1. Fire Drill
Could anything else be number 1? In Season 5’s Stress Relief, when Dwight fails at teaching fire safety using PowerPoint, he decides to teach by experience. He locks all the door and makes sure they can’t be opened, and then creates a small fire. This leads to a panic in the office as they think they’re trapped in there and that the building is on fire. And by panic, I mean complete and utter chaos, with some hilarious results. Michael is the one that panics the most, while Kevin tries to save all the snacks in the vending machine.
Angela tries to save her cat by throwing it up into the air ducts, only for it to fall back down from the other side. Andy screams out nonsense while Dwight tries to scream out the rules everyone should be following. There’s pushing and breaking of things as everyone tries to find a way out. Eventually, Dwight stops the entire thing and lets everyone know it wasn’t real. But before anyone can say anything, Stanley falls down with a heart attack, while Michael tries to save him by letting him know that “Barack is President!” Not only is this the best cold open, it’s one of the best moments of The Office.
So, there you have it folks. These are my favorite cold opens from the show, and it looks like Season 5 was its golden age. But let’s be honest, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The Office is filled with so many good ones, it’d be hard to go wrong with any of them. Hopefully we’ll get a great one for the finale.
What do you think are the best cold opens of The Office? Let us know in the comments, as always.
