WUPHF.com

"WUPHF.com" is the ninth episode of seventh season of the American comedy television series The Office, and the show's 135th episode overall. Written by Aaron Shure and directed by Danny Leiner, the episode aired on NBC in the United States on November 18, 2010. This episode received positive reviews and was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Episodic Comedy.

Synopsis

Michael and Ryan take center stage as Michael is an enthusiastic supporter of Ryan's Internet company, WUPHF.com (introduced in "The Whistleblower" as a cross-portal messaging system), and has gotten Darryl, Stanley, Andy and Pam (who knows Ryan is sketchy, but considers WUPHF a great idea) to put in funding, though he is by far the largest shareholder. While Ryan touts a planned "investors ski weekend", Michael learns that there is already an offer to buy out WUPHF.com and Ryan only has nine days of funding left before his venture collapses. Ryan's subsequent sales pitch for more funds is badly-planned and drives all of the office investors except Michael to demand he sell. The investors then realize that the buyer only wants to purchase the company for the domain name, because it is the acronym for the Washington University Public Health Fund). Pam has a heart-to-heart talk with Michael where she gently tells him that Ryan has never viewed Michael as either his mentor or a best friend, and is now using Michael's unrequited affection for him to make him support WUPHF.com beyond reason, but everyone including Michael will lose all their investment if they don't sell. Michael takes this in, and is silently hurt when Ryan blithely supports Michael's theoretical plan to get a second mortgage for more WUPHF.com funds. While Michael does not agree to an immediate sale like everyone else, he finally lists all Ryan's flaws but then also points out all his talents and that he believes in him. When Ryan says he needs more than nine days to make things work, Michael bluntly says he doesn't have more time than that. Ryan promises to make it work, and when he visibly fails, he sends Michael a message that he's going to sell WUPHF.com. Michael looks very relieved.

Dwight creates a hay festival in the parking lot for the Thanksgiving holiday, in order to exorcise the memories from his childhood days when his family had competing hay festivals and he never was elected King for them. His efforts distract him from fulfilling a request for sex from Angela (per their contract), and Angela's at her most irritated when she meets a charming, friendly man (Jack Coleman) who is attending the festival with his young son. Angela actually finds herself smiling at his humor and enjoying their company. When Angela learns the man is a widower, she makes it clear he's welcome to call her. Dwight appoints himself the "Hay Festival King" in the meantime, but arrives at his and Angela's warehouse rendezvous point to see their procreation contract has been stamped VOID, and looks stricken. Kevin, meanwhile, gets lost in the hay maze and panics.

Jim makes a huge sale and is thrilled about it, noting that his sales skills have been sharpened at home by convincing baby Cece that mashed carrots are more appealing than Pam's breastfeeding. However, Kevin and Angela inform Jim that Sabre instituted a commissions cap for the year and Jim maxed out his returns. Jim goes to talk to Gabe about it, but Gabe dismisses him and attempts to relate the commission cap to the nudity policy at his gym. Unmotivated to work, Jim wastes time until Gabe asks him to pretend to work. Jim then finds Jo's lengthy audio autobiography, tweaks it with his computer, and sets Gabe up so he has no choice but to listen to the entire work.

Production

"WUPHF.com" was written by co-executive producer Aaron Shure, his fifth writing credit on the series, and directed by Danny Leiner, his first Office directing credit. In a deleted scene, Michael seeks advice from Toby while the HR representative is having a webchat with his daughter; when Michael overhears Sasha talking about Toby's ex-wife's new boyfriend, Michael forgets he wanted help dealing with Ryan, and laughs at poor Toby's misery at the news.

Reception

In its original American broadcast on November 18, 2010, "WUPHF.com" was viewed by an estimated 7.28 million viewers and received a 3.8 rating/10% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, improving from the prior week's episode.^[1]

For his work on this episode, Aaron Shure was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Episodic Comedy.^[2]

Trivia

Going to www.wuphf.com takes you to NBC's page for The Office

References

External links

• "WUPHF.com" at NBC.com
• "WUPHF.com" at the Internet Movie Database
• WUPHF.com