A Benihana Christmas

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The Office episode
"A Benihana Christmas"

Andy takes Michael and Jim out on the town in "A Benihana Christmas".
Episode No. 38
Prod. Code 310,311
Airdate December 14, 2006
Writer(s) Jennifer Celotta
Director Harold Ramis

The Office Season 3
September 2006 - May 2007
  1. Gay Witch Hunt
  2. The Convention
  3. The Coup
  4. Grief Counseling
  5. Initiation
  6. Diwali
  7. Branch Closing
  8. The Merger
  9. The Convict
  10. A Benihana Christmas
  11. Back from Vacation
  12. Traveling Salesmen
  13. The Return
  14. Ben Franklin
  15. Phyllis' Wedding
  16. Business School
  17. Cocktails
  18. The Negotiation
  19. Safety Training
List of all The Office episodes...
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"A Benihana Christmas" is the tenth episode of the third season of the US version of The Office. It originally aired on December 14, 2006, and was directed by Harold Ramis, who has helmed movies such as Caddyshack and Groundhog Day.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

It is the day of the annual office Christmas party at Dunder-Mifflin Scranton. Dwight enters the office with a goose that he accidentally struck with his car—which he proclaims to be a Christmas miracle—and plans to prepare it for the party. After initial objections to having a dead animal present, Toby allows Dwight to keep it as long as he cleans it in his car.

When Michael arrives, we see Pam give him a gift bag. He mistakenly thinks it's from Pam but she explains it's from corporate headquarters.

Carol receives her Christmas card from Michael and visits him to voice her disapproval of his Photoshopping himself into a two-year-old ski weekend photo with her children and former husband (Michael replaces her husband's face with his own). This, along with his marriage proposal, pushes her over the edge, and she breaks off the relationship, leaving Michael (who has already booked a trip for the two of them to Sandals Resorts) heartbroken. Michael opens his gift from corporate and finds it is a Dunder-Mifflin bathrobe, which he promptly puts on for comfort from his break-up.

Pam gives Jim her gift: she has been sending Dwight messages from the CIA for several months (including a request of Dwight to admit all the secrets he's sworn never to tell anyone) and she's going to let Jim decide the top secret mission that Dwight will go on. At first, Jim is clearly happy, but then turns down the gift, saying that he doesn't want to keep doing the same things he did before now that he is "Number #2" man in the branch and he has a chance to start over. Pam is obviously embarrassed and saddened that Jim turned down her gift to him.

Dwight realizes that the office is one bathrobe-from-corporate short, and a depressed Michael "solves" the problem by telling Dwight to take Toby's.

Angela and the rest of the office's party planning committee meet to discuss specifics about the day's festivities. Karen attempts to offer several party suggestions, which Angela immediately nixes. Karen is then asked to leave by Angela for having stupid ideas and does so after receiving no support from the other committee members.

Stating to the camera that she does not know why she has been so cold with Karen, Pam apologizes for the events that transpired during the party planning meeting and the two decide to organize their own Margarita-Karaoke party. When they present this idea to Angela, she declares them to be invalid and asks Dwight get involved since he "outranks" Karen and Pam. Jim, being "Number #2", creates a "Validation Committee" (consisting only of himself) and declares Pam and Karen's committee to be valid. As this goes on, Andy decides to take Michael out to help him forget about his troubles; Michael summons his "entourage" Jim, Ryan and Dwight to come along, though Ryan opts out with a long list of excuses he's prepared for such an invitation from Michael.

Pam and Karen begin their party in the breakroom and Angela (after calling Dwight for permission) is quick to start her own in the conference room. After a few tense moments, Stanley stands up and goes to Pam and Karen's party; several other people follow him except for Kevin, Phyllis, and Hannah. Kevin tells the camera that he is mainly convinced to go because he has heard that Angela's party will have double-fudge brownies, and that outweighs the fact that Angela herself will be there. Michael, Andy, Jim, and Dwight arrive at a Benihana restaurant (which Michael believes at first to be "Asian Hooters"). Andy slides into a seat next to Michael and arranges the seating so Dwight is seated on the opposite end of the table and out of earshot of the conversation of the rest of the entourage. Andy convinces Michael to ask out his Japanese waitress after getting him slightly drunk. Meanwhile, the office is divided into two separate camps as Phyllis, Hannah and Kevin attend Angela's party while the rest of the staff are at Pam and Karen's. Ryan makes the discovery at the party that they do not have a power cord for their karaoke machine, but Darryl offers to get his synthesizer as an alternative. As he passes Phyllis to get the music out of his car, she asks him how they are doing over there and Darryl replies that they are having fun, encouraging Phyllis to join their party in the break room "when your meeting is over". Through Karen and Pam's party, Meredith is seen with a bottle of vodka in her hand, turning down the margaritas because they are "too sweet".

Meanwhile, Angela's party proceeds to get more uncomfortable as Angela makes a dig at Kevin's weight, irritating him enough to drive him to the other party. When Michael, Andy, Jim, and Dwight return with two of the waitresses from Benihana, Michael finds Angela's party to be "lame." Kevin uses this moment to escape. Angela is comforted by Dwight's attendance at her party until Karen and Pam come in and inform Dwight that he's won the raffle from their party. Dwight wins walkie-talkies, which he uses later in the episode to communicate with Angela, using their pet names for one another, "monkey" and "possum".

Pam notices how upset Angela is, and she and Karen make an offer to Angela to merge the two parties. Angela agrees and reveals that she stole the power cord for the karaoke machine. As everyone has fun singing, Michael—who is very drunk—confuses his date with Andy's since, as he states, "all waitresses look alike." He goes into the kitchen where both the waitresses are and he discreetly tries to ask aloud where his one was and finally she acknowledges herself and he discreetly marks her arm with a marker.

The two waitresses leave because they say the party "blows", and Michael offers his girl a trip to Sandals Jamaica, where he was going to take Carol. She says no since she has classes, although she does take a bike that Michael had intended to give to the charity toy drive.

A depressed Michael sulks on the couch and Jim comes up and joins him. Jim gets Michael to laugh at the whole situation and lets him realize that what he had with the waitress was nothing more than a rebound. Jim then tells Michael that a rebound is a fun distraction, but when it is over, "you're still thinking about the girl you're really after—the one who broke your heart" (echoing Jim's relationship with Karen after his being rejected by Pam). The two sit in silence as they think.

As the Christmas party ends, Angela sings karaoke, Pam finds a way to get Toby the robe from corporate he wanted, and Jim and Karen give each other the same Christmas gift (a DVD copy of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason), much to Pam's disappointment. Later Pam receives a gift from Roy, which Jim sees. Michael makes a phone call to an unknown person to ask him or her to accompany him to Sandals; to Michael's surprise, the person says yes. Oscar and Gil return from their three-month vacation in Europe. Looking around, Oscar says "Too soon" and leaves.

While Jim is leaving,he decides to go ahead and take Pam up on her "gift" offer from earlier. He tells Pam that Dwight will be summoned by the CIA to meet with them. Pam quickly looks up how much a bus ticket will cost, and when she mentions it will cost $75, Jim tells her that the CIA will be sending a helicopter instead. The next scene shows Dwight on the roof waiting for a helicopter. He then receives a text message reading, "You have been compromised. Abort mission. Destroy phone." Dwight throws his phone off the roof and walks away.

[edit] Deleted scenes

  • In a talking head interview, Angela angrily strings popcorn and expresses her outrage on behalf of baby Jesus. Baby Jesus wouldn't cancel Christmas because he got dumped or because he's two weeks behind on party planning. "Baby Jesus would suck it up."
  • In a talking head interview, Michael incorrectly quotes "William Randolph Shakespeare."
  • At Benihana, Michael calls Carol. He asks her what he did wrong. We cannot hear Carol's response, but it is long and detailed. "All right, well could you tell me something that I did right?" Carol hangs up.
  • Angela complains to Toby that "that trollop" is throwing her own party and demands that he put a stop to it. When Toby refuses, Angela slaps him. Toby decides to write up Angela for the infraction, and she sneers back, "Michael was so right about you. You are pathetic."
  • Ryan gives Kelly a Christmas gift. She coldly asks, "Do you always get presents for your ex-girlfriend?" Kelly explains that she won't tolerate Ryan's inconsiderate behavior any more, and Ryan accepts her decision. Kelly panics and apologizes tearfully. "You're not mean; you're adorable!" She bought Ryan a present but threw it out when she didn't think she was getting a present from him.
  • Kelly is in the dumpster outside looking for the gift she bought Ryan. Ryan, frustrated, shouts, "Kelly, I am so cold!" Kelly breaks down crying. Ryan tries to break up with her, but Kelly shouts back, "Don't dump me while I'm in the dumpster!"
  • Ryan has joined Kelly in the dumpster, and Kelly begins wondering about the food scraps she finds. Kelly gasps. "I'm scared! Hold me."

[edit] Trivia

For a list of songs featured in this episode, see List of songs featured on The Office (US TV series).
  • In what may be an inside joke among the writers, the two Asian waitresses at Benihana are not the same two waitresses Michael and Andy bring back to the office. This "gag" plays upon the racial stereotype that Asian people all look the same; the episode's use of this stereotype for jokes is not without criticism from some Asian-Americans[1]. The episode's viewers may laugh at Michael for confusing the two Asian women, but the viewers also may not understand the sardonic nature of this joke, and instead view this as a casting mishap. Whether or not the writers'/producers' execution of this racial gag was recognized by most viewers as satirical is debatable.
    • According to the propmaster of the show's blog, the reason for the different actresses was because Andy and Michael failed to pick up the original waitresses, and all they could get were "less attractive ones".[1]
    • At Paley Fest 2007, Greg Daniels admitted that the joke failed due to poor casting. The waitresses that come to the office were too attractive.[2]
  • The episode was shot at a real Benihana restaurant.[3]
  • In real life, the closest Benihana location to Scranton, Pennsylvania is over ninety minutes driving away. Therefore, it would have been unlikely for the characters to leave the office, eat at Benihana, and return to the Scranton branch in three hours, as suggested by the episode's dialogue.
  • During one moment of improv, Jim throws a shrimp across the table at Dwight. It bounces off Dwight's glasses and lands in the glass of water he is about to drink. The producers chose not to use the footage because it looked so improbable as to be unbelievable.[3]
  • As an hour-long episode (the first for the series), A Benihana Christmas counted as two episodes in the 25 episode third season.
  • The Benihana restaurant set used in this episode looks similar to the set used for the Benihana scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, also starring Steve Carell. In fact, Carell's characters in both The Office and Virgin are sitting in the same seat at the restaurant tables.
  • Dwight adding drum noise with his mouth during Angela's karaoke version of "Little Drummer Boy" is a reference to a scene of the Pilot episode, in which he annoys Jim with the same song.
  • This is the third time in the series that a word has been bleeped.
  • This episode marks the return of Oscar Martinez, who has not appeared since the first episode of the third season due to his three months paid vacation offer by Corporate as an apology.
  • The chanting of Darryl when he offers to get his synthesizer is a reference to the Booze Cruise, where Roy begins the chant after ignoring Pam's wish to go somewhere a little more quiet.
  • In "The Alliance", Angela claimed that green is whorish. In this episode, she now believes that orange is whorish. (In both cases, Angela's choice of color matches the color of Phyllis's outfit.)
  • When Angela discusses her estranged sister, she says "so, yeah... I'm pretty good." This is what Kevin says when talking about his success at the World Series of Poker in the Season 2 finale Casino Night.
  • Staff writer Mindy Kaling gave fellow writer Michael Schur a poster for the movie Bridget Jones Diary 2 which hung in his office for an entire year and which may have served as inspiration for Jim and Karen's DVD exchange.[4]
  • In a parallel with 'Kill Gil vols 1 & 2' - the Simpsons episode S18E09 that aired in the same week as 'A Benihana Christmas' - the 'inappropriate photoshopped Christmas card' that Michael gives to Carol is very similar to the Christmas card that Gil gives out on behalf of the Simpson Family, it depicts the Simpsons on the couch, only with a picture of Gil photoshopped across the picture.
  • During the party, Creed sings along with the karaoke machine to a song called Spinnin' and Reelin' . The character Creed is played by Creed Bratton, who wrote the song and was a member of the 60's folk-rock band the Grass Roots He is singing over his own recording.
  • Michael's comment about "bros before hos" which ends with "suddenly, she's not yo' ho no mo'" may be a nod to The 40-Year-Old Virgin where Steve Carell's character awkwardly says that a certain woman "was ho...for sho'."

[edit] References

  1. ^ See blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=102409815&blogID=205783475 (copy and paste URL)
  2. ^ Paley Fest: The Office
  3. ^ a b 'The Office's' Andy Bernard returns to Atlanta
  4. ^ Kaling, Mindy. Le French Sex Shoppe blog entry.

[edit] External links

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