Top TV Memes: The Best Meme Formats From 'The Office'

The Office is one of the most beloved shows out there. Steve Carell plays Michael Scott, the overenthusiastic and delusional manager of a branch of the Dunder Mifflin paper company. While emotionally destroying his employees, coming up with terrible marketing strategies and making the social atmosphere of the office collapse into ruins, Michael doesn’t actually work. Along with Rainn Wilson’s Dwight (responsible for Schrute Facts) and the convoluted romance of Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer), Michael leads the popular ensemble comedy that’s responsible for thousands of viral jokes.

Deciding which episodes of The Office contain the best memes is no easy task. The truth is, this show has left us with nearly as many meme formats as SpongeBob SquarePants. For example, one of the most famous comes from the episode "Search Committee," where Pam holds two pictures up to her coworker Creed Bratton (also played by Creed Bratton) and tells him corporate needs him to find the difference between two pictures, then explains to the camera, They’re the same picture. Or when Jim smiles through the blinds at Ed Helms’ Andy in the episode "Heavy Competition." Along with Jim’s constant stares at the camera and the disaster that is "Scott’s Tots," there are a lot of opportunities for memes to be made from this show.

Most Popular Memes: Season 2, Episode 14: "The Carpet"

This episode has a simple premise: someone took a dump on the carpet in Michael’s office, and no one knows who did it. Almost like a classic murder mystery, Michael wants to hunt down the guilty party responsible for the "hate crime" he has endured. In doing so, he seeks the advice of his former boss Ed Truck, who he introduces to the audience with a picture of the two shaking hands. In it, Michael looks completely confused and has a particularly cringeworthy haircut. This image is incredibly popular as a meme, where Michael represents someone being awarded for something they didn’t actually do or did out of sheer stupidity (which basically is Michael’s entire role in most episodes).

In reality, this is one of the best Michael episodes out there simply because it shows the many problems with his character one by one. He wants his employees to love him, but clearly one of them hates him enough to violate his office floor. Michael offers a bonus to his employees just to take it away hours later. He goes through all the stages of grief, from denial that the "package" was intentional to eventual acceptance that it was a "funny" joke. Since Michael is already memed so often, this is the perfect go-to episode to find anything overdramatic, unfair, cruel or unnervingly friendly said by Michael to use in a meme.

Most Meme Potential: Season 5, Episode 9: "Frame Toby"

In this episode, Michael discovers his arch-nemesis Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein) has returned from his trip to Costa Rica. Michael hates Toby because he works for HR and therefore is the destroyer of "fun" around the office. In this episode, Michael is unaware that Toby has been back at work for quite some time, and is shocked when Toby approaches him to say hi. In horror, Michael screams, "No, God! No God, Please No! No! No! No!" as if he is being tortured for some unspeakable crimes. This became shortened into the GIF and meme, No God, Please No!

However, there are many great moments in this episode that go unnoticed alongside this more popular quote. For example, Michael tries to get Toby fired by framing him for drug use and calling the police on him. He does so by buying a bagged Caprese salad for $500 because some guys he met outside the warehouse told him it was weed. He also approaches them in a very "How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?" manner, looking like the meme of Jeb Bush in a hoodie, and says "I’m not wearing a wire" out of nowhere. This scene could be turned into countless memes, but somehow it hasn’t yet.

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