere people believe is Shakespeare's Macbeth.

• 14:17Speaker 01

  All roads lead back to Shakespeare.

• 14:19Speaker 00

  That's why it was so important to study it in theater school.

• 14:22Speaker 01

  Hey, I studied Shakespeare.

• 14:25Speaker 00

  I believe you.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  But I studied it in my writing class.

• 14:28Speaker 00

  Well, there you go. Act two, scene three. The porter is very hungover and he has this monologue where he repeats, knock, knock, who's there? And then he tells you who's there. He's sort of just kind of in his head.

• 14:44Speaker 01

  'Tis I, a Montague.

• 14:49Speaker 00

  But in this play, it is not a joke. He's not doing like a jokey thing. It's not like what it is now. So now cut to it's the early 1900s. And there's this new kind of comedy on the scene.

• 15:02Speaker 01

  Ooh, what kind?

• 15:04Speaker 00

  It's like a call answer comedy or like a bait and response comedy. And here's an example of one of these jokes from the 1900s. Someone would say, "Do you know Arthur?" And that would make the other person say, "Arthur who?" And then you would say, "Arthur Mometer."

• 15:21Speaker 01

  Ho!

• 15:23Speaker 00

  Yes, that was one of the jokes.

• 15:25Speaker 01

  My kids would love that one, saving it.

• 15:27Speaker 00

  Well, it's very similar to that whole up dog joke. The what's up, dog? I don't know, what's up with you?

• 15:34Speaker 01

  Right.

• 15:34Speaker 00

  Right? That Michael famously botched. So then, in the mid 1930s, this kind of like pun mania morphed into what is now the traditional knock-knock joke. Cartoonist Bob Dunn is credited with inventing this joke in its current form. He wrote a book called Knock Knock, Who's There? And it's basically filled with knock-knock joke puns. It sold like 2 million copies. It took off like crazy. It was a Jeopardy question. Get this.

• 16:09Speaker 01

  What?

• 16:10Speaker 00

  Knock-knock jokes were especially huge in Pennsylvania.

• 16:14Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 16:15Speaker 00

  Versions of knock-knock jokes started appearing in advertisements. The Edgemont Cash and Carry Grocery Store in Chester, Pennsylvania ran an ad that said, "Knock, knock, who's there? Don, Don who? Don, forget to do your shopping at the Cash and Carry."

• 16:33Speaker 01

  Yeah. Don, forget it.

• 16:36Speaker 00

  There was also this one, ready? Knock, knock.

• 16:39Speaker 01

  Who's there?

• 16:40Speaker 00

  Rufus.

• 16:41Speaker 01

  Rufus who?

• 16:42Speaker 00

  Roof is the most important part of your house. That was a roofing company.

• 16:46Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 16:48Speaker 00

  But politicians started using them. There were like special clubs called knock-knock clubs that formed in Illinois and Iowa and Kansas. And I guess.

• 17:00Speaker 01

  Knock-knock clubs?

• 17:02Speaker 00

  You would just go there and tell your knock-knock jokes? Yes, it was like a place to have a drink and share your greatest knock-knock jokes. Then, in 1936, at like the peak of the knock-knock joke craze, there was a song called "The Knock-Knock Song" by Fletcher Henderson. And I'm going to play you a clip.

• 17:22Speaker 01

  Oh, my word.

• 17:35Speaker 00

  See some. See some loud music wherever she goes.

• 17:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love it.

• 17:44Speaker 00

  A whole song full of knock-knock jokes. So then, lady, there is a backlash.

• 17:51Speaker 01

  Oh, people turn on the knock-knock?

• 17:53Speaker 00

  Well, all of these psychologists start coming out, like Sigmund Freud.

• 17:58Speaker 01

  Uh oh.

• 17:58Speaker 00

  And A.A. Brill, they start saying that people who have an incessant need to make puns have a psychological condition.

• 18:06Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 18:07Speaker 00

  That it is like a sign of narcissism.

• 18:10Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 18:11Speaker 00

  A German neurologist named Alfred Forster said manic punning was a certifiable syndrome, and he actually called it Forster Syndrome.

• 18:22Speaker 01

  He named it after himself.

• 18:24Speaker 00

  I mean.

• 18:25Speaker 01

  Aren't you being a narcissist, Mr. Forster?

• 18:27Speaker 00

  I mean, I don't know.

• 18:29Speaker 01

  You're telling me that people that love and pun are narcissists, and then you name it after yourself?

• 18:33Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 18:34Speaker 01

  I just want to point that out.

• 18:35Speaker 00

  Yeah. Well, despite their best efforts, knock-knock jokes have stayed around. We still have them today, of course. They appear in this episode of The Office. Halloween is coming up. That's when I always hear the knock-knock jokes, I think.

• 18:51Speaker 01

  At your house?

• 18:52Speaker 00

  It's like with kids.

• 18:52Speaker 01

  Yeah. What do you got?

• 18:54Speaker 00

  Knock-knock.

• 18:54Speaker 01

  Who's there?

• 18:55Speaker 00

  Boo.

• 18:56Speaker 01

  Boo hoo.

• 18:56Speaker 00

  Don't cry, it's just a joke.

• 18:58Speaker 01

  Got it.

• 18:59Speaker 00

  Um, do you have any that are, like, what are your favorites?

• 19:02Speaker 01

  Well, this is the one I remember from elementary school. Knock-knock, who's there? Banana.

• 19:07Speaker 00

  Banana who?

• 19:08Speaker 01

  Knock-knock, who's there?

• 19:09Speaker 00

  Banana.

• 19:10Speaker 01

  Banana who?

• 19:11Speaker 00

  Knock-knock, who's there?

• 19:12Speaker 01

  Banana.

• 19:12Speaker 00

  Banana who?

• 19:13Speaker 01

  Knock-knock, who's there?

• 19:14Speaker 00

  Orange.

• 19:15Speaker 01

  Orange who?

• 19:15Speaker 00

  Aren't you glad I didn't say banana? I remember that one, too. This is my kid's favorite.

• 19:21Speaker 01

  What?

• 19:21Speaker 00

  Knock-knock.

• 19:22Speaker 01

  Who's there?

• 19:23Speaker 00

  Interrupting cow.

• 19:24Speaker 01

  Oh, my kids like this one, too.

• 19:28Speaker 01

  I know that one. Interrupting count.

• 19:30Speaker 00

  No.

• 19:30Speaker 01

  Uh huh. Yeah. So the lady has Googled. We have gotten to the bottom of the knock-knock joke.

• 19:37Speaker 00

  What's your fast fact number three? My fast fact number three is that supposedly coming out in November 2021, there is going to be a Michael Scott Funko Pop holding a golden ticket.

• 19:49Speaker 01

  Oh, is he gonna be dressed like Willy Wonka?

• 19:51Speaker 00

  Yeah, he's gonna have a little top hat on. I saw their rendering for it and I don't know how accurate it is, but they're saying this is gonna be a new Funko Pop based on this episode.

• 20:01Speaker 01

  Well, that's so fun. I just think they're all so cute. I'm about to get one of Angela in her Fun Run outfit.

• 20:07Speaker 00

  You know, I don't have a single Pam Funko Pop.

• 20:09Speaker 01

  Come on!

• 20:10Speaker 00

  I don't have one.

• 20:11Speaker 01

  You gotta get one.

• 20:12Speaker 00

  I guess I do.

• 20:13Speaker 01

  I have one of me and my cat and now I'm gonna have the Fun Run one. But that's so cute. The Willy Wonka one is gonna be so cute.

• 20:21Speaker 00

  Well, if you're into merch from this episode, I also found that you can buy a framable golden ticket, just like the one that Michael is putting in the boxes. It was on Amazon.

• 20:31Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 20:32Speaker 00

  I don't know why you would want that, but if you do, it is a veil.

• 20:35Speaker 01

  If you're having a Willy Wonka themed party.

• 20:38Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 20:38Speaker 01

  Maybe. I was curious. Do you think Michael is being the Gene Wilder Willy Wonka or the Johnny Depp?

• 20:46Speaker 00

  I think he's Gene Wilder.

• 20:48Speaker 01

  That's what I thought too, but Gene's blazer is purple and Johnny Depp's is maroon and Michael's is maroon.

• 20:57Speaker 00

  But he's doing all the somersaults and the

• 20:59Speaker 01

  I know, I know.

• 21:00Speaker 00

  dialogue from the Gene Wilder one.

• 21:02Speaker 01

  I agree. I agree.

• 21:04Speaker 00

  Those are all my fast facts. We're gonna go to a break and when we come back, we have a delicious surprise. We have a guest.

• 21:13Speaker 01

  Yes. Oh, we can't wait to talk to him. Oh, I gave a little bit away. Okay, it's a guy.

• 21:18Speaker 00

  He's tall.

• 21:19Speaker 01

  And his name is also a weather condition.

• 21:24Speaker 00

  All right. We'll leave you guessing and then we'll be back.

• 21:37Speaker 00

  Is someone on the phone?

• 21:38Speaker 06

  Hi, it's me, Rainn Wilson.

• 21:40Speaker 00

  Rainn Wilson!

• 21:41Speaker 01

  Rainn, what are you doing? Why are you calling us?

• 21:43Speaker 06

  Well, I just wanted to see how you guys are doing. I missed you. I missed you. I just wanted to know if you want to hang out.

• 21:50Speaker 01

  Oh, I do want to hang out.

• 21:52Speaker 00

  I would like to hang out.

• 21:53Speaker 06

  Great. So, when are we getting together?

• 21:56Speaker 00

  You tell us. You know what we want to do, Rainn, for reals. We had this on the text thread. We want to come to your house and listen to Creed and your son-

• 22:04Speaker 01

  Play the guitar!

• 22:05Speaker 00

  -play guitar together.

• 22:06Speaker 01

  And I want to see your new place and I want to meet your pigs and your zonkey.

• 22:10Speaker 06

  Have you heard about our newest pet sensation?

• 22:13Speaker 00

  No.

• 22:14Speaker 01

  Oh, the peacock!

• 22:15Speaker 06

  We have Alma the peacock.

• 22:17Speaker 01

  And now, Rainn, did she just walk on up or did, like, how did Alma get there?

• 22:22Speaker 06

  So, my wife had a horse for a long time named Gus. And Gus was a very old, white, lipizan horse, and he passed away this summer. He lived a rich, full horse life, and he died very quickly. So, that was all fine. But his stall was empty, and they put a vase of flowers in there, and it was just kind of left empty as a kind of a salute to old Gus. And two weeks later, no joke, and Gus was white, by the way, two weeks later, out of nowhere, sitting in Gus's horse stall was a white peahen, a female peacock.

• 23:01Speaker 01

  Oh, my goodness. Whoa.

• 23:03Speaker 06

  No one knows where it came from. It had never been seen there previously. It hadn't been seen in the neighborhood or the area of where my wife's horse, where she rides her horses. And it just moved into his stall. And so, she kind of trained it to eat feed, and it couldn't stay there because it was spooking some of the horses because it would flap around and squawk. And so, she trained it to eat feed and go into a carrying-

• 23:32Speaker 06

  Container bin and we took it to our house and it made the transition perfectly. And you guys, Alma is amazing and she sleeps during the day when she's not hunting bugs. She sleeps in the olive tree right outside my office window and just stares in at me all day. So if I'm like podcasting or on Zoom calls or whatever, I have a white peacock staring into my office.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  This is all I could ever hope for, Rain. I'm excited about my hummingbirds. If I had a peacock in my tree, I'd lose it. I mean, Rain, it's Gus. It's Gus, right?

• 24:08Speaker 06

  My friend said if there was ever more proof needed for reincarnation, now I don't know about, I don't know that I buy reincarnation, but I mean, it's, it was magical. It's a magical experience. It's, it's kind of crazy.

• 24:22Speaker 01

  Well, there's something happening there. Yeah, I was gonna say, whether you believe in reincarnation or not, there's just something beautiful in the universe that happened right there. That's right.

• 24:30Speaker 06

  Yeah. So besides now our pigs that live at our house, now we have a peacock who's very demanding. Holly, my wife, just went crazy. She bought like a, a big box arrived yesterday and I opened it up and it was filled, I'm not kidding you. It was filled with mealworms.

• 24:46Speaker 01

  Ew.

• 24:48Speaker 06

  Two, like 20 pound boxes of bags of mealworms.

• 24:53Speaker 01

  Where do you keep those? Yeah. How do you refrigerate that? Like what, what do you do with the meal? How, where do you put a mealworm?

• 25:00Speaker 06

  You just put them in, on the ground and then she eats the mealworms.

• 25:04Speaker 01

  But in between eating?

• 25:05Speaker 06

  Not my wife, uh, the peacock.

• 25:07Speaker 01

  The peacock. We got that part. Well, Rain, listen, we're so excited to have you on. We know you've been on before and you've sent in audio clips and you're always so supportive. But we realize there are just some real general questions we ask our guests and we never got to do that with you. And here is the one we always lead with. Are you ready?

• 25:27Speaker 06

  Okay, hit me.

• 25:28Speaker 01

  All right. So how did you get your job on the office? Is it true that you first auditioned for the role of Michael Scott? Tell us your office origin story.

• 25:39Speaker 06

  Oh, I have a great office origin story. Um, I love to tell this story.

• 25:44Speaker 01

  Oh, great.

• 25:44Speaker 06

  It's fantastic. I was starting to do this show Six Feet Under and I was just at the very beginning of that, of that show and that was right when HBO was starting to take off and, um, it was a very widely, highly regarded show. And, um, I got cast in this Janine Garofalo comedy pilot for ABC. And, you know, it was a very small role, but I was like, hey, you know, it's an amazing paycheck. Um, this is great. I'm gonna be a series regular. It was my first, like, real stab at a series regular job and, which is a lot better money than doing a guest star, just for those who are listening and wondering. And I was very excited about it. Um, Bob Odenkirk was in it. Marc Maron was in it.

• 26:29Speaker 06

  It had a really kind of great cast.

• 26:31Speaker 01

  What?

• 26:31Speaker 06

  And I was walking to the table read.

• 26:33Speaker 01

  Wait, wait, Rain, Rain, what was it called? Do you know the name of it?

• 26:37Speaker 06

  Oh, boy. It'll come to me.

• 26:39Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 26:39Speaker 06

  I can't, I can't remember right now.

• 26:40Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 26:41Speaker 06

  Real Life, Still Life, something like that?

• 26:44Speaker 01

  I'll look it up. Okay, go on, go on, go on.

• 26:46Speaker 06

  I can't remember. Um, and I was on the way to the table read, which is something that actors you do at the studio or you used to do. You all sit in a room behind a table and you read it out loud and all the executives are there so they can kind of see the cast together, get their energy, hear the rhythms of the read, give notes, et cetera. Very common occurrence. On my way there, um, I ran into this NBC executive that I knew, uh, at the time, um, who I had met a couple of times. I don't, I forget why. And I was like, oh, hi. It was Vernon, Vernon Sanders.

• 27:22Speaker 01

  Oh, we love Vernon.

• 27:24Speaker 06

  I was like, hi Vernon.

• 27:25Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 27:25Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah. He's at Amazon now. And a nice guy. And I was like, hi Vernon. And he's like, hi. He's like, what's going on? And he goes, well, I'm so excited because we just landed the rights to the BBC office. And I had seen a couple of episodes. My friend Sam had them recorded from someone in England on a VHS. It was before they were like available in the United States. It was really early on. I had seen them and I just loved them. And I, and inside and outside, I was like, oh, that's great. That's great. And inside I was like, oh, god damn it. I want to be in that show. That show, that show's so awesome. Oh. And so I was like, okay, see you later. Went to the table read.

• 28:08Speaker 06

  This is one of the most incredible experiences. In fact, Kent Zabornak was the producer on it.

• 28:14Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh.

• 28:15Speaker 00

  Wow, Kentopedia?

• 28:17Speaker 06

  Yeah. So we did the table read and this was an infamous event. We did the table read. It went so bad that it, the whole, the plug was pulled immediately.

• 28:27Speaker 00

  They canceled it? They didn't, you didn't even shoot it?

• 28:30Speaker 06

  I did not shoot it. They had sets built. We had plane tickets. We had hotel rooms booked. We, I was supposed to fly the next morning and then start shooting in like two days. And the table read went so poorly.

• 28:42Speaker 01

  We found the name, by the way. The name is Slice O' Life.

• 28:46Speaker 06

  Slice O' Life. That's what, I knew it had life in it and an S.

• 28:52Speaker 06

  But so all of a sudden I was free to do the office. So I called my agent. So I was like, I'd really like to audition for this office. And yes, I was, I was the first person to audition on the very first day. Allison Jones, the casting director, kind of knew me from Six Feet Under and some other things. I was so excited and I auditioned for both Dwight and Michael on that first day. And she keeps threatening to release my Michael Scott audition. It is truly terrible because I just did a Ricky Gervais impersonation. I didn't know what else to do. So I was kind of pulling on my tie a lot and, um, it was, but Dwight, I knew, I was like, this is completely in my wheelhouse. I know exactly who this person is.

• 29:37Speaker 06

  This guy is in my DNA. I have cousins who are really not that different from Dwight Schrute. And, um, the rest is history.

• 29:47Speaker 00

  Well, Rain, I remember being paired with you during the screen tests.

• 29:52Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 29:52Speaker 00

  And they were mixing and matching us. There were like four Pams and four Gyms and four Dwight's and a few Michaels. Bob Odenkirk was one of the Michaels, which is so crazy because I guess he was available as well since Slice O Life didn't go forward.

• 30:09Speaker 01

  And Kenz Brunnack was available.

• 30:10Speaker 00

  Yeah. Wow. We really.

• 30:12Speaker 01

  We got a lot of folks from Slice O Life.

• 30:14Speaker 00

  Got lucky there.

• 30:15Speaker 06

  We scored.

• 30:17Speaker 00

  But Rain, I remember being paired with you and I, I mean, I couldn't believe it. Of all of us, of all of us, you were 100% there from the beginning. I feel like from that moment that I did that first audition scene with you, everybody else, I was like, I was paired with John and I was like, oh yeah, this is great. And, and Steve and everybody, but Rain, you were just like, I didn't even know where Rain began and Dwight ended, or Dwight began and Rain ended. I mean, it was so fluid. It was amazing.

• 30:54Speaker 06

  But you were, I have to say, this is a mutual admiration society. For those who don't know, Jenna was totally in Pam, dressed as Pam. You were reading the book on John Belushi, Wired, that you thought Pam would be reading.

• 31:08Speaker 00

  It was in the script that she was reading it. So I read the whole novel. I read the whole thing. I was like, my character read it? I'll read it.

• 31:17Speaker 06

  Yeah. And you were Pam in the waiting room too. But that was so much fun. And we had, I don't know if they'd ever released that audition, but that improvisation where I was just sitting, I was kneeling like way too close to you.

• 31:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:35Speaker 06

  Like, which is something I love to do as Dwight is like, he doesn't have an understanding of like, personal space.

• 31:41Speaker 00

  He does not.

• 31:42Speaker 06

  He could be talking to someone like four inches away from them. And I thought, I always thought that was really funny. And where I talked about my girlfriend being stationed in Kuwait. And.

• 31:56Speaker 06

  That was very funny. And you just, and it was such a great improv because most actors feel like, "Oh, I'm improv-ing. I need to talk a lot." You know, they think like, "Oh, improvisation means talking a lot." And this was an improv where I kind of did this monologue and you just gazed painfully into space, just taking in my body odor and my proximity and the strangeness of my story. And it was, it was fantastic. And when we did that, I was like, "Oh, I know that we're gonna have these parts."

• 32:26Speaker 00

  Yeah. I felt that way too. And I felt at that audition, it was very clear to me that you were their choice.

• 32:33Speaker 01

  Do they keep pairing different people with Rain? Because that's how you know. You know, that's the person when they're like, "Oh, let's see him with this person and this person and this person."

• 32:41Speaker 00

  And I only got paired with him once. And that made me a little nervous because it was very clear to me that Rain had the part. And so I was like, "Oh, well, can I, I'll pair with him again."

• 32:51Speaker 06

  They mostly matched me with a lot of different gyms. I remember reading with a lot of different gyms.

• 32:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:55Speaker 06

  Um, and the reason they said ultimately they went with John, um, I mean, obviously, he's charming and handsome and funny and great deadpan and smart as hell and likeable. But that his size was comparable to mine. There were a couple other gyms that were like five foot seven. And it just seemed like Dwight would just overpower them. The gym was actually taller than me. So we kind of like, we really matched up kind of energy-wise.

• 33:24Speaker 00

  That makes sense to me.

• 33:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:25Speaker 00

  That does. But then they went a whole other way with your romantic life and they picked the tiniest person in the office.

• 33:32Speaker 06

  Tiniest, the tiniest little sprig. Yeah, but I didn't think they knew that Dwight and Angela were gonna get together. They just were, I don't know where that storyline came from, but I imagine they were just kind of floundering in season two, like, "Oh, we gotta mix things up." Like, because at first, they had me together with Kelly. They had me kiss Kelly Kapoor.

• 33:52Speaker 01

  But Angela was furious. Angela watched it and was furious.

• 33:57Speaker 06

  Ah.

• 33:58Speaker 01

  Remember, they had me like, look in the camera. Like, they made me look so, like, they kept saying, "More anger, more." I was like, "My God, my eyes are gonna pop out of my head." But I think, I think our writers just sat there. Jenna and I have talked about this and we've talked to our writers about it, how they would just take two names and put them on a card and just see what that felt like and sort of spitball a little bit about what those two people would bring out of each other.

• 34:22Speaker 06

  Right. And that is one thing that Greg talked about, and I remember, and it's really great lesson for comedy writers and screenwriters. He said, "A lot of shows really focus on a character and like, oh, let's make this character really specific and funny and interesting." But he was really about like, when these two, two characters bang up against each other, that's what she said, then what do-

• 34:47Speaker 01

  What happens?

• 34:48Speaker 06

  What happens with that energy, you know? So it was more about, he was much more about dynamics between characters. And I think that's one of the successes of the auditions.

• 34:58Speaker 00

  Well, this episode that we're talking about today, Golden Ticket, has a classic Michael Dwight pairing. And we just, I love in this re-watch, watching the way that Dwight can be both Michael's lackey and then also like you can take him to task, you stand up to him. What was that like for you? You were in this comedy duo with Steve Carell for seven years, playing out moments like this. What was that experience?

• 35:32Speaker 06

  Well, that's a bunch of questions and I'll-

• 35:34Speaker 00

  I know. I, I, that's how I like to interview people.

• 35:37Speaker 01

  She just likes to throw like 13 big overarching like huge-

• 35:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, thematic questions all at once.

• 35:45Speaker 06

  I love it. Well, let, let me hit that one. Let me just say that, you know, when I look back on that work with Steve, um, uh, I'm just so grateful because he's obviously like one of the greatest- Actors, comedy actors, but even just actors like ever. And the fact that I got to do so much work with him was just such a gift. Um, I didn't come from an improv background. I was always good at improv, but I went to theater school and I did Shakespeare and I did Eugene O'Neill and I was in New York, kind of off, off Broadway theater guy.

• 36:27Speaker 06

  And Steve was from Second City and had done years and years and years of improv, so that was his thing. Um, but the thing about Steve that I'll, you know, they always have this, it's kind of become a cliche, like the yes and, you know, like in improv, if you say like, hey, um, you know, I, I've, I bought a pet peacock, um, then you say yes and, and like, oh, I'd love to see it. Can I feed it my mealworms or whatever? And Steve was incredible at that. No matter what I did, um, and I was, sometimes I would try to go really out of the box. He would completely react, um, in character and, uh,

• 37:10Speaker 06

  and accept what was being proposed. Yeah. So I could just in the, because obviously we would, we would shoot a scene, we would improvise, I mean, we would do the script, we would shoot the script and make sure we got it scripted correctly. And then we would, could improvise and then sometimes it would just, we'd just freely improvise and just go off. And I, I remember just being like, I could say something like, um, I've decided to open a llama farm, just out of nowhere or something. And Steve would just listen as Michael, take that in and be like, Dwight, what are you talking about? Llamas? What, what does that have to do with anything? Why, what? You're so weird Dwight. Ugh, go away. You're icky.

• 37:50Speaker 06

  Like, and it would just be completely in the moment and I just learned so much from that process. Um, he never got kind of like, god damn it, Rain, why are you being so weird and so silly? Like stay on the point of the scene and we could go way off filter, you know, way off the path. And he would just be right there all the time. It was really a, a privilege to work with him.

• 38:20Speaker 01

  I loved it when there'd be a conference room scene and clearly Michael had an agenda and things to say. And you, you as Dwight of all people would interject, right? And Rain, so many times I go to the script to see if it was written or improvised because I feel like I can tell now. And they're always so good, but, but it's like seamless. You would never know because of exactly what you just shared because Steve is Michael, no matter what you piped up and said, just like would just take it and run with it. And it was always like an absolute joy. You know me, I'm a nerdy, nerdy improv gal. We've talked on the podcast that you and Jenna had your whole, like, we did theater.

• 39:04Speaker 01

  And Jenna likes to remind me of it, Rain, much like you did. But as like a nerdy improv gal, watching you guys, it was, it was just awesome. I felt like I had a front row seat of just some really magical moments.

• 39:19Speaker 06

  And getting specifically to Golden Ticket, thank you, Angela. And but yeah, I hadn't seen this one since it came out. And it was so fun to watch. And Jenna, just like you said, that dynamic of Dwight being toady, lackey, suck up, just so desperate for Michael's approval. And then oddly realizing he's got some power here. And, you know, that switch when he's shaking David Wallace's hand and he says, you know, thank you and takes the credit for it. And then Steve's expression of, it was so priceless of like, oh, that guy.

• 40:05Speaker 01

  And then your fight in the marketing meeting, like when you get on the phone with the marketing guys, the two of you back and forth with your big ideas.

• 40:13Speaker 06

  Yeah, horseboat, and all the toilet, toilet, toilet net. He had a lot of toilet ideas. You don't have ideas. Yes, I do.

• 40:27Speaker 06

  I would love to see an extended cut of that because I bet that there were a lot more ideas we tossed back and forth in that scene.

• 40:33Speaker 00

  We should ask Dave Rogers, the keeper of all of the extra footage, because I bet you're right, there had to have been even more. Also, this one was written by Mindy Kaling, and she was amazing at coming up with on-the-fly, in-the-moment, extra stuff to hand you.

• 40:51Speaker 01

  I have to tell you guys, in the script, I reread it, Pam tries to butt in with an idea. What? Yes. And Michael and Dwight shoot her down. It's the one thing they agree on is that Pam's idea is so stupid. She says, as they're yelling all their ideas, Pam meekly just says, "Remote control toilets." And they're both like, "Nah, it's stupid. Doesn't make sense. It's dumb."

• 41:17Speaker 06

  That's great. I wish they would have kept that. That's great.

• 41:21Speaker 00

  We have another question that we've never asked you, Rain. This is a popular one we ask all our guests.

• 41:27Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 41:28Speaker 00

  Did you take anything from set when the show wrapped?

• 41:32Speaker 06

  Oh, this breaks my heart. I should have taken so much more. I should have fleeced NBC Universal. I took Dwight's glasses. I took his little desk plate that said Dwight Schrute on it. I took his stapler. And one or two other things I can't quite remember. I have to look around and see. But I had a whole list of things I gave to Phil Shea, and I said, "Phil, pull these aside for me, and I'll get them from you later." And it was, you know, Dwight's briefcase, and this and that, and the other thing, and blah, blah,

• 42:10Speaker 06

  blah. And Phil was like, "Okay." And then I went back to Phil, and he's like, "Oh, I don't have them, or I couldn't get them. Sorry, blah, blah, blah." And then I heard from someone else. They were like, "Oh, they threatened the crew, like, to be fired and never work for NBC Universal again if they caught them taking anything from the office set." And we didn't know why. And then they had that big auction where they auctioned all the stuff off on eBay. You know, even like Dwight's desk was auctioned off.

• 42:46Speaker 00

  Did you not get your bobble head?

• 42:50Speaker 06

  I got one of the rejected bobbleheads that doesn't look anything like the bobblehead. I did not get my original bobblehead, no.

• 42:57Speaker 01

  I see. That's a shame.

• 42:59Speaker 06

  And I asked Phil Schaefer the painting, the Dwight painting of where he's like Chairman Mao.

• 43:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 43:05Speaker 06

  And that didn't happen either.

• 43:08Speaker 01

  Well, Rain, you know, you've gone on to do so many awesome things, but we would love to talk to you about your podcast, Metaphysical Milkshake. I listened to a great episode last night when you had Mike Schur on.

• 43:21Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 43:22Speaker 01

  And that was so amazing, just talking about what is good, what is bad. And he sort of like folded in his show, The Good Place, into that episode. But you and Reza are so thoughtful and you're really asking life's big questions and it's a great listen.

• 43:38Speaker 06

  Yeah, thanks. Well, you guys know this is something that's always been really important to me. And it was kind of the impetus and inspiration for starting Soul Pancake, the digital media company that we, I created with some friends. But this whole idea of life's biggest possible questions has always really intrigued me. You know, I took philosophy in college and I love, you know, studying spirituality and I love, you know, psychology and sociology and kind of creativity and how creativity works and why. And so this was kind of the foundation for Metaphysical Milkshake.

• 44:17Speaker 06

  Our first season we did on this company called Luminary, but that didn't really work out. So now we're doing a second season, which is available wherever podcasts are available and including a lot of the stuff we did for our first season. And it's super fun. We get to talk to just artists and thinkers and writers. We just yesterday interviewed Avi Loeb, who's the head of the astronomy division of Harvard University, talking about alien life and discovering extraterrestrial life. And then we had Jason. Speaking of office auctions, Jason Isbell is one of my favorite kind of country rock musicians.

• 45:00Speaker 06

  Yeah, he's so great. He came on the show talking about like what music is, like where does music come from?

• 45:06Speaker 01

  Oh, I need to go listen to that one.

• 45:08Speaker 06

  He bought, years ago, he bought his wife Dwight's scissors from the NBC auction.

• 45:15Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 45:18Speaker 00

  Oh my-

• 45:19Speaker 06

  Isn't that crazy?

• 45:19Speaker 00

  Yes. Well, Rain, I listened to your interview with Adam Grant where you discussed this concept, "What if I'm wrong?" And this idea, our resistance as people to consider that you might be wrong, or even what I loved when you guys talked about how when you know you're wrong, but the cost of admitting you're wrong, that idea of like, there's that social cost, "Oh, no, if I admit I'm wrong once, people will paint me with a brush that, oh, that's the person who gets things wrong." I mean, it was just, it was so thoughtful. I love that kind of introspective discussion

• 46:00Speaker 00

  that makes me think about things that maybe I wouldn't have thought of otherwise. It's a great podcast.

• 46:07Speaker 06

  You know, I'm glad you brought that one up because I feel like this is kind of where our country is. It's very stuck in kind of two sides that are convinced they're 100% right, and no one's really talking to each other and learning and listening from each other. And when you go to life's biggest questions, these are the questions that we've been asking since the caveman days, since ancient Greece, you know, "Why are we alive? Do we have free will? What's the meaning of it all?" And this is a, these discussions can unite us, you know? So that's really the whole purpose is to unite people by getting young folk thinking about talking, wrestling with, you know, the human experience.

• 46:50Speaker 01

  Well, Rain, at the end of your podcast with Reza, you guys do this sort of rapid-fire of questions. And I love when you ask people, "When do you most feel connected to the universe?" I'm paraphrasing, but it's something like that question, right? So when do you, Rain, feel most connected to the universe?

• 47:10Speaker 06

  Wow, you're okay. You're hitting me with my own uh my own weapon. That's what she said. The um that's a profound question and wow, no one's ever asked me that before. You know, I, you know, so I meditate. That's part of my daily practice. Um, but I'll, but I'll have a new answer to that, which is I've gotten really, really deep into tennis.

• 47:34Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 47:35Speaker 06

  And, and we joined a, a, a tennis club in this new little town that I moved to in California and um, I've been playing a lot, two, three times a week. And there's something really

• 47:49Speaker 06

  incredible about the game of tennis because it, it requires such focus

• 47:53Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 47:54Speaker 06

  that when you're playing it, you're just completely in the moment. You have to be completely in the moment or you will screw up and hit the ball out. So it, it forces a kind of um, uh, like a, a focus uh, and that allows one to be like connected. When I'm playing tennis, like time doesn't really exist in the same way that exists in my regular life. My anxieties go away and um, oh, I know that's not a terribly profound one, but I have truly been felt feeling connected to the universe through tennis.

• 48:32Speaker 01

  I think that's great because I think for me, I have to get out of my head sometimes and get in my body. You know, when I get nervous or anxious about something, I stop everything. I put screens away. You know, I love tennis as well. Um, but I like to just get in my body somehow, whether that's a hike or just going on a long walk, just anything to just get back in my body and get out of my head. Um, and I just love that. Rain, do you remember working on my serve with me on the side of our soundstage? I had my racket and um, I was telling you I was struggling with my serve. And so we went to the side of the building where the hair and makeup trailers were and you had, you had me work on my toss. And then I would hit it to, onto the side of the building.

• 49:18Speaker 01

  And I did

• 49:18Speaker 06

  Oh my god.

• 49:19Speaker 01

  And you told me my toss was horrible. It was like all about my toss. My toss wasn't high enough.

• 49:25Speaker 00

  Did you feel connected to the universe as Rain told you your toss was horrible, Angela?

• 49:30Speaker 01

  I felt frustrated, but connected.

• 49:34Speaker 06

  So funny. Isn't it funny how it must be old age. I have no memory of that. But that's, that's incredible. That's incredible. How is your serve these days?

• 49:45Speaker 01

  You know what? It's much better. It's much better. I do toss higher. But I also throw myself at it in a way I didn't before. Maybe it's like being 50 and having, you know, like the past few years of like, just like craziness. I throw myself at that ball in a way I haven't before. And my tennis coach is like, oh, you got some power there, Angie. He calls me Angie.

• 50:08Speaker 06

  Nice. Wow. Fantastic.

• 50:11Speaker 01

  It's, I'm like low to the ground, Rain. I've got a good torque.

• 50:18Speaker 06

  That is so weird. You guys, what a pleasure being on your show and thanks for the, the deep dive. And God, what a, what an amazing pleasure it was watching Golden Ticket again. I, I thought really that cold open too. Um, the KGB and the knock, knock jokes is, it was so good. That's such, there's so many classic office moments throughout it.

• 50:42Speaker 00

  Rain, I have to ask, since you brought it up, how did you guys get through that cold open with slapping each other? I mean, cause if you broke, you'd have to do it again. And obviously you didn't want to have to keep slapping and getting slapped. But I mean, how'd you do it?

• 50:58Speaker 06

  People always ask like, how do you keep a straight face? It's like, I didn't keep a straight face.

• 51:02Speaker 01

  You didn't, Rain. You didn't because I watched the bloopers and you are one of the top breakers.

• 51:09Speaker 06

  I just laugh all the time, especially John and I, we would just make each other laugh. We could look at each other's eyes and know a laugh was coming. So I don't remember, but I am certain that especially that little last section when John was like doing the KGB, that I'm sure I was crying with laughter and we had to cut, you know, at least a dozen times.

• 51:31Speaker 01

  I also, I mean, listen, the bookend of this is that it starts with the KGB and it ends with the KGB and the tag. And you going back and forth with the time when he's like, I'm busy. And you're like, what's about 4:45?

• 51:47Speaker 01

  I was like, I know those guys were laughing.

• 51:49Speaker 06

  Yeah, I'm sure we can fit you in. Yes, 5:15.

• 51:54Speaker 00

  Aw, Rain, thank you so much for calling in and chatting with us. We love you. You are our most frequent guest on Office Ladies. That is your title. It belongs to you.

• 52:06Speaker 01

  And we love you, Rain. And we love you. We love your heart. We love, you know, you have such a heart for service, Rain, and I've always admired that about you. And we're just excited for folks to hear Metaphysical Milkshake. And I love it because then it's kind of like, you know, you're in my bathroom with me. No, that's weird. Like, I was listening as I got ready. But you know what I mean.

• 52:30Speaker 06

  You guys are the best. Congrats on the success of Office Ladies. I hope it launches an Oprah-esque empire for the two of you.

• 52:38Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 52:38Speaker 01

  We'll receive that.

• 52:40Speaker 00

  We love you, Rain. We'll talk to you soon.

• 52:43Speaker 01

  Take care. I want to come meet Alma.

• 52:45Speaker 06

  Yes, come over and meet the peacock.

• 52:47Speaker 00

  We will.

• 52:48Speaker 01

  All right. Bye.

• 52:51Speaker 06

  Bye.

• 53:02Speaker 01

  I just love that fella.

• 53:04Speaker 00

  I beyond love him.

• 53:05Speaker 01

  I love him. Rain, thank you so much for stopping by. And now, lady, we got to get into this episode.

• 53:11Speaker 00

  Let's do it. You know, we've talked a little bit about this cold open already, but we haven't really broken it down. So let's get into it.

• 53:18Speaker 01

  Pam is on the phone. She's trying to give someone like maybe a fax number. I want to point out, at 10 seconds, Nick is still in office all day.

• 53:29Speaker 00

  In the, in the note, in the post-it note?

• 53:32Speaker 01

  There's the same post-it note from last week. It's on the Penn Star Post-it paper. Nick in office all day. He's still there, folks. So Michael's going to come over and he's messing with Pam. She's trying to give this phone number and he's like, 5er, 9, 3, 2, like trying to mess her up. She hangs up and she's like, Michael, that makes us look so unprofessional.

• 53:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 53:53Speaker 01

  Well, he can't wait. He's been there because he has a really good knock-knock joke for her.

• 53:58Speaker 00

  That's right. Knock-knock.

• 54:00Speaker 01

  Who's there?

• 54:01Speaker 00

  Buddha.

• 54:02Speaker 01

  Buddha who?

• 54:03Speaker 00

  Buddha this bread for.

• 54:04Speaker 01

  And then he sits a stick of butter. It's been in his hand. It's not even in the wrapper.

• 54:11Speaker 00

  I know. I'll have you know, it was not scripted to be unwrapped. But on the day, we just thought that would be really funny. And originally, my line in the script, when I look at the butter and the everything on my desk, I was supposed to say, you're making a mess. But I changed it to, there's butter on my desk.

• 54:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:31Speaker 00

  And I thought that was like such a great little find in the moment when we were rehearsing.

• 54:36Speaker 01

  It's very Pam, though. It's like, people leave trash on your desk.

• 54:40Speaker 00

  All the time.

• 54:41Speaker 01

  They throw things at you. It's just a statement. It's like resignation.

• 54:44Speaker 00

  It is.

• 54:45Speaker 01

  Now there's butter on my desk.

• 54:46Speaker 00

  Now there's butter on my desk. That's my day today.

• 54:49Speaker 01

  Well, Dwight is super excited about this knock-knock joke, and he wants in on the fun.

• 54:53Speaker 00

  He's got a great one.

• 54:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, and he's like, Michael, please. And Michael doesn't want to hear it. He's like, please. And I just feel like we gotta hear Dwight's knock-knock joke.

• 55:00Speaker 00

  Let's do it.

• 55:01Speaker 03

  No. Okay. Michael, please, please, please, please, please let me.

• 55:05Speaker 02

  All right.

• 55:07Speaker 03

  Knock, knock.

• 55:07Speaker 02

  Who's there?

• 55:08Speaker 03

  KGB.

• 55:09Speaker 02

  KGB? We were asked the questions. What the hell was that? What are you doing? What are you doing? Hey, hey, stop it.

• 55:17Speaker 01

  So then they just get like the slapping fest, and then Jim has to get in on it.

• 55:21Speaker 00

  Yep. Do we need to hear that one?

• 55:24Speaker 02

  No more knock-knock jokes. That's it.

• 55:26Speaker 03

  Ding dong. Who's there? KGB. Dwight, get the door. I'm not answering the door. Answer the door. Ding dong. No way. Yeah, KGB. Ding dong. I'm not answering that.

• 55:35Speaker 02

  Yes, you're going to.

• 55:36Speaker 03

  You answer it.

• 55:36Speaker 02

  I'm not gonna answer.

• 55:37Speaker 03

  I'm not gonna answer. It's the KGB.

• 55:38Speaker 02

  The KGB will fit for no one.

• 55:44Speaker 03

  It's true.

• 55:46Speaker 01

  It's true.

• 55:47Speaker 00

  And there's the it's true.

• 55:49Speaker 01

  And there it is.

• 55:52Speaker 00

  Well, now we're gonna start the main plot of this episode. Michael arrives to work dressed as Willy Wonka.

• 56:00Speaker 01

  He's so excited. He points out the jelly beans. What are these? Pam's like, jelly beans? She's like, no, they're extraordinary jelly beans. He's like, so ready for his performance. And he shares that he's put this golden ticket 10% off in different boxes of paper, and someone's gonna get it, and their day is gonna be full of whimsy and excitement and fantasy.

• 56:24Speaker 00

  Here is what the golden ticket says.

• 56:26Speaker 01

  What?

• 56:27Speaker 00

  This whimsical promotion saves you 10% off your total order with Dunder Mifflin, Scranton, Pennsylvania.

• 56:36Speaker 01

  That's what it says.

• 56:37Speaker 00

  This whimsical promotion. In the conference room, Michael is just like already taking credit for his great idea. It's such a great idea. He needs everyone to come in the conference room and talk about how we need more good ideas like this one.

• 56:53Speaker 01

  He says, and this is like something like people that do this crack me up. He goes, "It might be the best idea ever in the, in like the history of ideas." You're like, "Okay, buddy."

• 57:04Speaker 00

  Here's what I don't understand. He's written on a board, "Marketing Greatness, Michael." I didn't get it. It was very amusing to me.

• 57:14Speaker 01

  Well, his job is to prophyligate great ideas.

• 57:18Speaker 00

  I guess so.

• 57:19Speaker 01

  He really wants the group, though, to tell them their golden ticket idea. He knows his golden ticket.

• 57:24Speaker 00

  A golden ticket?

• 57:25Speaker 01

  Yeah. Jim's like, "Well, we could rent out our trucks." He's like, "Eh, no, Post-it notes, right? Golden ticket. NASA, lots of golden ticket ideas there." Andy's gonna say, "Golden Girls," and a few other things.

• 57:40Speaker 00

  That start with the word golden.

• 57:41Speaker 01

  That start with golden.

• 57:42Speaker 00

  Golden grams.

• 57:42Speaker 01

  Um, look over his shoulder. Angela Martin, 1 minute 59 seconds. Major eye roll at Andy.

• 57:49Speaker 00

  Angela eye roll?

• 57:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. She thinks Andy's an idiot, guys. She was only engaged to him just two seconds ago, but she's over it.

• 57:58Speaker 00

  Well, now we're going to move to the kitchen. Andy and Kevin are at the table. Pam and Jim are over by the counter, and Kevin really wants to ask out Lynn. And he's just getting a lot of advice from these guys. Conflicting advice.

• 58:14Speaker 01

  I have two background catches that just delighted me.

• 58:18Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 58:19Speaker 01

  All right. Number one, these guys are both eating donuts.

• 58:23Speaker 00

  I noticed that, and I swear to God, those are the donuts we got every morning because Kevin's donut is my donut.

• 58:29Speaker 01

  The Sprinkles donut.

• 58:30Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 58:30Speaker 01

  And Andy had the powdered sugar. Okay, background catch number two. I love it when our show does this, when it takes an object from a prior episode and pops it back into a new one. Ready?

• 58:43Speaker 00

  Four minutes. I think I saw it, too.

• 58:45Speaker 01

  Kevin's coffee mug?

• 58:46Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 58:47Speaker 01

  Kevin's coffee mug is the same mug that Kelly gave to him at her customer survey party. You know, everyone's face and the big star. But what about Andy's mug? Andy's mug is the same one from Moroccan Christmas. And it was featured in a deleted scene I talked about when Jim and Pam decide to shop within the office for Christmas for each other because they're so broke. Jim goes up to Andy and asks him about his mug. And it's in the bloopers. It was also in the script. Two coffee mugs from two prior episodes. I love that.

• 59:19Speaker 00

  Well, later in this episode, if you look at Oscar's desk, he's going to have his America's Got Talent mug too.

• 59:25Speaker 01

  Ah, love it. Well, this whole Kevin and Andy and Jim and Pam storyline was much bigger in the actual shooting draft. And there are a few deleted scenes and things I want to share. First of all, this is the scene that would have set up this whole storyline. It's at the beginning of the day and they're getting in the elevator. Kevin, Jim and Pam, and who rushes in at the last minute because she works in the Scranton Business Park. But Lynn, can we hear it? Hold on, please.

• 59:55Speaker 01

  Hi, Kevin.

• 59:56Speaker 07

  Hey, Lynn.

• 59:58Speaker 01

  Did you get my message?

• 1:00:00Speaker 07

  Um, yeah. I've been really busy.

• 1:00:05Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:00:07Speaker 01

  It's okay.

• 1:00:08Speaker 07

  Yeah, I'm probably going to be busy for the next 20 days or so.

• 1:00:15Speaker 07

  So, yeah.

• 1:00:18Speaker 01

  Bye.

• 1:00:21Speaker 07

  You're going to be busy for the next 20 days or so.

• 1:00:25Speaker 01

  I thought you liked Lynn.

• 1:00:26Speaker 07

  I do like Lynn. That's what Andy told me to say.

• 1:00:30Speaker 01

  Ah ha, right?

• 1:00:33Speaker 00

  So Jim and Pam are learning that Andy has been giving Kevin some pretty bad advice.

• 1:00:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, he likes Lynn, but tells her, you know, he didn't return her messages and he's going to be busy for 20 days.

• 1:00:46Speaker 00

  Wow. That's amazing.

• 1:00:49Speaker 01

  Jim and Pam can't let Andy do this to Kevin, so they start giving him advice, right? Just ask her out. And in the deleted scenes, you really get a sneak peek into where Andy's brain is at. You got to hear this talking head. I was raised to be a gentleman around women, but when your fiance is Satan, that doesn't work.

• 1:01:09Speaker 03

  So I have some new ideas and new techniques and I'm trying them out. Kevin Malone is my guinea pig.

• 1:01:16Speaker 00

  Aw, man, I wish that had stayed in.

• 1:01:18Speaker 01

  Doesn't that explain it all?

• 1:01:20Speaker 00

  It does. I mean, I think I was able to realize that the reason that Andy is being this way is because he's still reeling from his breakup with Angela, but that really would have been great.

• 1:01:33Speaker 01

  I know, because, I mean, I don't think Andy's a bad guy, but he's clearly hurt and acting out and using poor Kevin.

• 1:01:41Speaker 00

  Well, listen, Jim's gonna get a phone call now. Guess what?

• 1:01:45Speaker 01

  What?

• 1:01:46Speaker 00

  His client, Tom, has found a golden ticket.

• 1:01:50Speaker 01

  Tom from Blue Cross of Pennsylvania.

• 1:01:52Speaker 00

  Our biggest client.

• 1:01:54Speaker 01

  Uh oh.

• 1:01:55Speaker 00

  Oscar, how much is that gonna cost us? Michael wants to know.

• 1:01:58Speaker 01

  It's gonna hurt a bit.

• 1:02:00Speaker 00

  Well, what about this? Guys, Tom found all five golden tickets.

• 1:02:06Speaker 01

  Holy moly.

• 1:02:08Speaker 00

  Did they say one per customer?

• 1:02:10Speaker 01

  Nope.

• 1:02:11Speaker 00

  Nope. Our biggest client just got 50% off their total order with us.

• 1:02:17Speaker 01

  I mean, this is a huge win. Talk about winning the golden ticket.

• 1:02:21Speaker 00

  He sure he won all the golden tickets.

• 1:02:22Speaker 01

  He won all of them. This made me think, Jenna, have you ever won like a really big ticket item?

• 1:02:29Speaker 00

  I don't think so.

• 1:02:31Speaker 01

  I called my mom because I know my Aunt Anne has won things. Like she signs up for, you know, raffles and things and she's won trips.

• 1:02:40Speaker 00

  Really?

• 1:02:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, she's super lucky. And I was like, Mom, doesn't Aunt Anne win a lot of things? And she said, well, you know, your dad won a very big ticket item.

• 1:02:49Speaker 00

  What did your dad win?

• 1:02:50Speaker 01

  And I was like, Mom, what are you talking about? And she said, well, this was before you were born. And Jenna, this story just delighted me so much. One, because, you know, my dad's passed away and so any new information, because you know, you play every memory, you look at everything, but anything that you hear about someone you loved who's no longer with you, you just, oh, it's like this beautiful, wonderful thing. So my mom said, oh yeah, before you were born, we had just moved to Lafayette, Louisiana. And the school was having a fundraiser and they were raffling off a brand new pink station wagon.

• 1:03:27Speaker 00

  What?

• 1:03:29Speaker 01

  She said it had a cream white top and your dad went and donated some money and signed up and he won the car.

• 1:03:37Speaker 00

  Your dad won a pink station wagon?

• 1:03:40Speaker 01

  Yes, and she said, and it was a very good car and we drove it for a long time.

• 1:03:45Speaker 00

  Do any of your sisters remember this car?

• 1:03:47Speaker 01

  I was like, my sister Billy said she remembers it, but I was like, oh my goodness. And my mom's like, I know we have a picture somewhere. I said, Mom, please. I have to see it. And she said, oh, Ange, your dad was so tickled that he won that car. He was so excited.

• 1:04:04Speaker 01

  And she said, and it was a light pink with a cream top. And they drove it around for years.

• 1:04:11Speaker 00

  I love that story.

• 1:04:13Speaker 01

  I know. It made my day.

• 1:04:15Speaker 00

  You know, I have been pitching for years a documentary series that I call Little Winners. And it is all about people who have won not the lottery, but raffles. And they get something like this car or like a new recliner or like a trip, right?

• 1:04:38Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 1:04:39Speaker 00

  And how did it affect their life?

• 1:04:41Speaker 01

  Well,

• 1:04:42Speaker 00

  Little winners. No one will buy it from me. No one wants to make it. I pitch it all the time. I will no one make Little Winners.

• 1:04:48Speaker 01

  I love Little Winners. We could do it as a podcast and have the winner on and they could tell us all about it. Here's the thing, you know, I like to think about my parents. They were young parents. They had three young girls at this time. And what that car meant to them. And then I also think about the car dealer there in Lafayette, Louisiana. And how the school, probably the superintendent was buddies with the guy at the dealership and was like, what, what do you got that we can raffle off? And he's like, well, that pink station wagon.

• 1:05:17Speaker 00

  I can't.

• 1:05:17Speaker 01

  No one wants it. We can't sell it.

• 1:05:20Speaker 00

  It's a write off.

• 1:05:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:21Speaker 00

  I'll give it to you.

• 1:05:25Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:05:25Speaker 00

  Amazing.

• 1:05:26Speaker 01

  Amazing. So, Michael is spiraling out, though, because he's realizing Blue Cross from Pennsylvania getting this many golden tickets, he's gonna get fired.

• 1:05:36Speaker 00

  And Jim is upset, too, because that's his commission.

• 1:05:39Speaker 01

  Oh, right.

• 1:05:40Speaker 00

  Right? So, Michael is gonna storm down to the warehouse. I love the beginning of this scene.

• 1:05:45Speaker 01

  This scene is brilliant. He goes barreling in going, "Hey, hey, hey, you idiot," to Daryl.

• 1:05:52Speaker 00

  And Daryl says, "Start over."

• 1:05:54Speaker 01

  So good. I was like, "I'm keeping that. I am keeping that." The next time one of the kids has a moment where they're sassing me, I'm gonna be like, "Start over."

• 1:06:03Speaker 00

  Exactly. And then Michael comes back with, "Sir?"

• 1:06:08Speaker 00

  That was all in the script. I looked that up.

• 1:06:10Speaker 01

  So did I. So did I. Michael's like, "Daryl, how could this happen? How could this happen?" And he says, "I put three pallets on the truck for Blue Cross every week. Where were you putting the boxes? Were they near each other?" And Michael's like, "I need to ask you something. I need you to be honest with me. What is a pallet?"

• 1:06:31Speaker 00

  So good. So good. David Wallace is not happy. He calls. Pam takes the call. But Michael is sort of sneaking out of his office. He's taken off his Willy Wonka outfit.

• 1:06:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's getting rid of the evidence.

• 1:06:46Speaker 00

  Yes. He's like, "Do not, I am not here. I am not here." So Pam has to say that he's at a civil rights rally at the Lincoln Memorial.

• 1:06:53Speaker 01

  Which I want to point out is in Washington.

• 1:06:56Speaker 00

  Yeah. He's gone to Washington DC, I guess.

• 1:06:59Speaker 01

  And the same day, he's gonna go to a civil rights movement in Washington DC and get a colonoscopy and scan.

• 1:07:06Speaker 00

  Exactly. Well, Michael tosses his Willy Wonka costume into a dumpster. He's now wearing a Pioneer's football shirt. And I had to look this up. This is a minor league football team from Wilkes-Barre Scranton that played in the AF2 and they had a really strong season in 2009 when we shot this episode. It's kind of like perfect that he's wearing this shirt because they only ended up losing two of their games that year. They made it to the playoffs, then they made it all the way to the Arena Cup, which is like the Super Bowl of AF2 football. They ended up losing, but it was like a great, great season for them. They were kind of on a roll. Their

• 1:07:51Speaker 00

  previous season had been good as well.

• 1:07:53Speaker 01

  I love it.

• 1:07:54Speaker 00

  I love every time we have

• 1:07:56Speaker 01

  Every single time.

• 1:07:57Speaker 00

  These local references on the show in ways that don't even get mentioned.

• 1:08:02Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:08:02Speaker 00

  We never even mention this shirt, but there it is, just creating specificity.

• 1:08:08Speaker 01

  I love it. Michael's gonna make an announcement. Everyone to the conference room. He's a lot of announcements in this episode. A lot of announcements. He's really, I think, just trying to find a way out. He says he has a big net where he takes all of their subconscious ideas and tries to turn them into something. And Michael's like, guys, guys, they're not gonna fire us. We're fine. And Oscar's like, what do you call shutting down a branch?

• 1:08:33Speaker 00

  And then Michael says, someone needs to come up with a golden ticket idea to get them out of this mess.

• 1:08:40Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 1:08:40Speaker 00

  You know? And Pam says, do you mean an idea that blows up in our faces later?

• 1:08:46Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:08:46Speaker 00

  That kind of idea?

• 1:08:47Speaker 01

  That's some Pam sass.

• 1:08:48Speaker 00

  That is some Pam sass. So while Michael's up at the top of the conference room, he's wearing a suit jacket. And I'm thinking, where did that come from? Because the last time we saw him, he was at the dumpster in his Pioneer's football shirt.

• 1:08:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:09:00Speaker 00

  I looked it up. It's Andy's jacket. He's wearing Andy's jacket. And there was a bit at the top of this scene that got cut where as they're entering the room, Michael says, Andy, give me your jacket. You can do something for me. I want your jacket. So that is why he's now wearing this odd jacket over his football shirt.

• 1:09:19Speaker 01

  Well, he's gotta still look like the boss.

• 1:09:21Speaker 00

  The phone's gonna ring now.

• 1:09:23Speaker 01

  Not good.

• 1:09:23Speaker 00

  It's David Wallace.

• 1:09:24Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:09:25Speaker 00

  Pam says Michael's having a colonoscopy. I'm not sure that David Wallace believes it.

• 1:09:32Speaker 01

  You think? Because he was just in Washington. Michael gets on the phone with him and literally is reading off the procedure of how you give a colonoscopy. Off his computer.

• 1:09:46Speaker 00

  It's pretty amazing. But now it is clear. David Wallace says, the company is gonna lose a lot of money. How did you let this happen? Whose idea was it?

• 1:09:57Speaker 01

  Someone's gotta pay for this terrible idea. Michael tells David Wallace it was Dwight. Just so devious.

• 1:10:06Speaker 00

  I know.

• 1:10:06Speaker 01

  Oh, Michael.

• 1:10:08Speaker 00

  It's like David Wallace is just naming people and he says, was it Dwight? And Michael's like, yes.

• 1:10:17Speaker 01

  Well, now Michael has got to convince Dwight to take the fall for him.

• 1:10:20Speaker 00

  Mm hmm. And so he's gonna get out his diary and he's gonna say Dwight, I wrote it down that it was your idea. He tries to convince Dwight that Dwight is remembering wrong. What happened this morning?

• 1:10:34Speaker 01

  Now, you know Dwight runs to get his diary. It's like the dueling diaries where they're going back and forth. Michael realizes he's not making any headway with this whole diary business. So he says, would you like to go out to lunch with me, just the two of us? Oh, and Dwight says, with all my heart. This scene continues in the script, Jenna. So after Dwight says with all my heart, he says, but I already ate lunch. And Michael says, it's 11 a.m. Dwight says, as a farmer, I eat breakfast at 4:30. At 10, I'm famished for lunch. If you wait three hours, we can have supper, maybe. Michael says, no, no, no. How about we do something else you like? Jenna, did you notice there are no scenes of them at the restaurant?

• 1:11:18Speaker 01

  They're supposedly going to have lunch, right? Because in the episode, Michael says, go have lunch. We don't know that Dwight's already eaten. All of that's been cut out.

• 1:11:26Speaker 00

  Right.

• 1:11:27Speaker 01

  And then the remainder of their scenes, they're on the side of the road.

• 1:11:31Speaker 00

  They're taking a walk.

• 1:11:32Speaker 01

  Well, here is a scene that was in the deleted scenes that I just love so much. Of all the things that Dwight would want to do, guess what he loves to do?

• 1:11:41Speaker 00

  Go for walks?

• 1:11:43Speaker 01

  Oh, lady, no. He likes a stroll.

• 1:11:47Speaker 02

  Taking those strolls that you like to take.

• 1:11:49Speaker 03

  Thrice weekly.

• 1:11:51Speaker 02

  Okay, let's go take a stroll together.

• 1:11:53Speaker 03

  I thought you said my strolls were silly.

• 1:11:54Speaker 02

  No, just because you can't call them walks.

• 1:11:57Speaker 03

  You really want a stroll?

• 1:11:59Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:11:59Speaker 03

  You want a power stroll or just a regular stroll?

• 1:12:02Speaker 02

  You call it.

• 1:12:03Speaker 03

  Power stroll.

• 1:12:05Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:12:06Speaker 03

  Are you wearing sunblock?

• 1:12:07Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:12:07Speaker 03

  What SPF?

• 1:12:08Speaker 02

  One.

• 1:12:10Speaker 03

  That's like water. I'll grab my tube.

• 1:12:12Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:12:16Speaker 01

  He loves a stroll. Clearly, it's like a whole thing with him and Michael about calling it a stroll or a walk. Then there's another scene where they're down in the lobby and Hank is there. And Dwight is putting sunscreen on Michael's face. And Hank looks up and deadpan says, "You found somebody to go on a stroll." And Dwight goes, "I did." And Hank goes, "Nice."

• 1:12:40Speaker 00

  This is amazing because we got a ton of mail because people were pointing out Dwight's shoes in the scene when he is walking, AKA strolling with Michael. Tons of people said, "Why does Dwight have on very white, very non-Dwight trainers? Like, where did these come from?" And I looked in the script and it says, "Michael and Dwight are walking. Dwight is wearing sneakers and walks with his hands clasped behind his back." That was like a script note, but I'm sure it was all based on this backstory that Dwight strolls three times a week. He's got his sunblock, he's got his shoes.

• 1:13:21Speaker 01

  He probably has a little bag he takes to work. Clearly Hank knows how much Dwight loves a stroll and how he's been looking for a stroll buddy.

• 1:13:28Speaker 00

  I love it. I love it.

• 1:13:31Speaker 01

  I know, it tickled me.

• 1:13:33Speaker 00

  Well, this stroll is not going to convince Dwight. Dwight says, "I am not going to fall on my sword for you. It's not going to happen."

• 1:13:39Speaker 01

  He's done it before. He's fallen on his sword and it wasn't pleasant.

• 1:13:43Speaker 00

  It wasn't.

• 1:13:44Speaker 01

  Michael makes a pretty big speech to Dwight. He's like, "Listen, why would you want to stay here? You're cooped up, you're not even dating Angela anymore."

• 1:13:51Speaker 00

  You have a whole farm.

• 1:13:53Speaker 01

  Yeah. And he says, "You know, on the other hand, I would be lost without Dunder Mifflin."

• 1:13:58Speaker 00

  And Dwight says, "What about shoe la la, Michael?"

• 1:14:04Speaker 00

  This is a Mindy Kaling thing, for sure. This has Mindy Kaling written all over it.

• 1:14:09Speaker 01

  And then Michael has a talking head where he says, "I have an idea for a fancy men's shoe store called Shoe Lala, and it's just men's shoes for the special occasions in a man's life, like the day that you get married, or the day your wife has a baby, or just for lounging around the house."

• 1:14:24Speaker 00

  Yeah. Well, we got some mail from Kayla G., who said, "I just want to let you ladies know that Michael seems to have gotten Shoe Lala up and running in Nelson, British Columbia."

• 1:14:35Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:14:36Speaker 00

  And I looked it up, and sure enough, there is a Shoe Lala. According to their website, they are a boutique shoe store offering exquisite leather footwear and handbags from all over the world. They are a family-run business that has been around since 1983.

• 1:14:53Speaker 01

  Hmm. Well, I want you guys to know that there is a Shoe Lala in Lafayette, Louisiana.

• 1:15:00Speaker 00

  I saw that, too.

• 1:15:01Speaker 01

  My town where I was born, Lafayette. And you know what? I love the slogan for their shoe store. If you go on their website, it's a clothing boutique and shoes, but their slogan is, "Life is short, buy the damn shoes."

• 1:15:17Speaker 00

  That is amazing. So there are two Shoe Lalas, Michael, but none of them seem to sell men's shoes.

• 1:15:23Speaker 01

  Oh, well, I would love nothing more for Michael to have Shoe Lala. Well, we have a great reverse talking head.

• 1:15:32Speaker 00

  Yes, I noticed.

• 1:15:34Speaker 01

  So Dwight is in Michael's chair, and you pull back to reveal Michael perched behind him. Basically, in this talking head, Michael's like, "He's gonna do it for me. He's gonna do it. He's gonna take the fall." And Dwight's like, "No, I haven't decided." Well, folks in the office are starting to catch on. They get it. They know what Michael's doing. He wants Dwight to take the fall, and they start gossiping about it. There's a scene in the kitchen, you guys, that was deleted, where Meredith, Kelly, and Angela and Oscar are all being real chatty, and Michael walks in and overhears a bit. And he's spying on them from the bathroom. Let's hear it.

• 1:16:12Speaker 03

  Ladies, really, that's...

• 1:16:15Speaker 04

  I hope Dwight gets fired and we get a hot new guy to replace him.

• 1:16:18Speaker 03

  Seriously.

• 1:16:18Speaker 04

  What if it's a hot new girl? Oh, my God, I had not thought of that. I think it's horrible what Michael is doing.

• 1:16:24Speaker 02

  Really? I mean, this is unacceptable.

• 1:16:32Speaker 02

  Hey, did you ever notice that our bathroom is right next to our kitchen? How's that up to code?

• 1:16:40Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 1:16:45Speaker 02

  This is not fair what he's doing to Dwight. Of course you think that. He used to bone a guy. I think men bone women. I hate that I'm correcting that. All I'm saying is, is that Dwight can't take the blame for this. It has to land on Michael. It's time for a reckoning. It's true.

• 1:16:59Speaker 00

  Okay. These are the kind of slice of life. Slice-o-life!

• 1:17:04Speaker 01

  Slice-o-life! You brought it back!

• 1:17:06Speaker 00

  These are the kind of slice-o-life office moments that I love so much. Just the scuttlebutt.

• 1:17:13Speaker 01

  There's so much going on!

• 1:17:14Speaker 00

  Just the gossip and the opinions.

• 1:17:16Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 1:17:17Speaker 00

  You know?

• 1:17:18Speaker 01

  I loved this scene. And Michael overhears it, you guys. And there's a whole scene where Michael confronts everyone. And he really lets them have it. He goes barging into the bullpen and he's like, "Hey, everyone, I need to make an announcement." And Jim is like, "This is a new record." And Michael goes, "That's because I have a lot to say today, James." Uh huh. He's ticked off. And then he goes around the room and he's like, yells to the room, "Have you wondered what it would be like if I was fired?" And everyone, super happy, raises their hand. And Michael's like, "Damn it! I didn't ask for a show of hands! If I get fired and corporate brings in new leadership, you have no idea who might come."

• 1:18:02Speaker 01

  And then he starts singling people out. He says, "You have no idea how bad it could get. Maybe it would be someone who knows that we don't actually need three accountants."

• 1:18:13Speaker 00

  Oh, I remember shooting this scene now!

• 1:18:15Speaker 01

  Yes! It's in the deleted scenes. Then he looks right at Jim and Pam and he says, "Or let's couples work together without sending them to different branches." And then he has this moment and it made me laugh. He goes, "So, you didn't think about that, huh? So let's just bite our tongues instead of saying mean things about me when I pretend to be pooping in the bathroom, okay?" But it was a long speech and he really just lets them all have it.

• 1:18:44Speaker 00

  I love this episode so much. I think Steve Carell just is brilliant in this episode. He's playing so many different things. We already talked about this with Rain, but I just absolutely love the Michael Dwight dynamic. I really loved this one.

• 1:18:59Speaker 01

  I did too. This was like one of those sleeper ones that we hadn't seen in forever. And we're like, oh my gosh, golden ticket.

• 1:19:04Speaker 00

  I agree. Golden ticket is a golden ticket. Well, now David Wallace is going to show up.

• 1:19:09Speaker 01

  He drove from New York, you guys.

• 1:19:11Speaker 00

  Yeah. David Wallace arrives at the office, right? This is a serious thing.

• 1:19:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:19:18Speaker 00

  He goes into Michael's office with Dwight.

• 1:19:20Speaker 01

  You could hear a pin drop.

• 1:19:22Speaker 00

  And he turns to Dwight and he says, Dwight, I owe you an apology. Blue Cross was so excited about the golden ticket promotion that they have made Dunder Mifflin their exclusive provider for all office supplies.

• 1:19:36Speaker 01

  Huge. This is huge.

• 1:19:38Speaker 00

  And he puts his hand out to shake Dwight's hand.

• 1:19:40Speaker 01

  Michael is about to split in half. He's looking at Dwight like, you better let him know it was my idea.

• 1:19:48Speaker 00

  And Dwight shakes his hand.

• 1:19:49Speaker 01

  And says, thank you, David. And now all the power has been flipped.

• 1:19:54Speaker 00

  Amazing, amazing writing. They go out into the bullpen. Wallace tells everybody.

• 1:20:00Speaker 01

  Dwight gets this victory lap. Pam hugs him.

• 1:20:03Speaker 00

  I loved doing that. I loved it.

• 1:20:06Speaker 01

  And then Creed's like, way to go, kid.

• 1:20:08Speaker 00

  I know Creed is like, sure, it was Dwight. Jim is giving Dwight credit and they are all watching Michael squirm.

• 1:20:17Speaker 01

  And then David's like, you know what Dwight? You need to talk to the marketing guys in New York in corporate.

• 1:20:22Speaker 00

  We want to hear more of your ideas, more of your brilliance.

• 1:20:25Speaker 01

  Pam, can you set up that call? And Michael's like, I could be in there. And he's like, no, no, no, no, no. You've got things to do. Come on Dwight.

• 1:20:31Speaker 00

  Being in that conference room for that phone call was a delight. This was one of my favorite things to do. We've talked about this. I loved taking notes during these comedic scenes. And you know, pretty soon Pam isn't going to be the receptionist anymore.

• 1:20:46Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:20:47Speaker 00

  And this was the part of the job that I missed the most.

• 1:20:51Speaker 01

  Getting to be in these ridiculous situations with Michael.

• 1:20:54Speaker 00

  Being the note taker because they're on the phone and Dwight is just saying ridiculous stuff. And of course, Michael Burson.

• 1:21:01Speaker 01

  Right. Because it's really clear that Dwight doesn't know anything about Willy Wonka.

• 1:21:06Speaker 00

  No. Then call back, call back to a deleted scene, but that we love the toilet buddy.

• 1:21:12Speaker 01

  That's right. This is a deleted scene from Job Fair. Remember, Michael comes out of the bathroom flustered because all the contents of his pockets fell into the toilet.

• 1:21:22Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:21:22Speaker 01

  And then he threw his cell phone in the toilet out of anger.

• 1:21:25Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:21:26Speaker 01

  And he says then that he had this brilliant idea about this mesh toilet guard cover. Now Jenna, in the episode, Michael calls it the toilet buddy. But in the shooting draft, it was called the toilet guard. And I think in the moment, Steve called it toilet buddy because then he corrects himself as Michael. He goes, previously known as the toilet guard.

• 1:21:50Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:21:50Speaker 01

  So I think that's just Steve staying in the moment, but catching that he had flubbed a line.

• 1:21:56Speaker 00

  And then Dwight mentions his idea called horseboat, which I love horseboat. You can go from riding to just being on the water.

• 1:22:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:07Speaker 00

  And then Michael hits back with toilet sponge. I don't know what that was.

• 1:22:12Speaker 01

  It's more absorbent, the toilet sponge. It's more absorbent.

• 1:22:15Speaker 00

  So it's a toilet that's a sponge?

• 1:22:18Speaker 01

  No, I think it's a sponge for your bum.

• 1:22:20Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 1:22:20Speaker 01

  I don't know. It doesn't say. He just says.

• 1:22:22Speaker 00

  We're not sure.

• 1:22:23Speaker 01

  He says it's more absorbent. That's what he says.

• 1:22:25Speaker 00

  Now lady, in this back and forth, this brought up a product that my friend Stacy and I invented in high school that we thought we were convinced was our ticket to being millionaires.

• 1:22:38Speaker 01

  What? It's called the tan baster.

• 1:22:41Speaker 00

  You know that thing that you wash your dishes with that you fill up with dish soap and it has a little sponge at the end?

• 1:22:46Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:22:47Speaker 00

  The tan baster is very similar, Angela. It has a little sponge on the end, but it's filled with sunblock and you just baste it on yourself and your hands stay clean. The tan baster.

• 1:23:02Speaker 01

  Or you could get spray.

• 1:23:04Speaker 00

  Well, spray wasn't around yet, Angela. It hadn't been invented yet. You see, now we can go nowhere with the tan baster, but at the time.

• 1:23:12Speaker 01

  It could have been.

• 1:23:13Speaker 00

  There was a need and clearly the spray has filled the need, but.

• 1:23:17Speaker 01

  And the stick. I love me a, you know, sunscreen stick.

• 1:23:21Speaker 00

  Yeah, Ange, I get it. There's a lot of solutions today, but I'm taking you back to the 1990s when none of these things existed except for goopy sunblock and we were solving a problem. Also, we had the whole like television commercial, the whole infomercial in our head because you know who else could use it? Maybe older people who need to apply, you know, lotions because they have arthritis.

• 1:23:48Speaker 01

  Right, or maybe they've lost range of motion and they can't reach some places.

• 1:23:52Speaker 00

  Well, that was the other great thing about the tan baster. It was like a back scratcher. It could go down your back. See? Tan baster.

• 1:24:00Speaker 01

  I think the name was part of the problem.

• 1:24:03Speaker 00

  Why?

• 1:24:04Speaker 01

  Because every time you say tan baster, I just think of a turkey on Thanksgiving.

• 1:24:10Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:24:10Speaker 01

  All brown and crinkly with gravy.

• 1:24:14Speaker 00

  Let me take you back to the 1990s. This was again, before we kind of knew about sun damage so much.

• 1:24:21Speaker 01

  No, no, no, because you baste a turkey.

• 1:24:23Speaker 00

  I know, and you baste your body. You're going to get nice and tan if you use the tan baster. You know what I'm saying? This is when people wanted that.

• 1:24:31Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:24:31Speaker 00

  They weren't into sunblock for the SPF.

• 1:24:34Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:24:34Speaker 00

  Right? This is when you were still basically applying baby oil to yourself.

• 1:24:38Speaker 01

  With iodine.

• 1:24:38Speaker 00

  In the sun.

• 1:24:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:24:40Speaker 00

  Right? I don't know. I'm just saying.

• 1:24:42Speaker 01

  Okay, well.

• 1:24:44Speaker 00

  The toilet buddy, the tan baster. Stacy, I'm sorry, we never got it off the ground.

• 1:24:53Speaker 01

  Oh, well, Stacy, somewhere you guys have a sketch of the tan baster and I'd love to see it.

• 1:24:59Speaker 00

  We do have a sketch of the tan baster. You know, I've been trying to work that tan baster into a lot of projects for you and I.

• 1:25:06Speaker 01

  Lady, we're not going to have an office lady's tan baster. It's just not happening.

• 1:25:12Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:25:12Speaker 01

  You know what I want? Before we do a tan baster, I want a rosé, okay? I think more of us would use the rosé.

• 1:25:20Speaker 00

  Let's put a poll out there.

• 1:25:21Speaker 01

  No!

• 1:25:22Speaker 00

  What do you want more? An office lady's rosé or an office lady's tan baster?

• 1:25:27Speaker 05

  I gotta go tan baster.

• 1:25:28Speaker 01

  Damn it, I knew you were gonna say it, Sam. I knew it.

• 1:25:31Speaker 05

  Why'd you think I was gonna say it?

• 1:25:32Speaker 01

  Novelty.

• 1:25:33Speaker 05

  No, because a lot of the sprays and sticks have harmful chemicals in them, like aerosols and things that are bad for you. Cassie?

• 1:25:40Speaker 04

  I'm team rosé.

• 1:25:42Speaker 01

  Yay!

• 1:25:44Speaker 04

  Always gonna try one. Well.

• 1:25:46Speaker 01

  You know what? Let's drink rosé while we basted ourselves.

• 1:25:49Speaker 05

  Is it possible to baste rosé into my mouth?

• 1:25:51Speaker 01

  Hey!

• 1:25:52Speaker 00

  A rosé baster! Perhaps.

• 1:25:57Speaker 01

  Oh, my word. Where are we? Oh, you guys, we gotta check back in with Kevin and Lynn.

• 1:26:02Speaker 00

  We do, because poor Kevin has been receiving a lot of advice this whole episode. And guess what? When he finally does meet up with Lynn in the parking lot, he does just fine being Kevin.

• 1:26:18Speaker 01

  He says, "I'm just gonna say everything I'm thinking." She has a great smile. He'd like to take her for dinner and a movie. She says yes. He's happy. And then he says, "Boobs."

• 1:26:32Speaker 00

  And she's delighted.

• 1:26:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:26:35Speaker 00

  Lynn just likes Kevin.

• 1:26:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:26:39Speaker 00

  Like you said, there's a lid for every pot.

• 1:26:41Speaker 01

  There is. Dwight's advice to Kevin was just go be a- Live next to her.

• 1:26:47Speaker 00

  Well, it worked. And finally, we have our tag, a final knock-knock joke, a ding-dong joke, really.

• 1:26:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, we talked about this with Rain. This one is so hilarious because Dwight thinks he's gonna get Jim back, and he does ding-dong, and then Jim's like, you know what, I just got out of the shower, I need one second. And then, like we talked about, they go back and forth with like, well, I can come back. When's good for you? It's like, so ridiculous. And that is golden ticket.

• 1:27:17Speaker 00

  We hope you enjoyed. I loved this episode.

• 1:27:20Speaker 01

  I did, too.

• 1:27:21Speaker 00

  And thank you, Rain Wilson, for coming on our podcast. That just gave me all the warm fuzzies for the whole day.

• 1:27:28Speaker 01

  I really do want us to go over there. You know, we have an office text thread. We've talked about this, where the cast texts each other, and we have all invited ourselves over to Rain's. So Rain, and sorry, Holly, we're coming.

• 1:27:40Speaker 00

  We are. You know, you told us sometime after Labor Day. Well, it's after Labor Day.

• 1:27:45Speaker 01

  Guess who remembered the date you told her?

• 1:27:48Speaker 00

  That's right. Of course, I want to go. Well, guys, we will see you next week. Please check out Rain's podcast, Metaphysical Milkshake with Reza Aslan. We love you.

• 1:27:58Speaker 01

  Love you, guys. Have a great one.

• 1:28:05Speaker 00

  Thank you for listening to Office Ladies Second Drink.

• 1:28:07Speaker 01

  This episode was initially created in collaboration with Earwolf.

• 1:28:11Speaker 00

  Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our senior producer is Matt Beagle.

• 1:28:19Speaker 01

  Our Second Drinks episodes are produced by Molly Nugent.

• 1:28:22Speaker 00

  Our audio engineer is Sam Pfeifer.

• 1:28:24Speaker 01

  Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis.

• 1:28:27Speaker 00

  Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz.

• 1:28:30Speaker 01

  Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.