There is no funniest for 5 minutes on television than this open cold of “The Office”

Do you want to feel old? The office Released 20 years ago this year, and its standard final on NBC is somehow 12 years in the past. However, thanks to streaming and syndication, The office is as popular today as at the time. It really looks like a timeless series, and regardless of the quality of the restart, PaperIt is that we will continue to return to the branch of Scranon de Dunder Mifflin. We may know how the episodes end, but we want to see Jim (John Krasinski) and PAM (Jenna Fischer) Fall in love again and again. We cannot have enough Michael Scott (Michael Scott (Steve Carell) misinterpret all the situations of his life at the most creaky levels. And Dwight K. Schrute (Rainn Wilson) will never fail to make us laugh, even if we have seen him ruin lives because of his own stupidity. The office is undoubtedly the best sitcom ever made, and No example underlines it more than the first five minutes of the “stress relief” episode.

“ The Office ” is filled with the opening of the memorable cold

TV shows love their cold openings. For dramas, they can be used to show the opening murder, preparing the ground so that the mystery follows which will start after the opening credits. The comedies are different. The open cold could be a suspicion of what will happen, but just as often used during a funny short film to keep the spectator engaged. It may have nothing to do with what comes next, but we are hooking.

No sitcom has made the two examples of the latter better than The office. It’s just as hilarious and heartbreaking to see a proud Kevin (Brian Baumgarnter) Bring his famous Chile, only to throw it on the ground. It has become a popular meme when Michael Scott shouted “No!” When he saw that his sworn enemy, Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein), had returned to Scranton. And how many times Jim Prank Dwight, like when he has disguised himself like his Frenemy, or had an Asian man (Randall park) Try to convince Dwight that it had been who had been all along? But then came the last moment to attract new fans to The office. The Super Bowl being an advance, the creators of the series knew that they had to go big. This led to the out -of -wall fire drilling scene in “Stress Relief”.

“ The Office ” fired millions of new viewers thanks to the Super Bowl

The office lasted nine seasons and is a classic now, but during his race, he was never among the biggest television shows. At a time of reality TV and detective programs everywhere, The office was a solid artist, but never a mastodon. This was going to change – for at least one night – in February 2009. NBC was planned for the Super Bowl XLIII that year. Even if you’re not a football fan, you know it’s the biggest television day of the year. Each year, the NFL championship game is part of more than one hundred million viewers, and it is a coveted place if you can be the show that comes just after. So what was it The office When we gave them the greatest imaginable opportunity?

The moment was discussed in the book The Office: The unprecedented history of the largest sitcom of the 2000sWith an extract published by Vulture. According to Ben Silvermanwho directed NBC at the time, many people wanted The apprentice To get the coveted place after the Big Game, but Silverman wanted to use it to develop a show. He wanted to emphasize The officeBy telling everyone: “Let’s do this and see how we turn it and do things.”

Network managers wanted to go big with the celebrity cast, suggesting that The office casting Matt Damon Or Ben Affleck For a cameo, but that would not have worked. If you’re a fan, you know it was never what The office was roughly. We loved it because the false documentary approach made everything seem real. Add celebrities to increase notes, and you create something desperate The office Never been. The casting of the case was released. Instead, The office necessary to create the craziest scene in its story.

Nothing goes beyond the fire forest scene in “stress relief”

Writer Warren Lieberstein admitted that they wanted to draw everyone’s attention to prevent people from changing the chain. Another writer, Halsted SullivanApart from the need to draw new viewers, but also to remain faithful to viewers they already had by creating something plausible. This led to the creation of open cold for “stress relief”. If you need to go big, you have to do it with the most exaggerated character in the series. Everything that happened had to involve Dwight K. Schrute. He could do everything and make him be plausible, because Dwight did what he wanted.

Dwight Schrute lives life as if he knows everything and is surrounded by idiots. So, in the “relief of stress”, since no one has manifested itself in interest in the speech he gave on fire safety (“PowerPoint is boring”), he will reach his colleagues in another more immediate way. He will teach them the experience. Dwight goes around the locks on all the doors, heats the door handles themselves with headbeans, then, after having a lighter liquid pupHe lights a cigarette, pronounces: “Today, smoking will save lives” and throw it in the trash. In a few seconds, a cloud of smoke spreads, and everyone, naturally, panic.

Dwight tries to teach through chaos, but with phones and doors that do not move, total panic takes over in the most predictable and hilarious way. Angela cat lover (Angela Kinsey) Go for the cat, Bandit (she slipped) and as an ossar (Oscar Nunez) Climb into the ceiling to escape, she shakes her fair feline, leading to the view of the cat falling through the ceiling tiles. Meanwhile, Kevin moves the automatic distributors, breaking the glass. Stanley, frightened to death, is starting to have chest pain. Dwight interrupts to say that all of this was a test, but it is too late. Stanley collapsed. If you were a new spectator that night and this scene did not draw your attention, nothing would do it.

The fire fire scene is effective because, although it is ridiculous, each reaction is plausible. Of course, Angela would bring a cat to work and try to save him. Of course, Kevin will think of food in his last moments. And, of course, lazy Stanley will be physically unable to manage it. Fortunately, each character lives, including the cat. Bandit is played by a real cat thrown to an animal coach on the ceiling, but wanting the action to be as precise as possible, $ 12,000 was spent to create a plush animal that looked like it.

The first five minutes of “stress relief” are pandemonium, but it’s the moment that sums up this The office East. Work at Dunder Mifflin could be a chore, but the life of employees does not do so. In the Super Bowl XLIII, the Pittsburgh steelers beat Arizona’s cardinals in an exciting game, but nothing of this excitement compared to see a plush animal of $ 12,000 thrown through a ceiling tile in a set filled with smoke and actors run in circles.

All episodes of The office can be broadcast on peacock in the United States