Did I Stutter?
"Did I Stutter?" | |
---|---|
The Office episode | |
Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 16 |
Directed by | Randall Einhorn |
Written by | |
Cinematography by | Matthew K. Sohn |
Editing by | Dean Holland |
Production code | 416 |
Original air date | May 1, 2008 |
Running time | 22 minutes |
"Did I Stutter?" is the sixteenth episode of the
The series depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the
Originally, episode writers
Plot
Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer), after spending the night at "a friend's" (Jim's) house, forgot her contact lens solution, so she must wear her glasses. She finds it difficult to handle Michael's criticism and Kevin's sexual advances, and spends the rest of the day without her glasses, reducing her productivity. Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak) comes to Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch. After a talk with Toby, Ryan tells Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) that he is giving him an official warning about his job performance. Ryan denies that his action is motivated by Jim's previous complaints to David Wallace, saying he thrives on constructive criticism (while Toby's comments to the documentary crew indicate he is not upset about the warning, owing to his envy of Jim's relationship with Pam).
Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) is selling his 2001 Nissan Xterra for $8,700. Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) pressures him into selling it for $1,500 less than the asking price, because according to Dwight, "[the] car is crap". Dwight assures Andy that he will only use it as a wagon, dragged by a mule on Dwight's beet farm. Andy sells it to Dwight, who, in a passive-aggressive method of getting back at him for dating Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey), washes it and posts a sign asking for $9,995 for the vehicle, which upsets Andy when he finds Dwight's advertisement posted on the cabinet in the office kitchen. Dwight declares that it is already on eBay, where he claims it is the subject of a three-way bidding war.
Production
The episode was the fourth episode of the series directed by
"Did I Stutter?" was written by
In the opening scene in which Michael puts his face in cement, the wet cement that was used was actually putty. The crew was planning to do only one take of Steve Carell putting his face in the putty, so he was instructed to hold his breath as long as he possibly could. But the crew forgot to tell the other actors about that, so during the filming of the scene, the actors thought he was actually stuck and there was a rush to pull him out.[5] Kim M. Ferry, owner of the Nissan Xterra featured in the episode, is the show's Department Head Hairstylist. After it was used on the show, she decided to sell it on eBay. The listing was first put up on eBay on May 1, 2008, the night the episode aired.[5]
The Season Four DVD contains a number of deleted scenes from this episode. Notable cut scenes include Michael trying to convince Jim, Pam, and Kelly, while they are in the break room having lunch that Stanley talks badly about everyone behind their backs, Michael making Pam stand up during the meeting and confessing that she wears glasses, Jim talking to Toby about the warning (in contrast to how Toby seems happy that Jim is getting in trouble during the broadcast episode, here the HR head makes it clear that Jim's sales performance is good and that Ryan is the sole person who is not happy with his work), and Ryan saying that "going after Jim" is "a risky move", since CFO David Wallace likes Jim.[6]
Cultural references
Andy and Angela play Mad Libs, a phrasal template word game where one player prompts another for a list of words to substitute for blanks in a story, usually with funny results. Ryan chides Jim for being a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, a professional American football team.[7] While Daryl is telling Michael how gang members deal with problems, he mentions that he was a member of the Newsies (the name of a 1992 musical drama) and The Warriors (the gang in the 1979 cult action film of the same name).[8] Near the end of the episode, Michael does a succession of comedian impressions. These include badly performed spoofs of Rodney Dangerfield, Henny Youngman, Jeff Foxworthy, Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat Sagdiyev, and Jerry Seinfeld.[7]
Reception
"Did I Stutter?" originally aired on
The episode was highly acclaimed by critics, with many praising the performance from Leslie David Baker. Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A", citing the dynamic between Michael and Stanley as its main strengths.[8] He was also complimentary towards the cold opening and the realistic way in which Michael and Stanley's confrontation was filmed.[8] Ultimately, Rabin concluded that the interaction between Carell and Baker was reason to "love the Stanley/Michael dynamic" and that the episode "was all about rage and conflict".[8] M. Giant of Television Without Pity awarded the episode an "A−".[7]
Rick Porter of Zap2It said that even though the episode "was long on uncomfortable and even disturbing behavior" and "only out-and-out funny in a few spots" he found himself "respecting it a fair amount at the end".[11] BuddyTV Senior Writer Oscar Dahl said that "the insubordination of Stanley was a necessary plot point to cover" because "without it, too much Stanley being Stanley becomes unbelievable".[12] Furthermore, he wrote that there "was a lot of really funny stuff tonight" and highlighted "the scene between Darryl and Michael" due to Robinson's acting.[12] Aubry D'Arminio from Entertainment Weekly stated that "Mike's embarrassment, and his unwillingness at first to admit he is disliked, was very very well played on Carell's part."[13] Furthermore, D'Arminio praised several of the episode's lines of dialogue and wrote "I cannot even come near to picking a favorite quote [...] for this episode"[13]
References
- The Office. Season 3. Episode 5. NBC.
- The Office. Season 3. Episode 15. NBC.
- ^ Justin Spitzer and Brent Forrester (writer); Randall Einhorn (director) (April 26, 2007). "Product Recall". The Office. Season 3. Episode 21. NBC.
- ^ "'The Office' Online—Creating Companion Webisodes for the NBC Series". Creative Planet Network. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e "Brent and Justin Answer 'Did I Stutter?' Questions". OfficeTally. May 5, 2008. Retrieved July 3, 2008.
- Universal Studios Home Entertainment. 2008. The Office: Season Four Disc 4
- ^ a b c Giant, M. "Did I Stutter?". Television Without Pity. NBCUniversal. Archived from the original on June 7, 2013. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- ^ a b c d Rabin, Nathan. "'Did I Stutter?' | The Office | TV Club | TV". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- ^ "The Office – Episode Recaps". NBC. Archived from the original on July 4, 2008. Retrieved July 3, 2008.
- ^ Seidman, Robert (May 2, 2008). "Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. Archived from the original on June 20, 2008. Retrieved July 2, 2008.
- Tribune Media Services. Archived from the originalon August 12, 2008. Retrieved July 3, 2008.
- ^ a b Dahl, Oscar (May 1, 2008). "The Office: "Did I Stutter?" Recap". BuddyTV. Retrieved July 3, 2008.
- ^ a b D'Arminio, Aubry (May 2, 2008). "The Office: The Terminators". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved July 3, 2008.
External links
- "Did I Stutter?" at NBC.com
- "Did I Stutter?" at IMDb