Each episode of The Office begins with a cold open that serves as a miniature sketch, and they consistently deliver some of the show’s funniest moments. One of the most impressive things about The Office is that the writers can come up with so many entertaining plots using the same mundane setting of a paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The cold opens showcase this creativity in full flow. Even The Office‘s worst episodes can deliver some laughs with a good cold open.
Using the same few characters and the same setting, the cold opens amount to hours of entertainment. Some of them set up the main plot of the episode, but most of them are simply standalone sketches to set the tone and get the audience laughing from the outset. The Office‘s best cold opens are some of the funniest of any sitcom, thanks to some brilliant writing and the chemistry shared by the ensemble cast.
10. Testing Stanley’s Limits
Season 7, Episode 6, “Costume Contest”
Stanley doesn’t get paid enough to notice things or to react to a barnyard animal in his office.
After Stanley drinks a cup of orange juice without realizing that it isn’t his hot cup of coffee, Jim decides to push the limits of his obliviousness. He gets the entire office involved in increasingly bizarre experiments. They start small, with Kevin replacing Phyllis at her desk and Andy wearing a tie without a shirt, but they soon escalate to a staff meeting where everyone is facing the wrong way and Michael is discussing sales from the Jupiter branch. The punch line is a pony, with Dwight beaming proudly.
Stanley embodies the spirit of keeping his head down and not letting anything bother him as long as he can clock out at 5 P.M. sharp every day. His failure to notice any of the surreal changes to his environment suggest that he enters some kind of fugue state when he walks into work every morning. Stanley doesn’t get paid enough to notice things or to react to a barnyard animal in his office. That would probably count as overtime in his books.
9. Dwight Follows The Red Wire
Season 5, Episode 13, “Prince Family Paper”
Jim’s red wire prank isn’t as famous as Asian Jim or putting a stapler in some Jell-O, but the cold open unfolds perfectly.
Jim’s constant pranking of Dwight is one of The Office‘s most reliable running jokes, and many of his biggest and best pranks happen in the cold opens, so that they can be completely unrelated to the episode’s main plot. The opening of “Prince Family Paper” sees Dwight following a mysterious red wire which leads out the back of his computer monitor. The wire runs all the way across the office, outside into the parking lot, and up a telephone pole. Jim states to camera that he bought the wire at a garage sale for $20.
Jim’s red wire prank isn’t as famous as Asian Jim or putting a stapler in some Jell-O, but the cold open unfolds perfectly, with every beat making the story funnier and funnier, before the theme tune interrupts Dwight’s search. There’s no clear answer to how far he follows the wire, or what happens when he gets to the end of it. What is clear is that he is consumed by the mystery of the wire, without ever thinking that it could be yet another prank.
8. Dwight Uses His Feet
Season 7, Episode 10, “China”
Dwight is often the biggest buzzkill in the Scranton branch, but he wastes just as much time as Jim in his own way.
Dwight is often the biggest buzzkill in the Scranton branch, but he wastes just as much time as Jim in his own way. In the cold open to the season 7 episode, “China,” he claims that by using his feet instead of his hands for just 20 minutes each day, he will develop ape-like levels of foot dexterity. Naturally, Jim pushes him to his limits by offering him a hot cup of coffee and encouraging him to take a sip.
This cold open pairs some great physical comedy from Rainn Wilson with some pinpoint characterization. Dwight is the only character who could do something so ridiculous and mean it, and Jim is the only character who could think to let him ruin his own plan, rather than just begging him to put some shoes on. The scene ends with a sad high-five between Jim’s hand and Dwight’s foot.
7. Michael Hits Meredith With His Car
Season 4, Episode 1, “Fun Run Part 1”
Season 4 of The Office starts with a bang, providing one of the show’s most memorable moments within just a couple of minutes.
Season 4 of The Office starts with a bang, providing one of the show’s most memorable moments within just a couple of minutes. The cold open starts in Michael’s house as he eats cereal and leaves Jan in bed before driving to work. As he drives to the office, he talks about his optimistic hopes for the year, so the moment he hits Meredith with his car in the parking lot is the universe’s way of saying that life is never that simple.
The mundanity of the first couple of minutes is the perfect way to lull the audience into a relaxed state. This means that Meredith slamming into the windshield has even more impact. For some reason, Meredith is the funniest person that Michael could have hit. Season 4 is arguably The Office‘s best season. It states its intentions early on and follows this brilliant cold open with an incredible succession of episodes.
6. Office Football
Season 2, Episode 17, “Dwight’s Speech”
Dwight delivers a full-body tackle on an unsuspecting Ryan from behind. Instead of reading the room and stopping, he barrels into Stanley like prime Marshawn Lynch.
Michael and Dwight toss a football around as they discuss their new business plan, but it’s clear from the actual content of their discussion that they are so absorbed by trying to look cool and relaxed that they aren’t really thinking about work at all. One errant throw sends the ball crashing onto Jim’s desk, but this is just the beginning of the chaos that’s about to unfold.
Jim and a few others start playfully keeping the ball away from Michael and Dwight, but if this is intended to put a stop to their game then it’s a horrific miscalculation. Dwight delivers a full-body tackle on an unsuspecting Ryan from behind. Instead of reading the room and stopping, he barrels into Stanley like prime Marshawn Lynch, showcasing the kind of rough technique that he undoubtedly developed on the farm with Mose. Dwight’s social ineptitude is on full display, and so is Michael’s quality as an enabler.
5. Michael Tests Dwight’s Bear Knowledge
Season 7, Episode 22, “Goodbye, Michael”
Michael is on the roof of the building attempting to acclimatize himself to the high altitude he’ll be living in when he moves to Colorado.
The Office provided plenty of emotional moments to go with its knockout humor, and Michael’s farewell to Dunder Mifflin was up there with the show’s most heartwarming episodes. The episode begins with a cold open that shows Michael on the roof of the building, attempting to acclimatize himself to the high altitude he’ll be living in with Holly when he moves to Colorado. It’s the kind of childish logic that’s typical of Michael, but the scene also shows how much he has matured.
Dwight comes up to the roof to trick Michael into eating some bull’s testicles as retaliation for not recommending him for a job. Surprisingly, Michael is quick to move on from this incident, and he asks Dwight for his advice on dealing with the bears in the Rocky Mountains. As he listens to Dwight rattling off all the reasons his logic is flawed, he gives a small look to the camera, suggesting that he only feigned ignorance to indulge Dwight’s passion for wilderness survival. There’s also the notion that he sets Dwight off because he’ll miss his impassioned rants.
4. Recyclops
Season 6, Episode 11, “Shareholder Meeting”
Dwight quickly loses sight of his purpose and dives head first into a kind of avant-garde amateur theater production that nobody enjoys.
The cold open for “Shareholders Meeting” chronicles the saga of Recyclops, Dwight’s Earth Day mascot with a needlessly complex backstory. Recyclops starts off as a simple character with a few useful tips on how to be more environmentally friendly, but each year the character shifts toward a darker and grittier reality. By the end of his arc, Recyclops has vowed revenge on the planet that he once vowed to protect.
Recyclops gets more character development in two minutes than many sitcom characters get throughout the entire duration of their series. In this way, Dwight’s Recyclops saga is like a miniature parody of media franchises that constantly have to be bigger and better than the previous installment. Dwight’s utter commitment is what makes the sequence so funny. He quickly loses sight of his purpose and dives head first into a kind of avant-garde amateur theater production that nobody enjoys.
3. Toby Returns
Season 5, Episode 9, “Frame Toby”
The theme tune cutting Michael off during his most guttural release of rage is the icing on the cake.
Even more so than the rest of The Office‘s cast, Steve Carell proves time and again that he can elevate the simplest lines into comedy gold. Michael has a lot of great quotes, but one of his most memorable moments comes in the cold open for “Frame Toby,” when he simply screams “No” in a colorful variety of ways. The theme tune cutting him off during his most guttural release of rage is the icing on the cake.
Michael’s hatred for Toby in The Office is no secret. Part of the reason is that Toby replaces Holly, but Michael makes his feelings clear for Toby long before then. Despite being nothing but cordial, Toby is on the receiving end of relentless abuse. For whatever reason, he manages to repeatedly darken Michael’s sunny disposition. However, even by Michael’s usual standards, him screaming his displeasure right in Toby’s face is an unforgettable moment.
2. Kevin’s Famous Chili
Season 5, Episode 24, “Casual Friday”
The genius of this cold open is that it pairs Kevin’s proud voiceover with the dismal reality of his actions.
The Office uses some of its cold opens to give the spotlight to background characters. Kevin doesn’t usually hold much focus, but he comes to the fore with his famous chili. The genius of this cold open is that it pairs Kevin’s proud voiceover with the dismal reality of his actions. He claims that making chili for everyone is the thing that he’s best at, which is a big deal for Kevin, since he’s usually the butt of every joke.
Unfortunately, Kevin spoils his big moment by tipping the massive pot all over the floor as soon as he enters the office. His attempts to clean up only make things worse. It’s a great moment of physical comedy, and it’s made even better by the apathetic stare of the camera. Other characters would probably cut their losses and try to clean up with a sense of dignity, but Kevin instead ruins some office supplies and gets chili all over his suit.
1. The Fire Drill
Season 5, Episode 13, “Stress Relief”
The fire drill shows what each of the characters do in extreme situations they don’t normally face, and it’s packed with great details all over the office.
“Stress Relief” is one of The Office‘s best episodes, and it starts off with the show’s best cold open. Dwight starts a small fire in a trash can to test everyone’s knowledge of the emergency response procedures, but he soon finds that people default to panic. The fire drill shows what each of the characters do in extreme situations they don’t normally face, and it’s packed with great details all over the office.
Angela pulls a cat out of a filing cabinet, Oscar wriggles up into the ceiling, and Kevin smashes open the vending machine and starts looting snacks. The cold open flows into the rest of the episode, with Stanley’s heart attack and Michael’s ignorant attempts to help him. The fire drill scene is a fine example of beautifully choreographed chaos, with the entire cast working together in harmony to create an atonal mess. This one scene highlights everything that The Office does so well.
