‘The Office’: Why Some Fans Think Jim Halpert Is Really a Jerk
Most fans of The Office find Jim Halpert charming and love his sarcastic sense of humor. Some fans, however, have made a strong case for why Jim is actually a jerk and a bully. Not everyone, it seems, is Team Halpert.
Some fans think Jim Halpert is a jerk
During the Sept. 8 episode of An Oral History of The Office podcast, host Brian Baumgartner and showrunner Greg Daniels talked about the way Jim pranks Dwight one last time in the series finale.
Daniels explained, “I remember thinking of the ‘guten prank’… that’s gonna pay off. That was a good device to have something that had the same kind of structure as the show but have it all have a different feel to it.”
The showrunner also shared his thoughts on how some fans perceived Jim. “I always felt a little bit like… people sometimes look back on the show now, you see memes and stuff and they will say that Jim is the jerk, not Dwight.”
“Dwight is this slightly nerdy guy who isn’t very good at social interactions that is being bullied by Jim,” Daniels added.
Jim finally pulls a heartwarming prank on Dwight
Jim’s final prank, however, was anything but a bully move. As the best man in Dwight’s wedding, Jim explained the idea of Guten Pranken — and the gesture was far less rude than his usual pranks.
Jim explained, “I know, for over 12 years I’ve done nothing but trick and prank him, but tonight only good surprises… guten pranken.”
The ultimate good surprise was the return of Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell, who came back for Dwight and Angela’s wedding and took over as the “Bestish Mensch.”
After Michael was revealed and the former Dunder Mifflin boss got in one last “That’s what she said” joke, Jim remarked, “Best prank ever.”
There was one prank on Dwight in the finale that fans never got to see
Ending the series with Jim pulling a prank on Dwight that came from the heart and brought back Michael was absolute perfection, but there was one cold open prank that fans never got to see.
During the podcast, editor Dave Rogers shared how an elaborate prank would have involved Jim convincing Dwight he was in The Matrix.
“We can talk about the prank that hasn’t made it to the big screen yet that I think we’re saving for the 10 year reunion. The Matrix, do you remember that?,” he asked Baumgartner.
“That’s the finale script, they prank Dwight to make him think he’s in the Matrix,” Rogers said. “Remember Hank [the security guard] is down as Dorpheus, he’s Morpheus’ brother. And they have a cat, there’s a cat that walks by… and the cat walks by again as Dwight is in Michael’s office. And Jenna goes, ‘It took six months to train the cat.’”
“And then we have the security guard walk by… he was the big guy, but he had a twin brother and we used him also as a glitch,” Rogers continued. “And then he’s going to take the red pill or the blue pill? Like we had a whole thing, but it was too long. We cut it for time.”
