B.J. Novak is probably most known for playing Ryan Howard on NBC’s The Office, but in real life he was also a writer and producer on the long-running show. Because he was also a part of the creative mainframe of the series, Novak was often able to write jokes for Michael Scott and other main characters. Apparently, he still can’t get away from the habit. This week, the actor revealed that he’s still writing what are, quite frankly, hilarious new jokes for Michael Scott. Here’s a taste of them:
He buys gift cards for himself from his favorite stores.He picks the first middle seat when he flies Southwest, to make friends.
The actor revealed his list of Michael Scott ideas via the List App, and while the gift card one is not unexpected, that Southwest joke had me in stitches for like five minutes. I think a ton of people who don’t have overall deals with American Airlines or whatever have had to deal with the Southwest way of lining frequent flyers up like cattle and having them board the plane in numerical order only to force them to scramble to find a seat next to their loved ones. Sitting in the middle would be a total Michael Scott move, but honestly, that’s not the worst type of person to sit on Southwest flights. The worst is when two people are together and they take the window and the aisle seat (leaving the middle one open) only to get angry if you want to sit between them. You know who you are.
This Southwest thing would probably have gone down as one of the classic Michael Scott moments. Like that time Michael Scott ate fettucine right before his big race or that time he used stereotypes to pick everyone on his basketball team and they ended up being horrible. In fact, I wish the episode where Michael Scott is saying goodbye and then flying out on The Office had actually featured a post-credits scene where he got on a Southwest plane and the Novak-described moment would have happened. I’m pretty sure Southwest wasn’t dicking people over that hard when Steve Carrell left the show, though.
A ton of shows are on their way back to television for reunion and revival-type programming. While there is an appetite for shows like Fuller House and The X-Files, I’m not sure the same can be said about The Office. The series just ended its run back in 2013 and only went off of the air after nine seasons and around 200 episodes were produced. So, while a lot of people still fondly remember the NBC sitcom, the only way it looks to be living on is through amusing jokes like the ones B.J. Novak mocked up this week.
While NBC hasn’t been a big name in sitcoms in recent years, the network did recently renew Superstore and has a few more sitcoms that are doing alright on the channel. You can find out what else NBC has coming up with our midseason TV premiere schedule.
