‘The Office’: Michael Schur Was the Mastermind Behind This Prank on Dwight
Some of the cold opens showed Jim (John Krasinski) pranking Dwight (Rainn Wilson). They are usually quick moments on The Office that lead to a good laugh. Find out which one Michael Schur, who played Mose, wrote.
Multiple actors wrote episodes of ‘The Office’
Some writers of the show were also actors because of their contracts. Mindy Kaling, who played Kelly Kapooor, said her contract included this clause, which led to her being in “Diversity Day.”
Kaling said creator, Greg Daniels wanted Michael Scott (Steve Carell) to offend everyone. “But it’s kind of the funniest version of it when there’s some minority people there too who can get extra offended. So at that time, I think it just made sense to have another minority person,” she said on the Office Ladies podcast. He asked her to be in the episode and she agreed.
B.J. Novak who played Ryan Howard, Paul Lieberstein who played Toby Flenderson, and Schur were also writers for the show.
1 of Jim’s pranks happened by accident
Jim was often seen pulling a prank on Dwight. These were all scripted, but there was one that didn’t go as planned.
A cold open showed Dwight was bouncing on a fitness orb at his desk. This really annoyed Jim so he asked him how much it cost and Dwight answered $25. Jim gets a pair of scissors and pops it, making Dwight fall on the ground.
The fall is very funny, but the orb wasn’t supposed to pop. “The idea was that John would stick the scissors into the fitness orb and it would deflate very slowly and the camera would be in front of Dwight’s desk and you would see him very slowly melt to the floor as Jim very smugly,” Jenna Fisher said on Office Ladies before Angela Kinsey added “looks on.”
Krasinski accidentally hit the seam of the ball with the scissors, which made it pop. Larry Wilmore was the one who pushed to keep the mistake in the show. The cold open is a favorite among fans but there is another one that is creative and it was written by Schur.
Michael Schur wrote the future Dwight prank
Fischer and Kinsey talked about the episode “Branch Closing” on the Office Ladies podcast. The episode starts with Jim pranking Dwight by sending a fax message to him. He’s been using Dwight’s stationary pretending to be Dwight’s future self.
In the episode, the message told him not to drink the coffee because it’s poisoned. He stops Stanley (Leslie David Baker) from drinking it thinking he’s saving his life.
“It’s so good. The first thing I thought after I watched this cold open was ‘Did Mike Schur write this episode?’ He did because that’s Mike Schur,” Fischer said. She added, “He did such a good job of writing these Jim/Dwight pranks.”
The scene also was a clever way of keeping up the pranks even though Jim transferred to a different office. It just goes to show that if there is an episode with a Jim prank you might want to see if Schur wrote it.
