Take the World’s Hardest Quiz

When the U.S. version of The Office premiered on NBC 20 years ago, the reaction was rather muted, to put it charitably. The shadow of the original U.K. series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant loomed very large, and the NBC pilot was almost a shot-for-shot remake of their first episode, with Steve Carell taking over the lead role from Gervais. “The insurmountable problem for this version may prove to be Carell himself,” wrote USA Today. “He’s an amusing sketch comic, but he comes across as an actor doing a bit, not a person running an office.… That’s what happens with copies. Inevitably, something great gets lost.” As nearly everyone reading this knows, the series got dramatically better after the ill-fated pilot, and ran for nearly a decade. The Office became even more popular once it was off the air and a new generation of fans discovered it on streaming services. Many of them have seen each episode countless times and have them memorized. Let’s see how well they do on this quiz.

Scorecard:

Zero to 30% correct: Are you familiar with this particular television show? Have you seen anything beyond YouTube compilations of Jim/Dwight pranks? There’s no reason to feel shame if you answered no to either of these questions: You have a lot of great hours of television in front of you. Just let us warn you that the show peaks in the second and third seasons, starts to dip when Jim and Pam get married, and goes over a cliff once Michael leaves. If you can get through the height season more than once, we’ll be impressed.

31 to 60% correct: Very nice. You have spent many hours in the world of Dunder Mifflin, likely know every word of Daryl’s Dunder Mifflin jingle (“Out of paper/Out of stock/There’s friendly faces around the block…”), and have even watched the extended “Superfan” episodes on Peacock. If you want to learn even more, we recommend a certain book that goes super deep into the history of the show. 

61 to 100% correct: It is on like a prawn who yawns at dawn! You did an excellent job, likely already have a copy of my book, and have truly mastered the art of The Office. All you can do now is breathlessly wait for the upcoming spin-off, The Paper, to debut on NBC. It takes place in the same universe as The Office, and will reportedly feature the return of Oscar Nuñez as Oscar Martinez. Spin-offs rarely work, but Office showrunner Greg Daniels is an absolute genius, and there’s reason to be optimistic about this one. And if they make any subtle references to the original show, we have no doubt you’ll pick up on them right away.

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