The early seasons of NBC’s The Office will go down as some of the best comedy produced during this era of television. Central to that humor was the antagonistic relationship between cool guy Jim Halpert (John Kraskinski) and beet farmer / borderline psychopath Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson). Jim’s pranks escalated in severity and hilarity over the course of the show’s run, and everyone had their own favorite – including Wilson himself.
When asked by Reddit users during an AMA session, about Wilson's favorite prank that Jim ever pulled on his character Dwight, the actor had a terse yet definitive answer:
When he put my desk in the bathroom.
And that’s the beauty of an AMA: learning what beloved moments are special to those who were involved. With this short answer, Wilson is very clearly referencing the time when Dwight came to work at Dunder-Mifflin only to find his desk conspicuously absent from its usual spot. After a brief game of hot and cold, Jim finally helped Dwight hunt down his desk, which had been placed in the men’s room. Then, the phone rang and Dwight seemingly had no choice but to answer it, finding Jim on the other end with a legitimate business question. Rather than scream at his co-worker, Dwight – ever the resilient fellow that he was – sat down and nonchalantly got to work in the Scranton office’s men’s room. Just in case that description didn’t capture the greatness of the scene, check it out below:
This prank came arguably during the height of The Office’s run – a time when less emphasis was placed on the interpersonal drama of the characters, and more on them merely dealing with the mundane nature of life in an office. The scene also came during a time when Jim and Pam’s romance had not truly begun, so to watch them exchange gleeful glances at one another caused viewers to pine for their eventual relationship – as well as subsequent nuptials. Aside from the desk in the bathroom, other pranks pulled by Jim included, but were certainly not limited to putting Dwight’s stapler in Jell-O, convincing Dwight that Jim had become a vampire, and Jim coming into the office dressed identically to his desk mate.
While The Office may have ended, the pranks pulled by Jim will live on as some of the most hilarious moments seen on this generation of TV. Everybody has his or her favorite, so what’s yours?
