Welcome Party
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Pulling up to Mickey D's just for drinks. Oh, yeah, that's me. Nothing extra, just perfection and a straw. Coming in hot for the coldest cups on the block. Because there are drinks. Then there are drinks from McDonald's. Mix things up with any size lemonade or sweet tea for $1.49. Perfect with our classic fries. Price and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.

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. ♪

Hello! Hey! Are you ready for a welcome party that no one asked for and no one wants to throw? Well, I am, and I'm also ready to haul some cube. Yeah, let's haul cube today! It's Season 8, Episode 20. This was written by Steve Healy and directed by Ed Helms. Here's your summary. After being instructed by Robert California to throw Nellie a welcome party, the group decides to prank her by making it intentionally awful.

Dwight and Jim reluctantly help Nellie move into her new apartment, and they get a glimpse into her heartbreak. Meanwhile, Andy and Erin have an important pit stop to make on their road trip back to Scranton. Andy is going to finally break up with Jessica. With Erin. Present. I don't know what to say. I have less to say. We have texted about it. We have feelings about it. We have strong feelings about it. Okay.

Fast fact number one, guest star Brett Gelman as the magician. I need to just clap for a second. I need to clap for a second. I love him. He was so fantastic. We're going to talk a lot about it, but oh my gosh, did this guy make us laugh. I did not know Brett Gelman before he guest starred on The Office. He came in and we didn't know what to do with him. He was so funny. He destroyed us all. He did.

You guys out there probably recognize him from the gazillion things he's been in. He gets a lot of love for Stranger Things. I absolutely loved him in Fleabag and Love. Everything he did in Fleabag was perfection. I do have a crossover shout out. Oh, yes? Yes. Not Monk, but fresh off the boat, he played Dusty Nugget and I played Amy Chestnut.

So did you guys work together? We did not. Oh. But we have a crossover moment. Crossover connection. Well, before he was on The Office, he had done a lot of shorts for Funny or Die Presents. This ran on HBO. Very short-lived. He had been on Curb Your Enthusiasm. He had been on Bored to Death. And it was our writer, Halstead Sullivan, who pitched Brett for the role. He didn't know him personally, but he was a fan of his work. And he was a fan of his work.

And one of the Funny or Die episodes he had recently done was a 16-minute one-man musical called 1,000 Cats. It is really, really funny. I watched it.

He dresses as a black cat. He has a headband on with little black ears. It's very serious. Very serious. Brett did an interview where he said he had been doing it as a 30-minute live show at Upright Citizens Brigade for like eight years, and then it ended up on the Funny or Die HBO show. The Funny or Die sketch opened with a video of his character,

talking about his stage show, 1,000 Cats, and why it's important to the world. Oh my gosh. I think we should listen to it. Okay. 1,000 Cats is not a play. It's not a musical. It's not even really a performance. It is a universal consciousness that is physicalized through me.

Of course, the appropriate venue is not the theater that I will be performing it in. Really, there's only one venue that would do 1000 Cats justice, and that venue is the Vatican. I am performing 1000 Cats, yet I am not performing 1000 Cats. Because 1000 Cats doesn't even exist while at the same time. 1000 Cats is the only thing that exists.

So then it cuts to the performance. I saw part of the performance. It's amazing. It's 1,000 cats, but they have 9,000 lives and 9,000 stories. And he's going to tell each one. Each one. And sing. Sing them. Yes. It's a musical. It's a musical. Did we mention it's a one-man musical about 1,000 cats?

So Halstead was familiar. And when they were breaking down the script, he said, I know who should play the magician. Allison Jones put him on tape. Everybody watched this tape and loved him. And, you know, Ed Helms was the director of this. When they gave Ed the tape, he was so excited because he had known Brett for years, you know, from their days of both doing Upright Citizens Brigade. And he was like, yes, yes, he's the guy. Yeah.

I can't imagine anyone else playing this part, and I'm sad we don't see more of him. I'm like, why couldn't someone have dated him on the show? Right? Right? Who would it have been? Angela? Angela?

No, I don't think she would like anything to do with magic. She would date the 1,000 Cats guy, though, maybe. Yes. Would she be attracted to a man who has a musical about 1,000 cats? 100%. I think so. All right, well, let's move on to fast fact number two. We had a very special cameo on this show that caused a fan mail flurry. We got so much mail about it. That cameo is the shoebox that Dwight and Jim find in Nellie's apartment.

You know, Benjamin that holds all the photos of Henry. Yeah, it's her sad box. Yes. Let me explain why this caused a fan mail flurry. All of our letters were from folks in the U.K.,

First off, Becky O. from County Durham, England said, I noticed the shoe box is for the brand Clark's Shoes. This is pure perfection. Clark's is such a well-known British shoe brand. I remember before a new school term, my mom would take me to Clark's and it would be so, so busy. You would have to get a ticket and have to wait till they called your ticket number for a foot measure and then choose your school shoes.

Any box could have been used for this, but the commitment and attention to detail to use an iconic British high street brand was just perfection. I am obsessed with this detail. Was this a filch decision? I cannot express how amazing I think this kind of detail is. That is fantastic. I totally missed

I missed it, too. Oh, my gosh. Thank you for writing in about it. Anna B. from Lancashire, United Kingdom said, I need to know everything about the amazing shoebox choice in this episode.

This is exactly where someone like Nellie would have bought her work shoes from. And Liam C. in Glasgow, Scotland said, I love that Nellie's box of photos, aka Benjamin, was in a Clark's shoe box. I have fond memories of my mom taking me to get my feet measured at the end of the summer before starting a new school year. As always, props to the prop department. That's

So great. Well, everyone, I checked the script and there was no mention of the kind of shoebox. This was 100% Phil Shea paying attention to detail. I love that it resonated with so many people. This is just a sample of the letters we got.

And I love that the memories it brought back were people doing their before school shopping, foot measure and shoe shopping. Yeah, I remember doing that going. There was one children's shoe store in the mall and you would go and get your foot measured and pick out a pair of sneakers or whatever. This is such a sweet memory. And I love that Phil got it. He nailed it. Nailed it.

Well, I thought it might be fun to do a small deep dive on Clark's, this company that delighted people so much. Great. So here we go. Clark's is a British international shoe manufacturer and retailer. It was founded in 1825 by Cyrus Clark in the small village of Sweet Somerset, England. This is the most adorable small town.

I looked at pictures. Did you Google it? Of course. Did you look at images of it? Yes. Okay. Of course. I want to go. I already know I want to go. I know. I do, too. This town, it only has about 11,000 people living there, but the Clarks World headquarters is still there. Love that. The company has about 1,400 branded stores and franchises around the world. You know there's one in our mall, but I wonder if it's the same company. It has to be, right?

Now I'm excited to go there even more. The company is very well known for their desert boot and their wallaby. The wallaby is what Walter White wore on Breaking Bad. And of course, children's school shoes. I am pretty sure that I wore Clark's on the office. I think they do really comfy work shoes for the lady executive.

You know, it's like a heel, but it's like a chunky heel. Yeah. A chunky low heel. Yeah. With good arch support. I mean, we all know I wore sass. And then the working man, they've got some nice loafers. I've been all over the website, clearly. But here's what I needed to know. Is there a Clark's factory that we can tour? Is it in England, in that cute little town? No, that's where the headquarters are. No, there is no factory tour.

I did find the Clark's Shoe Museum, but unfortunately it closed in 2019 after 70 years. It just closed. I found a blog called Travel with Kevin and Ruth. Okay. They're a Canadian couple who are in their early 60s. They've been married for 39 years, and they blogged all about visiting the Clark's Shoe Museum. They have great photos. Okay.

But unfortunately, that's as close as we're going to get, Ange. Can I please put Kevin and Ruth's blog link in our stories? Because I'm sure they would be delighted. I would love to check it out myself. They have a great blog. They have lots of pictures and they just travel all around. Amazing. Yeah. Maybe we should meet up with them somewhere interesting. Kevin and Ruth. Kevin and Ruth. We can be on their blog.

All right, finally, fast fact number three, Office Ladies announcements. Yes. These announcements are based on some popular mailbag letters. Yes, they are. In our general mailbox. Mm-hmm. First off, Peyton from Georgia and many others sent in requests asking if we would please update the Office Ladies Instagram story highlight. I did it, guys. I did it. I sat down one day and updated them all. I'm sorry. I got a little behind. Yes.

We are very excited to announce that all past episode stories are now available. So when you're listening and you hear us say we're going to put it on the pod, you don't have to worry if you missed the day that we posted. Just go to the highlights. Go to the highlights.

Next up, Angela, let's talk mugs. Okay. Suzanne in New York wants to know, where did they get Pam's pink mug on the show? Suzanne wanted to know, Jenna, was this mug originally yours? If so, where did you get it? Is there any brand on the bottom of the mug? I don't know where they got it, Suzanne. I looked. There's no logo anywhere on the mug.

Everyone knows I still have it. It broke during season nine and they glued it back together for me. Perfectly. Yes. Perfectly. I can't drink coffee out of it. Because it will fall apart from the heat. But now it's like a souvenir for you of your time on The Office. And I love it. However, I did find a woman online who makes homemade pottery. She makes the Pam mug.

I bought one from her. She didn't know it was me. I love it. I post about it all the time. It's made by Linda Renee Pottery. I will link to her in our stories, and you can find that in the Now Highlights. Jenna looked at me very pointedly, and Angela, you will put it in Highlights. Will you highlight that? Yes, I will highlight it. I will put it in stories.

Well, since we're on the subject of mugs, I want to plug a few of our office ladies' merch mugs, Angela. They make great holiday gifts, and I don't know if everybody out there is already thinking holidays, but I have a personal goal to get all of my holiday shopping done by December 15th.

I want to be ahead this year, not behind. Okay. No end of the year scramble for gifts. No. Okay. So anyway, we have a really adorable It Is Your Mug mug. It's blue. It's so cute. The writing is etched. Etched. It's not printed on. It's etched. And it's that sort of light blue, and then the rim of it has like a little kind of brown ceramic color. I want you guys to know we gave Steve Carell one of these when he came into studio, and he was like, this is a good mug. It is a good mug. It is.

Yeah. I love the shape. I love the size. I love it. I love it all. I love holding it in my hand. Mm-hmm. That's what she said. She said all that. She did. It's $35. We also have our Icons mug, which has little office-related images on it. There's a little teapot and a little yogurt lid metal and spilled chili. That one's so cute. I love it. It's $15.

And since we are talking about the holidays, early announcement, we are bringing back all of our ugly Christmas sweatshirts. They're really cozy, including the party planning committee one. And we have other holiday stuff. We will post a link to all of our merch in our stories. Well done, lady. Thank you. And finally, Angela's Journal.

Lady, we got a lot of mail, a lot of requests. Melina from Idaho said, when is Angela going to read from her journals again? It always makes me laugh out loud. Oh, my gosh. So, Ang, I wrote you. I said, can you read from your journal today? Yes, I can. I can. I can.

And guess what? I have some Angela Journal updates for everyone. What are they? You know, we've been doing some home construction, and I haven't been able to get into our shed where we keep everything, right? Finally got into the shed the other day. We're digging around. All I was looking for was some seasonal doormats that I kept. I found a little box that said Angela's trailer. Jenna, I didn't even find this when we were writing our book.

It had a blanket in it, a pillow. It had like some extra socks. Like who knows how long this little box has been in the way back of the shed. But it had a journal that I kept in my trailer and I wrote in it in the pilot season one and season two. Oh my gosh, Angela. I know. This is such a find. It's such a find. I wrote about the basketball episode, lady. You did not. All of these specific things. I was like in journal overload. I was like, oh my God, what am I going to do?

What am I going to share? But I'm going to wait. I'm going to save those for special things. I wrote about filming the pilot. I have little notes that, like, Oscar gave me taped inside the journal. I have my call sheet, lady. Wow. I know. And we found so much stuff when we did our book. Is it making you want to call the publisher and say, we need to do a reprint? No.

So I'm not going to read from that journal today. I thought I would save that journal for when we get to the end of the run. That's fun. Yeah. Okay. Because I also found a card you gave me. Oh. I know. So I'm going to save all that. But today's Angela's journal, you guys, I have a journal that I titled Travel Journal. Oh, it's a travel journal. And I only wrote on it when I was on a plane or a bus or a train or whatever.

And I guess, guys, I really take inventory of who sits around me. You do, Ange. When you travel, you leave me the most amazing messages about the people you are surrounded by. It's so entertaining and detailed. Okay. Well, here we go, you guys. This is written at 5.56 p.m. on a flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. It was 2005. Okay. Okay. I have now been on this flight for three hours. Okay.

I write 5.56 p.m. in all caps, BORED! Exclamation point.

And then I write, Ken Kwapis, the director of The Office, actually has a movie on this plane. It's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It was the feature movie. I saw it with Jenna at the theater when it came out, so I didn't feel like paying $5 for headphones, frowny face. Oh, yeah. Now they give you headphones. Yeah. This is in 2005. I go on to say, and now the odd couple is on, and I wish I had a pair of headphones. Yeah.

The guy behind me is pounding Jack Daniels and Coke. I think he's finally passed out. Oh, and the two ladies in front of me are feuding. One wanted the other to switch so her husband could sit next to her, but the other lady said no. She didn't want to give up her seat. It's been tense ever since. This is amazing.

This part cracks me up. The guy next to me has been diligently reading a book on Texas Hold'em and furiously scribbling notes. He ran out of paper and has started to write on his plane ticket. He keeps covering his notes with his hand like I'm going to steal his secrets. I'd offer him a page out of this journal, but he's such a grump.

We should be landing in half an hour, and I'm starving, and there's no snacks on U.S. Airways unless you want to pay $7. Ridiculous. What happened to the airline industry? Question mark, exclamation point. Amazing, Angela. Oh, you guys. I loved it.

I loved it. Can you believe I wouldn't give the guy a piece of paper? He's like writing on his plane ticket. You're not going to give the airline $5 for headphones or $7 for a snack. You're not sharing your paper. I'm not going to spend $12 on things I need. No. Ridiculous. $7 for a snack.

I absolutely loved it. Well, there you go. That's my Angela's Journals updates. I will save some of our early years that I wrote about for the end of our run. That's all I got for Fast Facts, lady. I could really just do a whole episode of you reading your journals.

You know what this made me want to do is journal again when I travel because I used to always journal. Me too. Yeah. It's such good character study. If you're a writer or an actor, it's great character study. I always love your messages when you've gotten off a plane because that's what they are. That's the description I get. You really paint a picture. All right. Well, should we take a break? And then when we come back, does Stanley have a mustache? Oh, there's a hot debate.

Pulling up to Mickey D's just for drinks. Oh yeah, that's me. Nothing extra, just perfection and a straw. Coming in hot for the coldest cups on the block. Because there are drinks. Then there are drinks from McDonald's. Mix things up with any size lemonade or sweet tea for $1.49. Perfect with our classic fries. Price and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.

Well, the episode's going to start with Pam and Phyllis. They're passing around a card for everyone to sign welcoming Stanley back from his tonsil surgery. I guess the card says, quote, glad they didn't mix up your tonsilectomy with a mustachectomy. We get some gym sass. He says, oh, that's not good. Met with some Phyllis sass. She's like, oh, because your jokes are all hilarious.

You know what, lady? This made me realize we really like a punny card on this show. Mm-hmm. Remember in the Alliance, Meredith got a card that said, happy bird day? Yep. Do you have a memory of getting a real pun card? Because I do. No, we give my dad pun cards. Does he like a pun card? He loves a pun. He's a punner. There's one in every family. Mm-hmm. I am not the punner, but somehow I still get cards with puns.

I got one one time from a friend of mine that it was just a picture of a sofa, and it said, you're sofa king awesome. It took me a second. Clever. Well, Jim is going to question whether or not Stanley has a mustache. Yeah. Yeah.

And everyone's like, no, he does have a mustache. Well, some people feel very strongly that he does. Some people feel like, no way, he does not. And then some people are waffling. I did break it down. Here's how the Dunder Mifflin bunch voted by show of hands. Team Stache are Pam, Dwight, Creed, and Oscar. Team No Stache, Jim, Phyllis, Angela. Team Unsure About the Stache, Kevin. I feel like Phyllis raises both hands.

She has two hands up at the end. Yes, that's true. She might be unsure. She might be in team unsure stache. I mean, Pam even draws a picture. She draws a mustache Stanley and a no mustache Stanley. Yeah. That didn't seem to help.

But we did get a lot of mail about these drawings. Jocelyn V. in St. George, Utah, Millie P. from Durham, North Carolina, and Zoe G. from Irvine, California, all said, Jenna, in the cold open when everyone is trying to remember whether or not Stanley has a mustache, Pam draws two pictures of Stanley in eight seconds. That's very funny. At 50 seconds, she is standing next to Phyllis, and at 58, she says, okay, and then holds up two full

full-page recognizable sketches of Stanley. In re-watching the scene, Pam's frantic faux speed sketching in the background of Jim's line had me cracking up. That means she only had four seconds for each of those pictures. Who really drew those pictures? Were you directed to draw really fast? Please tell us everything you remember about this scene. Well, Jocelyn, Millie, and Zoe, I have a curveball to throw at you.

What if Pam has sketched everyone in the office and keeps them in her desk drawer? That sounds like something Dwight would do. I know. Because he's going to need a wanted poster at any moment. But Pam has drawn Dwight. This is true.

Well, first of all, I did not draw those pictures. They were preset for me. I'm pretending to draw feverishly. But there were a few lines of dialogue in the scene that got cut out. The original script allowed me more time to draw these pictures. So in the scene, Pam says...

Phyllis would know if Stanley has a mustache. She sits across from him every day. And Phyllis is like, oh, my God, I don't know. Now I think he doesn't. And Pam says, oh, come on, Phyllis, the whole card depends on this. So at this point, Jim would have thrown to Kevin. He would have said, Kevin, does Stanley have a mustache? And Kevin would have said, OK, I'm picturing him. Now I'm asking him if he has a mustache.

He's not answering, guys. And also, Creed would have said, when I close my eyes, I see a mustache and a white beard and a red suit. He's my father, and he's asking me to guide his sleigh tonight. Don't ask Creed ever.

Don't ask Reed. The script did say that I was supposed to hold up two, quote, hastily made drawings. It also noted that the one with the mustache should be a giant mustache, not an accurate mustache. So there you have it. That's what happened.

I had more time, but they kind of snipped some of it away. You had more time, but still not enough to do those two drawings, in my opinion. But that's okay. It's a little bit of TV magic. I feel like it would have doubled my time. Do you think 16 seconds is enough time? It might have been more because, you know, Kevin does a whole visualization thing. I don't know. Well, I guess it depends on your skill set because I would have needed all day to do that. Yeah.

Well, Gabe is very excited because Stanley is arriving. And as Stanley walks in, Gabe covers his face so we can't see and then does sort of a like, ta-da. And he does, in fact, have a mustache. We got a fan question from Veronica R. in Park City, Illinois, who said, where did the idea of Stanley having or not having a mustache come from? Was this based on a real conversation about whether or not Leslie had a mustache? Well, Veronica,

Well, Veronica, we got to trade some messages with our writer, Steve Healy. And he said that this idea came up in the writer's room. He said it was either Mindy or BJ who pointed out that it was really hard to visualize whether or not Leslie had a mustache or not. He said that the writer's room did have a debate and that it was either Mindy or BJ who pointed out that it was really hard to visualize whether or not Leslie had a mustache or not.

And only about 85% felt 100% sure he had one. I thought this was so relatable when Steve shared this with us because how many times are you sitting around like at dinner with friends that you've known forever and someone's like, oh, yeah, you know, Jenna has blue eyes. And they're like, no, she doesn't. Like, what are you talking about? She has blue eyes. And then that whole debate starts. Like, no. Yeah.

It happens. When I was watching The Cold Open. Did it make you second guess? It did. Me too. I was not sure. I was like, wait, no, he does. He does. Doesn't he? He does. Yes.

But you just plant that seed of doubt, and then you aren't sure. Yeah. Well, Steve was so gracious. We reached out to him with a few questions, and we're going to sprinkle those in. Well, I've got something to share from him right off the top. After the opening credits, we got a fan mail flurry again about Nellie not being featured as the manager. Yes, I noticed that, too. I thought for sure this opening credits would have something with her on her desk about

But no. I asked Steve Healy about it. I said, did the writers have an arc in mind for Nellie as manager?

And he said there was not a clear plan. With the other managers, it was sort of pre-planned. They knew it was going to be an arc. He said they were kind of at this point writing week to week. Oh, geez. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. He said he did remember talking to Catherine Tate one day at lunch early on, and she had shared that she found California kind of odd compared to London. Yeah.

So they did try to incorporate some of that kind of fish-out-of-water stuff into her character. So that was something that they had preplanned for her arrival to Scranton. But they didn't know about Nellie's position within the Dunder Mifflin, like, hierarchy. Or how long she would be staying manager. They were kind of deciding week to week how that would go. Got it. Well, Robert California is going to arrive, and he's not greeted by anyone because Erin is in Florida. Yeah.

He sneaks up behind Pam, who has headphones on. She's drinking her coffee. She's rocking out. Yeah, she is listening to Drake featuring Swizz Beatz. I have an audio clip. Would you like to hear what Pam was warming up with for the day? Oh, I know what she was warming up to, but I think we should all hear it. It's Fancy. Oh, I know. Oh, you fancy, huh? Oh, you fancy, huh? Oh, you fancy, huh? Oh, you fancy, huh? Yeah, neck, neck, nails down.

All right. That's how Pam warms up for a day of work. Yeah. It got me thinking. Do you warm up with music, Ange? I texted you. I said...

I think we should each think about this, and we should play our warm-up for the day music. A hundred percent. You do? Oh, yeah. And sometimes if I think the kids, you know, I have teenagers now, need to pick me up on the way to school. Maybe they got a big test. Maybe they got to get amped up.

I do the carpool DJ stuff. I play some songs to get us going. Oh, wow. You got your carpool playlist. But it's the mom version. I don't know if it's exactly their stuff. I have a good mix. I really do. Okay. What is your main go-to? I really have two that I love. I love Alicia Keys' Girl on Fire. And I love a little Joan Jett. Hey, I'm a kid of the 70s.

And Joan Jett really wakes me up. Like the song Bad Reputation? I love it. Do you want to hear a little bit of it? Yeah, let's hear it. Let's hear it.

I love it. I just added it to my playlist. Isn't it a good one? Just now. That is so good. You know, Leigh wrote and directed a movie called Ordinary World, stars Billy Joe Armstrong and Joan Jett, makes a cameo in it. It was also right around the time that both of them were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the same year, like the same ceremony. Never got to meet her. All of this, right? Leigh has met her, worked with her. Rock and roll, man. Love her. Love her.

Well, Jenna, what about you? Well, as you know, I mostly drive in silence. I know. I know this.

But sometimes in the mornings, if I'm dragging or something, my go-to warm-up pick-me-up is the musical Hamilton. Oh, I love Hamilton. That's on our mix, too. I will always end with the same song. Like, as I'm getting close to home, I'll switch so that I end on Room Where It Happened. Oh, I love it. That's my major pump-me-up, and I have a clip. Yeah, I want to be in the room where it happened.

I just love it. I love it so much. I've seen Hamilton on Broadway three times since it came out.

Once with the very original cast. The OG. The OG. I had to get the super expensive, terrible seats. You couldn't get a ticket.

And I've seen it twice since with the current cast. The energy in the theater for this whole show is like, I don't even know how to describe it. It's a body buzz. It is. It is. Especially now that pretty much everyone who goes knows the songs. Yeah. And I've seen different people play all the different parts. And it just delivers every time. Every time. I love it, too. I have to say, also on my mix are a few songs from the musical Sixx.

Oh, yes. Yes. And I also love, if you don't have this on your playlist, I'm Every Woman by Chaka Khan. Sure. Yeah. It's so good. Well, now I feel pumped up, actually. Me too. I feel especially pumped for the rest of this podcast.

Robert gets distracted from his conversation with Pam because Nellie is going to finally arrive. He's giving Pam a speech about how the best work is done between 9 and 10 a.m. Nellie's going to walk in the door at 9.50. Yeah. She's going to say she hit snooze multiple times and finally woke up 10 minutes ago. There's a lot of back and forth between Nellie and Robert, and Angela and Pam are clocking it all. They are.

are the biggest eye rolls. I mean, is that one of your eye roll memes, Angela? Because it's not. It should be. It needs to be. It's an eye roll that I do kind of a weird thing with my mouth like. It is delicious. I wrote a lot of big acting choices in this episode. That's what I wrote too.

I want to do a fan catch here for you from Sophia D. in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, who said that at 2 minutes and 20 seconds, Nellie mentions that she snoozes her alarm clock in 9-minute increments. Sophia said this made me wonder why the snooze feature on alarm clocks are 9 minutes long because it seems like such a random number. So I did a mini deep dive. Oh.

Oh, cool. Sophia's going to tell us. Thank you, Sophia. I guess when they made the original alarm clocks, it wasn't possible to get the gear teeth to line up to make for an exact 10 minutes. So they chose nine instead. But now iPhones and other clocks just carry on the tradition, even though now you could get a snooze of 10 minutes. Should we be able to choose our snooze?

Yeah, you can. You can choose. Now I can choose my snooze? Well, you can set a timer, I guess. What do you mean set a timer? Like you can say, I want to sleep five more minutes. You can? Yes. Clearly someone who hits snooze. Wait, so when I hit snooze,

Do I preset my snooze time? Because I don't want to in the moment wake up if I'm like having to. Yeah, no, I don't know about that. Just like do like the wheel. Like I just spin it. I'm like, yeah, okay, 10 minutes. I know that there's someone out there who knows how to operate their phone and they're dying because we are asking questions that they're answering. I think we do this often, lady. I think we have our moments and they're like, oh my gosh, you are our two old aunts. Well, yeah.

If you could change your snooze time from nine minutes to something else, would you? Probably not.

I would maybe do seven. Seven? Lucky number seven? You know why? Because I want to snooze twice, but 18 minutes feels like too much snoozing, but maybe 14 minutes feels right to me. The fact that you're breaking it down like that tells me you're not a real, like, professional snoozer. No, I very rarely snooze. Uh-huh. I don't see the point. I wait to have my alarm go off until the very last minute. Well, Nellie is a snoozer. Whack, she hits it a lot.

Robert says he thinks there's something more going on with her than just a lack of willpower, you know? Mm-hmm. And he's going to have Jim and Dwight help her move and get settled. Yeah.

about her. Not only that, he's going to tell everyone in the office that at the end of the day, we're going to have a welcome party for her. So start planning. Yeah, Robert is so invested in Nellie and her happiness. You know, when we were talking to Steve Healy, our writer, he said in an early version of the episode, this episode was called Help Me Not to Do Her. What? Yes. This is not

This is not an episode. And it was all about Robert California trying to resist his attraction with Nellie and ordering Jim to help him with that temptation. And then Steve put in all caps, wisely, we went in another direction.

I love that we get these nuggets from our writers. I know. That's incredible. And now we have some rapid-fire, back-to-back talking heads. It's Pam, Jim, Pam, Jim. They're like, why are we throwing a party for someone who's horrible? Why is Nellie even here? Why is she here? Mm-hmm. There also would have been a Daryl talking head. Okay. It was in the shooting draft, and it would have said, Andy took off to get Erin. Nellie showed up to take Andy's job. Robert has a crush on Nellie. And Daryl's new French cuff shirt goes unnoticed.

Aw, Daryl. But then there were two candy bag alts that really made me laugh. Okay. The top of the talking head is the same, but it ends with this. And Daryl's got a front row seat, which he would happily give up to just about anybody. And then his other candy bag alt was, and who's selling paper? That would be nobody. Oh, I love that one. I know.

Now we are going to join Andy and Erin. They're in the car. They're driving back to Scranton. They're so cute. Taylor M. from Brunswick, Georgia said, I love the callback to the season six episode Murder, where Andy asked Erin out on a date in Savannah while as their murder mystery characters. And now they're back together again, and they're wearing their Savannah t-shirts.

They finally had their date in Savannah. Oh, that's so true. Such a cute callback. Cute callback. They're making up songs, you guys. Andy's going to sing Two Crazy Kids on the Journey of Life. Erin's going to chime in Going to Pennsylvania. Mm-hmm. All the hope in the world, these two.

They're going to make a pit stop. They're going to have a little lunch, and they're going to explain that they're on their way to Jessica's parents' cabin in southern Pennsylvania. Andy thinks this is going to be a good place to let her down easy, her parents' cabin. There are so many moments in this episode where I thought, you know what? Andy and Erin belong together.

I'm changing my mind. Jessica, you know what? You narrowly escaped. It's so true. I have the location of the park. We got some mail. People were curious. This is a little bit of movie magic because this scene in the park, quote unquote park, was shot on the same property as the cabin. Oh. It was kind of right next to the cabin. That's perfect. Yeah. It's a place called Canyon Ranch in Thousand Oaks.

Aaron and Andy get back in the car, get on the road. Andy thinks maybe it's time for a little smoochy smooch, but Aaron shuts that down. Uh-uh, buddy. Not till you're officially single. Mm-hmm. So they got to wait. Yeah. We don't care. I know. We were team Jessica, so this episode made us angry. Yeah.

It did, although I'm going to have a moment where I turn on Jessica a little later. Okay. Okay. So just so everyone knows, I can turn on her. Okay. I think I know the moment. All right. And I think they needed it because I think we had to start rooting for Andy and Erin. Up next in the break room, I titled this scene Mean Girls in the Break Room. And if anyone wants to write a pop song version about it and tag us, I will gladly play it.

Phyllis, Oscar, Pam, and Angela are really griping about having to throw a party for Nellie. And then Phyllis proposes maybe on purpose they throw a bad party, like a really crappy party. Angela's like, ooh, maybe we should have the party right here in the break room. And then they giggle. Phyllis says, order carrot cake. They're laughing so hard. Mm-hmm.

I have 90 million catches from this scene. Let's go. Number one, when did Oscar join the PPC? I don't know. Okay. Number two is a fan question from Hannah G in Scotland who says, I need a breakdown of Angela's hair in this episode. She has a curly, bouncy ponytail, which seems very fancy for Angela. Was there an event going on this week that she had her hair this way, or did you guys just decide to change it up? I noticed it too, Ang. What is with your poofy hair?

It is not flat ironed. No, it is leftover event hair. Okay. 100%. And then Kim had to match it every day because we always got excited when I had leftover event hair. Also, did you catch at 5 minutes, 28 seconds that my ponytail holder is the exact same color as my hair? I thought it was your hair. No. I thought they did a wraparound. No, it's a ponytail holder. I have a catch at 5 minutes and 30 seconds. What's that? I am not wearing my PAM engagement ring and wedding band.

I'm wearing a different ring. Looks like someone wore it home and left it at home. I don't know what I did. That would happen. Sometimes we would just leave set and I was like, oh no, I'm wearing Angela's earrings and her rings. Yeah, the wardrobe department had doubles of everything for me for earrings and necklaces because I would do that so often. And then, you know, you take them off at night to shower and you tell yourself, I'm going to put this on in the morning. I'm going to put this on in the morning. And then you leave.

And they're like, Jenna, what happened? I also have a fan catch from Brenton A. in Marin County, California, who said, I have a St. Louis catch at 4 minutes and 41 seconds. Phyllis proposes the idea of artering some carrot cake. Arter. It falls right in line with popcorn, and that's a big arter. She does. She wants to arter some carrot cake.

Those are my catches. Every time you guys catch Phyllis having a St. Louis accent is one of my favorite things. I agree. Well, lady, let's take a break because when we get back, we're going to be hauling cube. Yeah, we should rest up. Be warned that once you pick up a refreshingly cold drink from McDonald's...

and people see just how refreshingly cold that drink from McDonald's is, you may create drink envy. Because there are drinks. Then there are drinks from McDonald's. For a morning brew that really creates a stir, get any size iced coffee, including caramel and French vanilla, for just 99 cents before 11 a.m. Price and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal. Ba-da-da-ba-ba.

We are back, and before we haul some cube, Andy and Erin are going to do some breakup scenarios in the car. Get a little role play. We had a fan question from Mallory C. in Durham, North Carolina, who said, In the scene where Andy and Erin are practicing for Andy's breakup with Jessica, it looks like Ed broke and genuinely laughed when Ellie said, What is it? I didn't sleep well last night. Was that scripted?

Mallory, it was not. It was improvised. I think they just let them go. They 100% just let them go. If you are wondering where we shot the driving scenes, wonder no more. First of all, Ed was not driving.

We hooked up the car to a dolly and it was pulled by an insert car. That's lingo for like a flatbed truck. And in the back of the truck, we have all our crew. We have camera, sound director, assistant director. My dad had a flatbed truck. Did he ever pull a picture car? That's lingo for... He didn't. The car the actors are in. He pulled a lot of horse trailer. Sure. Farming equipment. But he also loaded up a bunch of my stuff and drove the flatbed truck.

With a trailer attached to it. And that's how I moved to LA. How much stuff did you take? You had stuff in the flatbed and in a trailer behind it? The flatbed truck is pretty small, pretty short. But he also had an extended trailer he would attach to it. But I moved here with just a suitcase. And I lived out of a suitcase. And then finally, my mom was like, Bill, load up. We're going to bring her some furniture. Oh, that was really nice. I know. Well, this flatbed was large. I have a picture of it.

We got the flatbed truck. We've attached a car to it. We also had a bunch of precision drivers who drive around the picture car,

So that everything stays really consistent. You'll notice the cars drive sort of at the exact same speed. There's not a lot of passing. Steve Healy said that getting all these driving scenes was way more complicated than he realized. Because he was on set. The writer would always be on set for their episode. They were always more complicated. Always more complicated. It's a lot of moving parts. And we shot this all on a real highway. Yeah.

I mean, I guess, obviously, right? We didn't build a highway. That should have gone without saying. We've done it before. We did it for Pam and Jim's engagement. But we did not do it this time. No. Real road. Now, everyone, we're going to haul some cube. Thank God. I've been waiting to haul cube. I love this expression. I want to start saying it. I'm hauling cube. Every time I move from now on, I'm going to haul cube. I'm going to haul cube. Stuff has Nellie brought with her.

From Florida. I know. And it's just now arriving. A lot. She's unpacked nothing. I just want to point out. I don't feel like she's ever going to unpack. I'm just going to say this. I think that Nellie just brings a bunch of boxes and one big comfy chair and that's it. She just digs in a box when she needs something. That's possible. Nellie's apartment was in a real apartment complex on Wilkerson Avenue in Valley Village. We did not build this set. We went on location for this.

As Jim and Dwight help Nellie, they're really struggling with one of her big oversized chairs. Dwight says, you know what? We'll work our magic. We'll make it fit. Nellie's like, no, no, no. No, no, no. No magicians. No, no, no. Let's not go there. Nothing is more repellent than magicians. Bunch of grown men waving wands, pulling bunnies out of body crevices. Magicians are repulsive. Next topic. This is a lot of information out of nowhere.

super passionate amounts of information that don't really apply to moving you into your apartment. Well, Jim's going to use that information. Pam's going to call him on the phone and tell him all about their hilarious bad party plan. And Jim says...

Oh, hire a magician. Trust me. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, we asked Steve Healy if they had been planting a seed about this magician storyline with Nellie. Because remember, in last week's episode, when Nellie arrived in Scranton, she said she hated the Houdini Museum. I'm surprised she went. I don't think she went. I think she just knows it's there. Here's what Steve said. Steve said he doesn't really remember that they were intentionally planning this whole magician storyline. Mm-hmm.

But he said there is some natural tension between comedians and magicians. Lots of comedy people start out as magicians or flirt with magic at some point. And comedians are also such skeptics they often get irrationally angry at magicians. And that might have been part of it.

Steve said, I remember some of the writers in those days were going to the Magic Castle. Magic was a frequent topic in the room. I had no idea. That's very funny. Isn't that? Well, remember, I was a comedic magician. I performed my comedic magic show at stand-up nights. I still want to bring that back. I want to make it part of our live show. I want you to do your magic act. Of course. Why have I not been doing it? I don't know.

Done. Done. I still have the cassette tape of music and I bought a, what do you call it, a tuxedo jacket with tails at a vintage shop. I have it. I know the perfect moment in our live show. I love our live show. This has to happen. And I think I will be your assistant on roller skates. I am so disappointed. We are only just now thinking of it, but I am so happy that we did. We have to add it.

Andy and Aaron are going to arrive now at Jessica's family cabin. It is so charming. Mm-hmm. In the shooting draft, there was a scene where Aaron and Andy notice, as they pull up, that there seems to be a lot of people there. It read like this. Exterior rural cabin. Andy and Aaron are going to arrive now at Jessica's family cabin.

Andy and Aaron pull up to the cabin. There are several cars there. Andy says, why are there so many cars here? Aaron says, Jessica's parents must be rich. But you know what? The cars aren't that nice. Personally, I'd rather have two really nice cars than seven crappy ones. Guess that's why I'm not rich. Andy says, this is weird. And then there's a knock on their car window.

Well, the knock on the window is from Lauren, played by Sue Redman. She studied acting at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago and studied improv at Second City Chicago. And according to IMDb, fun fact, she played a nurse in the movie Contagion and accidentally lodged a prop piece of medical equipment in Matt Damon's right ear. How do you do that? I don't know. She misused the prop equipment, I suppose. She's giving him an exam.

And she lodged it in his ear? Yeah, I'm sure temporarily. Oh, my God. You know what? This is exactly why I never, ever want to be on a medical show. I would do that. You might hurt somebody. I don't know. I just don't even know how you come back from that. What is your end-of-the-day convo like after a day like that when you call your best friend? I don't know. You're like, you would not believe what I did to Matt Damon today.

Yeah, that's how you would lead that convo. For sure. Well, Lauren's going to tell them that Jessica is not there. She's gone for a jog. This is right around the time when Aaron and Andy realize that they've come upon a bachelorette party. She's wearing a veil in her hair. I would like to play a bullsh** card. What is it? Andy and Jessica are dating. They're

They're in a full-on relationship. Right. How is it that Andy wouldn't know that her good friend's getting married and they're going to be having this bachelorette thing at the cabin? How? I hear you. You know, he knows she's at the cabin, but he doesn't know why. She's just there solo. Is he a bad listener? No.

You know, did Jessica say, hey, this weekend I'm going to be up at my parents' cabin. I'm hosting. Yeah. I'm hosting the whole party. It's kind of stressful. I have to buy extra groceries. Extra gummy peaches.

Gummy penises. Gummy penises and a veil. And we have to have games. I'm going to blow up a bunch of balloons. Put people's names on them. Tape it to a poster board. I'm very busy. I mean, that's how I communicate with Lee. He'd know all the deets. He'd know everything. We got a fan question from Santa M in Houston, Texas, who said, where was Jessica's cabin actually located? It looks a lot like East Coast cabins.

Well, I'll tell you, we shot this at a filming location called Canyon Ranch. It is in the Santa Monica Mountains. It's just a film location. They have tons of different cabins and houses, and they have a fake gas station and a fake saloon. I looked all over the website. The cabin we used was fully decorated. If you go to the website, it looks exactly the same. This location has been used for all kinds of films and commercials, a lot of car commercials. I have a question for you.

Yeah. Has it been used for a horror movie? Because I always feel like places with lots of cabins are where all the shit goes down. I am sure. But if you go to the website, they have a lot of rugged terrain. So, you know, the shot of people like driving off road to set up camp at a creek? Yeah. Canyon Ranch. Got it. Yeah. I saw a lot of those on the website. I didn't see any horror movies, but I'm sure. Right. I wonder if Cabin in the Woods was shot there. Yeah.

We'll never know. We'll never know. Mom detective moment, we'll never know. Well, Steve Healy said that the cabin they filmed at had some really kooky angles. Oh, yeah. And it was very challenging to get some of the shots. He also said that he didn't think the Santa Monica Mountains looked much like Pennsylvania, but our writer Danny Chun is from that area and vouched for it. I thought it looked authentic. Yeah.

And the fact that the cabin came fully furnished probably means that we didn't move stuff around, which was challenging for us. I see that. Back to Nellie's apartment, Dwight is unpacking things, and he wonders out loud if king-size sheets are called presidential in England, and he really wishes he had a Twitter account. Let me tell you what happened to me after this comment. Let me guess, something to do with either bedding or Twitter accounts.

Betting. Okay. I wanted to know what are king-size sheets called in England? What are they called? Well, the sheet sizes and bed sizes in England are called single, double, king, super king, and emperor. Oh. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And none of them directly coordinate with American sizes. Okay.

So if I bought a queen size bedding set and moved to the UK, it would not work. Throw it in the trash. Throw it in the trash. Maybe cut it up, use it for rags. Well, it's not going to fit on your bed. What am I doing cutting up bed sheets? If you rank the large beds by size, here's the order it would go in from smallest to largest. Okay. King. That's the smallest? Yeah.

Of the large beds. Okay. It goes king, super king, California king, emperor. The two beds that are closest in size is the British super king and the American California king. They're both 71 inches wide, but the California king is much longer. Yes. Than the super king. The emperor bed is seven feet wide and seven feet long. It's humongous. Who's sleeping in that?

professional basketball players, I think. Lots of people, I guess. I Googled it. The average professional basketball player is 6'6". So this emperor bed would be perfect for them. Yeah. I can't believe I know that. I mean, I really Googled so much on this one, lady. Hey, get ready for your next cocktail party. You're going to be a delight. Guess what? Yeah.

There are more king beds than you could have ever imagined in America. There is more than just the king and the California king. There is the Alaskan king, the Wyoming king, and the Texas king, and they're all bigger than the California king. The Wyoming king is the same as an emperor bed in the UK. The Alaskan king is the biggest bed. It is 9,000.

by nine feet. It runs anywhere from $3,500 to $10,000. I found a website called alaskankingbeds.com. They sell these beds, bed frames, and sheets, and bedding.

In the photo, there is a family of six and their full-size golden retriever dog all sitting on this bed with plenty of room to spare. It looks like a small swimming pool. It's so big. But what size of room is it in? That's the problem, right? Yeah. Big room, I guess. I mean, I guess if I'm a professional basketball player, I got a sweet pad and I need a lot of leg room. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, remember those shows? Was it on MTV where it was like you went and got to see people's houses? Was it called like Cribs or something? Yeah. I loved those. I saw Shaquille O'Neal's house. Maybe he had the Alaskan king. Did he have a big bed? He did. But it was like a giant circle bed. It was like a huge circle. Did your list include any big king-sized circle beds? No.

Not specifically. That would be a custom bed. And it did say in the article that many NBA players have custom beds made for themselves to best fit their size. Oh. Well, Shaquille O'Neal had one. And you know what? It had a giant Superman blanket on it. Oh. Yeah. In fact, this whole house had Superman stuff everywhere. Like the logo would be in the garage, on the shower doors, in the hedges. Yeah.

So, yeah, he likes the theme. It was a nickname, and he really leaned into it. Superman was one of his nicknames. Yes. Kind of makes sense. It does make sense. Shaq and Superman. And maybe he flies with the ball. Yes, Angela. In the clutch, he flies with the ball. Oh, because he's clutch. He's the clutch. Yeah, he's— Of the team. He's the Superman clutch flying with the ball. He's the SC of the game. Yeah.

Can you imagine us like being sports commentators? We would be so bad. I cannot. Oh, gosh. Anyway, okay. I'm so sorry. Back to your king-size beds. That's it. Okay. That's what I got. A lot of these very, very large beds are for family sleeps. People who like to co-sleep in one great big bed as a family. Okay. And also your dog, I guess.

Your giant dog. Mm-hmm. Your small Shetland pony. You could 100% put a small Shetland pony in this bed and still have room for your family of six. Michael Scott could have slept at the foot of this bed and never even bothered Jan. 100%. This would have solved all their problems. No bench needed. Jim and Dwight are now going to find a shoebox that says, do not open. So, of course, what do they do? They open it. Dwight's going through all the pictures. Mm-hmm.

I asked Steve Burgess, who is the man in the pictures? This was a background performer that they hired. He and Catherine had a big photo shoot on Monday morning of this week. It went from 7 to 9 a.m. And they changed their wardrobe. They take a picture, change clothes, take a picture. It's very, very tedious to do these things.

prop photos like this. But that's what they did. They had a two-hour photo shoot to get all these pictures. Nellie is going to walk in and finds them going through the shoebox, and she says, oh, I see you found Benjamin. But Benjamin isn't the name of her ex-boyfriend. It's the name of the box. That contains pictures of Henry. That's right. Her ex-boyfriend. And this is when she's going to share with them all about this

tragic breakup. Yeah. She had to sell their home at a loss. Yeah. And then there's a photo of Nellie and Henry and he's got a looks like a magician's cape and they're like, is this for Halloween? And she goes, no, that's the worst of it. He's a magician.

Dun, dun, dun. Yeah. Jim's like, uh-oh, uh-oh. He actually feels bad. Well, Nellie's being really vulnerable in this moment. It wasn't played for comedy. She played it really straight. Yeah, and it was really, it was touching. She cried. She said, please don't tell anyone back at work about this. It was a vulnerable moment. So Jim tries to call Pam, tells her to call off the pranks, cancel the magician at least. Yes. So in the shooting draft,

The Mean Girls in the Break Room scene actually was mid-process. They were still trading horrible ideas, and Pam leaves to take the phone call and comes back. But there was a whole added beat where they're still trading ideas before Pam gets the phone call, and Angela actually gets very tickled, and she gets the giggles. In the shooting draft, it says, "'Angela giggles into her hands.'"

It's in deleted scenes if you guys are curious what it sounds like when Angela Martin gets the giggles. Let's hear it. I got one. Let's pretend that we thought it was her birthday and get her a cake with a few too many candles on it. Like 49. Pam! That is brilliant. Oh, this is new. Since when are we a gay show?

Wow. Wow. I mean, I remember doing that. I remember brainstorming with Ed and Steve about what does it look like when Angela's this tickled? So they had me cover my face with my hands, almost kind of like what Mindy does when she gets tickled. When she actually laughs. When she actually laughs and is trying not to break on camera. And then they just said, Angela, just like a high-pitched kind of giggle over and over. So I did. I was just like...

Anyway, it was cracking us up. It was kind of like the moment when we learned Angela eats like a squirrel. You know, lady, when Pam does come back in the break room after her phone call with Jim at 11 minutes and 22 seconds, I am now wearing my Pam engagement ring and wedding band. They're back on. Someone caught it. Someone found it. Yeah.

Pam is going to try to get them to call off this prank party, and no one is having it. Yeah. Yeah. Toots, we're not stopping this train, so get off the tracks, Phyllis says. That's right. In the shooting draft, one of the things that Pam tells Jim is, you need to stall. Like, if she's going to, like, rearrange this party, he's got to stall. And this scene made it into deleted scenes, Jim trying to stall. And we learned some new things about Nellie. I thought you might like to hear it.

- All right then, let's get going. - All right, oh, you know what though? House really isn't a home until we've made some memories here, some conversations. So let's sit back down and let's make some. - No, we've got work to do back at work. - Okay, well, I think British Idol is worse than American Idol. Thoughts? - I wouldn't know. I don't go in for all that cheesy reality stuff. - Okay. - More of a Survivor fan. - Right, well, I think that cricket is a stupid version of baseball. - Ooh. - Everything is

Everything is a stupid version of something. A bike is a stupid car. A baby is a stupid adult. Come back to the office, I've got a list. Nellie's stupids. Would you mind giving me a piggyback on the way down? Piggyback? A piggyback is a stupid version of the fireman's carry. Oh! I think British food is gross.

That was delightful. Uh-huh. I loved every minute of that. Nellie is a Survivor fan. She also has a list of stupids. And I asked Steve Healy, I was like, please tell me you guys pitched Nellie's list of stupids. He said, I'm sure we did. He said, I couldn't find it.

But she has a lot on her list. I have to imagine that Nellie's list of stupids took up like a good two hours of one of their evenings. I feel like they just would have loved pitching on that. We are back at the cabin. The bachelorette party is playing a game. And rather than Andy asking Jessica to step outside with him while he has a private conversation with him, they have instead decided to join the bachelorette party.

Again, they're meant to be together. I've done a 180 because the two of them together make...

Horrible choices. I know. This is why the balance with Jessica was so important. Whatever. We've said it. We've said it so much. We're going to let it go. Let's also point out that the Bachelorettes have been day drinking, and this party is amping up. They're popping balloons of all the exes that have done her wrong and making speeches. First balloon to go is John. I also saw Matthew, Greg, Mike, and some other name that started with a C.

They're really going to get into it. Mm-hmm. Erin's getting anxious. She's like, I don't know about all this. Andy's like, hey, it's going to be fine. Just act natural. Do you want a gummy penis? And she said, no, there's also like a bowl of gummy bears. And Andy goes, but these are delicious. And Erin goes, but they're penises. Mm-hmm. Lord help me, I googled gummy penises. These are a mainstay of bachelorette parties. I've never seen one.

What? Sam? Cassie? Have you seen a gummy penis? Oh, yeah. Of course. I haven't. Okay. Sam and Jenna are like, duh, of course. They're out there with penis straws and all the Bachelorette stuff. You haven't seen the gummy penis straws? Yeah. I've seen a penis straw. I've never seen a gummy penis. But guess what? You can buy them on Amazon. The ones I found are called Jelly Willies. Mm-hmm. But, oh, man. Guys, there's so much. There's penis-shaped chocolates. Love it.

Lots of lollipops. Cakes. I wondered if any of these items were sold at the Penis Museum in Iceland. Are they? It does have a gift shop. I couldn't see what all was at the gift shop. But the Penis Museum has a cafe and they serve Oreo coconut penis waffles and they have a seasonal Christmas penis waffle.

What's that? It's a waffle shaped like a penis. But it's seasonal. So is it like pumpkin spiced? Or Christmas spiced? At Christmas, it looked like it had strawberries and whipped cream. That doesn't scream Christmas to me. Well, listen, I'm not going to argue with the people in Iceland about their penis waffles. You're not? No. Call someone up.

I'm going to let them have it. Really berate them about it. Oreo coconut penis waffle. Sounds delicious. A lot going on. I love how surprised you are by all of the penis food. There's a whole industry of penis desserts. Yeah. Out there. Maybe there's some savory penis stuff. I didn't see any penis crackers. Someone get on it. Penis potato chips? They're probably out there. I don't know. I only found desserts. Okay.

I don't know why that's so funny to me. There's a whole untapped market is what you're saying. Someone get on it. At this point, Megan, who was played by Dana Powell, you might recognize her from Bridesmaids or The Good Place or Modern Family.

She's going to come up to Andy and just give him a bunch of big bear hugs and say, you know, he's nothing like these awful exes. And she wants him to sing. She wants him to sing for everybody. Dana is hilarious. In the shooting draft, it said her name was Megan R. There were two Megans, I guess. And she was the, quote, drunken rugby girl. Dana and I have known each other a long time. You have? Yeah, yeah. We did improv at iOS together. Okay.

She's someone that just is instantly hilarious, like makes really strong choices right away and is so freaking funny. She was great in this episode. I know. I love everything she did. I know.

We had a fan question from Rose T. in Canada who said, when Andy starts to sing a song, I'm not sure if you're familiar with the song, but it's called Loch Lomond and it's an old Scottish folk song. The story is sorrowful, but the song is so beautiful and full of hope. It makes me feel that I'll always be able to find a way home and it reminds me of my Scottish ancestry and the land that my ancestors were forced to leave behind. I highly recommend listening to the whole song

Do you know who chose that song for Andy to start singing? Was it Ed or one of the writers? Well, Rose, that was scripted.

And I did take your advice, and I went and listened to the whole song, and I have a little audio clip for us because it is really, truly beautiful. You thought you weren't going to hear more music today, but you are. This is our music episode. I am so excited because, Rose, I have been to Loch Lomond. Hey! I have stayed at Loch Lomond. I've been on a boat on Loch Lomond. It's beautiful. I want to hear the song. Bunny, bass, and violin.

Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond Where me and my true love will never meet again On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond Oh, you take the high road and I'll take the low

And I'll be in Scotland a-fallin' But me and my true love will never meet again The bonnie, bonnie bains of Loch Lomond

Isn't that beautiful? It is beautiful. That was Peter Hollens. Well, I loved it. And Loch Lomond is gorgeous. I will share a picture. In our stories that are now highlighted. Rose, thank you so much for writing in about that. Well, the Mean Girls party is about to start. Pam's like, listen, if you're going to be mean, just try to be subtle. Daryl suggests they have a code name for Nellie.

I have two favorite lines from this episode, and the first one is in this couplet of dialogue. Okay. Daryl says, in the warehouse, we use code names for people we want to talk about. Andy was Jelly Roll. Mike was Dennis the Menace. Ryan was Douchebag. Ryan says, hey, that's not a code name. That's just an insult. And here's my favorite line. Oscar says, plus everyone would know who you meant. And then Ryan goes, yeah. Yeah.

I know. It made me laugh. It was so perfect. The code name Pam pitches is Mondays. Everyone is annoyed with Mondays, right? Ryan, who I think still really doesn't like Pam, says, no, let's use the code name Pam. And everyone agrees. I don't know if you noticed, but at 13 minutes and 37 seconds, the top of Angela's ponytail is a mess.

There's hairs going everywhere. That's because in the shooting draft, there was a scene where Meredith comes into the break room and is delighted by what she sees. She turns to Angela and says, the break room? What kind of crap party is this? Angela smiles mischievously at Meredith. Meredith puts her in a headlock, says, oh, was this you, kiddo? And gives her a noogie. Oh! And then Angela shoves Meredith away. And that's why her hair's a mess. Very interesting.

Well, Nellie's going to arrive, and they're going to start with Creed serenading her. He says, get comfy. This first song is over 30 minutes long.

Oh, my gosh, lady. I remember us cracking up. I know. There was a candy bag alt for this. Okay. And it's so funny. Creed would have, instead of saying the song is 30 minutes long, he would have said, the first song is audience participation. When I say go, you all start moaning like you're dying or something. Wow. Can you imagine?

I have a fun fact about the guitar that Creed is playing. Is it his actual guitar? It's his personal guitar. It's a limited edition replica of Robert Johnson's 1926 Gibson L1. Robert Johnson was an American blues musician and songwriter. If you go to Creed's house, he has a wall of guitars and mandolins and a banjo. And the man, like Ed, he can just pick up anything with strings pretty much and play it. Yeah.

We're going back to the cabin again now, and Aaron tells Andy, I think we should leave. But Andy says, I'm going to get this breakup over with. He pulls Jessica aside, finally. He's babbling, and she says, wait a second, are you dumping me? Are you dumping me for Aaron? You said she wasn't relationship material, and she wasn't as good as me, Jessica. Mm-hmm.

This is not you, Jessica. Jessica, you're doing a low blow here, lady. Not cool. I had a turn here. Not cool. What Andy and Erin are doing is not cool, but that was not cool. But at the same time, she's pissed off, lady. Who knows what you would have said? True. You might have, like, listen. I'm not Jessica. I'm saying Jessica is better than this comment. We have put Jessica on a pedestal. But I do think...

Lots of us, maybe in that moment, would have been like, are you f***ing kidding me right now? I think that would have been better than these low blows to Aaron in this moment. Andy starts to panic. He's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no, wait, wait. Okay, you want honesty? Super honesty time. I'm gay.

Mm-hmm. And Jessica's like, what? Yeah, her gay friend, Kenny, claims to have known this all along. He's like, I knew it. Jessica says, Andy, you're not gay. I mean, when we were together, you seemed pretty excitable. Andy's like, well, I was faking it. I had to fake it every time. Yeah, he imagined he was in a steam room with John Stamos. Jessica then says, I can't say it doesn't make sense.

And then she says, look, you know what, Andy? It's fine. I didn't think we were going to get married or anything. I'm just upset for now. There's the Jessica we know. There's the Jessica we know. I want to give a shout out to Kenny, who was played by Greg Worswick. He was a main company member at the Groundlings in Los Angeles. He's been in Bridesmaids, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Superstore, Parks and Rec, and Crossover Connection with you and Brett Gelman fresh off the boat. Hey. Hey.

Is fresh off the boat our new crossover connection? Maybe. Sorry, Monk. Might be. Well, Andy and Aaron are now really awkwardly going to leave the cabin. You can tell Aaron, you know, those comments stung. Yeah. And now she's wondering what all Andy said about her. She's going to kind of just start to shut down. She's going to take a nap. Well, she saw a lot of turkeys, and it made her tired. Yeah. Andy's picking up on these cues. He...

Really didn't handle that well. And now he hasn't set himself up to succeed with Aaron. And he wants to do right by it. At least right by Aaron, not so much right by Jessica. So he turns back around. He goes back to the cabin. And he wants to tell Jessica the truth. And here it is.

He's in love with Erin. She's totally relationship material. Erin is so happy. She is beaming. Jessica and her friends literally yell and chase them to the car, throwing, it looks like wedding cake at them. And they peel out and drive away, and they're so happy. Yeah. And they finally kiss. Yeah. Yeah. Jessica's friends are going to talk about Andy for a long time. Yeah. I feel like

On her gummy penis weekend bachelorette party, there's going to be a big balloon labeled Andy. There sure is. Up next is maybe one of my favorite scenes we filmed for this whole season. I mean...

We laughed so hard. Okay, so here's what's going on. We're back in the Mean Girls in the Break Room party, and everyone is giving a toast, but the toasts are really mean-spirited towards Pam, quote-unquote Pam. And it ends with everyone chanting, we hate Pam. And that's when our magician enters. Yeah. He offers to make Pam disappear. Poof.

Yeah. Where do we even start with this scene? I don't know. John Krasinski had to stand right next to Brett Gellman, and this was a mistake. Mistake. This was a noodle moment for John. Full noodle. He couldn't even stand. I scoured the season eight bloopers hoping that they would be in there, and they are not. They are somewhere. Dave Rogers has got to have them. I was so thankful that I was off camera.

I will, first of all, wait, before we get ahead of ourselves.

Did you know in the shooting draft, this character's name was called Magic Mark? I didn't. Okay. So the scene was extended, and he would have had this introduction moment where he came in the room. It read like this. Okay, everyone. So my name is Magic Mark. I used to be a magic marker. And then he holds up a magic marker. And then he says, but then I got rid of, he produces a DVD of ER. Mm-hmm. Okay.

And says, the E-R, magic. And he made it disappear. Oh. And it says that Jim clocks Nellie, who has a very tight smile. She is not a fan of magic, Mark. Here's the amazing thing about this, which is that we did not hire a magician. Instead, Brett Gilman had to kind of learn some of this magic.

Mm-hmm. Sleight of hand on the fly, like the little exploding fire thing in the hand. Steve Burgess says that's actually a really easy one. But when you see him in the episode when he brings the dove. The bird. It was so awkward and clueless.

It was so clumsy every time. It was so clunky. It was never good. And we couldn't get through that moment. Look what I wrote. What? We could not get through this moment. No. Every time that bird appeared. It was so ridiculous. And it was so close to John, too. Oh, my God. Mm-hmm. Well, Magic Mark is going to ask Nellie if she would like to be his special volunteer for the day. But Jim is going to step in, and he's going to start sabotaging the act. Yeah.

Yeah. And then Pam is also going to get in on this sabotage. My second favorite line of the whole episode is when Robert turns to Dwight and says, why is Jim treating the magician poorly? Yeah. There's also a moment when Brett, as the magician, looks at Jim and goes, what the hell, man? I put on a clean show. Yeah.

This was the second thing that we couldn't get through because it's just this, like, burst of anger. He's been holding it together the whole time. We also lost it when he singled out Phyllis. Yes. When he said, all right, where's Phyllis? Who's Phyllis? Look, this is really uncool, okay? You can see Phyllis laughing. You can see her laughing.

Yeah. And then Dwight says, scram, wizard. And then they argue all the way out the door down the hallway. That was not scripted. Oh, amazing. They were just, he was just supposed to get them out of the room. But the two of them, I don't know if you remember, Jenna, kept yelling at each other as they left. It was so good. So good. Sometimes I think about what days would I go back? I would go back to this day. And reshoot. I would as well. I also think about characters I wish had come back.

And I would have loved to seen more of Magic Mark. Like maybe he really pisses Dwight off because they're in the same Dungeons and Dragons group. I don't know. Yeah. The way Dwight said scram wizard, you kind of felt like they had history. You know, Nellie is really touched by this magician sabotage. She gives a very touching speech. She thinks everybody is a brilliant employee in their own way. Robert agrees. He says, great party.

This party is maybe one of the most successful PPC parties, and they tried to make it the worst. What does that say about this group? How is this one of the best PPC parties? Well, usually when they throw a party for someone, the person does not enjoy their birthday or their day. They usually are like, this is the worst party I've ever been to. Nellie loved her party. Okay, so by that, I guess it was a success. Also, I just want to say, I like a carrot cake.

And I would not be disappointed to eat a carrot cake at a party. Do you know how much butter and cream cheese is in a carrot cake? So much. So much. It can't help but be delicious. I love it. A red velvet cake that everybody always covets and loves, it's really a cousin to the carrot cake. Sort of similar. So maybe, listen, get your penis mold.

Put some carrot cake in it. It's a great cake. It's a great party cake. It sure is. Well, this episode is going to end with some Hank sass. Pam and Jim are leaving for the day, and Pam goes up to Hank and says, I thought I was very specific about you not letting up a magician. Hank said, I have my eyes open. Jim's like, actually, he made it up there. Pam's like, yeah, he came and went. And then Hank has this great passive-aggressive sass moment where he's like, wait a minute.

You said it was a magician, right? You don't think he could have used. It couldn't have been. And Pam's like, you know what? Let's just go. Let's go. Hank's ass. Hank's ass.

Well, folks, that's Welcome Party. We want to give a big shout out to Steve Burgess and Steve Healy for all their extra tidbits in this one. And thank you guys for writing in. You had such great observations and comments and questions. It just really opens up the episodes. We love them. We will be back next week. See you then. Bye. Bye.

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.

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