Most Unlikable Moment


While everyone loves having the "Hot Take" of Jim and Pam were terrible people, and poor Dwight was always being picked on, lets be honest everybody on the show had some pretty bad moments. Some were downright horrible. But lets go thru for everyone and list what you consider the moment where they were least likable. Do as many characters as you want, but limit one per person.

And let me save everyone the trouble of typing this joke "Gee just one? There's so many to choose from! HAHAAHAHAHA!"

Jim: Dumping Katy on the booze cruise. Sure he could dump her if he wanted too, but not while she's stuck on boat with you and your coworkers, none of whom she really knows well. And you probably had to drive her home too.

Pam: Disrupting the meeting and the work place as a whole after finding out about her mother and Michael. I can understand her initial freak out, and it was good she went out to the parking lot. But she needed to compose herself before she returned to the office, or go home.

Michael: Dumping Pam's Mom on her birthday because he finally realized how old she actually was. Doesn't justify Pam's behavior, but she was right.

Dwight: Carrying a gun in a hoister around the office, and having it accidentally go off near Andy.

Andy: Refusing to sign a letter of recommendation so Nellie could adopt.

Angela: Not only allowing Dwight and Andy to duel for her, but getting turned on by it.

Ryan: Basically threatening to fire Jim, because he was dating Pam.

Toby: Putting his hand on Pam's leg.

Phyllis: Outing Angela for her affair with Dwight in front of the whole office at the Christmas Party. I get having to expose her, but that should have only been done to Andy, not everyone except Andy.

Stanley: Disrespecting Michael in front of everyone in "Did I Stutter!?"

Meredith: Refusing to admit her alcoholism, even after setting her hair on fire at the Christmas party.

Kelly: Faking performance reports to cost Dwight and Jim their bonuses.

Oscar: Sleeping with Angela's husband.

Creed: Weaseling out of responsibility for the offensive water mark, and getting some lady at the paper plant fired.

Darryl: Assuming he would get the manager job, because he was friends with Jim and Toby, and was the only black candidate.

Gabe: Trying to get Helen to fire Andy, since Erin dumped Gabe for him.

Erin: Dumping Gabe at the Dundies.

Jan: Accusing Michael of drugging her, after they spent the night together.

Karen: Trying to hire Stanley away from Scranton, out of pettiness that Jim dumped her for Pam.

Holly: Believing that Kevin was mentally challenged, and overly defending him when Angela was yelling at him.

Roy: Charging into the office to beat up Jim. Even though he had already known about him kissing Pam for more than a whole day. By that point he should have had enough time to calm down, especially after trashing the bar.


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Season 1 thru 9.

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A moment can't be 'unlikable'.

A moment doesn't really even exist, as time itself is barely an illusion. We always invent words for our convenience, like 'darkness' and 'cold', because they serve a purpose to us, so we also constraint something like 'time' and subjugate it under our convenience by the usage and invention of words and terminology, like 'a moment'.

However, it's like a border on a map that has no relevance to the animals walking in the forest. A deer doesn't know it just crossed a border, because that border doesn't REALLY exist in actual reality, certainly not for the deer.

The same way we can define and talk about things until the deer come home (why is the plural of deer 'deer', but a plural of cow is 'cows'?), but we won't change what really is and what isn't. Darkness is not real, it's merely 'lack of light' (but can there ever be actual lack of light, when we consider the Creator IS light, and is also Omnipresent? - same goes for 'cold', which doesn't exist, except as a 'lack of warmth' - there can't be absolute zero, either).

A 'moment' is merely a word that supposedly describes some undetermined amount of what we call 'time', but does it REALLY exist in actual reality? Would a deer know what you are talking about? Can you point to a moment with your finger? Can you explain exactly how many seconds it means?

So you are using a vague term about a thing that barely exists to describe a thing that doesn't exist beyond the world of 'human convenience' and then assign features, attributes and traits to it, like 'unlikable'? How does THAT work?

Could you and others please stop making these really ridiculous statements, questions and topics that make no sense. Please.

A 'moment' (especially since it doesn't really exist in reality) CAN NOT BE UNLIKABLE!

But even if we could say it could, 'unlikABLE' is a very 'factual term' considering how opinion-based 'liking something' is.

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I mean, 'likable' and 'unlikable' is final, conclusive, factual. That usually doesn't exist.

There are things that are 'not liked' or 'are hated', but things that are 'unlikable' are pretty hard to find or even justify. There's BOUND to be someone that likes something everyone else hates. This means very few things are unlikable - this word means that something CAN NOT BE LIKED by anyone or anything.

So even if you could SOMEHOW magically conjure up this mystical element of 'moment', it still couldn't be 'unlikable', it could possibly be 'something most viewers hate', but it can't be 'unlikable' in any case.

To clarify, there's a big difference between 'likable' and 'liked'. 'Most liked scene', 'the highest-rated episode', sure.

But 'most unlikable moment'?

I DON'T THINK SO.

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every season...

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I remember we had some fun discussing which TV sitcom workplace you would like to work in, and some vote The Office. The Office is one of my favorite TV sitcoms of all time (definitely in the top 5), but if the show were realistic, it would probably one of the most toxic workplaces ever.

And you didn't even mention their worst deeds.

Michael's attempt to frame Toby in real life would likely result in jail time and a significant lawsuit.

However, the worst offense comes from Pam, as the self-confidence she gained during the series turned her particularly malicious. Remember when she posted 'sex offender wanted' flyers with a picture of someone resembling Dwight? How could Dwight forgive her for this horrible act? It's unforgivable.

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the fact that putting his hand on Pam's leg is the "most unlikeable" for Toby suggests it's a very short list to choose from. And arguably karma for Jim making a move on Pam while she was still engaged to Roy.
I'd argue that siding with Ryan when Jim's getting disciplined was his worst moment, as that did seem to be out of spite for him being with Pam, something he practically confirmed in the talking head about the incident.
To defend Ryan in this instance, I think there's another thread on here suggesting that Jim was a slacker in the office, Ryan had first hand experience of this and was right to call him out on it. And he wasn't threatening to fire him, just giving him a warning to try harder. Unfortunately, with this and the Charles Minor episodes, the person unhappy with Jim is always portrayed on the show as the bad guy and Jim the victim. The fact that his performance warning is considered some sort of revenge for being with Pam sadly proves the point. Especially since Ryan only half-heartedly asked her to a part-date/part-business dinner once and showed no interest in her before or since.

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Also to defend Karen, I don't think she was trying to poach Stanley to get back at Jim - I don't think Jim would have cared if he'd gone. I think she was trying to hire Stanley because he was their top sales-person and, from the time she worked with him, she perhaps suspected that he was as disillusioned with the Scranton office environment as she was and would welcome the chance to transfer somewhere with a more professional approach. So I'd say it was a purely business reason. Michael and Dwight are the ones who made it awkward and a lot more personal by going there to confront her about it and bringing Jim along. Actually I'm struggling to think of anything bad involving Karen.
Also in Holly's defence, Dwight told her that about Kevin. Being as senior in the office as he was (Michael's "assistant"/"assistant to"!), chosen to show her around, and given Kevin's behaviour around her that day, she had no reason not to believe it. I just find it hard to believe that it took until early in season 5, which would have been months later, for her to realise that she'd been pranked.

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to add a few more into the mix
Kelly - using Darryl to make Ryan jealous (although I'd forgotten about the fake performance reports - wasn't that "revenge" for forgetting her birthday? Yeah, that was kinda sh***y too)
Ryan - hard to single out one moment for such a sketchy character. Abandoning his baby in the show's finale takes the cake though. Also generally committing fraud on the company's behalf during his short time as a NY bigwig
Dwight - abusing his powers as a volunteer sheriff's deputy (there's a brilliant deleted scene in which he goes to the station to "hand back his badge" which shows just how far he'd gone)
Angela - making utterly unreasonable demands on Andy re their wedding, all the while with no intention of going through with it as she was having relations with Dwight throughout
Roy - being a d**k about Pam wanting to go to art school. Also abandoning Pam at the Dundies - ironically this only brought her and Jim closer.
Jim - planning to propose to Pam during Toby's leaving party (especially if he knew about Toby's crush on Pam, which is very likely given the hand on her knee incident mentioned in the OP)
Andy - proposing to Angela during Toby's leaving party

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Wow!! That's quite a list of stuff you didn't like for a show you did like, right?? Or you didn't like the show?? 🤔

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