WMG / The Office (US)

Wild Mass Guessing for The Office in general go here. Wild Mass Guessing for the British version go here.

Andy Bernard will be a children's tv show character

His acting "skill set" would fit for a job like that. He plays a banjo, he speaks in random accents, and he's always breaking out into song. Not to mention he's kind of immature.

• Jossed, though he does become a YouTube sensation.

Michael Scott will become more mature before he leaves

• "Threat level midnight", nuff said.
• As well as "Todd Packer"
• Judging from the last few episodes before he's was about to leave, I'd argue that this is confirmed. I'll copy paste an analysis I wrote on reddit regarding his development:

Michael Scott is the most well-developed character on television that I can think of...ever. [Edit: I meant to say television comedy here] Every dimension of his being works out beautifully. If any single character on comedic comedy shows the full depth of a person, it's Michael. He is simultaneously a very selfish person, but also very caring. He is very offensive, but also strives to be politically correct (in a very misguided way). He is a fantastic salesman, but a horrible people person. There's a bunch of hypocrisies in his character, but the writing and Steve Carrell's acting handled them very well.

At his heart, Michael is just a very lonely guy, who wants, above all else, to feel accepted. This is at the heart of almost all of his quirks and problems. Not just that he wants to feel accepted, but also the fact that he is unable to be honest with himself about who he really is. His self-dishonesty leads to him being quite dense with himself and others which leads to him being more isolated from others. It's a viscious cycle.

Consider the mug on his desk. "World's Greatest Boss". Who gave him that? He did himself. Similarly he put up fake diplomas on the wall, etc. He loves to brag to people about various things in his life (especially his sex life) in order to gain approval from "the guys", and he has shown the tendency to constantly misrepresent reality to make himself feel better. The episode with Dwight's speech? When Dwight did better than him, Michael left and got a beer to avoid it, and then rationalized it away by saying that since Dwight was inspired by him then Michael is a great speaker as well.

He is a treasure trove of defense mechanisms. All to hide himself from himself. They don't all result in bad things. Because of his tendency to equate work with family, he has intense care for the people at his office....like the time he was the only one to visit Pam's exhibit. No matter how much he upsets people, he always tries to be there for them, like a father, because fathers feel needed and wanted. This kind of acceptance is the one thing he wants in his life, above all else.

Towards the end of his run, he finds true love in Holly, proposes to her, etc. At the last Dundies, everyone there sang to him and gave him a Dundie. The beginning of his last episode he throws the his old mug into the trash and replaces it with the Dundie, symbolizing his realization that he has gained acceptance from his employees. Towards the middle of the episode, he has a small nervous breakdown, resulting in him reaching into the trash and pulling out that old "Best Boss" mug again, until he gets Holly on the phone again to reassure him. This isn't a coincidence...its pretty obvious symbolism. He matured quite a bit throughout the series (despite his antics becoming arguably stupider, he has emotionally matured, I feel), but still has a bit to go. But at least he has someone to go through this struggle with...Holly, and their thousands of kids he will be friends with.

Jan is using the Lysistrata Gambit on Michael.

Jan seems to win all of the many arguments the two have because she threatens to withhold sex if she doesn't get her way. It's Michael Scott we're talking about here, but still, there's no other way he could be that whipped. He's tried to use it on her at least once; he probably got the idea from her using it on him.

• In one episode, Michael used it on Jan to get a raise.
  • Michael at least hints she's been trying it on him.

The show is a hallucination of Creed

Creed never stopped being homeless, and he eventually went insane. This is why some of the personalities seem so ridiculous that they would've likely been fired several times over - including Creed's. He's acting like he would were he not hallucinating.

• But Creed's playing himself, so... Uh-oh.

The finale will have the documentary revealed to be a sadistic prank to film a comedy show.

Actors would include Creed, Molly, and the majority of the Scranton branch's clients. The episode will end with a baseball bat heading toward the camera and a Blair Witch Project style screencap saying "These tapes were found buried in the woods outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Attempts to find the producers and the actors filmed have been unsuccessful."

• The show has finally aired in Denmark, and it's basically a hidden camera show. Nobody is an actor, but the documentary crew director is something of a sleazeball and reveals to Pam that he's basically been manipulating and exploiting everyone, on top of violating their privacy. So far, not too far off. We'll have to see what the finale this May holds.
• Jossed. It was a documentary all along.

Kevin is Harry Plinkett of "Red Letter Media" Fame.

Both speak in similar monotones, Kevin is also divorced, and Plinkett makes many mentions of his various ex-wifes

The penultimate episode will see Michael Scott get fired. The Finale will see the first episode finally hit the air.

The producers of the show had been told to "follow Michael Scott and his friends and employees until he is fired then come back to us with a series". They had expected to maybe get a week of material.

• At the launch party, Dwight and Michael will engage in Wild Mass Guessing as to what will happen, including the question of whether Jim and Pam will hook up. Pan to Jim and Pam Halpert looking at the camera in a awkwardly ironic fashion. Fade to Black.
• Confirmed false.
• The most recent episode has the office discover the show airing in Denmark, and are not impressed. We see bits of the show, and it's basically a hidden camera show.
• While Michael is never fired, the Series Finale ends with Dwight firing Kevin, Toby, Jim and Pam. Though the latter two's firings was out of sympathy.

Michael is a high-functioning autistic.

It would explain why his social skills are so lacking, despite being at least somewhat competent in other respects and having received a position as branch manager.

• He's socially awkward because he didn't have any friends or a father figure when he was growing up. After all, he wanted to be friends with his coworkers.
• Autistic might not be too far off as Michael mentioned he couldn't talk until he was 5 years old, a common sign of autism.
• Michael has often shown the ability to recognize unspoken social cues, which helps him be a successful and charismatic salesman. His displays of social ineptitude are most often the result of his own selfishness.

Marjorie died and her ghost is haunting the office.

Marjorie was an extra for the first few episodes, but in recent seasons she's barely seen. Yet she can somehow be viewed lurking in the back of crowds or lingering just off screen...

• She is notably the only original Dunder Mifflin employee who never participates in the plot or gets interviewed. A likely explanation for this is that she declined being filmed for the documentary, though she still gets picked up in a few background shots by accident. Her last appearance is in the Season 3 episode A Benihana Christmas. This episode was also the final appearance of Stamford transfer Hannah Smoterich-Barr, who, as we learn in the next episode, quit. Maybe Marjorie, emboldened by the departure of Hannah and several other former Stamford employees, decided to leave the company so she wouldn't have to tiptoe around the camera crews.
• Marjorie quits and threatens everyone with lawsuits over an unaired event. The documentary crew choose to cut her out from most of the documentary, for legal reasons.

The mug Michael gave Jim is his first step in a lighthearted Plan.

The final scene of the series will show Michael staying behind after everyone has gone home, then revealing that he has put Jim's "World's Best Boss" mug in jello as the theme song plays, reflecting the ending of the first episode.

• Jossed. Michael left Dunder-Mifflin altogether in season seven.

Dwight and Jim are the Office-verse incarnation of Batman and Joker, respectively

Dwight has an obsession with justice, martial arts, weapons, was a volunteer sheriff for a time, and has very few social skills and takes himself extremely seriously, while one of Jim's more prominent traits is his antagonistic relationship with Dwight and is constantly pranking him

Michael is a deeply, deeply repressed homosexual.

He's almost obsessed with the idea of having as many children as possible. In his mind, having children equates with heterosexuality, and if he has enough kids, it will make him straight. His overly sexist comments and childish fixation on the size of women's breasts is just compensation.

• Exhibit A: in his journal diary, he notes how "hot" he thinks Ryan is.
• Exhibit B: Every other scene Michael and Ryan share.
• Because gay people never have children. It's also heavily implied that Michael wants kids because he doesn't want to be lonely. He could still be a closeted homosexual or bisexual, though.
• He falls in love with Holly, marries her, and they have several children, so he's not homosexual. That still doesn't rule out the possibility that he's bisexual.

In "Scott's Tots", Dwight put himself as third on the Employee of the Month results.

If Jim had kept any level of composure he might have selected the employee after himself and Pam, for which Dwight surely would have planned.

The camera crew hasn't actually been there since the end of Season 3, but the good people of Dunder-Mifflin think it is because they've gone insane.

This would explain why everyone seems so much more eccentric now.

• Jossed. The crew is still there, and everyone discovered the show is starting to air in Denmark, and watch its promos on a YouTube-like website, narrated in Danish.

Rolf is the Scranton Strangler.

Dwight's account of how he met his best friend Rolf is quite suspicious: Rolf was asking for shoes that would allow him to move faster without leaving footprints. Rolf himself is quite the creepy character and displays a deep hatred for women with questionable moral behavior, which could be a typical serial killer trait. Not to mention his over the top verbally violent outbursts.And it fits with Dwight's personality to have inadvertently befriended a serial killer.This will probably be addressed by a quick glance at a picture on a newspaper of Rolf having been caught and identified as the Scranton Strangler, and much later Dwight commenting on how he hasn't heard from Rolf in a while.

• The "Costume Contest" ep says he's still on the loose.
  • Toby mentions later on he was called to be a juror in the Scranton Strangler's trial, confirming the Strangler has been caught and convicted. We don't find out who it was, but we also haven't seen Rolf in a while...
• Jossed. His name is eventually revealed to be George Howard Skub. Toby briefly suspects George Howard Skub was falsely convicted, but was convinced they got the right man when Skub attempts to strangle him.
• Alternate theory: Rolf isn't the Scranton Strangler, but he *is* a serial killer who no one has connected to any murders yet.

The seventh season will be the final season

With Steve Carrel officially leaving after the upcoming season, it seems logical to end the series with Michael leaving for whatever reason. And since the show's not really up to steam as it has been, it might be for the best to end it there. Hopefully he'll leave with Holly and a "Where are they now" style epilogue will wrap up the series.

• Apparently not, as B.J. Novak and others have signed contracts for an eighth season.
• Jossed. There's been an eighth, and a ninth (which is the final) season without Michael.

Creed is the Scranton Strangler.

Though that might be *too* obvious...

David Brent will be back

Since Carrel is going to leave the show, Michael Scott will either be fired or retire, and get a happy ending with Holly. Then Dunder Mifflin/Sabre will hire a new regional manager for the office, and that new regional manager will be David Brent. After all, Brent did asked Michael if Dunder Mifflin was hiring. They will be hiring, once Michael is gone.Okay, that's mostly wishful thinking. But it would be awesome, even if it would be planned to last only for one season, or a few episodes at the beginning of the 8th.

• Almost, but not quite. Brent was indeed one of the candidates for Michael's job. However, he didn't get it.

Toby will transfer to Nashua to keep Holly at Scranton

Seems like this would be a thing to keep Holly and let Toby escape Michael. Maybe Michael would treat him as a friend after this?

• Jossed. Both Holly and Michael left Dunder-Mifflin altogether.

Alternately, Michael with either transfer to Nashua, or just quit and move there in order to be with Holly

It would be an easy way to write Michael out of the show.

• Jossed. Both Holly and Michael left Dunder-Mifflin altogether.

David Brent will replace Michael

They're still looking for a replacement and Ricky Gervais is slated to appear with a "larger role" in the season finale.

• Almost, but not quite. Brent was indeed one of the candidates for Michael's job. However, he didn't get it.

Catherine Tate's character who was interviewed for the management position at the end of season 8 is Donna Noble.

She really does seem to act how Donna would have prior to meeting the Doctor, or more likely after having her memory of him wiped, while trying to act like she's fit for a management position for which she is clearly unqualified. The timeline works out for her to have moved to America in search of an easier-to-get better job after her time as companion was over, possibly at Wilfred's suggestion.

• Jossed. She returns in the eighth season as Nellie Bertram, becoming a regular in season nine.

Jim and Pam will have another baby in season eight.

Jenna Fischer is pregnant in real life, so it'd make sense to write it in. There wouldn't have to be as much focus this time around, like with Cecelia. No camera crews in the hospital or anything like that.Confirmed by Jenna herself in this article: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/07/the_offices_jenna_fischer_conf.html

• Confirmed.

Angela's baby is Dwight's.

• There's no way that Dwight/Angela's storyline is over, despite her marriage to the Senator. Calling it now!
  • Confirmed in "Jury Duty".
    • "Confirmed" means it's a definite fact backed up by evidence. It hasn't been confirmed, although it probably is his baby.
  • Officially Jossed in the season nine premiere, when we see Angela and Dwight getting the DNA results and a "You are NOT the father."
    • Though, now it's been confirmed by Angela herself.

Creed Bratton isn't actually Creed Bratton. He's a psycho who murdered him and stole his identity.

• "No one steals from Creed Bratton and gets away with it. The last man who did disappeared. His name? Creed Bratton."
  • Don't Explain the Joke

Angela may face the threat of being fired

With the fact that her husband is gay, plus her behavior about Oscar coming out of the closet in season 3 came off as very very prejudiced. Also I personally would like her ass canned.

• If she was going to be fired over the Oscar situation it probably would have happened back then. I don't see her getting fired any time soon. She's pregnant. It's considered pretty lousy etiquette to fire a pregnant woman without an extremely good reason, and I don't think "gay husband" has ever been grounds for dismissal.
  • Also, she's head of the Accounting department, so despite her personal views, she obviously does good work. She and Oscar get along well enough, so there really isn't any reason why she would be fired.
• Jossed. Angela keeps her job by the end of the Series, despite marrying Dwight, who is her boss.

Dwight treats Jim as he would treat a brother

• Dwight actually sees Jim as a good friend, possibly his best friend, and treats him just as he would treat a brother. It's just the Schrute's have aggressive and antagonistic relationships with family.
  • And in season nine, he is shown to be upset about Jim leaving Dunder Mifflin for Athlead.

Angela still has feelings for Andy

• The cat she keeps at the office? It's the one Andy gave her.

Oscar's sexual harassment settlement included stock options

• For what other conceivable reason would Oscar own Dunder Mifflin stock?
  • Employee benefits?

Oscar clammed up on purpose at the shareholders meeting

• His new ideas wouldn't have changed the character of the people who mismanaged it, and he'd gotten sick of his good ideas constantly being ignored. Add to that the fact that the company swept his sexual harassment claim under the rug, and the fact that he could probably find other opportunities if need be, then perhaps he just wanted to watch Dunder Mifflin go down in flames.

The arrival of the documentary crew was in response to their coworker Tom committing suicide.

• In "Performance Review", Michael read old suggestions from the suggestion box, including "We need better outreach for employees fighting depression" by someone named Tom. Phyllis reminds Michael that Tom shot himself. It's possible that the original intent of the crew was to document how the employees handled the fact that their coworker killed himself, as well as shedding light on why such a thing would happen, but they quickly shifted focus after discovering the quirks of the cast.
  • Confirmed by Word of God.

The Grand Finale will feature Erin's wedding

• Michael will be Back for the Finale to walk her down the aisle.
  • Jossed. It's actually Dwight and Angela's, with Michael returning to act as best man.

Angela knows

• Angela knows The Senator (state senator) is gay and is willing to be his beard because of the prestige it gives her and because the fake marriage suits her perfectly. She hasn't even been intimate with him. Evidently this means the senator knows the baby isn't his, but as long as people believes it is, he doesn't cares. He may already suspect Dwight is the father, and just pretends to be aloof about the situation.
  • Jossed. She found out and is not very happy about it.

Series Finale Speculation

• The Scranton Strangler holds Dunder-Mifflin hostage but Dwight saves everybody using all the weapons he hid in the office.
  • Jossed. No such event occurs.

Creed has Prosopagnosia (face blindness)

• He doesn't know or remember who Pam is, during Beach Day he thought speech-making Pam was some random woman and at one time, he called Andy "Jim".
  • He interrupts the health seminar in "Stress Relief: Part 1" to tell the CPR woman he finally recognizes her from seeing her in the parking lot.
• It seems Creed can't recognize voices either, since one episode with him as manager had Pam do two barely different voices over the phone and Creed thought they were two different people.

All the characters are dead and they are in some kind of Purgatory

Spoilers ahead!Okay, it will be far-fetched but that's what WMG are made for. I took the premise of this WMG from Life on Mars and Lost. Let me explain. Each character has to accomplish something in order to move on:

• Michael has to find his soul-mate and gain maturity. He found Holly Flax and finally decided to settle in with her. The last time we saw him was at the airport where he took off his mic, said his famous "That's what she said!" completely mute and leaving to take his "plane" surrounded by lights. Since then, we never saw him again. He moved on.
• Jim has to accept Dwight as his best friend. Something that's becoming to grow in him.
• Pam, well, she already found the love of her life but she has to wait for Jim to move on with him.
• Dwight also has to accept Jim as his best friend. Something he is to proud to admit. That's why he's going straight to The Farm, the spin-off and his personal hell where all of his family is present.
• Andy has to become more confident and he needs Erin.
• Erin has to find her real parents. Andy will use the fortune of his parents to help her.
• Ryan and Kelly have to accept they are not meant to be together.
• Angela has to accept the homosexuality of her husband
• Oscar has to accept he's in love with Angela (Why? Because that will be hilarious!)
• Meredith has to quit drinking and stop being a mess.
• Stanley already knows where he is. That's why he is so indifferent.

Now concerning the "special" persons.

• Creed is a kind of angel/The Watcher who takes care of the new souls that arrive in the Purgatory like Gene Hunt from ''Life on Mars. In fact, The Office is the Purgatory of office employees as Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes is the purgatory of cops.
• Kevin is a benevolent creature that incarnates the child innocence. He wants the people around him to enjoy little things of life like cookies, music and... Um... 69s.
• Phyllis is Satan. Why? She's a horrible, shallow person who always criticizes other people's lifes. She told Erin she is maybe her mother to keep her in the Purgatory. She was the first person to be vocal about Jim and Pam relationship to keep them apart...
• Nellie Bertram is Donna Noble who eventually died while being a temp after her days with the Doctor. With her memory erased, she became once again the shallow woman she was before and that attitude became much worse with time.

And the end of the show will be like Life on Mars. Ryan will wake up and realize it was "a dream". Then, he will try to kill himself to go back with his true friends. Why Ryan? He was the new soul of the Purgatory when the show started. Oh! And his realization and subsequent suicide will be accompanied with this. Just for the awesomeness.

• Jossed. The show finally aired in Denmark, narrated completely in Danish, and the finished product is basically a hidden camera show.

The Camera Crew loved Jim and Pam and keep trying to recreate them with other office couples

• Early in the series the camera crew realized the heart of their story was in the courtship of Jim and Pam. When they got together early in season four, the camera crew wanted to strike gold again. This is why the show continues to focus on the relationships within the office. The camera crew may even try to influence matters (like telling Andy to ask out Angela or push Erin to date Gabe to draw out the Andy/Erin story). Because the camera crew loves Jim and Pam, the series will end with them leaving Dunder Mifflin.
  • I like this one! Makes a lot of sense, especially with Gabe and Erin and Erin and Andy. Both of these couples were extremely reluctant.
  • Partially confirmed. The documentary crew admitted late in Season 9 that they stuck around so long because of Pam and Jim's relationship, and indeed the finale had Pam and Jim leaving the company. Whether they deliberately tried to recreate anything with other couples is still anyone's guess.

Toby hasn't just given up on happiness, he's given up on his job too

• Toby really phones it in these days and this is how people get away with so much in the Office and how Andy can call pointless meetings to discuss how to make his girlfriend hot enough to be a news anchor or whether he's related to Michelle Obama.

Abed Nadir from Community is part of The Camera Crew

• In an alternate universe he could pursue his filmmaking carrer without going to community college. He has the patience to follow the Dunder Mifflin staff all the time everywhere. Maybe he's the crew's chief and documental's director.
  • Pam talks to the director after seeing the show's promos, and it's not Abed.
    • Maybe he's one of the editors. After all, they wouldn't have to be on set to do their job.

The Scranton branch manager position is cursed

• Let's look at Michael Scott. Frequently throughout his run as manager he is lauded as an excellent salesman, which greatly contradicts the personality as clingy man-child that the audience sees him as. This makes sense if you consider that he was a great salesman before he became manager.
• Then Jim, the basically Only Sane Man and voice of reason in the show, becomes manager temporarily, and even he starts to make uncharacteristically bad choices and loses the respect of the rest of the office.
• Next up is DeAngelo, who did something to impress the hiring committee to give him the job. In record time he totally loses it and is Put on a Bus.
• Then Dwight, quirky, Bunny-Ears Lawyer with a possible heart of gold is named acting manager for a week, in which time he turns the office into dictatorship and fires a gun indoors.
• After that it's Creed, who during his brief stint as manager had what he thought was a phone-conversation with two different women, and both were Pam barely disguising her voice.
• Finally, there's Andy, who has had remarkable character development for a supporting character. We see him transform from a spoiled Jerkass who couldn't even land a sale to a humbler, more self-aware person who was making real strides towards personal betterment. At first his managerial skills were clumsy yet effective, and it seemed like the office was really warming up to him. Now he has abandoned his position and his girlfriend to go on a random boat ride around the world.
  • Pete is a manifestation of the Manager curse. He appeared out of no where as Andy started to become corrupted and only seems to serve as Erin's replacement love interest.
• Basically the Scranton branch manager position takes whoever has assumed it and slowly but surely corrupts their minds and morals and turns them into caricatured, flanderized husks of their former selves.
  • Expect for Creed, who was already quite crazy before he gained the branch manager position.
  • Nellie is the only one who seems not to be affected by the branch manager curse. That might be because she's the only female branch manager in Scranton. What if the curse was put by some kind of a radical feminist witch and affects only male managers? Thus the ill fate of DeAngelo makes more sense - he was, among other things, a bad sexist, so the curse hit him the fastest and the most painful way - at least, the other managers did not suffer any physical injuries.

Dundler-Mifflin would have succeeded if Devon had not been fired

• In one of the very first episodes, Michael was about to fire Creed but fired Devon instead. Creed obviously did not do his job and was even responsible for an entire stock of paper being shipped with a pornographic cartoon on it, which landed the company in hot water. This actually led to a series of events behind the scenes that resulted in the company going under in season 6 and being sold to Sabre. Devon could have prevented all of this from happening.
• Supporting this theory: Dwight brings back Devon, and DM seems to be doing fine at the end of the show.
• To add even more to the theory, when Jan was fired as the Director of Sales, David Wallace ended up going with Ryan after Jim, Karen, and Michael either bowed out or were passed over. Ryan was convicted of fraud a short time later and that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to the company and gave it a ton of bad press, which further hurt the company. If Devon were still around, Wallace would have gone to him instead of Ryan.

Andy and Erin get back together after the finale.

• Andy quickly becomes less of a jerk after he resigns from being manager, and in the last few episodes Erin and Pete are not seen together very often.

Cathy was fired alongside Todd Packer

They were getting rid of one person who was previously a Karma Houdini, so why not get rid of another?

Dwight Schrute is Dale Gribble from King Of The Hill

Okay, he's not- but he is exactly what Dale would have become if he had been able to adjust to being an office worker in the Stick Tech episode. Just replace government conspiracies with paranoia about his coworkers and a twisted sense of what it takes to get ahead, and you have Dwight Schrute.

Toby is the Scranton Strangler

He's nowhere to be seen during crucial moments like the Stranger's police chase, and he claims to have put an innocent man away after being on the Strangler jury.

Dunder Mifflin is one of many fronts for The Illuminati

The reason there are so many cameras following its employees, sometimes without their consent (unless Dwight agreed to have his affair with Angela recorded, or Michael's okay with a camera recording him sleep just in case he gets a phone call) is because The Illuminati is watching. The odd behavior of some of the employees is also due to brainwashing or recruiting - Erin's Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure, for instance, and Jan's drop in competence in season 2. Toby was recruited when he left the Seminary. Of course, Dwight is completely oblivious to that fact - he, a paranoid survivalist, has no idea he's working for an Ancient Conspiracy.

Hunter, you are the father!

Simply put, Hunter is the father of Astrid Levinson. All evidence points to her cheating on Michael with Hunter, and her getting pregnant likely isn't a coincidence. Her limited income wouldn't have allowed her to afford a sperm bank (the cost can easily run into the thousands) and if Hunter had bailed on her, it would also explain her trying to get back together with Michael.

Toby is not the Scranton Strangler...

... but he knows who really is, hence why he is so convinced that the man convicted for the crime is innocent. He is unable to reveal the truth for some reason, however, resulting in his guilt over being in the jury that convicted him. The "clues" pointing to Toby's own guilt are just coincidences with no meaning beyond being yet more proof that the universe delights in him getting kicked in the butt.

The David Brent who appears in The Office (US) is not exactly the same David Brent who appears in The Office (UK)

When David Brent briefly meets Michael Scott, he doesn't seem to really react to the film cameras following around Michael, and since the two men bond over their shared similarities, it's perhaps a little surprising that Brent didn't mention his similar brush with fame. The reason? This version of David Brent never had that brush with fame.

Basically, there are two separate universes. Both contain a Dunder-Mifflin and a Wernham-Hogg, both contain a Michael Scott and a David Brent. But in the universe where a film crew shows up at Dunder-Mifflin's Scranton branch, Wernham-Hogg's Slough branch remains in obscurity, and vice-versa for the other one. Most likely, the same or similar things happen to both branches in both universes (including Brent getting fired — let's face it, that was just a matter of time), but one gets filmed and the other doesn't. And in the universe where one gets filmed, the things that happen in both shows only happen in the one that doesn't get filmed. Which also means that in The Office (UK) universe, it's highly possible that a few years down the track, David Brent would bump into an American paper salesman with whom he happened to share a surprising sense of humor with outside a hotel elevator in London...

The Scranton office changes Sabre's commission cap rule

When Sabre first takes over, Jim goes back to being a salesman because there is no commission cap. However, a later episode focuses on Jim learning about Sabre's commission cap. Most likely, Sabre put the cap in place because of the sales team and their stellar numbers.

Charles is the Frank Grimes to Michael Scott's Homer Simpson

Michael and Homer are cartoonish buffoons who nevertheless thrive in their respective fictional universes, while Charles and Frank are more realistic characters who end up in a feud with the main character and ultimately end up defeated; also, note their very similar similar hairstyles and glasses...

Jim and Pam were named after Jim and Pam.

She is a redhead.

Stanley had an affair with Phyllis.

At the end of the series, he reveals that he had 3 affairs, but only names 2 of them. It is heavily implied that Phyllis has cheated on Bob Vance (Vance Refigeration).

Creed is not the shady character he appears to be.

Creed Bratton is as lazy as he appears to be, but the shady criminal activities he appears to be involved in is him pranking the documentary crew. He resents being filmed because he doesn't want the company to see him goofing off. So he comes up with things he thinks they don't want in the documentary, like implying that he's a criminal. It backfires because they find it interesting. He then decides to have fun with it. That's why it starts with small things and then they get more and more outrageous, like appearing to be splattered with fresh blood and being led off by the FBI in the finale. Do you really think the FBI would really let someone arrested for federal crimes pause to give a philosophical speech to a film crew and then sing a song while accompanying himself on guitar?

• Jossed. The Series Finale confirms that Creed is indeed a criminal, with him being arrested at the end of the Finale.

David Wallace uses Michael to leak information he doesn't want to reveal himself.

David Wallace is generally depicted as a smart, effective business manager... except he has a tendency to allow information that should (in theory) remain confidential to be revealed to Michael, who is notorious for being unable to keep a secret without eventually blurting it out. Since there's no real reason why David would assume Michael would be able to keep a secret this time and he's no fool, the only logical answer is that David actually wants this information to be leaked but wants to maintain plausible deniability and give himself a fall guy as cover, knowing that Michael cannot help himself but blow the secret.

Andy became a bad salesman because of anger management

When Andy first showed up in Stamford, he was Regional Director Of Sales. Which he wouldn't have been if he wasn't a good salesman. After he is transfered to the Scranton branch, he flips out and punches a hole in the wall and gets sent to anger management. After he comes bak, he is a much nicer person. By the fourth and fifth seasons, Andy is said to be a mediocre-to-bad salesman. By the time Michael leaves and gives Andy his client list, Andy can't even make it a half hour before he loses a client. Is it possible that being an aggressive jerk is what got Andy his sales, and anger management took away what was working for him?

The Office (US) takes place in the same universe as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

On CXGF, Rebecca’s mother says that she had sex with a member of the Cornell a capella group in college. Here Comes Treble may have lived on.

Kevin sells his world famous chili at his bar, which is how it becomes successful in such short time.

It’s what he does best.

The warehouse workers lottery win was fraudulent.

One of the warehouse workers, Hidetoshi, is on the run after killing a Yakuza boss. A few years later, he and the other workers win the lottery and quit. Or rather, he finally got his paycheck for killing the guy. He was probably waiting for the dust to settle in America before his Yakuza contact (probably a rival of the boss Hidetoshi killed) delivered the money. Hidetoshi was so thankful for the friendship the other workers extended to him, he offered to split the winnings with them.

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