The Injury

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The Injury
Season	2
Episode	12
Production Code	02011
Airdate	January 12, 2006
Written by	Mindy Kaling
Directed by	Bryan Gordon
Episodes timeline
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Previous	Booze Cruise
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Next	The Secret

"The Injury" is the twelfth episode of the second season of The Office. It was written by Mindy Kaling and directed by Bryan Gordon. It first aired on January 12, 2006.

Synopsis

Michael burns his foot stepping on to a George Foreman grill, and then tries to convince his staff that he has a serious injury. To do this, he irritates the office (Pam and Ryan, notably) to help him with his "injury". For example: He asks Pam to spread butter on his foot, and when Michael falls off the toilet, he yells for Ryan to help him. When Ryan refuses to do this, Michael calls a meeting in the confrence room. During all this,Dwight, who tries to pick Michael up and bring him in to work upon hearing of his injury, crashes his car exiting Dunder Mifflin's parking lot, giving himself a concussion. Because of this Dwight is more helpful and friendly to Pam, which Jim notes. In the conference room meeting, Michael shows pictures of handicapped people (Forrest Gump, Franklin D. Rooslvelt, Tom Hanks as Josh Baskin in Big which he mistakes for Philadelphia.) Then the handicapped business park owner enters and is told he was invited by Michael to come. When he asks if anyone has any questions about the buliding rules, Dwight raises his hand and says nothing. When Michael tells the building's owner that they are similar because they are "disabled" this causes him to wheel out. When Jim sees him enter the elevator he asks Jim "What's wrong with that guy?" meaning Dwight. He then states that he looks like he has a conccusion. Ryan, sick of Michael, puts medicene in his pudding to help him recover. While Michael is boasting about his recovery, Dwight collapses, and Jim and Michael (Michael being less than willingly) take him to the hospital. While Jim waits in the waiting room, he calls Pam at the office, and tells her that Michael is taking Dwight to get a CATscan. Angela tries to listen into this. The episode ends with Michael trying to stick his foot into the CATscan machine.

Deleted scenes

The Season Two DVD contains a number of deleted scenes from this episode. Notable cut scenes include:

• Jim popping some of Michael's foot packaging bubbles. Jim then says he has had a grill for six years, and has never burnt himself on it because he does not use it as a pillow.
• Michael explains that sometimes when he is zoned out, he will pop some bubble wrap at home.
• Dwight explaining that the pioneers never wasted anything, and Jim says Michael should go to the hospital.
• Ryan is assigned to draw a handicapped sign for Michael so he can park closer to the building.
• Michael rubbing butter on his foot, and Angela passes and asks, "Who made popcorn?"
• Michael talking to someone on the phone, but he hangs up on him when Ryan walks in with Michael's movies. He rented some for Michael to watch, and then gives Michael some dark meat chicken. Michael then tells the camera no matter what you have, if you eat dark meat chicken, you can walk on the moon.
• Dwight using the copier to copy nothing. In a talking head interview, Dwight describes the signs of a concussion, but his explanation becomes disjointed and incoherent.
• Dwight getting scared that he needs to go into a machine. He then asks Michael if he will come into the room with him and stand next to him.
• Michael and Jim watch a movie in Spanish in the hospital waiting room.

Trivia

• Brian Baumgartner and Angela Kinsey are caught out of character in the opening seconds of the episode. Kinsey admits that she didn't realize the cameras were rolling.
• Dwight refers to Pam's MP3 player as a Prism Durosport. In reality, it looks much more like a Creative Zen Micro. The show's writers developed a fake Web site for the Prism Durosport.
• In Christmas Party, Roy says he was planning to buy Pam an iPod, and since Pam traded with Dwight for the teapot, it makes sense for her to have an MP3 player from Roy.
• If Michael burned his foot then he would've taken a medical leave.
• At 11:02 in the episode, a sofa and pillows (not seen until 11:17) can clearly be seen in the conference room. The sofa is never seen again and is not in the conference room "20 minutes later" when Michael held the lecture on people with disabilities.

Amusing details

• When Michael says (in the conference room meeting), "When I clamped my foot into a non-stick grill," Pam turns to Dwight and laughs.
• Michael's exasperated, "I'm sick of Chuck E. Cheese," suggests that he goes to the children's restaurant often.
• Despite Michael's anger about Pam not having any messages, he did have messages when he showed up. Pam says he missed two calls from "corporate".

Cultural references

• Oscar mentions the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a series of movies released between 2001 and 2003.
• Michael interjects Sue me! into opening his talking head. The litigious nature of United States culture is reflected in its slang. "Sue me!" means roughly "So what are you going to do about it?", suggesting that if the listener doesn't like it, they can sue the speaker.
• A George Foreman Grill is a small cooking appliance sold under the name of the former heavyweight boxer. It has a hinged cover.
• Protruberance is a mispronunciation of protuberance.
• Stroudsburg is a town about an hour's drive from Scranton.
• Dwight mentions this Russian website where you can download songs for two cents apiece. At the time this episode aired, the Russian web site AllofMP3.com made songs available for pennies per song.
• Country Crock is a brand of butter substitute.
• Mail Boxes Etc. (a UPS company) is a chain of mailing supply stores.
• Stevie Wonder is a singer who is blind.
• Helen Keller is a woman who was born deaf and blind. Larry Flynt is a publisher of pornography, paralyzed from a murder attempt. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States and hid his paralysis from the public. Tom Hanks portrayed Forrest Gump, a man with low intelligence; He also played the adult Josh Baskin in Big, where the main character is a boy in a man's body.
• Born on the Fourth of July is a movie about a paralyzed Vietnam War veteran.
• Carbondale is a town about a half-hour's drive from Scranton.
• Shotgun is a protocol for determining who sits in the front passenger seat.
• Chuck E. Cheese is a chain of restaurants targetting children.

Quotes

see The Injury Quotes

Cast

Main Cast

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

Recurring Cast

• Leslie David Baker as Stanley Hudson
• Brian Baumgartner as Kevin Malone
• Creed Bratton (actor) as Creed Bratton
• Kate Flannery as Meredith Palmer
• Mindy Kaling as Kelly Kapoor
• Angela Kinsey as Angela Martin
• Paul Lieberstein as Toby
• Oscar Nunez as Oscar Martinez
• Phyllis Smith as Phyllis Lapin
• Marcus A. York as Billy Merchant

Guest Cast

• David Doty as Doctor
• Julia Prud'homme as Nurse
• Stephen Pisani as Hospital Visitor