The Office Funniest Moments Ranked
There are few shows (if any) as funny as "The Office." The NBC sitcom classic only gets better with age. From the antics of restless office workers to the over-the-top behavior exhibited in their personal lives, every scene from the show is comedic gold. While there's no end to the rip-roaring fun, there are plenty of moments that tend to stand out as exceptionally amusing.
Figuring out which of these should be in the running for "the funniest" moment of the whole show, though, is a challenge. It's easy to point out dozens and even hundreds of iconic segments that left audiences in tears. Naturally, if you're going to reduce that number to a mere dozen or so, it's going to hang a lot of excellent candidates out to dry. Such is life.
Nonetheless, we've combed through the online archives of "Office" fandom and looked for the juiciest, wittiest, most gut-busting moments that the show ever offered. Here are the results of our research, roughly ranked from worst to first.
Toby's return from Costa Rica
Let's start with a softball so easy it's set the internet on fire with an endless supply of gifs over the years. We're talking about Michael Scott's reaction to Toby Flenderson returning from Costa Rica. The event takes place in the Season 5 episode "Frame Toby," which opens with Michael blissfully unaware that good ol' Tobes has been back for an entire week already.
When the boss refuses to believe that Toby has returned, Jim tells him to meander back to the annex to check. When Michael does so — still in rampant denial of the truth — he finds Toby, in the flesh. Initially, the manager stares in shock. As Toby says hi, Michael interrupts him to shout, "No! God! No, God, please, no! No! No! Noooo!"
That last, prolonged, panic-stricken negative is cut short by the theme song as the scene abruptly ends. The moment is a gem, instantly encapsulating the irrational hostility that Michael harbors toward his human resources manager with a single-syllabic expression. The fact that it also led to an endless string of memes and gifs means it simply had to make the list.
Peepee? No, Peepa.
For this next moment, we need to fast-forward all the way to the two-part Season 7 finale "Search Committee." The bulk of this riotous episode focuses on the attempt to fill the glaring void in Scranton — and our hearts — created by the departure of Michael Scott. As a line of outside hires (all played by high-profile guest stars) are paraded through the office, several of Dunder Mifflin's finest in-house options also throw their hats in the ring.
One of these is Dwight, who's fighting an incredible uphill battle, considering the fact that he shot a loaded gun in the office just one episode earlier. As he pulls out all the stops, Dwight attempts to schmooze the search committee candidates through one-on-one interactions. When he takes Jim out into the parking lot to sweet-talk him, though, the conversation gets off to a rocky start. The salesman asks how Jim's family is doing, asking, "What's your daughter's name again? Peepee?"
Without skipping a beat, Jim responds to the obviously half-assed, semi-insulting guess, not by saying her name his "Cece" but by correcting it to "Peepa." Dwight responds in an openly pandering tone, saying, "Peepa. How is she?" After they both reply "Great" and walk on for a moment, Dwight follows this awkward conversation up with the line, "We never were good at small talk, were we, Jim?" The scene is a great nod to the way that Jim can run laps around Dwight when he's in the mood.
Jim criticizes the camera crew
Sometimes the funniest moments aren't big, complex scenes or slapstick sequences. Instead, they come via little zingers and one-liners that no one saw coming. Case in point: Jim's criticism of the camera crew for their lack of boundaries in the Season 7 episode "Goodbye, Michael."
As things get rolling, Gabe follows Andy into the men's room and threatens him to stay away from Erin. After the awkward confrontation concludes, Gabe leaves Andy standing uncomfortably by the sink. Suddenly, the toilet flushes, and Jim Halpert walks out of the adjacent stall, clearly having heard the entire encounter. Andy weakly says hi, but Jim just looks in the mirror, making eye contact with the camera over his shoulder.
Then, the scene suddenly cuts to a talking head of Jim, where the salesman just looks directly at the screen and says, "You guys are filming people when they go to the bathroom now?" The sudden, unexpected breaking of the fourth wall catches everyone by surprise and never fails to elicit a laugh from viewers, who were fixated on the dramatic sequence moments earlier.
Jim and Dwight's customer service training
Another instant comedy classic takes place in the Season 5 episode "Customer Survey." In it, top-tier salesmen Jim and Dwight are forced to endure a painful round of customer service training overseen by the mighty sales legend Michael Scott himself. The situation stems from the pair of employees receiving bad feedback from their clients — a fact that is later revealed to be false thanks to the misguided tamperings of the disgruntled Kelly Kapoor.
The coworkers' apparently poor marks force Michael to manage them on more of a micro scale, or as Jim calls it, "Microgement." The scene already feels out of place as Dwight kicks off an imaginary call to Jim, who answers, informing Dwight that his name is Bill Buttlicker.
The ensuing humorous conversation starts as a string of quirky retorts from Jim to Dwight as he too happily plays the part of an unhappy customer. By the end, Dwight literally shouts the line "Buttlicker! Our prices have never been lower!" This prompts Jim to have him put Michael on the phone, only to offer the boss a huge fake sale ... if he fires Dwight. The entire scene is a textbook example of the out-of-control fun that comes when these three get together.
Reading all of Jim's pranks at once
Everyone knows that Jim's pranks on Dwight have to make an appearance on this list, and a couple of them do, for sure. However, there's one sequence in Season 2 that is particularly potent when it comes to the show's all-around funniest moments. We're talking about a short rolling sequence toward the end of the episode "Conflict Resolution."
The installment features a plethora of unhappy employees who are stirred up by Michael's attempt to step into Toby's role as HR manager. In doing so, the boss publicizes a long string of complaints between employees — objections that Toby had wisely kept under wraps up until that point. While the situation makes everyone upset, though, things reach a new level of turmoil when Dwight discovers that all of his numerous complaints about Jim have never been properly reported. This leads to the scene that we're all here for.
In it, Michael reads through a list of Jim's past wrongdoings. This includes crayons, everyone calling Dwight "Dwayne," framing Dwight for murder, seeing Meredith "on the can," weighted phones, a Dwight-to-diapers macro, and moving desks.
Throughout the scene, Dwight's face is priceless as it waffles between depression and fury. Toward the end, Jim says, "These actually don't sound that funny one after another." We disagree, Mr. Halpert. We disagree entirely. On the contrary, hearing so many of Jim's past offscreen pranks trotted out all at once creates a uniquely hysterical sense of comedy.
Creed's mung beans
The "Conflict Resolution" episode of Season 2 is particularly loaded with funny moments as members of the office think back to numerous unpleasant events. One of these events involves the infamous Creed Bratton. The quality assurance rep has a style all his own, which is on full display when a complaint surfaces between Ryan and himself. Michael starts the conversation by saying, "Okay, Ryan, you told Toby that Creed has a distinct old man smell?"
The scene seems ripe for discord, but when the camera pans over to Creed, the old man is actually calm, collected ... and smiling. The scene quickly cuts to a separate talking head where Creed explains that he knows exactly what Ryan is referring to. "I sprout mung beans on a damp paper towel in my desk drawer," he says knowingly. He follows up this seemingly random factoid with the critical point that they are "Very nutritious. But they smell like death."
The reason for the smell is so outlandish that it's hard not to burst out laughing. The best part is, we all know that you can bet your bottom dollar Creed didn't stop his in-office agricultural efforts for a second — whether they make him smell bad or not.
Where are the turtles?
The Season 4 episode "Dunder Mifflin Infinity" showcases Michael Scott's determined bid to prove that traditional sales methods are better than fancy new technology. The showdown revolves around a key technique: the use of gift baskets.
Michael and Dwight head from one lost client to the next, offering them delicious care packages, but no one bites. Eventually, Michael becomes so discouraged and discombobulated by the turn of events that he follows his GPS ... right into a lake. After all, the machine knows!
While the entire story is to die for, though, there's one part that hits fans right in the funny bone every time. We're talking about the turtles. After Michael and Dwight emerge from the lake, they decide to rage against the machines by reclaiming their last unappreciated gift basket. The soggy salesmen stalk back to the client and demand the return of their goods while they sit on their past customer's couches and wait.
Surprisingly, this childish behavior actually produces the gift basket. However, Michael is quick to point out that it's been opened. Noting that the chocolate Turtles have been removed, he demands to know their whereabouts. The client orders them to leave, spurring Scott to shout at the top of his lungs, "Where are the turtles!?" When he discovers that they were eaten, the defeated Dunder Mifflin manager skulks out with his basket. Dwight follows, firing back the quip, "We'll bill you." Priceless.
Creed's unknown position
Season 4 ends with the arrival of Holly. While no one could have known it at the time, everyone now knows that this marks a turning point for Michael. As the smitten manager escorts the new HR rep around the building, he introduces her to everyone — including the awkwardly enigmatic Creed.
When Holly innocently asks what it is that Creed does at the company, he stares at her for a very long second before he says "excuse me" and calmly walks away. The camera then cuts to a clearly ruffled Creed, hiding behind the refrigerator in the kitchen.
Obviously feeling threatened, Creed asks what is wrong with Holly and accuses her of being nosy. Then his tone shifts and he says, "Really, what do I do here? I should have written it down." The quality assurance manager then starts trying to guess the answer, but he doesn't use real-life positions. He just starts rattling off nonsense. He muses aloud, "Qua-something. Qua, quar, quaybo, qual, quar, quabity. Quabity assuance. No, no, no, no. But I'm getting close."
The fact that Creed doesn't even know what quality assurance is, let alone the fact that it's, you know, his job, fits right in with the character's shady presence at the Scranton branch. From getting others fired to living on-site, Creed's activity is always sketchy — including his position as the head of "quabity assuance."
Michael's new chair
Creed may smell of mung beans and not know the duties associated with his job description, but the man sure knows what he wants when it comes to single-seat furniture. In the Season 4 episode "Chair Model," Michael spends an excruciating amount of time choosing a new receptacle for his rump.
As the exposition mounts, we discover that the manager's delays are having a cascading effect throughout the office. Two employees that are particularly impacted by the decision are Pam and Creed. Pam's story is pretty simple. The secretary is sick of her old chair and will inherit Michael's chair when the boss finally chooses a new one.
But Creed's interest in the chair situation? Well, that's a bit more mysterious. At one point early in the episode, he calls Pam to see if Michael has chosen a chair yet. When she says no, he sounds disappointed. Next thing you know, we see a talking head of the old guy explaining that "When Pam gets Michael's old chair, I get Pam's old chair. Then I'll have two chairs." The employee then looks steadily ahead and declares, "Only one to go." While we never get to find out what he needs three chairs for, the utterly random nature of the statement is enough to have everyone busting a gut.
Dwight-Jim against Dwight
Jim's prank-prone antics toward Dwight are well-documented. And don't get us wrong, plenty of them could have made the list. However, if you have to pick the one moment that truly defines the funniest Jim and Dwight interaction, it has to be the time Jim impersonates his beet-farming desk-clump mate.
The cold open starts with Jim arriving at work dressed like his coworker. He has a brown suit, a mustard-yellow shirt, an accompanying yellow tie, fake glasses, a watch, a briefcase, and even a disturbingly symmetrical part in his hair.
After settling in, the troublemaker starts grilling his coworker with carefully planned questions about bears, beets, and "Battlestar Galactica." Dwight is ruffled at first but then tries to pass the whole thing off as a flattering form of imitation. When Jim produces a bobblehead moments later, Dwight spirals into a tirade about identity theft before both employees storm off to their boss's office, shouting "Michael!" with the same exact Dwight-like inflection.
The hysterical scene ends there. But the laughter sure doesn't. The only question we have is, how did Jim keep the good times rolling once he was in Michael's office? Did Michael Scott — a man who can't even tell the difference between a man and a woman's pants suit — even notice that they were dressed the same? Guess we'll never know.
Like ... the entire dinner party episode
Alright, we realize that if we're talking about funniest "moments," picking an entire episode isn't really fair. But still, if we were going to choose one episode that was the funniest, the Season 4 barn burner "Dinner Party" would be it. That said, there are so many different moments to love here, and choosing a single one to make the list is almost impossible.
For instance, there's Michael and Jan's fight across a dinner table filled with food and guests. And don't forget Michael's incredible wall-mounted flat-screen TV. Dwight's arrival with his old babysitter is worth a few laughs, too, as is the album recorded by Jan's old assistant, Hunter.
Perhaps the funniest moment in the entire episode, though, comes when Michael and Jan are fighting about who gets what they want more. Jan starts to say that Michael always gets what he wants, but the more-than-grumpy boyfriend is ready with his reply. He lists multiple examples of Jan getting her way, ending on the doozy that his girlfriend had him get not one, not two, but three vasectomies (the second being a reversal of the first) as her desire for kids waxed and waned. The best line in the scene is when Michael emotionally declares, "Snip snap! Snip snap! Snip snap ... You have no idea the physical toll that three vasectomies have on a person?"
The craziest part is, Michael ends up having kids with Holly later on. That means he apparently had a fourth procedure and everything is still in working order. Good for him.
Dwight's fire drill
There are a lot of amazing cold opens over the course of the show, but only one of them stands out as a clear candidate for the top of a list of funniest moments. The fire drill that Dwight conducts at the beginning of the Season 5 episode "Stress Relief" adds up to some of the finest comedy ever filmed.
The scene starts with Mr. Schrute calmly setting the stage for an epic fire drill. He warms handles, locks doors, and gets everything in place before he starts a (kind of) contained fire behind a closed door. The consequent event creates a growing sense of mass hysteria amongst the victimized Dunder Mifflinites.
From using the copier as a battering ram to throwing chairs out of windows to climbing through ceilings — not to mention a fair dose of firecrackers — everything about this scene is insane. And every second of it is prime time comedy at its finest.
Kevin's chili
What else could stand proudly at the top of a list like this? "The Office" is filled with all sorts of humor, but no one can bring on the laughter-induced tears like Kevin Malone. The accountant's most humorous moment comes in the Season 5 episode "Casual Friday." The scene opens with a shot of Kevin carrying a huge pot of his famous chili into the office. The voiceover features Mr. Malone as he explains that he brings his lovingly prepared chili to the office at least once a year for his coworkers to eat.
When he finds the elevator out of order, though, Kevin has to carry the giant pot up the stairs. This leaves him exhausted, and by the time he reaches the office, he spills the food all over the floor. The voiceover continues as he explains how special the entrée is. But the audio is now playing over a slap-stick routine of Kevin slipping over himself as he desperately attempts to clean up the mess.
The hilarious fiasco ends with the character slipping in his own chili as his voiceover states that cooking the family recipe "is probably the thing I do best." Oh, Kevin.