The Office: 10 Classic Moments In “Stress Relief”

Although season 4’s “Dinner Party” is widely regarded to be the best episode of The Office, season 5’s two-parter “Stress Relief” is high on a lot of fans’ rankings. The first part follows the fallout of Dwight’s hands-on fire drill, which gave Stanley a heart attack, while the second part centers on Michael’s attempts to alleviate his staff’s stress by letting them roast him.

From the opening fire drill to the roast of Michael Scott, there are a ton of hilarious and iconic moments in the two parts of “Stress Relief” that fans of The Office will never get tired of.

10 Dwight’s Fire Drill

Most episodes of The Office begin with a cold open that has nothing to do with the rest of the episode. They exist as a little sketch involving the characters before diving into the main plot. The cold open in the first part of “Stress Relief” does both.

It can be enjoyed on its own as a YouTube clip involving everyone in the office, but it also establishes the plot as Dwight tries to teach fire safety to his co-workers by lighting a genuine fire and making them think they’re going to die. In the end, Stanley has a heart attack.

9 CPR Training

When Michael takes over from Dwight as safety officer, he organizes CPR training for the office. Initially, he just wants to get one of the dummies so that he can run the seminar himself, but the Red Cross won’t hand out the dummy without the trainer.

The training seminar is disrupted by Andy singing “Stayin’ Alive” and Dwight cutting the face off of the dummy and wearing it over his own, à la The Silence of the Lambs.

8 Dwight’s Statement Of Regret

After terrifying his co-workers with a simulated fire, Dwight is required by corporate to make a statement of regret to the office and get signatures from everyone to acknowledge that they heard it.

Since Dwight doesn’t believe in his statement of regret, he refuses to memorize it. So, he takes out a piece of paper and reads it: “I state my regret.”

7 Andy’s Popcorn

In “Stress Relief,” Andy pirates a new Jack Black movie to watch in the break room with Jim and Pam. When they sit down to start the movie, he pours some popcorn into a bowl.

However, only a couple of the kernels have actually popped, so he basically ends up with a bowl full of kernels and says, “Ohhh, dammit.”

6 Michael Realizes He’s Causing Everybody’s Stress

When Michael hosts a relaxation exercise and makes everybody lie on the floor in the conference room while he plays relaxing music and walks around, Stanley’s heart monitor starts beeping like crazy.

It beeps whenever he’s feeling stressed, and it beeps more and more as Michael gets closer. Oscar puts the monitor on his finger and the same thing happens, causing Michael to realize that he’s the one stressing everybody out.

5 The Roast Of Michael Scott

After realizing he’s stressing out his employees, Michael organizes a roast in his own honor to allow them all to let off a little steam. However, it backfires horribly as they all go way too far and neglect to end their roasts with some nice sentiments, as is customary.

From Andy’s “What I Hate About You” song to Pam comparing Michael’s genitalia to an iPod Shuffle, the roast is filled with brutal jokes at the world’s best boss’ expense.

4 Andy Thinks Jim And Pam Are Movie Geniuses

After watching a pirated movie with Jim and Pam for a while, Andy finds himself lost in the plot as he thinks Jim and Pam are picking up on things that he isn’t.

However, they’re not even talking about the movie; they’re talking about Pam’s parents’ failing marriage.

3 Dwight Tricks Phyllis Into Signing His Apology Letter

After his crazy fire drill, Dwight needs to get signatures from everybody in the office to acknowledge that he apologized for the incident. Phyllis refuses to sign the letter, and even foils Dwight’s trick to masquerade the apology letter as a sign-in sheet.

However, he manages to trick her into signing the letter by bribing a mailman to get her to sign for a fake package.

2 Pam Realizes Jim Is Her Soulmate

Throughout “Stress Relief,” Pam’s dad comes to stay with her and Jim, as his relationship with Pam’s mom is on the fritz. Jim says something that causes Pam’s dad to start looking for an apartment and seriously think about divorce.

Pam worries that Jim said something that will end up destroying their own marriage. However, when she finds out that Jim just explained how he feels about Pam, she realizes Jim is her soulmate.

1 “Boom, Roasted!”

Following his overly harsh roast, Michael doesn’t show up to work. Instead, he dons a turtleneck and heads to the park to feed entire slices of bread to the ducks. When he does come into the office and a couple of his co-workers apologize for the ferocity of their insults, he tells them not to worry about it.

Then, he proceeds to roast everyone in the office with a searing one-liner that cuts them right to their core. Stanley, the reason Michael organized a roast in the first place, starts laughing hysterically, and the others follow suit.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3458 Articles Published)

See also  15 Most Memorable Quotes From The Alien Franchise

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

More From Ben Sherlock