A Look Back on Michael’s Birthday

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I'm Jenna Fisher.

And I'm Angela Kinsey.

We were on The Office together.

And we're best friends.

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

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.

We're the office ladies.

Happy birthday, everybody.

It is Michael's birthday.

Michael, it's a B-Day.

Oh my gosh.

Oh Angela, he would be so happy if anyone responded to his birthday like that.

Yeah, this guy needs a party like nobody else.

He needs the party.

It's so true.

Guys, it's season two, episode 19.

Michael's birthday, written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stepnitsky, directed by Ken Whittingham.

Guys, I'm in my closet right now.

I am in my that's what she said.

This morning, my husband figured out how to try to soundproof it, Sam.

I don't know if we did it.

We tried, but we got a shower curtain out of the guest room and Josh put it across the shed and hung some blankets on it.

We took, you know, the clamps that our kids have a fort building kit.

Wow.

And we took all of their clamps.

So I hope the kids don't get to do a fort this week because mom is trying to podcast from home.

The best part of...

Seeing you right now on this video chat while we do this is that you are wearing a set of gamer headphones.

Yes, I am.

I have a giant microphone, but I've pointed it up to the sky.

Like an antenna coming out of your ear.

Yeah, that's true.

We're going to put a photo of this on the pod.

Should I do a summary?

Here it is.

Do a summary, babe.

I don't know why I called you babe.

I don't know.

I don't know either.

Do a summary, babe.

It's Michael's birthday, and he is desperate to be the center of attention.

Meanwhile, we learn that Kevin is waiting for the results of a mole biopsy.

Yes.

Kevin is very worried.

He might have skin cancer, and this is causing a distraction to Michael's birthday that he is unhappy with.

Oh my gosh.

Michael's like, today is the day for celebration.

And you guys are all worried about Kevin.

And I am grumpy about it.

Yeah.

There's my summary.

I like it, babe.

Babe, I like it.

Babe.

Okay, wait.

Are we just going to jump right in?

No,

there's more summary.

And fast facts, you've forgotten everything.

Wow.

There's more summary.

What is happening?

Also, in this episode, Dwight and Angela really bicker over who exactly is in charge of planning Michael's birthday party.

Is it Dwight as his right-hand man, or is it Angela, head of the PPC?

This is the first time we're going to see a little tension going on between DwAngela.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, there was tension in season one over who was the security officer, you know, that was pre-them dating.

So they, they have some issues about who gets to have control of what.

They had that going into this relationship.

And I have a note card, guys, that says, Dwangela sass.

Ooh, Dwangela sass.

All through this episode.

We're going to track it.

Also in this episode, Jim and Pam, they sneak out of the office together.

And And in the end, the entire office gang is going to go ice skating.

Who saw that coming?

I didn't see that coming.

Well, the writers knew that we were going to end up at an ice skating rink.

That leads me into, Sam, please play my special audio clip.

Fast fact!

What is that?

What is happening?

We had a fan submit some little, they're called stings, Angela.

I love that so much.

I didn't even know there was such a thing.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So more stings, please.

More stings, guys.

Send us your stings.

I didn't even know that was a term.

We're learning so much.

We're 100, but thank you for making us stings.

So fast fact number one is that Steve Carell is a very, very good ice skater.

He

played hockey growing up.

He played pickup hockey every week as an adult.

Fan question from Matt Lovelace, was the plot built around Steve's ability to ice skate?

Yes.

He's so good.

He's really good.

Yes.

The writers had on one of their cards up on the wall this fact about Steve being a good ice skater and they had been looking forever for a way to incorporate it.

And

you guys might remember that later

when we film the Threat Level Midnight, that again, that plot of Threat Level Midnight, the movie, takes place in an ice skating rink.

And that that was just like another opportunity to feature Steve's ice skating ability.

I was at the car wash one time waiting for my car to get washed, right?

You know, the one you kind of, you can drive through part of it and then you wait on the other side, right?

Yeah.

So I'm at the car wash and this guy walks up to me and goes, I ice skate with Steve.

Just, you know, sometimes I ice skate with Steve.

And I was like, oh, what?

Oh, okay.

Well,

way to go.

You're probably very good because Steve is good.

Have a nice day.

Well, you know, Angela, my husband Lee ice skates.

He's on several pickup hockey teams and my son as well is a hockey player.

And my husband now plays on the pickup team that Steve used to play on.

I wonder if he plays with the guy from the car wash.

Steve does not play pickup hockey anymore.

He told me he kind of retired from that.

But back when we shot this episode, he was really into it.

He was really into it.

And Jenna, you're like a hockey mom.

I have been on the ice with you now and I've met your hockey mom friends and I am into it.

I don't have a kid that plays hockey, but they told me you can drink beer at like 10 a.m.

hockey matches.

And I'm like, I think this is the crowd I should be in.

I mean, I'm over at the soccer field.

They got nothing at that concession stand.

Maybe some pretzels.

I mean, we're at these hockey rinks sometimes at seven in the morning or eight in the morning and they open up that concession stand and they go for it.

I am not a beer drinker, but I am amazed at at people's ability to

have a beer in the morning.

I'm like, that would do me in.

But yeah, oh God, I love the hockey community.

It's a great, it's a great, great community.

I love being a part of it.

All right, fast fact number two.

This is a fan question from Renata.

She said, this episode has several external locations.

Did it take longer to produce this episode because of that?

So we usually would take five days to shoot an episode and we were still able to shoot this episode in five days, even with our multiple locations.

And guess what I did, Angela?

What?

I got some scoop from Kentipedia about our locations.

Kent's a bornak.

Let's hear it.

All right.

So first up, the store that Jim and Pam go to was a rite aid at Woodman and Sherman Way.

Do you remember that rite aid, Angela?

I do.

I do.

I would pass by it every day on the way to work and I would shop there constantly.

Yeah.

I would always like pick up some milk on the way home.

One time I bought some socks.

I was low on socks.

Oh, I remember setting up my trailer.

You know, we would sort of decorate and I got a few different little things.

I got like a doormat.

Yeah.

At that Rite Aid.

Okay, so cute.

You were at the Rite Aid by us.

He said that we shot there for a half a day, but we started very, very early.

I think my hair and makeup started around 4 a.m.

or 4.30 a.m.

I believe it.

Because,

yeah, we had to start shooting on camera by 6.

And the right aid said we could only shoot there until 11 a.m.

with the store closed.

After 11 a.m., we could keep shooting, but they were going to let customers in.

And Kent said that we finished by 10 a.m.

We finished an hour early and that all the customers that you see in those scenes are hired background performers.

None of them are real customers.

All right.

Good job, team.

Good job.

You got in.

You got out.

That's the scoop on the right aide.

So the ice skating, we shot that at Pickwick Ice Rink in Burbank.

I know this rink well.

And we had the whole place to ourselves for one full day.

We were there from 7 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

Again, we started our hair and makeup very early around 5 a.m.

and we were all shooting by 7.

The other skaters in the background were background actors.

We shut that place down.

It was all ours.

So Kent also told me that luckily both Randall Einhorn and Matt Sohn, they were our camera operators, that they could ice skate.

And so they were skating around with cameras.

Do you remember that, Angela?

Because

I did not remember that those guys were skating with us.

I remember Randall on the ice.

I do, because

I have a little funny backstory about there was a stunt ice skater, Jenna.

Do you remember the stunt ice skater?

Oh, yeah, the guy who filled in for oscar yes so you'll see later in the episode as we watch it that oscar is like a very good ice skater he does like a kind of a like pirouette and spins around well that's because there was a stunt guy that looked like him that was a really great figure skater and i have a little story about that i don't know if you remember this jenna but randall was filming the stunt guy getting all of the moves right

and i he wanted us skating in the background and i sort of skated in the background and i did a big circle.

Like I kind of opened my legs and did a big circle.

And the guy said to me in between takes, he goes, hey, he said, can you skate?

And I was like, well, I can roller skate.

So I'm just trying to do what I do on roller skates.

And he said, come here.

And he spun me around.

And then Randall was like, oh, wait, I'll get this just in case.

Maybe it'll be funny that Oscar spins Angela or something.

You know?

Okay.

And so the stunt ice skater started doing all these things with me, Jenna.

He spun me.

He picked me up and twirled me.

He had me stick one leg out and one leg up, like,

and then spun me and set me down.

And we, like, somewhere, there is footage of this stunt ice skater lifting me in the air and spinning me around.

And it where is this footage?

We never used the footage, but it really made me laugh to think that maybe there is a world where Angela and Oscar figure skate together.

Okay, two things.

Number one, NBC released this footage immediately.

Number two, Angela, do you know who that guy was?

I left him up.

Okay, his name is Bert Jude Lankin.

Okay.

And he

was a pear skater, a famous pear skater who won the silver medal at the 1982 United States Figure Skating Championships and then later placed sixth at the 1984 Winter Olympic Games.

Wow!

You were figure skating with an Olympic pairs figure skater.

Where is this footage?

That is amazing.

That is so cool.

Well, you know, I'm not very good, but he was very good.

So, well, I'm going to find the footage for you.

I'm going to surprise you with it at some milestone birthday in the future.

You'll have to ask Randall Einhorn.

Say, Randall, did any of that like end up somewhere?

Oh my gosh.

Okay.

Well,

next up is Fast Fact number three, but I don't even know how to follow that because that was good stuff.

Picture me and Oscar right now in your mind, guys.

Close your eyes.

Picture me and Oscar right now as a figure skating couple on the ice and go.

Oscar makes all of our costumes.

Well, Angela, that is a good segue for me into Fast Fact number three because you mentioned costumes.

We got a fan question from Alyssa, and this is not specific to this episode, but a general fan question.

And I thought it was a good one, so I thought we would include it.

Alyssa wants to know, what do you do with your clothes after you've been shooting in the same outfit for 12 to 15 hours at a time?

She says, I imagine they would get stretched out and wrinkly and dirty.

Do you have multiple sets of the same outfits for each day of shooting or does someone wash them for you?

First of all, I like where her head's at.

Yeah.

I like this person.

I know.

This person is a planner.

She probably packs very well for a trip.

I like it.

I like your train of thought.

These are things I wonder about when I watch movies, especially if I see a movie where like it's a flood or they're submerged in water somehow.

I think, oh my gosh, how many hours that day did they have to stand?

like waist deep in water.

Probably like 12 hours.

So here's the thing.

We often had, well, we always had duplicates.

They wanted to make sure that you had two of every outfit.

So they could wash and have the next set ready the next day.

Also, if you were to spill something on it or get a tear or whatever, they would have the duplicate ready to go.

Yes.

And if you did have to do some sort of a stunt

or something

in that particular outfit, then they might have even more than two.

You know, they might have seven shirts if part of the scene involves you purposely dripping ketchup on your shirt or something.

So, yeah, they always had multiples.

And they, part of the wardrobe department's job is to launder and prepare your outfit for the next day.

So, that's how that worked.

I like the question, though.

I like the question.

All right.

That's the end of my fast facts.

Oh.

I'm so sorry, guys.

My bread.

What the was that?

Well, I think my bread is done.

I have some bread in the oven.

I thought that was like an alert.

Like they always say you can tell a little something about the person by which alarm they pick.

And by they, I mean me.

This is my theory.

So like your alarm is like gang, gang, gang, like

Mayday, Mayday.

And like my alarm, my alarm is like two banjos playing.

Ding, ling, ding, ding, ding, ling, ding, ding, ding, ling, ling, ding.

Angela, this is saying everything about us.

That's 100% true.

Everybody, what is your alarm on your phone?

And what does it say about you?

Lee is telling me that the internal temperature of my bread is only 154 degrees.

Do you mind if we take a break?

I do want to take a break because my That's What She Shed is really cold and I turn my heater off when we podcast and I want to warm it back up.

So you take care of your bread.

You heat up your bread.

I'm going to heat up my she shed.

And we'll be right back.

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There is nothing worse than not having the tools to make impactful work.

For me, that is usually due to my lack of technical know-how.

I don't know how to

do all the snazzy stuff, but Canva can make that a lot easier.

You can put all your workflow in one place, starting with the presentation, then you could like add in a whiteboard, you could drop in a video.

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Well,

I just

oversaw the bread.

We're still not at the right internal temperature.

I had to leave it for Lee to make a judgment call.

I hope it turns out.

I hope we can make some sandwiches today.

Time will tell.

Let's get back on track, Jenna, and let's jump into this episode.

Yes, the cold open.

Michael is trying to sell the employees some calling cards.

Did you notice something about this scene, Jenna?

It's in the conference room, right?

Yep.

Yeah.

Who all is in attendance?

Who?

It is Jim.

Dwight.

Jim, Dwight, Toby, Creed, Oscar, Ryan, and Stanley.

Not a single woman.

Hey.

Hey.

Now, do you think, A, Michael thinks the women will say this is a load of crap.

Hey.

but he thinks the guys will go along with it.

Why aren't there any women?

Hmm?

Hmm.

Jim convinces Michael that this is a pyramid scheme.

Michael draws a chart and then Jim turns it into a literal pyramid.

Do you remember in the fire episode when Michael said he lost all of his money in a pyramid scheme and that's why he couldn't go to business school?

Yeah, Toby brings it up in this scene.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Toby's like, remember?

Well, Toby brings up an email scam that Michael also participated in.

Yes, and Michael's like, hey, when the son of the deposed king of Nigeria emails you directly asking you for help, okay?

His father ran the freaking country, okay?

Yeah.

Michael, Michael.

Michael.

All right, so that's our cold open.

And then when the episode begins, that was one of those standalone cold opens that did not end up applying.

I have one more question about the cold open.

You might know the answer.

Oh, go ahead.

Is a calling card the same as a business card?

What, Angela?

What's a calling card?

Wait, I don't know what a calling card card.

You're not asking this question.

Do you not remember the 80s?

Honey, I was in Indonesia.

Oh, I just called you honey.

I'm a baby.

I'm a honey.

Honey, I was in Jakarta, Indonesia, until 1984.

What happened?

What's a calling card?

Okay.

Gosh, how do I describe it?

You know how long-distance phone calls, they would cost money, like so much money per minute if you wanted call someone and you would usually just use your home phone and then I can't believe I'm describing this right now.

So it's like a card with a number on it and you enter it or something and then you use the minutes?

Yes, it's like a prepaid credit card that you could apply to the price of a phone call.

Okay, I know what it is now.

I got it.

I remember that for whatever reason in my mind, I thought this whole scene was about business cards and I thought it was really funny.

Oh, and

that's funny.

So anyway, and I was like, oh, look, they're making their own business cards.

That's kind of cute.

No,

no.

You don't need Phil and his Corvette for that.

Now this makes sense.

Yeah.

Okay.

I hear the tone in your voice, Jenna.

I hear it.

I don't know how to end this.

I hear it.

It's like you pity me, but you love me.

But you're perplexed that a grown woman doesn't know what a calling card is.

I hear it all.

It's all there.

But I love you.

Okay, so they weren't business cards.

They were calling cards.

All right.

I love you, babe.

I love you, babe.

I love you, honey.

Go.

That was the cold open.

It was a standalone cold open, right?

It doesn't apply to the rest of the episode because after the credits, we're going to learn the real plot of this episode when Michael enters and Pam, while handing him his messages for the day, says, happy birthday, Michael.

And when he enters, he's carrying like his own box of donuts for his birthday is he carrying the balloons that we're gonna see later in his office probably I couldn't I couldn't track where the balloons came from but then Michael has a talking head where he tells us that people go crazy for his birthday they go all out they just go all out they go all out and it's just just a boring like shot of the office just everyone doing work yeah no one paying attention and then Jenna he says that he shares a birthday with Eva Longoria.

And I looked up her birthday.

It's March 15th.

Jenna, yours is March 7th.

Yeah.

That means you and Michael Scott are both Pisces.

We're both Pisces.

Which I also looked up.

And this was what I found on the internets about Pisces.

You, Jenna Fisher, and Michael Scott.

Are you ready?

I'm ready.

In all matters of life, you bring intensity and passion.

This explains why you will devote an endless amount of time and effort into anything that you feel is worthwhile, especially family and loved ones.

Hey, I know.

That sounds like a compliment.

I think it is.

You are giving me a compliment.

I am giving you a compliment.

Thank you.

So now Jim has a talking head.

Well, wait, wait, wait.

Before we get to that, I think something really important happens here, which is Kevin is late.

for work.

Now we don't know why yet, but he's late.

He seems a little preoccupied.

And when he walks in, Michael's like, you're late, but you're forgiven because Doth it is my birthday.

It made me laugh.

Michael's such an idiot.

I love him.

But yes, Kevin is late.

So, and then we go to Jim's Talking Head.

Well, here's something I want to say about Jim's Talking Head.

So the meat of the Talking Head is he's just kind of describing what Michael is like on his birthday.

But look.

at the winter backdrop behind him.

So you know how we

love this.

You know I love our backdrops.

Okay, so that's not a real window to the outside.

That's just a window to a printed backdrop that we would change seasonally.

And I just noticed that the backdrop is winter.

It looks like it's maybe snowy.

And I'm going to bring this up later.

So put a pin in that.

But I just want to say winter backdrop behind Jim.

I am riveted.

I am riveted.

Yeah.

I can't wait to see it.

Oh, it's going to pay off later.

I cannot wait for this payoff

of the winter backdrop.

All right.

So then we see Meredith and Kevin in the break room, and she says, did you hear anything yet?

And so we start to see like what, what's happening with Kevin, right?

That he might have a skin cancer scare.

Yeah.

And this storyline starts.

And then we go to Dwight in Michael's office.

There is no one more excited for Michael's birthday than Dwight.

Really?

I mean,

it is such a special day for him.

It is a huge day.

If only everyone were reacting like Dwight, Michael would be happy.

Michael reveals he's wearing a new suit.

He says it's from Italy.

No, Bulgaria.

Right.

New suit.

And Dwight said maybe he'll have to get one.

And Michael's like, good luck.

It's pinstriped, I noticed, and the tie is insane.

It's a crazy.

tie as well.

This is also the scene where Michael tells Dwight that he's not worried about his birthday because the PPC has been working 24-7 24-7 since yesterday.

But also, it's in this scene that Dwight actually begs Michael if he can be in charge of Michael's birthday.

So this is setting up like what's going to be a big source of tension between Angela and Dwight.

And I think Angela, you know, thinks that Michael's an idiot and thinks that Dwight is loyal to someone who doesn't deserve.

like his loyalty.

And so she's just already, she already is like annoyed that it's Michael's birthday.

And now on top of the fact, her boyfriend wants to be the party planning, you know, committee chairman.

Well, Angela must be very conflicted because as party planning committee head, she is obligated to celebrate this birthday.

Yes.

Yes.

Even though she feels that Michael is kind of going a little bit over the top, right?

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Well, Ange, the next scene is the party planning committee scene.

One more thing before we move on.

There is a famous meme that came out of this Dwight and Michael scene.

It is the raise the roof.

Oh, the raise the roof.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

And in the super famous meme.

It's even longer in the deleted scenes, you guys.

So if you check out the deleted scenes, it's really funny because when Dwight starts to do it, Michael's like, no, that's not how I taught you.

Like, clearly, they've practiced this move.

Oh, I love that.

I love that there's an extra deleted scene of that raise the roof.

Well, next up is the party planning committee meeting.

Lady, it's the OG.

It's the OG.

It is Phyllis, Angela, and Pam.

That's it.

Baby, I don't know.

Did you call me baby?

What do you think OG is?

I did.

That's what it is.

OG, Jenna.

Okay, get on the internet, lady.

What is that?

You might know what a calling card is, but let me tell you what OG is.

It means original gangster.

Original gangster.

It's like you are the

first person of this thing.

Whatever.

I don't know.

Look it up on Urban Dictionary.

So it's the OG of the PPC.

Of the PPC.

Oh, I want a hoodie that says says OG of the PPC.

Note to sell.

That'd be great.

Oh, note to sell.

Look at the coffee mug I'm using.

I'm using the OG PPC.

I'm a PPC coffee mug today.

Yay!

That's apropos.

That's another word, Angela.

Apropos.

I know what that means.

It means appropriate.

Yeah, I got it.

Okay.

All right.

So

they're having a riveting conversation in this meeting.

They want to know what time we should bring out the cake.

One or one thirty.

Pam yawns.

Oh, wait.

Yeah, Pam yawns.

Pam says one o'clock, to which Angela immediately says 1.30.

And then Pam yawns.

Yeah, and then Angela sasses her.

Yeah, she's like, oh, I'm sorry.

Are we boring you?

Well, you know, there's in a deleted scene, I improvised a line where I said, not Phyllis.

Yes.

Do you remember that?

I do.

I do.

And then we all laughed.

We used to laugh a lot when we did these PPC scenes.

Well, they would let us go.

They would give us a few lines and then they would just let us go.

And we would improvise the most boring, like, conversations, like, on purpose.

We'd be like, well, I don't know, guys, how I feel about paper plates.

I mean, which size should we get?

Should we get the large oval one?

No one gets oval.

Who gets an oval paper plate?

No one.

I think we get the square one, square paper plates.

We would like, we would do this for like so long.

That's because Greg Daniels loved the PPC.

I know.

He loved our mundane banter so much.

He loved the dynamic of it.

And so he would let us just go on forever.

I loved it.

Yes.

It was so fun.

Well, then Dwight enters and he tells us that Michael wants trick candles for his cake.

Yeah, he gives us a list, a list of surprises that Michael would like.

And this is when Angela tells Dwight that this is a closed door meeting.

Well, yeah, Michael wants trick candles.

He wants a stripper gram.

And Angela's like, no, no, it's a closed-door meeting.

And then there's this sort of odd like stare-off between Dwight and Angela.

And Pam was like, what is happening?

Yes.

I have a fan catch as well.

What?

This is a fan catch from Sexually Woke.

This person wrote in to say,

Phyllis is breaking at four minutes, 19 seconds when you talk about the stripogram.

I did not notice this the first time I watched it, and I saw it.

She gets a little smirk.

And I think you could think it was Phyllis the character, but Angela, we know Phyllis, and I think this was a real Phyllis smile.

I'm sure it was.

We laughed a lot in those scenes.

So I love that.

I'm going to go back and look for that.

That's so cute.

I also want to note that when Rain comes in and out of the door, John is not at his desk in the background.

So he bailed on some background work.

Way to go, John.

Way to be sneaky and get out of that scene.

I know.

I guess what was he?

He was probably playing Madden football in his trailer with Brian or something.

There were things that they would do in their downtime when they had scenes.

And they would yell.

They were so loud.

Do you remember?

They were so loud.

They'd be like, get it.

Get him.

All right.

So at four minutes, 35 seconds, we now have this phone call between Michael and Jan in Michael's office.

Yeah.

And Jenna, did you catch who is in the room with Michael?

Ryan.

Ryan is sitting there for the whole phone call.

And the call is so awkward.

He's like, hey, I called to wish you happy birthday.

And she's like, it's not my birthday.

And he's like, oh, I thought we had the same birthday.

And she's like, no.

And then she's like, happy birthday, Michael.

And then she's like, are we being filmed?

And he's like, nope, not at all.

And then he says, Jan, just feel free to say whatever is in your heart.

And then doesn't she just like hang up?

Click, dial tone.

And the whole time Ryan is sitting here.

And I have a little something to point out.

If you go and watch the deleted scenes, there is a beginning to this scene.

And that is that Ryan the Temp has been given the task to tie those balloons in Michael's office.

Oh, this is where the balloons come from.

Yes.

So him and Michael are in his office.

Ryan is tying a balloon to like his chair.

And then he's like, can I leave?

And Michael's like, nope.

Thank you so much for telling me this.

Because I was wondering where did those dang balloons come from?

Because Michael did not walk in with them.

He must have somehow ordered Ryan the temp to get them.

Yes.

And then this deleted scene is the proof.

He makes him stay in for the phone call.

Oh, God.

It's so miserable.

I feel so bad for Ryan in that scene.

Well, the next scene is very cringy as well because Michael's in the kitchen and he is just hovering over this box of donuts, waiting for someone.

And then when Stanley comes in he's like oh my gosh somebody must have brought in donuts for my birthday michael we saw you carry that box in when you arrived michael somebody michael michael michael michael michael i have something to point out here so you know in booze cruise you and jim look at each other for 27 seconds of silence right

yeah 27 seconds is that right 27 seconds that's right okay i want you to know how long michael stood with his hand on that coffee pot, waiting for someone to come in so he could act like he was pouring himself a cup of coffee, act surprised that there were doughnuts for his birthday.

He stood there for 10 seconds of pure silence.

Wow.

And now, if you think about a TV show, you guys, that's like a long time to leave a character just sitting there waiting for someone to notice him.

That is so true.

That's amazing.

10 seconds.

10 seconds he stood there looking around, waiting for someone to walk in.

Well, and then later when Toby comes in, it's so sad.

Toby sees the donuts and he finds out it's Michael's birthday and he gives the most just upbeat, genuine, warm, genuine, happy birthday.

Happy birthday, Michael.

Yeah.

And then Michael is so mean.

Michael's like, you didn't remember.

Well,

yeah, I guess I'm not going to remember to give you a donut.

I know.

He's such a turd to Toby, and Toby was being so nice to him.

I know.

So also happening in this episode is everyone kind of learning about the fact that Kevin's waiting for these skin test results.

So like Jim's in the, in the break room and they're talking about it and Kelly overhears.

Yeah.

Kelly, you mean Mindy?

Mindy overhears.

That is a Mindy Kaling talking head.

When she's like, oh my gosh, I never thought about death until Princess Diana's funeral, which was so sad.

And then she pauses and she's like, that and my sisters?

Like, oh, it's such a dark, it's such a dark talking head.

It's so dark.

I don't know how Mindy got through that.

She almost didn't.

I want you to know, look at six minutes, five seconds.

Mindy is so about to laugh.

She's barely holding it together.

Well, then.

The accounting department is discussing Kevin's possible skin cancer, Angela.

And you are,

I mean, Angela Martin is a real downer.

She's a little bit of Debbie downer.

I mean, Oscar's like, you know what?

I'm sure it's going to be fine.

I'm like, don't give him false hope.

You don't know that.

Is that pragmatic?

I think she is,

you know,

yeah, she's pragmatic.

She doesn't need to see the rosy picture.

She's like, just give me the stats.

Yeah, what are the stats on this?

The stats are you should be worried.

Yeah.

That's what the stats say.

So next up, Michael gets a delivery.

Oh, man.

But he thinks that the woman is his stripogram.

He's so excited.

He's giddy.

He literally says, here we go.

And then he has a line that made me laugh so hard.

He's like, oh, this chair has arms.

Is that going to be all right?

I loved that line.

That made me laugh so hard.

He's like, it'll be fine.

It'll probably, you'll work around it.

I feel like Steve improvised that.

I feel like he improvised that.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I bet you're right.

I do.

I wish I had the script for this one because I would look it up, but I feel like that feels like that feels like something you notice in the moment.

Right, because they just pulled the chair aside and it had arms.

And I think he saw it in the moment and he said it.

That's what I, it feels very much like a Steve improv moment.

Well, I do want to just give a shout out to this guest actor, Susan Foley, who played the delivery woman.

I thought she was great.

She was fantastic.

She played it super straight, super real.

made it very, very funny.

Her confusion was not overplayed.

It was perfection.

Well done, Susan.

And then we just find out some sad backstory of Michael's childhood.

Jenna, his childhood breaks my heart.

It breaks my heart.

So he had this birthday party when he was seven.

He was so excited.

He said they got a pony and a cart and the pony gave him a rash and his mom rubbed cream on him for three hours.

And then he missed the party.

He said it was his worst birthday.

Well, this is a runner and some of them got cut out.

But Michael had this runner throughout this episode of all of his worst birthdays, comparing it to this one.

So this guy has had a lot of bad birthdays.

Well, he's gonna get a pick-me-up from Dwight, who's gonna play the recorder for him while he eats donuts.

Dwight is playing Billy Joel, which is a runner on our show.

We're constantly going to the Billy Joel music library on the office.

I don't know why that is.

For the longest time.

But of course, Dwight calls him William Joel.

And then Michael is just sort of lamenting how he's being treated in the office.

And he says, I bet Luke Perry's friends don't treat him like this.

Wait.

And he references this poster that this is what the delivery woman was delivering.

It is a poster of James Dean, not of Luke Perry, that his mom sent him for his birthday.

That's what his mom sent him.

Now, do you think that

his mom meant to send him Luke Perry

or she meant to send him James Dean and Michael just mistook it for for Luke Perry.

Which one is Michael a fan of?

Or neither?

Is it just Michael's mom was like, I don't know what to give him?

I think Michael is probably a fan of Luke Perry, and that's who his mom thought it was.

That's what I think.

I like that story.

I don't know, but I mean, I feel like that's something my mom would do.

Or my sister.

When you're at Christmas, my sister got me a Green Bay Packers baseball hat.

Yeah.

And I was like,

I don't get it.

And she was like, well, you went to Baylor, green and gold.

Same colors.

I was like, what?

Same colors.

Right.

Same colors.

So I feel like that could be sort of a mom moment.

Angela, one year for Christmas, my mom got me

from, I guess, a local art fair in St.

Louis.

a drawing of a woman and her cat.

She got it for me because she knows I love cats.

I'm going to post this on Office Ladies Pod Instagram.

Is she going to get upset with you?

Is she going to say something?

No, this is a running joke in our family now.

It is, Angela, it is a, it is a, I don't know how to describe it.

It is a drawing of a woman on all fours.

What?

In lingerie.

Nope.

With her tush in the air.

And the cat is rubbing seductively on the woman's.

tush.

And your mom missed all that.

She just thought it was a lady and her cat?

Yes.

So Angela, imagine me on Christmas morning.

She hands me, I'm in like college when she gives me this.

I come home from college, I unwrap this box, and I'm looking at like a semi-pornographic drawing of a woman and her cat.

It's like, mom,

what is this present?

And she goes, what do you mean?

It's a lady who loves her cat.

She loves

her so much.

She's like, she loves, you love cats.

And I'm like, Mom,

I do love cats, but what is happening?

And I, she didn't, she still didn't see it.

She's like, I don't get it.

My sister died laughing.

I don't know if we've ever laughed so hard on Christmas ever in my family.

So now.

Here's, I still have it.

Where is it?

I'll tell you, I keep it in a drawer.

But every time my parents come to my house and stay in my guest room, I get it out and I put it on the nightstand.

And then there it is.

And I'm like, mom, here's your gift you gave me.

And she knows that I do that.

She knows that I don't keep it out all the time.

But I like religiously, I put it out whenever they visit.

And I will post a picture of it.

I will post a picture of it.

I love that story so much.

I love it so much.

That is something

100% that my dad would do.

I have a story I will save for another one that my dad did, my dad bought a painting from a man on the side of the road.

I'm going to save it.

Oh,

because it was, it was a, it was a Valentine's gift.

I'm going to save it.

Okay, where are we?

Where are we?

Dwight goes into the bullpen and he announces that it is 11.23 a.m.

the exact time of Michael's birth.

And he suggests that everyone lift him up in his chair.

Yes, it's a tradition.

They're going to hoist him up in the air.

It's a tradition.

Well, I caught something here.

What?

I want you to look at Phyllis in the background of this scene.

At the very beginning of the scene, she is behind Dwight at her computer.

And I think that they said action before she had a chance to clear her computer screen.

Is it gates?

Is she looking at gates?

I don't know because she did go on a long deep dive where she would look for gates for a long time.

She wanted a gate for her driveway.

I don't know.

I really tried to zoom in and see what it was.

But what you have to see is that right at the top of the scene, she puts her hand up to cover up whatever is on her screen.

And then

at 8 minutes, 53 seconds, when Michael comes out of his office, it's like it's a continuous shot.

When you come back to Phyllis, the Dunder Mifflin screensaver is up.

Oh, she was quick.

She was quick.

Yeah, she puts her hand up and with her left hand, she's like closing out of whatever she was doing.

I have such a vivid memory of our camera guys, Randall or Matt, saying, Hey, Phyllis, we can see the gates on your screen.

Because, like, for a year, she looked at gates for her driveway.

Oh,

that makes me laugh.

Well, it's at this point that Pam and Jim are in the kitchen.

They are not participating in the hoisting of Michael.

And Pam suggests to Jim that they sneak out and buy something for Kevin.

Yeah.

At 10 minutes, 33 seconds, you guys, we learn who Dwight tips and who he doesn't.

And let me tell you, he tips his urologist.

He can't pulverize his own kidney stones, and he only tips people who do jobs that he couldn't do himself.

So when the sub-delivery guy, who was played by Justin Maloney, by the way, delivers a bunch of sub-sandwiches, Dwight gives gives him exact change because he could have delivered his own subs.

He could have.

He didn't, but he could have.

And then in the break room, we find out that these sub-sandwiches are bologna, tomato, and ketchup.

Yes.

That's it.

There's no other options.

It's bologna, tomato, and ketchup.

What is that?

Angela, we have a fan question.

This is a fan question from old man David.

Okay.

He wanted to know, did any of you guys actually eat any of that horrible sub sandwich i was at right aid do you remember did anyone eat them and were they actually bologna and ketchup old man david whatever those sandwiches were were maybe set out by craft services and people could maybe snack on them but i don't remember the cast or crew eating them but they they never let things go to waste if they had food that was in a scene that was edible they would set it out over by where all the snacks were anything that wasn't used, or they would give them to crew members.

So like if we had a scene where we had a bunch of birthday cakes, if they didn't use those birthday cakes, they would give them to people to take home.

That's true.

Maybe we set them out and who knows what they really were.

We don't know.

Yeah, maybe they were normal sandwiches, but my character kiboshes anyone eating because she's got a really crappy attitude about these sandwiches and she just makes Michael really mad and he packs them up and he's like, fine, choke on it.

And he walks right out.

Well, then, Angela, we have another one of Michael's sad birthday talking heads about his childhood.

This time he talks about being 16 years old and how he was supposed to go out on a date with a classmate named Julie,

but she went out with a different Michael from his class instead

because she

didn't realize which Michael she was supposed to go out with.

He just has had a whole, yeah.

Here's an interesting catch, Angela.

In this talking head, he says he had to hear all about it the next day at school.

Well, you mentioned that his birthday was March 15th.

I have a Dunderpedia catch for you.

Okay.

They figured out that Michael's 16th birthday would have been March 15th, 1980.

That was a Saturday.

So the next day would have been Sunday and Michael wouldn't have been at school to hear all about it.

What the heck?

What?

That's a crazy question.

Get it together.

Get it together, writer's room.

I feel like a kinship with whoever figured out this fact because of the 45 minutes I spent trying to find Neams and Carbondale.

Oh, yeah, you did.

You looked for them for a long, long time.

I did.

Well, lady, you're a Pisces.

You're intense, and you're passionate.

When the subject moves me, like Margaret.

Now we're at the Rite Aid with Jim and Pam.

Yeah.

Extra flirty.

You haven't really had an episode in a bit where you two got to be just like flirty-flirty.

And so I feel like probably for fans, they were so excited to be like, oh, they're back at it again.

They're in cahoots.

Yes, they've bought 69 cup of noodles for Kevin, some MMs and his favorite movie, American Pie 2.

Oh, man.

And then Pam even teases Jim for buying some fabric softener.

Oh, she's like, you use fabric softener.

And I feel like her internal monologue is like, oh, it's so cute.

He does his laundry and he makes sure his clothes are soft.

He's going to be a great husband.

I love him.

Well, you know, Roy isn't using any fabric softener.

Roy's not doing laundry.

Exactly.

Well, now, next up, Angela, is my favorite scene from this whole episode.

No cookie.

No cookie.

Oh, you know, we talk about things that people will say to us when they meet us.

I get save bandit and I get no cookie.

Well, Dwight and Ryan are in the kitchen, and Angela enters and tries to take the cake, the birthday cake from Dwight, but Dwight won't let go of it.

But she's the head of the party planning committee.

It's her job to bring out the cake.

Yes.

And they get in a little tiff about it.

And then Dwight says,

hey.

Is that meeting to discuss finances still on for later?

And Angela's like,

fine,

but don't expect any cookie.

And Dwight says, but what if I'm hungry?

No cookie.

And then she leaves.

And then Ryan's, Ryan's expression, Ryan, oh, BJ,

your look is so fantastic of like, what DF?

Did I just witness?

What happened?

He has that silent talking head.

All of that, whatever that minute and a half of television is from the time that scene starts until the end of his talking head is

just my favorite from this episode.

I loved it.

It's so good.

BJ's so good.

It like makes it.

It makes it, you know?

So now it's happy birthday to Michael.

The cake is out.

The candles are lit.

Michael is going to blow out his candles.

And at the same time, Kevin gets his phone call.

Is it the phone call?

No, it's Stacey.

Stacy.

He says it's Stacy.

Michael is pissed because his candles aren't trick candles.

And this is when everyone's kind of hugging.

Kevin and Michael's like, you guys, stop.

What is going on?

Angela says very pointedly, no one cares about your birthday, Michael.

Yeah.

Kevin's waiting to hear if you have skin cancer, Michael.

This is like, this is more important.

She just like flattens it.

She, I mean, she just destroys whatever good mood he was hoping to have.

Well, lady, fan comments from Delaney and Kathy O'Dell, they both said, I feel like everyone was really hard on Michael.

He didn't know about Kevin.

And it was his birthday.

Is his reaction like really that

out of line?

Well, here's the thing.

He's being a little bit of a baby, but I think if any of us really cared about him the way we should as his coworkers, someone should have pulled him aside early in the morning and said, Hey, listen, Kevin had this biopsy.

Here's what's going on.

We just want you to know.

We don't know if you know.

Yeah.

Right?

Right.

So that in the moment, he wouldn't be such a jerk because someone would have let him in on it.

Now, listen, he still would have been bummed.

He still would have spent a ton of energy trying to make everyone like somehow find a way to be okay celebrating his birthday.

Yeah, which he's going to do later.

Okay.

Remember earlier when I told you that behind Jim's talking head there was a winter scene?

Oh, is this the payoff?

Give it to me.

I want you to notice that in the background of this birthday candle scene, my cardigan is draped on the back of my chair.

It's a really nice detail because if you notice at the store, I'm not wearing it.

I also want you to know that on the coat rack,

in a little bit, you're going to see Pam's giant puffy coat that you're going to see her wearing later at the ice rink is hanging up, and Jim's big, heavy winter coat are on the coat rack.

I see what's happening here.

Why didn't they take their coats if it's snowing out?

If it's so freaking cold that they wore their heavy coats to work that day, why is Pam leaving her cardigan behind and going shopping in just a button-down shirt.

What's up?

Is it cold out or not cold out?

It's cold out.

Which one?

Someone's slipping on the job there.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I'm just saying.

Okay, well, I have a big thing to point out, everyone.

What?

Okay, at 14 minutes, 44 seconds, Jim dares Pam to make an announcement over at the store intercom because these two are like teenagers.

They play jinx, buy me a Coke.

Now they're daring each other to do stupid things in public.

Jim and Pam, what's going on?

But

guess what happens?

What does

Pam do?

I know.

What does she do, Jenna?

She, I know, Angela.

She says,

Luke, this is your father.

Star Wars!

She makes a Star Wars reference.

Jenna, did you know what you were doing when you did it?

I did because I knew

from

you know, pop culture knowledge that there was a movie from the Star Wars movies.

Is it Empire Strikes Back?

Yes, where they're fighting each other.

Yes, and it is revealed that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father.

He says, I am your father.

And Luke's like, no, that's not true.

I knew the reference, but I did get a fan question from K Slackish1 who wanted to know if that bit

where I make the announcement was improvised.

So the Luke line was scripted.

However, I did improvise a little bit.

So when I say I'm sorry into the mic, that was my fun idea and it was a little nod to the movie When Harry Met Sally.

So do you remember the scene in When Harry Met Sally when Harry and Sally, they're singing karaoke in the store.

They're singing Surrey with a fringe on top.

And Harry's ex-wife starts to walk up and he stops singing.

And Meg Ryan is like, Yeah, oh my gosh, it's my voice.

I have the worst voice.

And she's saying it all in the microphone.

And Harry is like, No,

I think I see Helen.

And then really loudly into the microphone, Meg Ryan goes, Helen?

And it like goes out over the store.

I always thought that was such a funny bit.

So I thought I'm going to say, I'm sorry, into the mic really loudly.

And I don't know it i mean probably no one would ever think about it but about your inspiration for that moment i love that i think that's so sweet i also know how much you love when harry met sally it's one of your favorite movies lady when i was in college i had a three and a half hour drive between st.

Louis which is where my parents still lived and Kirksville Missouri which is a little rural town in Missouri where I went to college at Truman State University.

And what I did to pass the time was I recorded when Harry met Sally onto an audio tape.

And then I played the movie back for myself

in my car on my drive.

I have that entire movie memorized from beginning to end.

I love it.

That is the sweetest thing.

Yeah.

I recorded on my tape recorder David Letterman's opening monologues.

And I would play them back and listen to his opening monologues.

Oh my gosh.

Well, you said you wanted to work for a late night talk show.

I wanted to work in comedy.

You loved, yeah, comedy, late night.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ah, lady, look, we were meant to be BFFs.

We were both driving in our cars.

We were into things we recorded off of our TVs because we're 100

on our tape decks.

Lady, I just got a text from Lee.

He sent me a photo of it.

Is this about your bread?

Yeah.

Can I go down and check it out?

Can we take a break?

He made sandwiches for the kids.

I want to see if they like it.

Oh my God, he did it.

Way to go, Lee.

But did they eat it?

That's the question.

We'll find out.

All right, we'll be right back.

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We're back!

Bread report for everyone who's curious.

It's freaking delicious.

I just ate a slice.

Is it?

It's good.

I don't know if the kids are going to eat it.

What is their deal?

You know what, Angela?

They love all of my other breads.

They love my sourdough bread.

They love when I make rolls.

They love when I make make popovers.

For whatever reason, I cannot get them to like my sandwich bread.

They just want store-bought sandwich bread.

I've tried three different recipes.

Today will have been my third sandwich bread recipe.

I don't know.

Or they will like it the day it comes out of the oven, but the next day, it's a no-go for them.

They only want it warm out of the oven.

I don't know.

Shall we get back into this episode, Milady?

I think we should.

Where are we?

I believe that we are

back in human resources.

15 minutes, 15 seconds.

Kevin is talking to Toby about his skin cancer.

Yeah, and this is a nice callback to season one's healthcare episode because Toby's like, can you get on your fiancé's healthcare plan?

Because honestly, ours is horrible.

Like, that's right.

So to me, to me, it was a nice callback to the healthcare episode.

Well, Michael comes over with a bunch of facts that are about why Kevin shouldn't be worried.

He's got some statistics.

The subtext is why we can still celebrate Michael's birthday

without any problem, but he's presenting it as why Kevin shouldn't be worried.

Yeah.

And then Toby's like, you know, kind of gives him some Toby sass.

And Michael's like, why are you here?

And Toby's like, I work here.

Well, now Michael is going to announce that they're going somewhere and it's to make Kevin feel better.

There's an outing for the whole office.

But of course, if you remember in an earlier scene,

Michael asked Dwight if he's made all the plans for later.

So this is a- Oh, there's a big banner when we walk in.

It says, Happy birthday, Michael.

Like, this was planned for sure.

Not by the party planning committee, by the way.

Angela would not allocate funds to this.

No.

But Dwight had this, he had planned it.

We had a fan question from Noelle, Angela, because we're about to go to the ice skating rink now.

And that's the big surprise that he's taking us all ice skating.

And Noelle wanted to know, did you have a safety meeting about ice skating?

Remember?

Safety meeting, lit candle.

I'm sure we did.

I'm sure there was a safety meeting about we have heavy things being held on the ice.

I'm sure there was all kinds of safety meetings.

Well, I know we had a medic there.

And the reason that I know this is because I don't know if you remember, Angela, but Mindy fell while we were shooting.

I don't remember.

And she hurt her knee.

So, you know, there's that little bit at the ice skating rink where Kelly is helping Ryan.

Yeah.

Well, she fell and she hurt her knee and the medic had to give her some ice, but she was able to finish filming.

Her knee was okay.

I thought it was interesting when you saw the different couplings of people ice skating.

In the beginning, you see Kelly and Ryan.

You see Pam and Jim.

I sort of just kind of go around solo.

So does Dwight.

We just kind of, we don't, you know, want anyone to know we're seeing each other.

So we skate alone.

and then later you see Ryan and Phyllis holding hands and ice skating.

Yes at 19 minutes

We had a fan catch by KP who said I love when you see Ryan and Phyllis at the skating rink holding hands so Ryan won't fall.

It's such a random glimpse into their friendship.

I think Angela they did that because Mindy was icing her knee.

And what's really cute if you watch it is Phyllis is so tickled.

She's so tickled.

It's just really cute.

It's very very sweet and I actually I went back after I read that comment and I watched it.

And it's really, very sweet to see the two of them skating together.

So that was an accident.

I had another fan question from Live Long California.

Did you and John know how to ice skate?

Or did you have to learn for this episode?

So here's something interesting.

In this episode, Jim is kind of helping Pam on the ice.

But

right before we filmed this episode, I had actually been in some intense ice skating training because I was filming a movie with Will Farrell called Blades of Glory.

And yeah, every Saturday morning for a few months, I had to go early in the morning and spend about three hours learning to ice skate.

And the crazy thing is my character didn't even ice skate in the movie.

I am completely pretending to not know how to ice skate in this scene on the office because I had actually just,

I mean, kind of learned how to ice skate quite well thanks to this movie training.

You're describing my fantasy, but all I ever wanted was to be cast in something where they're like, listen, Angela, you're going to have to learn kung fu.

You're going to go every Saturday.

You're going to become a kung fu master.

Or you're going to have to learn how to throw an axe.

You're going to get really good at throwing axes.

Like I wanted to learn something like that, but it's never happened.

Well, speaking of skating, Michael is zipping around in his hockey gear.

So in the background of Michael's talking head, it's around 17 minutes, 42 seconds.

There's a really great shot of that professional ice skater, Burt Lankin, who stands in for Oscar.

He's doing a bunch of twirls.

It's just sort of fun.

You realize?

Nothing with you, though, Ange.

I know, nothing with me.

But do you realize one of the office members who's not on the ice is Creed, and it's because he's in the arcade playing a shoot-em-up game with a bunch of kids.

Oh, yes, that's right.

That's right.

Well, there's also also that scene where Michael checks Toby into the wall.

Yeah.

We had a fan question from Cardinals fan.

Was Toby harmed in the making of that scene?

No.

And if you watch closely, Steve's body never really

touches Toby.

Like he, he, he really, like Steve, I think because he's so good, he kind of slams into the wall and makes a noise with his arms.

And then Paul just sort of falls to the ground himself.

No, Steve had total control, but it's because he's such a good skater.

And so he could definitely sort of show off a little bit and do all that stuff.

Oh, this was for sure one of Steve's favorite film days, I think.

It had to be.

It had to be.

Yeah.

He was having the best time.

Yeah.

And also he had the best time because Nancy Corell.

His wife in real life shows up in this episode again as Carol Stills, the real estate agent.

She's at the ice ring.

But Michael's so innocent.

He's like, oh, was this for sale?

And she's like, no, Michael, like,

I can go places that aren't for sale.

You know, like, my kids are here to ice skate.

And then he's so sweet with the kids.

He's so sweet.

And we sort of learned that like Michael probably could have tried to play professional hockey, but he didn't think it was a great job.

to have if you want a family and that's all he wants.

So it's just this theme again that Michael just wants a family.

That's what he wants.

Well, you know, when he offers to pull the kids around the ice rink with his hockey stick, he's skating backwards and he's pulling the kids.

Lee does that all the time with our kids.

Aw.

So when I saw that, I was like, oh, I think that's like a hockey guy thing to do.

You pull your kids around as they hold on to the hockey stick.

You just turned into like a 16-year-old girl with googly eyes.

You just thought about your eyes.

I know.

I wish you could have seen Jenna just now.

She just literally did this weird thing with her shoulder and she kind of tossed her hair and she was like, I think it's a hockey guy thing.

Like it was, what just happened to you?

Clearly, clearly when you saw your husband do that, you're like, yes,

yes, baby.

I get real smitten with him sometimes, especially when he does, you know, when he's on the ice.

He's bothering.

Yeah.

On the ice being a great dad.

Okay, now Kevin gets the phone call.

Everyone skates around him.

Jenna, I remember filming this because we had to time it out.

And there were a bunch of us on the ice that skate up to where he is.

Do you remember this?

Yes, and we have to all be able to stop.

I didn't know how to stop.

Yeah.

That was my one problem.

I didn't know how to stop.

So I remember trying to like push really hard to slow myself down so I didn't run into people, but I was like stressed out.

Well, guess what?

His results are negative, which is a good thing.

You want your results.

Understand that.

No, Michael's like

it.

He's like, oh, no, this is horrible.

We're going to beat this.

And he has that amazing talking head where he's like, it turns out that in the medical field, negative is a good thing.

Now, in the real world, negative means bad, but when it comes to test results,

it was one of those that you love, Angela, where he's describing things to us that the rest of us all know.

One of my favorite things is when Michael is like, I'm going to break this down for you.

Yeah.

This is what it's like information.

This is probably coming as a surprise to you too.

Yeah.

I know.

I'm going to tell you.

Yeah.

Yes.

And now we're opening gifts, lady.

I know.

I love this scene.

We're opening gifts.

I have actually been in the room where we filmed.

I'd been there before because I'd been to a kid's birthday party.

And if you have a kid's birthday party at this particular rink, number one, your birthday child gets to ride the Zamboni around the ice one time.

Oh, yes.

And then you get to have all of your birthday cake and presents in this room where we were.

So it kind of cracked me up that this is where Michael's birthday would be because he's so childlike.

So we're sitting at this table.

Kevin gets a card that says, get well soon or something like that.

But it's got a lady in a bikini.

This clearly made his day.

He's going to save that.

Maybe he'll put it with some of the things he keeps on his computer because he's a little pervy.

He's very happy about this card.

He loves it.

And then Michael gets a Wilkes-Berry Penguins hockey jersey from Dwight.

This is a real team.

It actually, well, and it says from Dwight.

From Dwight, number one.

I have been to their rink, me and Craig Robinson, Brian Bob Gartner, Kate Flannery for the first ever office convention.

We got to go.

We got to go on the ice.

We all got a jersey.

I still have my jersey.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

So they're the AHL team.

So they're not the NHL team.

They're the AHL team.

And that's, yeah, real hockey team.

Real hockey team.

And their mascot is Tux the Penguin.

Everyone there was really, really nice.

That was, that was super fun.

Well, then Pam gives Michael Night Swept.

From everyone.

Says it's from everyone.

Yeah.

Yes.

From everyone in the office.

we had a fan question from boss lady is there really a cologne called night swept well this

there's not but jenna did you know this is a callback did you catch this yes so from hot girl when they're cleaning out his car yes in season one episode six hot girl ryan and michael are cleaning out his car and michael says that's my dracar noir right is that how you say that yeah and ryan's like no it's right aid night swept and michael's like uh-uh it's a perfect smell-alike i'm not paying for the label so he's probably very excited he likes night swept and he already is a buyer of night swept and here he gets a four pack he got lotion cologne some kind of body spray maybe yes that was all packaged and created by Phil Shea.

That is a fictional cologne line.

However, I just want to let you know that I did Google Night Swept, and there is a Christian-based mystery novel by writer Marvin Reem

called Night Swept, and it's available on Amazon.

Okay.

There you have it.

For super fans out there who might want to read a book called Night Swept.

It doesn't smell like anything from what I would assume, since it's a book and it's not a cologne.

There you go.

There you go.

Where are we?

It's the end of the episode.

Pam ends this episode with a talking head.

She says it was a good day, Angela, because of what you said earlier, which is that, you know, finally we get a little flirty flirt for her and Jim.

They got to go shopping.

She got to learn he uses fabric softener.

I mean, this was a good day for Pam.

She got to pretend what it would be like maybe to be Jim's girlfriend for a day.

And

an errand run errands together and she loved it she loved it so it was a good day and Michael had a great birthday as it turns out he got to ice skate he got a present he liked Kevin was gonna be okay so it all ended well it did but before we say goodbye to Michael's birthday there is a deleted scene that I have to read.

I'm not going to tell you anything about it.

It's a Dwight Talking Head.

I'm going to read it and then I'm going to just watch your reaction.

Okay.

All right.

Okay.

This is okay.

Deleted scene of a Dwight talking head from Michael's birthday.

Michael's birthday is hard for me because he gets very excited, but he's also under a lot of pressure, which builds up until he's ready to explode.

As his right-hand man, it's my job to release that pressure so that he can enjoy himself, if only for a moment.

Wow.

That is brilliant.

That is brilliant.

That is a delightful, delightful talking head written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stepnitsky.

Right?

That's right in their wheelhouse.

But you know it probably

was hard for Rain to get through that.

For sure.

Guys, that's it.

That's Michael's birthday.

We celebrated Michael's birthday.

Happy birthday, Michael.

We hope you had a good time.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Next week, we're going to do some drug testing.

Dwight, Dwight, why is your urine green?

We'll find out.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey.

Our senior producer is Cassie Jerkins.

Our in-studio engineer is Sam Kiefer.

Our editing and mixing engineer is Jordan Duffy.

And our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbico.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.