The Office has always been about the underdog, about regular people that we could identify with, about commiserating with mediocrity. Even with outrageous story lines, like how Erin is still employed and when Kevin’s speech pattern deteriorates to grunts and Hulk-esque sentences, the root of the show is that we all know someone like Phyllis, or Andy, or Oscar.
Early in the episode Dwight is teaching the office about the new Saber product, the Pyramid. A clunky, awkward, unnecessary device clearly trying to pry eyes off the sleek Ipad. Andy interrupts the meeting to ask what tie he should wear, a page right out of the Michael Scott managing handbook. It is here where Dwight announces he is done; done trying to be the best damn salesman at Dunder Mifflin, done trying to obtain authority, done trying. He’ll just sit and make brownies while watching the company fall. With a perfectly picked tie on, Andy greets California with a cringe inducing “Hi Dad.” Eeeesh. California proceeds to give a legitimately effective pep talk to he crew. He says big corporations are terrified of Dunder Mifflin, the underdog, because when it is all said and done people with questions will want to be treated like people, ask questions and ask for help. They will say thank you and appreciate their personal experience, and with this Robert California receives a thunderous round of applause. He leaves them with the mission to double sales, and to do it quickly. With no further direction he urges Andy to inspire his team, and as smoothly as he entered, he leaves the office.
Phyllis points out that there was no button to double sales, if so it would have been pushed years ago. What they need are new leads, new territory, some direction. Andy blanks and when he is unable to produce any of those things, devises a point based incentive program. Fifty points gets you a vibrator! Twenty-five gets you a teddy bear! Conflicting prizes, to say the least. Jim “hypothetically” asks what hey get if they receive five hundred points, and Andy says that won’t happen, but if it does he will come to work in a dress. One thousand? Well, he’ll run around the parking lot naked. Five thousand?! Why, he’ll get a tattoo on his ass! With this the crowd explodes in cheers and Jim says “Well there’s our incentive, let’s get to work”.
The office buzzes with excitement and efficiency the likes of Dunder Mifflin has never seen before. Stanley is working through nap time, Creed is standing up, it’s like opposite day! By the end of the day they have reached their goal, as Erin illustrates with a thermometer graph of Andy’s backside. In one day. Pam reveals a sketchbook of ideas for the tattoo, and Andy nervously laughs along, all the way to the tattoo parlor. Jim confides that no one expects him to go through with it, the important part is that the incentive program worked as he was again able to get his team through a rough patch and seemingly impossible task. With the knowledge that no one expects him to go through with it, and the high off the approval of his office workers, he pulls his pants down and flops onto the tattoo chair.
At the last minute Pam shows the artist a new sketch, and Andy flinches and screams as the needle begins to buzz and the crowd goes wild. At the end of it all he walks out of the shop, his arms draped around Jim. He pulls down his pants and the tattoo is revealed to him; it’s a Nard puppy! An adorable dog with a cape and a love me do smile. Robert California’s voiceover explains why he really hired Andy; the world loves an underdog. An underdog can inspire the mediocre, and that’s all we can hope to be, inspired.
