The story behind ‘The Office’ characters playing ‘Call of Duty’

Though The Office was a workplace comedy, the employees of Dunder Mifflin were rarely seen working hard. They did, however, play hard — especially when it came to games like Call of Duty.

In Season 3, Episode 3, “The Coup,” viewers check back in with the recently transferred Jim Halpert and learn that the Stamford branch is obsessed with playing Call of Duty. Jim explains that it started out as a “team building exercise,” but then the office wound up playing all the time — like, in the middle of the workday with the lights off and the blinds closed.

On the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast, former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey shared behind-the-scenes tidbits from “The Coup,” including the story behind that Call of Duty plot line. Turns out, it was inspired by a real-life love of the game on set.

To get the scoop on all things Call of Duty, Fischer reached out to producer Kent Zbornak, editor Dean Holland, and actor Ed Helms (Andy Bernard). Kinsey consulted the DVD commentary of the episode as well, and together they compiled an impressively thorough explanation behind the game’s appearance.

“Kent told me that after we wrapped Season 1 of the show the post-production guys moved to some offices in Venice to edit the episodes,” Fischer began. She said that while they were in the new offices, Zbornak installed Call of Duty on everyone’s computers “so they could blow off steam during edit sessions.”

“When we moved to our new stages for Season 2, [Zbornak] did it again, but this time he also installed it on all of the writer’s computers, and that’s when the editors and writers started playing one another,” Fischer continued. “They did exactly what Stamford did. They would turn off the lights and have this elaborate match going on.”

Fischer proceeded to share that showrunner (and director of “The Coup”) Greg Daniels was “particularly obsessed” with the game, and he had been wanting to work it into the show for a while. 

“Our editor Dean Holland told me that the very first time he met with Greg to start editing an episode —within about 10 minutes Greg said, ‘Have you ever played Call of Duty?’ Dean said, ‘yeah,’ and Greg left the room and started a 20-person game within 10 minutes,” Fischer said.

Though it’s delightful to watch the Stamford branch spend an entire day of work playing Call of Duty, particularly observant fans of the show will notice one major inconsistency.

In “The Coup,” it’s revealed that Jim is absolutely awful at Call of Duty. Multiple people are seen killing him in the game, he gets stuck in a corner, tries to shoot with a smoke grenade, and even gets called into a meeting with Stamford Regional Manager Josh Porter to discuss his poor in-game performance.

In case that wasn’t proof enough, Jim also says, “Unfortunately I really suck at it” when explaining the game to the documentary crew. But there’s a problem with his lack of skills.

Back in Season 2, Episode 9, “Email Surveillance,” Jim throws a barbecue at his home and a Call of Duty expansion pack is spotted on his desk. That detail would lead one to believe that he was decent at the game, or at the very least, familiar with it. But apparently not! What gives, Halpert?

When explaining the plot inconsistency, Fischer revealed that Jim’s varied Call of Duty skillset was actually not lost on the writers. 

“Kent told me that the writers had a card up on the wall in the writer’s room all through Season 2 about a possible Call of Duty storyline. But they couldn’t really ever figure out how to put it in,” she said. “They had originally thought about doing something in ‘Email Surveillance.’ And if you remember, Angela, we did actually shoot some scenes where people were playing Call of Duty during Jim’s party, but it wasn’t a storyline.”

When Jim transferred to Stamford, the writers finally felt like they could create a full Call of Duty plot line, and “they had to just live with the fact that there had been this tiny appearance of Call of Duty earlier,” Fischer continued. “They had so wanted a full Call of Duty story that they just went with it and [said] ‘it’s worth it.'”

Kinsey went on to reveal that when listening to the DVD commentary for the episode, she learned that Rashida Jones actually got lessons on how to play the game from the writers. “As soon as she got the job they started teaching her how to play Call of Duty, which cracks me up,” Kinsey said. “And John actually had something really sweet to say in the commentary. He said that going to the Stamford branch, all of those actors had never worked together before, and that playing Call of Duty with one another was actually a really fun icebreaker to get to know everyone.”

Ed Helms shared a similar sentiment with Fischer. “[Helms] said they all played with the writers and it was really, really fun,” she said. “And he told me that they also played for real on set. They were really playing during those scenes, and then when they would cut they would just keep playing.”

As for the best player on set, to this day that remains highly debated.

“I don’t think any of the actors were very good. Ed said he didn’t remember anyone being particularly great, including himself,” Fischer said. “Kent told me that he was the best player when they started, but that during the editing phase of Season 1, when they were in Venice, co-producer Angie Hamilton was the best.”

“Dean told me that during Season 2 he and writer Mike Schur were the best. They were at the top of the leaderboard,” she continued. “He said they got so into it that they took it over Parks and Rec when they moved over there, and they played it every day on Parks and Rec.”

So there you have it, everyone. Add this to the list of Office plot lines that were inspired by real-life experiences.

Be sure to listen to the full episode of Office Ladies for an entire recap of “The Coup.” You can stream episodes of The Office on Netflix and follow along with the podcast every week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.