Business School

Business School
Season	3
Episode	17
Production Code	3017
Airdate	February 15, 2007
Length	22 minutes
Written by	Brent Forrester
Directed by	Joss Whedon
Episodes timeline
Previous	Phyllis' Wedding
Previous	Phyllis' Wedding
Next	Cocktails
Next	Cocktails

"Business School" is the 17th episode of the third season of The Office and the 45th overall. It was written by Brent Forrester and directed by Joss Whedon. It first aired on February 15, 2007. It was viewed by 8.8 million people.

Cold open

Michael demands an explanation for Kevin's tardiness but cuts off his near-death skid story to announce that he will be the "special lecturer emeritus" in Ryan's emerging enterprises class. Ryan reveals in a talking head that if you bring your boss to class, it automatically bumps you up a letter grade. He was nonetheless reluctant to invite Michael. Michael, in his own talking head, compares himself to a "cool teacher" from his 8th grade, who told jokes, hung out with the students, and had sex with some of them.

Synopsis

Struggling for speech ideas, Michael asks Dwight what was the most inspiring thing he has said to him. Dwight responds, "Don't be an idiot." En route to the campus, Michael considers using the line "May your hats fly as high as your dreams." in his speech. Ryan explains that it would be out of context as no one is graduating. Michael calls Ryan a "spaz" and tickles him, causing him to swerve.

Back in the office, Roy tells Pam, who he's dating again after an eight-month split, that he can't wait for her art show, which is being held at the school where Pam and her classmates learn art. Jim is satisfied that Pam is "moving on."

Strolling through campus, Michael "remembers" all the fun he would have had in college. Spotting a threesome tossing a frisbee, he runs up, snags the disc, and tosses it in a direction where no one is standing. Standing outside the lecture room, Michael cannot hear Ryan's introduction, wherein Ryan explains Dunder Mifflin is a dying company. Michael accompanies his entrance with a Brandenburg concerto playing from a boombox and begins his speech by ripping pages out of a student's textbook. Michael illustrates how to start a business with a series of candy bars, throwing them to the incredulous audience. Ryan redirects the speech into a question-and-answer session. Michael states that "real business is done on paper," and tells the students to write that fact down. The audience complies by typing it on their laptops.

When a student uses Ryan's prediction of Dunder Mifflin's obsolescence as proof of his point, Michael is shocked to hear that Ryan had made such a statement. Students wonder aloud how a small business can survive against the "five Goliaths" of the paper industry. Michael defends his company by deriding their age and lack of experience. He informs the room that Ryan still hasn't made a sale, started a fire in his attempt to make a cheesy pita, and "everybody thinks he's a tease." He heads for the exit, saying solemnly, "He doesn't know anything, and neither do you. So suck on that!"

On the car ride home, Michael tells Ryan to clean out his desk. Ryan has mixed feelings when he learns that he is simply being relocated to the annex, where Kelly works. Michael explains to Ryan that "A good manager doesn't fire people; he hires people and inspires people ... People will never go out of business." Kelly is ecstatic Ryan is moving to the desk beside her, but he tells her that it's only temporary and tells her not to freak out. Nevertheless, she remains excited.

Dwight spots animal droppings on the carpet. He peeks above the ceiling tiles and initially concludes that there is a bird stuck in the air vents, but it is actually a bat. The bat escapes, and everyone panics (except for a somewhat amused Creed). Kelly and Meredith scream, Jim recoils in terror, Kevin runs into the camera, Pam hides near the coat rack, Karen hides under her desk, Angela falls flat on the floor and prays, and Stanley heads home (with a very dry "Good-bye"). Dwight shuts the bat in a conference room. Angela puts on a clear plastic rain bonnet so the bat won't poop on her head.

Jim calls animal control and tells Dwight that it won't be at the office until 6 p.m. As Dwight rebukes Jim for his lackadaisical response to the bat issue, Jim tells Dwight that he felt the bat bit him on the neck, but there is no mark, and now he feels "strangely powerful", implying he might be turning into a vampire. Jim and Karen continue pranking Dwight, with Jim saying that Karen's "ice cold" slice of garlic bread burned him. He claims to be blinded by the light reflecting off of Angela's cross.

Dwight says, if a vampire bat was in the U.S., it would make sense that it came from a "–sylvania", like Pennsylvania, and Jim may not turn into a vampire but is carrying the vampiric germ. Dwight teams up with Creed to take down the bat. Kelly protests their attempts to kill it, claiming that it is a living creature with feelings and a family. The bat flies out of the conference room and into the break room, whereupon Kelly changes her tune to "Kill it!". Everyone leaves the office, except for Meredith, who is stuck in the women's restroom. Jim shields himself from the sun with his overcoat as he leaves. Dwight charges into the break room with a garbage bag. The bat lands on Meredith's head and Dwight traps the bat in the bag along with Meredith's head. After much struggle, he gets the bat off of her.

When Pam asks Kelly to come to her art show, Kelly feigns excitement about attending. Toby states that he would like to go, but his daughter has a play that night. He expresses extreme disappointment at having to miss Pam's show to the point of maligning his daughter, but Pam tells him he should go to the play. At the art show, Roy appears with his brother and compliments her work, but obviously does so as a boyfriend's gesture with no sincere appreciation for art, and no one from Dunder Mifflin has shown up. Roy leaves with his brother and Pam says she'll just drive herself home. Roy asks her to drive to his place. Oscar and his boyfriend, Gil, criticize her work as "motel art". Michael arrives as Pam is starting to take her work down, having been delayed by the return to the office to move Ryan into the annex, and is impressed with her work. He zeroes in on her portrait of the office building and buys it, telling Pam he is proud of her. His words touch Pam, and she hugs him in thanks. She suspects him of getting an erection due to the hug, but it turns out he just had still more candy bars left in his pockets. He hangs the picture in the office, stating that the portrait would not have been made possible without the use of paper, unless the image had been taken by a camera.

Deleted scenes

The Season Three DVD contains a number of deleted scenes.

• In a talking head interview, Michael responds to the adage "Those who can't do, teach."
• Jim delivers Michael several books, including a digest of business terms and a CliffsNotes on business economics. Michael asks if there's one book which sums up the others, and Jim explains, "Those are the books that sum up the other books." Michael reads from his sales diary, particularly a chapter called Wisdoms, and has Jim rate how smart each one is.
• Creed has some papers for Phyllis. Stanley tells him she's on her honeymoon and won't be back for six weeks, but Creed says he'll wait, and sits on her desk.
• Meredith tells a joke starting "Why did Pam hook up with Roy at Phyllis' wedding?". Angela walks out, not wanting to hear it. The rest of the joke is nearly entirely bleeped out, except for Meredith's hand gestures.
• Michael abandons his plan to have the students stand on their desks.
• In a talking head interview, Michael tells the documentary crew his plan for getting his ideas across. "Kids love candy bars."
• Michael addresses the students as if they were children, pointing out, for example, that they must sell products for more than they paid for them.
• Michael responds to questions from students.
• In the kitchen area, Karen notices the flier for Pam's art show and attempts to surreptitiously pull it down, but Oscar walks in.
• In a talking head interview, Dwight asks, "What is a leader?" Jim told him he never heard of the word, but he knew what a ladder was.
• While trapped in the bathroom Meredith yells, "I really want to come out." Dwight advises against it.
• Pam invites Kevin to the art show.
• While leaving, Angela tells Kelly this is what happens with the power of prayer. Kelly asks her if she prayed for the bat incident. Angela responds, "In a general sense."
• At the art show, Roy's brother suggests he could join Pam and Roy and rent the cabin by the lake. But since Denise left him, he should only pay a third.

NBC's Web site contains deleted scenes not included on the DVD:

• Stanley proclaims he will have six weeks in paradise too, with Phyllis on her honeymoon. He moves a stack of his own papers to her desk.
• Michael is asked by a business school student, "How much of Dunder Mifflin's profits are put back into research and development?" Michael responds with gibberish, and calls the question "Gobbledygook."

Goofs

• Ryan takes business school classes at night, but in this episode, his class is held during the day, when Ryan would normally be working.

Trivia

• Phyllis Smith (Phyllis Vance) is credited but does not appear in this episode likely because she is on her honeymoon with Bob.
• Just nine days after airing, events from this episode were referenced on Saturday Night Live. Rainn Wilson was the host, and during his opening monologue, he took the audience on a backstage tour to prove that SNL was nothing like The Office, only to find the cast looking and acting like the show's characters; Kristen Wiig, as "Pam", answering phones, informs him that she also paints pictures, and shows off her painting of 30 Rockefeller Center, the New York skyscraper where the show is filmed.
  • Rashida Jones happened to be in the area and knows many of the SNL players, so she made a cameo appearance in the sketch.
  • Kristin Wiig and Jenna Fischer had the same manager at the time. After the SNL episode aired, Wiig sent Fischer the Rockefeller Center watercolor painting from the sketch.
• Pam's watercolor of the office building will be hung in the office until "Finale".
• The move of B.J. Novak's character Ryan to the Annex with Mindy Kaling (Kelly) and Paul Lieberstein (Toby) allowed the three writers to be able to slip away to work on their scripts while also still being available in scenes that call for their characters to be present.

Amusing details

• Jim shakes his head in the background as Michael calls himself a visiting professor.
• Pam tells the camera that getting back with Roy shows "maturity and dignity" then immediately asks if that was braggy, showing a regression in her confidence to earlier seasons where she was less outspoken.
• After her "stop, drop, and roll", Angela prays quietly, "God, this is Angela Martin. Please don’t let that stupid thing come anywhere near me."
• Dwight is excited that there is a bat in the office during his talking head.
• Michael holds up a Snickers bar at the end of his speech and says, "Satisfied?". This is a reference to Snickers's slogan at the time.
• Dwight catches the bat by putting a garbage bag over Meredith's head which leads to her getting rabies.
• Michael packs a copy of Donald Trump's book Think Like a Billionaire and an oversized deck of playing cards for his talk. In playing card games, a trump is a card that has been elevated above its normal rank.
• When Jim talks to Dwight about going home early, Dwight slowly covers his neck in order to protect himself from the "vampiric germ".
• Pam's art show is called "Artists for Art".
• Roy returns to being unromantic after getting back with Pam, drawing emphasis on how he is a good boyfriend for bringing his brother while not realizing he is upsetting Pam by highlighting no one else came to her art show.
• Michael is unaware how much his praise meant to Pam, not because of insensitivity, but because he didn't know about the poor turnout. This continues the trend of Michael being likeable whenever he isn't trying to.

Behind the scenes

• Director Joss Whedon, known for creating the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was interested in directing an episode of The Office. He was able to get in contact with The Office through Susanne Daniels, who was at the time head of the WB network (which aired Buffy), as well as Greg Daniels's wife. It was coincidence that Whedon was given an episode with a vampire subplot.
• Cal State Northridge was used for the outdoor college scenes, the business class, and Pam's art show (at the Design Center).
• Joss Whedon was not satisfied with the art produced for Pam's art show. He held up production for an hour while they made new art. The art department originally created a watercolor of a church, but Whedon strongly felt that was out of character. The crew found an art class on campus and paid a student $50 to do a watercolor of a stapler.
• Joss Whedon suggested that Jim turn up his coat collar and glance backward to mimic Dracula peering over his cape.
• A real bat was used when Dwight discovers the bat in the ceiling and for two shots of the bat hanging from the ceiling. A real bat was combined with a mechanical bat for the scene in which Dwight captures the bat. All other scenes were filmed without a bat, and a bat was added in post-production. For scenes with a real bat, the actors could not scream; they pretended to scream, and the screaming was added later.
• When the series ended, Jenna Fischer asked for the painting her character made of the Dunder Mifflin office. She was not allowed, with the explanation that it would be catalogued and sent to NBC. Prop master Phil Shea surreptitiously gave her the painting. "I made a color photo of it. They'll never know."

Cultural references

• Michael gives Kevin a pop quiz, a term for an unannounced test.
• Michael thinks he is a visiting professor special lecturer emeritus at Ryan's business school. The term emeritus is an honorific bestowed upon a retired professor.
• In the United States grading system, the A is the highest grade, followed by B, C, D, and F (fail). Ryan says that bringing Michael will raise his grade by a full letter grade, for example, improving a "C" to a "B".
• A college roadshow is a performance that travels from college to college.
• To bring one's A game is slang for to make one's best effort.
• Throwing one's hat into the air is a traditional graduation ritual, particularly in military school.
• In the mid-2000s, it became fashionable to nickname a celebrity couple by combining the names of the two people. Brangelina is a nickname for the couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Frangelina is a made-up name for the fantasy couple of Angelina Jolie and Frank Sinatra.
• A frisbee is a flying disc toy. Getting one's fris on is a made-up phrase, a snowclone of "Getting one's X on".
• The Teaching Company produces lectures on audio CD. Michael uses the introduction from one of their lessons, a performance of J. S. Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto (first movement).
• In the movie Dead Poets Society, teacher John Keating instructs his students to rip out the introduction from the class poetry book.
• Thingamajig, whoosiewhatsie, and whatchamacallit are nonsense placeholder words. Whatchamacallit, PayDay, 100 Grand Bar, Snickers (whose catchphrase is Snickers really satisfies), and Chunky are real candy bars.
• A PlayStation is a video game console; Beanie Babies are a brand of stuffed animal which was a fad of the late 1990s.
• A student asks how far the Herfindahl index has declined since the merger (possibly referring to Scranton's merger with Stamford, though this is unclear). The Herfindahl index measures a company's market concentration in an industry; a decline in the index indicates increased competition in an industry. The question, however, doesn't make much sense. Mergers typically increase the index, since the consolidation of companies decreases competition within an industry. Also, the index is only a measurement of companies' market share in an industry, so if the question does in fact refer to the merger of the Stamford and Scranton branches, it would have no relevance to the Herfindahl index. Michael responds with Polack-says-what index, using an ethnic slur for Polish people; he reinforces this by calling the student Kowalski, a common Polish surname.
• David and Goliath is the Biblical tale of the fight between the Israelite shepherd David and the Philistine giant Goliath. In popular culture David is usually characterized as an untrained and under-armed underdog, though the Biblical text itself implies that David was of large stature, and his slingshot was a cutting edge weapon at the time.
• Dwight says that it is only natural that a vampire bat would appear in a "-sylvania". It is a reference to the fact that vampires are traditionally associated to Transylvania, a region in Romania.

Quotes

See: Business School Quotes

Cast

Main cast

• Steve Carell as Michael Scott
• Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute
• John Krasinski as Jim Halpert
• Jenna Fischer as Pam Beesly
• B.J. Novak as Ryan Howard

Supporting cast

• David Denman as Roy Anderson
• Leslie David Baker as Stanley Hudson
• Brian Baumgartner as Kevin Malone
• Kate Flannery as Meredith Palmer
• Mindy Kaling as Kelly Kapoor
• Angela Kinsey as Angela Martin
• Paul Lieberstein as Toby Flenderson
• Oscar Nunez as Oscar Martinez
• Phyllis Smith as Phyllis Vance (credit only)

Recurring cast

• Rashida Jones as Karen Filippelli
• Creed Bratton as Creed Bratton
• Tom W. Chick as Gil

Guest cast

• Michael Patrick McGill as Kenny Anderson
• Nathan Blank as Business School Student
• Matthew Brent as Business School Student
• David Daskal as Business School Student (Uncredited)
• Charlie Hirsch
• Jonathan Hughes
• Elizabeth Moore
• Mike Park
• Jeremy Should
• Annie Weirich

Gallery of a gallery

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