Dwight must makes amends with the office after his fire safety seminar goes awry; Michael tries to get his employees to relax; Andy becomes convinced that Pam and Jim are film gurus.
WAR
89.3
Wins Above Replacement
“Stress Relief” ranks #12 of 183 The Office episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 88.6 — Elite. The episode packs 70 scored jokes at 1.9 per minute, averaging 7.4 on craft and 7.1 on impact, with Michael landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
Get weekly comedy rankings
Join comedy fans getting new analyses, score drops, and the funniest moments each week. Free, no spam.
Top Jokes
Dwight: Clarice. (Dwight wearing dummy face mask)
Dwight Visual Gag Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Angela: Save Bandit! (Cat yowls)
Angela Physical/Slapstick Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Michael: And now Dwight knows not to cut the face off of a real person.
Michael Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Michael: Kevin, I can't decide between a fat joke and a dumb joke. Boom. Roasted.
Michael Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Michael: I knew exactly what to do. But in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do.
Michael Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy ★ Rewatch All Jokes — 70 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Dwight: Last week, I gave a fire safety talk, and nobody paid any attention. It's my own fault for using PowerPoint. PowerPoint is boring. People learn in lots of different ways, but experience is the best teacher.
Dwight Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Dwight: Today, smoking is going to save lives.
Dwight Irony/Sarcasm Absurdist ★ Rewatch Michael: Oh, my God! Fire! Oh, fire! Oh, my goodness. What's the procedure?
Michael Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Dwight · Michael: What's the procedure, everyone? What's the procedure? Stay... calm! Everybody just... calm down!
Phyllis · Michael: I forgot my purse! Leave it, woman! Things can be replaced, Phyllis! People, human lives, however...
Michael: My hand! That's hot! This one's hot, too. Okay, we're trapped. Everyone for himself!
Oscar · Angela: Stay alive, I'm getting help! Pull me up! You're too heavy. I only weigh 82 pounds.
Angela: Save Bandit! (Cat yowls)
Angela Physical/Slapstick Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Angela: The fire's shooting at us!
Michael: Stanley! Barack is President! You are black, Stanley!
Michael Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Dwight: A lot of ideas were not appreciated in their time. Electricity. Shampoo.
Dwight Absurdist Character Comedy Dwight: When no one headed... 'Take headed of.' No one would take headed of my instructions. So you... 'Heed.' 'Heed.' 'Take heed of.' 'Take heed of.'
Dwight Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Michael: Can you shove down? Shove down, please.
Michael Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy Michael: A mars life is in my hands.
Michael Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy Michael: Nobody should have to go to work thinking, 'Oh, this is the place that I might die today.' That's what a hospital's for. An office is for not dying.
Michael Observational Character Comedy Michael: An office is a place where dreams come true.
Michael Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Stanley: Boy, have you lost your mind? Because I'll help you find it! Did I stutter?
Stanley Callback Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Andy: A throne for your highness. (Andy in British accent)
Andy Character Comedy Physical/Slapstick Jim: That could be a little confusing, because in sales ABC means 'Always Be Closing.'
Jim Observational Wordplay/Pun Michael: I knew exactly what to do. But in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do.
Michael Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Michael: We are not always going to be there to coddle your heart back when it disappears to be working.
Michael Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy Stanley: I feel like I'm working in my own casket.
Stanley Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Michael: If we come across somebody with no arms or legs, do we bother resuscitating them? I mean, what kind of quality of life do we have there?
Michael Cringe/Discomfort Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Michael: No arms or legs is basically how you exist right now, Kevin. You don't do anything.
Michael Setup/Punchline Cringe/Discomfort Kevin: How many is that per hour? I will divide and then count to it.
Kevin Character Comedy Absurdist Kelly: First I was afraid, I was petrified (to Staying Alive tune)
Kelly Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Rose: That's how I know you. (CPR instructor to Creed)
Rose Reaction Beat Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Dwight: Check for an organ donor card. If he has one, we only have minutes to harvest.
Dwight Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Dwight: Clarice. (Dwight wearing dummy face mask)
Dwight Visual Gag Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Dwight: I didn't think it was very realistic in the movie, and it turns out it's pretty realistic.
Dwight Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Michael: And now Dwight knows not to cut the face off of a real person.
Michael Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Jim: We don't normally download films illegally because we're honest, hard-working people. And we don't know how.
Jim Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Andy: Jim and Pam are like movie geniuses. They're catching things that are totally going over my head.
Andy Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Dwight: I state my regret.
Dwight Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Michael · Dwight: You couldn't have memorized that? I could not because I do not feel it.
Dwight: I filled him full of butter and sugar for 50 years and forced him not to exercise.
Dwight Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Andy: Lily was supposed to be Nicole Kidman. And it was going to be Sophie's mom, not grandmother. But then Nicole Kidman dropped out, so they went with Cloris Leachman, with a small rewrite.
Andy Meta/Self-Referential Absurdist ★ Rewatch Jim: We mostly just talked about cereal.
Jim Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Michael: If you're wearing a dress, please keep your knees together, nobody wants to see that.
Michael Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Creed: That one makes me think of death. It's kind of nice.
Creed Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Michael: And they give you a funny cigarette and you feel even more relaxed, and then you want ice cream.
Michael: Racism is dead, Stanley. You can have any kind of ice cream you want.
Michael Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Michael: That's what he said. Right, guys? Because of gay.
Michael Wordplay/Pun Cringe/Discomfort Callback Michael: So it wasn't Dwight after all. Looks like I'm the killer. You never expect that you're the killer. It's a great twist. Great twist.
Michael Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jim: 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, so it was her parents or my parents.
Jim Dark/Subversive Deadpan/Understatement Michael: Look at that perm. That perm is so boss. It's what made me want to become a boss.
Michael Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Michael: Who here has the Comedy Central Roast Channel? Everybody gets together and you start hurling insults at the one guy, and everybody's laughing and everybody is hugging each other.
Michael Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Angela: I consider myself a good person, but I'm gonna try to make him cry.
Angela Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Michael: Lower the mike for the midget.
Michael Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Toby: If you ever put sun block on a window, you might be Michael Scott.
Toby Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Kelly: A turtle, a fridge, anybody from the warehouse. A wood chipper, Kevin, a candle and Lord Voldemort.
Kelly Escalation Character Comedy Meredith: Michael, you ran over me with your car.
Meredith Callback Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Callback Michael: You pathetic short little man. You don't have any friends or any family or any land!
Michael Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Oscar: He's supporting about 20 Nigerian princesses.
Oscar Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Kelly: If it were an iPod, it would be a shuffle.
Kelly Setup/Punchline Wordplay/Pun Michael · Darryl: What's his name? I'm thinking Roy. Roy left years ago.
Andy: Stanley tried to die just to get away
Andy Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Callback Michael: My thing isn't tiny, it's average, so get your facts straight.
Michael Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Callback Dwight: My guess, he's either deeply depressed or an icicle has snapped off his roof and impaled his brain. He has this terrible habit of standing directly underneath them and staring up at them.
Dwight Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Kevin: Michael is so dumb that he tries to put his M&M's in alphabetical order.
Kevin Character Comedy Absurdist Michael: But he feels sorry for me because he has an incredibly powerful microscope and he can see my face.
Michael Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Pam: When you're a kid, you assume your parents are soul mates. My kids are gonna be right about that.
Pam Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Andy: These muffins taste bad. Or an art critic. That painting is bad.
Andy Character Comedy Observational Michael: Jim, you're 6'11" and you weigh 90 pounds. Gumby has a better body than you. Boom. Roasted.
Michael Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Michael: Pam, you failed art school. Boom. Roasted.
Michael Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Callback Michael: Kevin, I can't decide between a fat joke and a dumb joke. Boom. Roasted.
Michael Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Michael: Angela, where's Angela? Well, there you are. I didn't see you behind that grain of rice. Boom. Roasted.
Michael Setup/Punchline Physical/Slapstick Michael: Stanley, you crush your wife during sex and your heart sucks. Boom. Roasted.
Michael Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Callback Michael: Andy, Cornell called, they think you suck and you're gayer than Oscar. Boom. Roasted.
Michael Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Michael: Stanley, you can throw away those pills. You are cured. Actually, better hold on to the pills, just in case.
Michael Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Callback ⏩ The part you fast-forward
Our scorer flagged 14:07-18:25 as the stretch with the fewest or weakest comedic moments. Everything else lands harder.
Top Episodes — The Office