Michael Scott (The Office) - That's What She Said

That's What She Said

The show often uses the joke, "that's what she said" which was popularized by the Wayne's World sketch on Saturday Night Live. In the original BBC version of The Office, Ricky Gervais's character David Brent frequently used the similar phrase "as the actress said to the bishop" as an inappropriate joke. Michael inserts the phrase as a sexually suggestive double entendre even in the most inappropriate circumstances, including business meetings and legal depositions. Michael finds uttering the phrase so irresistible that in "Sexual Harassment" he is goaded into saying it just seconds after Jan Levenson and a lawyer from Corporate specifically ask him not to do so. The phrase has become so associated with the character that the television show 30 Rock in the episode "TGS Hates Women" there was a scene in which Liz Lemon became infuriated at another character's use of 'TWSS' because "Steve Carell owns 'That's What She Said,' okay? He owns it!" In the episode, "Goodbye, Michael", "that's what she said" was Steve Carell's final (inaudible) line as a series regular.