The Office was so funny to film that actors frequently broke down in laughter on set.
By now, that statement is a universally known truth amongst fans. But learning new lines and scenes that caused the actors to break character never gets old. On a recent episode of Stitcher's Office Ladies podcast, co-hosts Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted about two such instances from the Season 6 episode "The Delivery."
The two-part episode shows Pam (Fischer) going into labor in the office, refusing to leave for the hospital for a very long time, and eventually giving birth to JAM's first child, Cecelia Marie Halpert, aka Cece. Before they got to shoot those hospital scenes, however, the cast shared some hearty laughs back at the office.
We've heard about other giggle-inducing scenes from the "Women's Appreciation" episode, "Money," and "Branch Wars." And who could forget that John Krasinski and Rainn Wilson laughed so hard filming "Lecture Circuit: Part 1" that the show shut down production for 20 minutes? But here are two moments from "The Delivery, Part 1" that made The Office cast break.
The Kevin line that made the whole office cackle
There's a conference room scene in "The Delivery, Part 1" where Michael (Steve Carell) tries to distract Pam from her worsening contractions. He asks employees to come up with a list of things that make people go into labor, so they can do the opposite to slow Pam's labor down. Classic.
Michael shares that he once heard nipple stimulation can move labor along, so he starts by asking nobody touch Pam's nipples. But Kevin's suggestion, or rather Brian Baumgartner's delivery of the suggestion, is what sent the room into a comedic uproar.
"Kevin throws out spicy foods," Kinsey explains. "Yeah. Because one of the things that can induce labor is eating spicy foods," Fischer adds.
After Kevin said, "Eat spicy foods," Michael asked, "What is the opposite of that?"
Fischer explains that in the shooting draft, Kevin was supposed to say, "shove spicy food up her butt." But on the day of filming the line changed. "On the day, there was the pitch that Kevin say, "make spicy food come out of her," and that so tickled us that we couldn't get through it," she said.
Fischer and Kinsey played three takes from the bloopers that proved they truly couldn't stop laughing on set. After the last clip played, she laughed and said, "By that point we were just all anticipating it."
Steve Carell's unintelligible pep talk
Later in the episode, the Dunder Mifflin men are attempt to comfort Pam by placing their hands on her stomach and delivering a pep talk. Shortly after that touching moment, Carell delivered another line that made the room burst into giggles.
"I absolutely love this next scene in the break room. Pam is determined to have her ultra feast with Kevin, and Jim is like, 'No, it's time to go to the hospital,'" Kinsey recapped. "Michael's like, 'It's time to go to the hospital.' And Pam just loses it and is like, 'I'm not going! I'm not going.' And then she finally admits she's scared to go. And all the men in the room put their hands on her belly and give her a pep talk."
"This was one of my favorite scenes to shoot of all time on The Office," Fischer said. "I think my favorite thing is that Kevin is there. It made it even funnier. He is the straight man in the scene."
"I know! How crazy is that?" Kinsey asked. "Jenna, as I watched it, I loved your performance so much. I also don't know how you kept a straight face. Because when they all put their hands on Pam's pregger belly and they were like, 'You got this,' they were being so sincere, but they were all touching Pam's belly."
"Believe it or not, that is not the moment that made us break," Fischer said. "We were able to get through that...But the moment we couldn't get through is when Jim is freaking out and Michael kind of pins him up against the door and says, 'Hold it together!' Every time Steve did that line a little bit more like [unintelligible noises]. Like he did a weird take on it."
"Michael's saying, 'Hold it together!' but he's clearly losing it," Kinsey laughed. "It's so funny. I love the chaos in the moment, too. Oh, man."
"We had so much fun doing that scene. I don't even think we wanted it to end," Fischer said. "They probably have so much footage from it because we were so milking it."
Be sure to check out the full podcast episode to hear more behind-the-scenes stories about filming the episode, "The Delivery, Part 1."
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