The Fight (The Office episode)

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The Office episode

"The Fight"
Michael and Dwight duel in "The Fight"
Episode No.	12
Prod. Code	207
Airdate	November 1, 2005
Writer(s)	Gene Stupnitsky & Lee Eisenberg
Director	Ken Kwapis
The Office Season 2 September 2005 - May 2006
The Dundies Sexual Harassment Office Olympics The Fire Halloween The Fight The Client Performance Review E-mail Surveillance Christmas Party Booze Cruise The Injury The Secret The Carpet Boys and Girls Valentine's Day Dwight's Speech Take Your Daughter to Work Day Michael's Birthday Drug Testing Conflict Resolution Casino Night
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The Office (US)

"The Fight" is the sixth episode of the second season of the television series The Office (U.S. version). It was written by Gene Stupnitsky & Lee Eisenberg and directed by Ken Kwapis. It originally aired on November 1, 2005.

1 Synopsis
2 Deleted scenes
3 Trivia
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Michael has but one thing to do: Sign a few dozen documents. By way of procrastination, Michael makes Ryan update emergency contact information of the staff. When Michael gets Ryan's mobile phone number, he constantly crank calls Ryan with crude impersonations of Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, and Saddam Hussein.

Talk of Dwight's karate experience gets Michael's competitive juices flowing, leading to a lunchtime match between them at Dwight's dojo. At the dojo, Jim goes a bit too far flirting with Pam, and she abruptly shuts him down when their co-workers take notice.

In a pathetic showing by both combatants, Michael emerges victorious over Dwight, which leads to Dwight changing his emergency contact from "Michael Scott" to "The Hospital". At the end of the day, Michael promotes Dwight from Assistant to the Regional Manager to Assistant Regional Manager, most likely to ensure that Dwight will still idolize him despite the hard feelings over their lunchtime battle. Meanwhile, the rest of the staff, fed up with Michael's inability to accomplish even the simplest task, are forced to forge his signatures on the documents so they can go home.

[edit] Deleted scenes

At the dojo, Dwight's attempt at a kick fails miserably. Dwight is disciplined by sensei Ira when his pager goes off during class.
In a talking head interview, Dwight explains that he has not bonded with his classmates. "I'm not there to make friends. I'm there to attack people."
Alternate take of the scene in which Jim asks Dwight whom he could take on in a fight.
Angela accuses Oscar of eating her pudding snacks. Oscar denies it, as does Kevin. (Kevin snickers to the camera.)
Kelly invites Meredith to Happy Hour. Meredith is unsure. "I'm still recovering from last night.. but maybe."
Scenes at the dojo of Michael and Dwight putting on equipment, trying to psych each other out, and ultimately fighting like idiots.
Ira introduces his young senpai Alyssa. In a talking head interview at the dojo, Dwight explains that Alyssa may technically be the senpai, but "the only reason she got into regionals was because her competition was a bunch of thirteen-year-old girls."
Michael brags about the fight to Stanley, who is more interested in Michael signing the purchase orders. Pam pointedly puts the forms on Michael's chair.
In a talking head interview, Dwight explains that Michael has no honor and would be an outcast in Japan. "Well, that's not totally true, because Asians worship chest hair."
Michael delivers Pam "part one" of the forms, but it's just the emergency contact information.

[edit] Trivia

For a list of songs featured in this episode, see List of songs featured on The Office (US TV series).

This episode was originally intended to air after "The Client".^{[citation needed]}
Rainn Wilson (who plays Dwight) is actually a certified yellow belt.^[1]
In the course of filming the fight, the friction in Rainn's protective piece of wraparound headgear cut him slightly in the face.^[1]
When Dwight is searching for his desk, the camera goes to B.J. Novak (who plays Ryan) and on his computer he is on his MySpace page.
This is the episode to make the first reference to the Dunder Mifflin Albany, New York branch, as Jim mentions to the camera how that branch is working through lunch to avoid downsizing in comparison to Michael extending it by an hour for the staff to witness his showdown with Dwight. The "Valentine's Day" episode introduces Craig, the manager of the Albany branch.
Before Jim deletes his email message to pam@dundermifflin.com, the text of the email read as follows (spelling errors retained):

"Pam,

Hey, If that was weird today, I just want toa t".

Michael quotes the famous "You talking to me?" line. He then states "Raging Bull, Pacino". In reality the line is from Taxi Driver and spoken by Robert De Niro.
Jim uses Outlook Express to compose the email to Pam.
Dwight says that his maternal grandfather killed 20 soldiers during World War II, then spent the rest of the war in an Allied prison camp, meaning that Dwight's grandfather was most likely a Nazi.
Jim alludes often to the Jets (even snapping his fingers in the same style), a street gang from the musical "West Side Story".

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details about future episodes follow.

In the "Valentine's Day" episode, we learn that the Albany branch had to let four people go, as opposed to Scranton's one, and see that Craig was completely unprepared for an important meeting, suggesting Jim's impression of its superiority may be mistaken. (On the other hand, the employees at the Albany branch may have been working extra hard in a failed attempt to overcome their boss's incompetence.)
In this episode, Michael complains about how sometimes your friends "start coming in to work late" and "start going to dentist's appointments that aren't really dentist's appointments." Curiously, the fake dentist appointment doesn't take place until the following year.