The US Office: 10 Best Episodes Of All Time

The award of the best episode of The Office goes to the one that contains one of the best cold opens in television history. Technically two episodes, Stress Relief, opens with impromptu fire safety drill that involves his co-workers scrambling through the workplace to escape a real fire that Dwight has started in a small wastepaper bin. The segment is hilarious for its entirety (4 minutes and 33 seconds) and even manages to create humour when Stanley suffers a heart attack because of the intense fire drill.

The episode does not take its foot off the accelerator once the credit roles either, as the repercussions of Dwight’s actions now forming the backbone of the episode. Dwight is reprimanded by Corporate and all the staff are made to undergo first aid training. The show was always masterful at creating comedy in the most mundane of situations that many office workers found themselves in and this episode is no exception. The first aid training goes as well as anyone could expect and ends with Dwight carving the face off the training dummy before parading around the conference room wearing the face as a mask, a la Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.

While the episode lacks some of the emotional moments that the series was known for, it more than made up for that in pure comedy and is therefore the best episode that The Office has to offer.