The Joke You Never Noticed Opens And Closes The Office
It's now been several years since "The Office" ended with its ninth season, but the series has hardly faltered in popularity. To fans, the sitcom is endlessly rewatchable, which lends itself to discovering new details of the series with each click of the "next episode" button.
Watching the pilot episode is a trip through memory lane, to Michael Scott's (Steve Carell) greasy hair and Jim Halpert's (John Krasinski) iconic Jell-O prank. The episode is quick to set up Michael as an obnoxious, inappropriate manager, in contrast to his own view of himself: In his first talking head scene, he congratulates himself on being such a good boss. Meanwhile, we learn that Jim is bored with his job and Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) is eager to please Michael.
But if you pay close attention, there are several things about the first episode that can only be caught on a rewatch. For example, there's one joke that appears in both the pilot and the finale.
Michael and Oscar quote the same '90s line
Less than five minutes into the pilot episode of "The Office," Michael comes out of his office to surprise Jim from behind with a drawn-out "wassuuup," to which Jim responds with his own half-hearted "wassuuup." Jim adds, "I still love that after seven years," concealing his sarcasm enough for Michael to not notice it. Michael keeps doing it, and Dwight joins in, and it's all just painfully awkward. Once Michael stops, there's a moment of silence before he returns to his office, having completed the one thing he came out to do.
In the finale, when Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nuñez) joins Dwight's bachelor party, he's trying to take his own trip down memory lane to how he acted before he came out as gay. He shouts "wassuuup" in the limo, and, to no one's surprise, it still doesn't land. It's far from the funniest moment on "The Office," but it is a cute call-back to the pilot.
At one point, though, "wassuuup" was the height of comedy. The line was on everyone's lips in the late '90s and early 2000s after a Budweiser commercial based on a short film popularized the phrase. Still, as Jim can attest, it got old fairly quickly.