4 behind-the-scenes revelations from the ‘Night Out’ episode of ‘The Office’

If you miss the good old days of going out with friends on weekends we urge you to live vicariously through the “Night Out” episode of The Office.

On the latest episode of the Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted all about the Season 4 episode, “Night Out,” which finds Michael and Dwight heading to New York to go clubbing with Ryan.

The episode is full of fan-favorite quotes, memorable scenes, and a hilarious guest star, so Fischer and Kinsey dove deep to give an inside look what filming was like.

From details about casting Ryan’s friend, Troy, to clarifications on whether or not Meredith *actually* got hit in the face with a football, here’s the “Night Out” scoop.

1. Covering Michael’s head in peanut butter

As fans will recall, the episode opens with Michael getting gum stuck in his hair, because of course. Dwight attempts to come to Michael’s rescue by needlessly slathering his hair in peanut butter. So fans are dying to know if that peanut butter was real.

“I will tell you. It was real peanut butter, but Rainn did not put it on Steve’s head,” Fischer explained. “It was our hair stylist, Kim Ferry. She would get it all set and then Rainn would step in and just do like that last little touch and the massaging part. And then she’d have to fix it between takes.”

Fischer explained that the peanut butter scene only took a few takes to shoot, and then they shot a scene that Steve wasn’t in so he could get his hair washed and reset. 

Mashable interviewed Ferry in 2020 and chatted all about her finest hair moments on The Office, so be sure to give it a read if you want extra behind-the-scenes hair stories on Jim’s Season 3 wig, the mayonnaise scalps in the “Lice” episode, and more.

2. The deal with Ryan’s pal, Troy

When Dwight and Michael crash Ryan’s night out in New York, they also meet Ryan’s friend, Troy Underbridge (played by Noel Petok). Fans may recognize Troy from a brief cameo in the Season 4 episode, “The Deposition,” and he also makes appearances later in the series.

Petok sent in a bunch of audio clips to share his “Night Out” experience with Fischer and Kinsey, and he was sure to discuss everything from getting cast on the show to his love for Mindy Kaling, who wrote this episode.

“I’ve got to thank Mindy for writing this character, which was a blast to play,” Petok said before recalling memories of filming.

“Shooting the nightclub scenes were fun to do,” he explained. “There was no really breaking character. I tried to stay professional, and the only kind of stuff that was funny during the scenes was the scenes with B.J. and Steve, where he says, ‘Why won’t the girls let me dance?’ And I would get a lot of recognition from my ‘Don’t take him to a hospital!’ line where I’m like running down that dark alley.”

For fans curious if Petok still gets recognized for his role as Troy, he absolutely does.

“I do get recognized here and there at Starbucks or even during outings with my family. When I’m just going to dinner at a restaurant a busboy will even say, ‘Weren’t you on The Office?’ Which is just kind of a crack up for me,” he said. “But I think the furthest recognition I got was a vacation trip to Hawaii and a young lady in a store was actually chatting with my mom and asked if her son was on The Office. And she was all excited and actually asked me to come back and get a picture with her, which is a blast to do is just kind of funny to me.”

“I’m always open to like signing autographs or taking pictures with fans,” Petok said. “I actually quite enjoy it, and I just loved everything about The Office.”

3. Number three: How dare you?

One of the most quoted lines from “Night Out” is spoken in a conference room scene by episode writer herself, Mindy Kaling.

“One of my favorite moments in this conference room, Angela, is Mindy’s line when she says, ‘I have a lot of questions. Number one, how dare you?'” Fischer explained.

“I loved it so much,” Kinsey replied.

Turns out, Kaling wrote the iconic line for herself.

“She was asked about this line in an interview she did with OfficeTally and I loved her answer,” Fischer added. “Here’s what she said: ‘I never intentionally give myself the funniest lines. However, they often resonate as the funniest because of my gifts as a comic actor. Sometimes I try to give myself really drab, unfunny lines so as to not steal focus. But even that doesn’t work because they always sparkle upon delivery. It’s hard.'”

4. Yet another Meredith stunt

Fans of the Office Ladies podcast are well aware by now that Kate Flannery, who plays Meredith Palmer, is Queen of Stunts.

Meredith got hit by a car in the “Fun Run episode, Meredith battled a bat in “Business School,” and in “Night Out” Pam throws a football right at Meredith’s face. Poor Mer.

For those doubting whether or not Flannery was actually hit in the face in the parking lot, stop it right now. Of course she was — she was fully committed to Meredith’s chaos!

“I watched this episode with my daughter, Isabelle, and I had forgotten about that moment when it happened. We were both like ‘Ahh!’ and Isabel said, ‘Mom, I think she really got hit in the face. It looks like she got hit in the face.’ And I said, ‘Isabel, no way. There is no way they threw a football at Kate’s face,'” Kinsey said. “So I texted Kate and I said, ‘Kate, Isabelle thinks you really got hit in the face with that football. And she said, Isabel’s not wrong.'”

“I don’t think I had a concussion or anything, but I had the weirdest dreams.”

To tell the whole story, Flannery sent in an audio clip and explained that “for some reason” she was “insistent” on doing her own stunt.

“There was a stunt double there, but she did not work that night. For some reason I thought it was funnier — it’s always funnier to me when an actor can do their own stunt — but I didn’t realize where the camera was and my back was sort of to the camera, so it kind of could have been anybody,” she explained.

“I will say they deflated the ball a little bit, which was supposed to help, but I remember Ken Winningham was directing and I just remember I think we did eight takes and we weren’t done,” she continued. “And I just kind of felt like after the eight — when we hit number eight — I was like, ‘This was a really stupid idea,’ and I slept really well. I don’t think I had a concussion or anything, but I had the weirdest dreams. It was kind of exhausting.”

“Don’t try this at home, kids,” she concluded.

Be sure to listen to the full podcast episode for more behind-the-scenes stories from filming “Night Out.”

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