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Office Ladies

Second Drink: The Deposition

19 Jan 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

1.988 - 9.315 Jenna Fischer

Hi there. Welcome to our second drink of The Deposition. Jenna, we talk a lot about ping pong and a lot about journals in this episode.

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9.775 - 31.236 Angela Kinsey

Well, we also talked about how much water Tom Brady drinks. And we wondered where and how football players go to pee. Well, thanks to Amanda S. from Salisbury, North Carolina, we might have an answer. Amanda says football players definitely pee on the sidelines into cups. If you've ever sat behind the bench, you see it happen. Come on.

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31.216 - 49.297 Angela Kinsey

Usually they use their big coats draped over them and they turn toward the field, or they use each other to maintain privacy. I've sat behind the bench at NFL games many a time, and while I know what's going on, I've never seen penises just flying around. Laughing face emoji.

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49.737 - 70.487 Jenna Fischer

Wow. I mean, you do see them in those big giant warming coats. They're So they're peeing? Sometimes, not all the time. But it's like, it's like, you know, when you're camping and you got to go pee and like your friend holds up a towel that you squat behind. Same principle. Yeah. Just not with thousands of people behind you. Exactly.

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70.467 - 76.801 Jenna Fischer

Well, a whole lot of people said, and Kelly is not making up a song. It's Avril Lavigne's song Girlfriend.

77.382 - 84.137 Angela Kinsey

I literally can't believe I didn't catch that. I mean, I know that song. It is on multiple playlists of mine.

84.357 - 105.287 Jenna Fischer

I know it too. I don't know what I was thinking. Anyway, I went to the shooting draft. I wanted to see how it was written into the scene. As written in the script, Daryl serves. Jim gets a piece of it, but it goes flying off to the side. Kelly does a little dance. Kelly sings a la Avril Lavigne's girlfriend. Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your boyfriend.

105.768 - 125.856 Jenna Fischer

You shouldn't either because he sucks at ping pong. Okay, Pam's like, oh, fine. Here are the alts. Ready? Kelly a la Justin Timberlake's sexy back. Hey, Pam, your boyfriend sucks at ping pong. My boyfriend Daryl's bringing ping pong back. Okay? I'm so sorry.

Chapter 2: How does Michael's deposition unfold in the episode?

126.456 - 151.374 Jenna Fischer

I shouldn't be the one saying this. Here's another alt. Kelly taunts Pam a la the song Bad Day. Well, you had a bad day. Your boyfriend is lame. You got your ass kicked and you had a bad day. Anyway, then lastly, Kelly taunts Pam a la My Boyfriend's Back. My boyfriend's great and he beat your lame boyfriend. Hey now, hey now, your boyfriend lost.

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151.394 - 157.205 Angela Kinsey

I feel like they just had fun in the writer's room. We did not need four alts on this.

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157.365 - 160.33 Jenna Fischer

And I'm telling you, I'm sure Mindy crushed all of those.

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160.31 - 169.899 Angela Kinsey

Although maybe we did. Maybe it was one of those things where we didn't have the musical permission when we shot. So we had to do a bunch of alts to cover our butts.

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169.919 - 194.526 Jenna Fischer

Yeah, I bet that's it. I bet so too. Well, we also got this question about Kelly's runner of trash talking about Jim from Nicole in Montreal. Nicole says, I know the writers would write a lot of different options for characters lines. And I was wondering if Kelly had candy bag alts for her insults about Jim. Oh, Nicole, Nicole, I found a whole page of them. There were so many.

195.267 - 215.718 Jenna Fischer

So I'm just going to read you a few. In the actual episode, Kelly says, what has two skinny chicken legs and sucks at ping pong? Here are some of the alts. Your boyfriend's so pasty, they use him to put up wallpaper. Your boyfriend's so skinny, he needs snowshoes just to walk across a storm train. So silly. So specific. I know.

216.479 - 233.14 Jenna Fischer

Your boyfriend's so bad in bed, what he lacks for in size, he makes up for in speed. That's really... Wow. Wow. Here's the last one. Jim's so weak, he needs forceps to find his biceps and triceps. Okay. Okay.

233.32 - 253.158 Angela Kinsey

Well, and in this episode, Jan gives Michael's journal to her lawyer and they read from it. It's so wonderful. They also make copies of it and everyone's reading it at lunch. Well, we got a question sent in by Margaret B from New Mexico. She says, ladies loved your breakdown of the deposition.

253.298 - 264.788 Angela Kinsey

I'm curious if you were at someone's house and came across their journal, would you take a peek and read a little? Would you have read Michael's journal? My answer is no.

Chapter 3: What ping pong rivalry develops between Jim and Daryl?

265.189 - 272.556 Angela Kinsey

I have like a real strong boundary about people's privacy. I would never read somebody's journal.

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272.836 - 288.63 Jenna Fischer

Let me ask you this. If the journal was open to a page, just sitting on the desk and it's open and you're just like, oh, I need to grab a pen. And then you look and you see this open journal. Would you read it? Or would you quickly avert your eyes?

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288.77 - 309.535 Angela Kinsey

I would quickly avert my eyes. I'm that way about people's text messages, about people's photos. Like if someone's like, oh, I want to show you this picture and they get out their phone and they start scrolling their photos, I avert my eyes. just on the off chance that there's a photo in their scroll that might be embarrassing to them or that they wouldn't intend for me to see.

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309.636 - 325.523 Angela Kinsey

I wait for them to pull up the photo. And you know what else I don't do? I don't swipe. If someone is like, oh, here's, I want to show you pictures from Hawaii. And they show me a picture from Hawaii. I do not swipe to the next picture. I'm not going to just start swiping someone's phone.

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325.643 - 345.805 Jenna Fischer

I don't start willy nilly swiping. But if there was someone like Michael Scott in my life. Okay. Not just anyone. Okay. I think this is a case by case scenario. Okay. If there's a Michael Scott in my life. And I'm in his house for whatever reason. And his journal is open. And his journal is open. And it's by the pen you need.

Chapter 4: How does Kelly's smack talk impact Pam?

346.286 - 366.363 Jenna Fischer

I'm going to read it. Okay. I'm going to read it. I'm not going to take a picture of it. I'm going to read it. And then I'm going to tell all my friends about it. Okay, fair enough. But not like a nice person. But like if I'm in your house and there's something on your desk, I'm not going to look at that. I'm not going to look at that. Even if you need a pen that's right next to it?

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366.383 - 386.731 Jenna Fischer

Even if I need a pen, I will just block it with my hand as I reach across for the pen. But if it's a Michael Scott-esque person? You might need to. I might need to look at it. Okay. That's fine. Okay. Anyway, that's a very interesting question. I'm not a snoop lady. If it's out there in my face, I'm going to look at it. And who can blame you? Thank you.

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387.291 - 408.532 Jenna Fischer

Lastly, you guys, I found a great talking head by Toby in the Candy Bag Alts. It would have come right after they read from Michael's journal in the deposition. And here's what it said. I think it's so damn funny. Toby looks directly to the camera crew. God bless you. God bless you for recording this today for all time.

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Chapter 5: What role does Michael's journal play in the deposition?

411.915 - 433.391 Angela Kinsey

That does make me laugh. All right, everybody. Here is our breakdown of The Deposition. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together. And we're best friends. And now we're doing the Ultimate Office Rewatch Podcast just for you.

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433.571 - 441.703 Jenna Fischer

Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you. We're The Office Ladies.

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444.788 - 455.438 Angela Kinsey

Hello, everybody. Good morning. Today is very important. We have to do a very important legal procedure. Oh, Lord.

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455.478 - 464.235 Jenna Fischer

I was like, wait, what's happening? And then I realized you're talking about the episode. The deposition. I was like, Jenna, what do we have to do? Did I miss an email? What's happening?

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464.335 - 485.899 Angela Kinsey

No. We have a very important deposition today, Angela. It's season four, episode 12. Written by? Lester Lewis. Directed by Julian Farino. Hit me with a summary. Here it is. Michael and Jan go to corporate and Michael is deposed as a witness in Jan's wrongful termination case against Dunder Mifflin.

486.082 - 490.662 Jenna Fischer

What was Jan thinking? Why would you ever put Michael on any kind of witness stand?

491.245 - 518.039 Angela Kinsey

I don't know. I'm so glad she did. Yeah. Well, while they're gone, Jim and Daryl play ping pong in the warehouse, which sparks a rivalry between Pam and Kelly. Fast fact number one this week, Angela, is Lester Lewis, the writer of this episode. Before writing on The Office, Lester had worked on The Larry Sanders Show and Caroline in the City.

518.42 - 550.354 Angela Kinsey

He was one of the original members of our writing team going back to season one. And this is a tough one for me. And for both of us, I know Lester passed away in 2013. And I don't even know where to start. I loved him. I loved this man. We bonded over our love of autobiographical comic books. We both loved those. And I just have such fond memories of being with him. And he was so funny.

550.595 - 555.743 Angela Kinsey

And he was so just kind and warm. He was so kind.

Chapter 6: What embarrassing moments arise from Michael's testimony?

579.299 - 595.751 Jenna Fischer

And also made me sad. It was bittersweet. But if you listen to the DVD commentary for this episode, you will just hear what a thoughtful person he was. And I'll share a few of the things that he said on the commentary as we record today, Jenna. I love that. Well, lady, what is your fast fact number two?

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595.791 - 603.209 Angela Kinsey

You know, ping pong features very heavily in this episode. So I felt we needed a little history of ping pong.

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603.61 - 605.896 Jenna Fischer

Oh, my gosh. Did someone do a deep dive on ping pong?

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605.916 - 613.383 Angela Kinsey

I did. I want you to know it has two other names. Oh. Table tennis or whiff-waff.

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613.403 - 625.462 Jenna Fischer

Whiff-waff? That sounds made up. Do you want to play some whiff-waff? I'll play you some wiffle whiff-waff. Oh, dear. I'll chunk it at you. What else you got about ping pong?

625.762 - 638.061 Angela Kinsey

Ping pong began in Victorian England. I know you'll like the sound of that, Angela, in the 1880s. When lawn tennis players adapted their game to play indoors during the winter.

638.041 - 649.063 Jenna Fischer

Oh, where's my Netflix show about that? Right? Wiff Waff, episode one. The Duke of Edinburgh comes to play Wiff Waff.

650.41 - 676.21 Angela Kinsey

The game quickly caught on, and as early as 1901, tournaments were being conducted with over 300 participants. In 1902, a visiting Japanese university professor took the game back to Japan, where he introduced it to Japanese university students. The first world championships were held in London in 1927. They were won by a Hungarian, Dr. Jacoby.

676.571 - 683.239 Jenna Fischer

Congratulations! Dr. Jacoby, you go to see him for a checkup, but little do you know, he's a ping pong master.

Chapter 7: How does the episode highlight the dynamics between Jan and Michael?

766.771 - 773.466 Jenna Fischer

Maybe the penhold. I don't know. I think you do know that my husband turned our beautiful dining table into a ping pong table.

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773.682 - 783.316 Angela Kinsey

Lady, I know this. I watched this happen, and I knew you were going to regret it. You guys were real excited, and I thought, hmm, that's going to come back.

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783.637 - 787.403 Jenna Fischer

They haven't regretted it, Jenna. There's only one person that regrets it.

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787.663 - 797.518 Angela Kinsey

Can we explain what Angela did, guys? Here's what her family did. They got one of these ping pong table tops that fits over her kitchen table.

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797.898 - 808.279 Jenna Fischer

It's meant to go over a pool table, right? Yeah. Oh. It's meant to set on top of a pool table, and you just put it on top of your dining table. Of course, it doesn't fit our dining table, so it hangs off.

808.343 - 815.195 Angela Kinsey

Well, also now, guys, she has nowhere to eat. OK, Angela, this is now your dining table.

815.696 - 844.442 Jenna Fischer

It's just it's so I don't know. Josh and the kids love it. What I didn't factor in, I knew I'd be eating like awkwardly for the rest of our time. But what I didn't factor in was the bouncing ball sound. I'm talking at like 8 a.m. because they want to play a game before school starts, you know. So it's like bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank.

844.895 - 854.955 Jenna Fischer

It is non-stop. Yeah. You come down the stairs. It doesn't matter what time.

855.416 - 861.428 Angela Kinsey

You've got that and then all your appliances are beeping. Oh, don't get me started. It's so much noise.

Chapter 8: What are the final moments of the episode involving ping pong?

1078.777 - 1097.102 Jenna Fischer

After The Office, I went into development. As you know, Jenna, I wrote and I sold pilots and it was amazing. So hard because not only do you write this thing that you love, it becomes your baby. Then you have to hand it over to like studio heads and network. And they have all these notes and they just carve it up. And you're like, my baby. Yeah.

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1098.123 - 1110.46 Angela Kinsey

Guys, we love our writers. Yep. And a lot of people always ask, why was season four of The Office so much shorter than the others? And that is why. Because of the writer's strike. Yep. We made fewer episodes that year.

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1110.44 - 1131.96 Jenna Fischer

Well, Jenna, we were very lucky because our show survived the writer's strike. We both had many friends who were actors and writers and producers who were on shows, and the strike went on for so long that they weren't able to resume. So we were actually really fortunate. Yeah. Well, there you go, guys. Lady, that's all I got. I have a fun little thing. It's not a fast fact.

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1132.521 - 1156.292 Jenna Fischer

Maybe it's a Kinsey tidbit. What is it? Jenna, do you remember that Ed would do an impression of Tom Brokaw? Yes. And it would make us laugh. It was so good. It would make us laugh so hard. Okay. So what he would do is Ed, as Tom Brokaw, he would start out telling a news story and then he would tell us what our hot snack of the day was on set. Yes.

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1156.272 - 1168.209 Jenna Fischer

And there was a particular time where we had albondigas soup, and he made that into part of Tom Brokaw's news announcement. And on the DVD commentary, they were talking about it, and Ed did it.

1168.99 - 1169.09

Oh!

1170.973 - 1172.115 Jenna Fischer

Sam, will you play it?

1172.976 - 1190.516 Unknown

Could you give us the Tom Brokaw and say the magic word that makes Steve giggle? The Israelis have once again launched an all-round assault on albondigas soup. That's what keeps us going.

1192.198 - 1196.985 Angela Kinsey

Oh my gosh, what a gem. I'm so happy that has been recorded.

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