The Office: Jim vs. Dwight

It only makes sense that when Dwight came in to work one morning and his desk had vanished that Jim was to blame. What makes it great is that when Dwight goes to tell Michael about Jim’s latest insubordination, Jim distracts him with “hotter/colder” game clues that eventually lead Dwight into the men’s room (where Kevin was apparently just on the can). But before Dwight unleashes the fury, his desk phone rings (still in the bathroom, mind you.) On the other end is Jim looking for a paper price he forgot. Ever the salesmen, Dwight slips right back into his role as Assistant (to the) Regional Manager, and gets to work on the question, surrounded by linoleum and American Standard. 

 

Many of the pranks on the office come from terrorizing or humiliating Dwight and his angry and befuddled reactions. But when Jim convinces and then demonstrates to Dwight that Jim can move objects with his mind, the punch-line comes from Dwight’s innocent and captivated expression as his lips slip a hushed and honest “oh, my god.” It was really just Pam shaking a coat rack with an umbrella from under her desk, but we’d rather watch Dwight try to subtly investigate the phenomenon than let him know. 

 

For some reason, it’s beyond Dwight to imagine someone could steal or simply buy yellow police-tape. So when he comes in for work and finds his desk is surrounded by it, his first instincts tell him his workplace was the scene of a major crime. But as Pam transfers the chief of Police to Dwight’s phone, still on his desk and cordoned off, watching him struggle between answering the phone and tampering with a crime scene sends Dwight into a conflict of interests: does he preserve the evidence or aid in the investigation. For Dwight, it’s a matter of life or death. 

 

So when we find out that Jim is in charge of making everyone’s new ID badges at Dunder Mifflin Scranton, it’s assumed he’s going to take advantage of this little bit of power to screw with Dwight…maybe change his name or picture…but the sabatoge is so much more and better. After waiting a few minutes for the ID picture to print (that he refused to smile for), Dwight is handed his badge, laminated in plastic the size of his chest, that has him labeled a security threat and his middle name changed from “Kurt” to “Fart.” It seems like an honest mistake. Really. 

 

As if taking or hiding all of Dwight’s stuff wasn’t enough, Jim wanted to see Dwight have to pay to get it back. As you can guess, Dwight wasn’t too happy to find his pencil cup, bobble-heads, stapler, and other assorted belongings scattered throughout the snack machine, but then realizing his wallet was among the unusual selection crushed all his hopes of recovering his coveted items before his office mates snatched them all up (at reasonable prices). But Jim’s not (completely) evil, and offered Dwight a bag of nickels so he could reclaim his paraphernalia. What a sweetheart. 

 

When Jim transfers to the Stamford branch of Dunder Mifflin, he continues to torment Dwight by send him a fax that says the office coffee pot has been poisoned and signs it from “Future Dwight.” As if watching Dwight believe that he’s just received contact from his future self isn’t comedic enough, watching him scramble across the room to knock the freshly poured cup out of Stanley’s hand takes it to another level. Especially when Dwight confidently looks the speechlessly pissed salesman in the face and says “You’ll thank me later.” Dwight, what would we do without you?

 

Some say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but for Jim Halpert, it’s the deepest form of mockery. In this memorable cold open, Jim comes to work wearing identical “Dwight-glasses,” a mustard shirt, matching tie, and calculator wristwatch. Dwight can handle the imitation until Jim pulls out a bobble-head of his own, and Dwight cries “identity theft!” Um, we don’t think that’s what the courts define as identity theft, Dwight, but we’d love to hear you make that argument to a judge. 

 

Now, Jim couldn’t have done this one without Dwight. When Dwight makes a comment about the upcoming weekend, Jim realizes that Dwight thinks that it’s Friday when it’s actually Thursday. Using this misconception, Jim and Pam embark on a mission to keep the delusion going all day. The payoff comes at the end of the episode (the next day in “TV time”) when a hurried, sweaty Dwight arrives at the office three hours late yelling “It’s all right! I’m here.” Thanks, Dwight, we can all rest easy now.   

 

Although one of the simpler pranks in Office history, this scene from the pilot episode of the series set the tone from the relationship between salesmen Dwight Schrute and Jim Halpert. When Dwight opens his desk drawer, looking for pictures of his car to show Ryan, he instead finds his stapler completely submerged in a giggling, lemon Jell-O mold. Immediately, Dwight accuses Jim, who simply looks up from eating a cherry Jell-O snack pack and says “How do you know it was me?”  Really, Dwight, as a Volunteer Sheriff’s Deputy, you should know better than to accuse someone without sufficient evidence. 

 

It’s not often that a prank played on a scripted character fools and surprises the character and the audience the same. A simple but genius prank, Dwight comes to work the last day before Christmas and discovers that Jim has wrapped his entire desk, chair, and all his belongings (bobble-heads, pictures, stapler, pens, etc) in gift paper. Happy to destroy all of Jim’s hard work, Dwight brags about how Jim must have spent hours covering everything and he will have it all open in five minutes. But when Dwight goes to sit down, he falls through the chair, knocking down the desk and all its ornaments. Wrapping Dwight’s desk up was funny enough to make it on the list—wrapping up a bunch of cardboard boxes to look like Dwight’s desk so he falls through it makes it number one.