10 Food Moments from The Office
From Christmas goose roadkill to staplers encased in Jell-O
By Roxanne Webber
The Office is so stuffed full of squirm-inducing hilarity it’s hard to think clearly about our favorite bits. But following the lead from a Chowhound thread discussing the best food moments on the show, we spent a good few hours scouring the Internet for our most-loved segments, and we proudly call it work well done.
1. George Foreman Grills: Hazardous to Feet. Michael needs rescuing after burning his foot in a George Foreman grill: “Today I got up, I stepped onto the grill, and it clamped down on my foot. That’s it. I don’t see what’s so hard to believe about that.” We learn that kindness, in the form of some meds ground up and hidden in pudding, heals all.
2. Very Nutritious but They Smell Like Death. Creed is ahead of the trend, sprouting mung beans in his desk drawer. Unfortunately it’s also the source of his old-man smell.
3. Roadkill Christmas Goose. Dwight runs over a goose and declares it a Christmas miracle. What else would you do with a goose but clean it in your car and then roast it with a wild rice dressing?
4. Coupons Are Good, Kidnapping Is Not. When the pizza delivery kid won’t take Michael’s coupon, he does what any reasonable person would do: kidnaps him. The pizza joint does not negotiate with terrorists.
5. Dinner Party from Hell. A dinner party at Michael and Jan’s leaves us with some valuable entertaining tips: Don’t leave the video camera set up in your bedroom if you are going to give guests a house tour, don’t dip meat into your wineglass with your fork, and don’t describe your wine as having an “oaky afterbirth.”
6. Jell-O Stapler. We couldn’t make this list without mentioning the classic Jim prank: putting Dwight’s stapler in Jell-O. It’s 26 seconds into this YouTube montage of his greatest hits.
7. Don’t Use the Oven Setting. The office is evacuated after a kitchen fire, started when Ryan cooks his cheese pita in the toaster oven on the “oven” setting rather than the “toast” setting. This prompts Dwight’s rousing remake of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
8. Better Than a Splash of Water. Michael reveals that he likes Splenda in his single malt.
9. Add to Résumé: Excellent Cheese-Puff-Throwing Skills. It’s hard getting the Michael Scott Paper Company off the ground; they can only cold-call so many people. But there’s plenty of time to practice throwing cheese puffs into one another’s mouths.
10. Motivational Drinking. It seems like a leadership training exercise is just low-hanging fruit for the Dunder Mifflin staff, while a leadership training exercise on a booze cruise with “snorkel shots” is ripe fruit.