Stress Relief - Cultural References

Cultural References

Just before Dwight starts his fire simulation, he said his co-workers previously failed to listen because he made a presentation on the computer program Microsoft PowerPoint, of which he said, "PowerPoint is boring". Michael refers to Barack Obama, the first African American president of the United States, to Stanley while he is suffering a heart attack by shouting, "Stanley! Barack is president! You are black! Stanley!" A deleted scene further addresses Obama's election, with Michael praising the choice and Darryl, with Darryl half-jokingly telling the Caucasian office workers what will change for them (they no longer have to pretend to like jazz, and Morgan Freeman won't get any more acting work because "he's more for you guys"). Michael calls an employee from the Red Cross, an international humanitarian movement, to conduct a lesson about CPR. The instructor suggests they pump the heart to the tune of "Stayin' Alive", a disco song by the pop band, the Bee Gees, but Michael mixes the song up with I Will Survive . At the end of the lesson, Dwight cuts the face off the CPR dummy and places it on his face in the manner of Hannibal Lecter, a fictional cannibalistic serial killer who cut the face off a man and wore it as a mask in the 1991 thriller film, The Silence of the Lambs. Watching Mrs. Albert Hannaday, Andy says the Cloris Leachman character was originally supposed to be played by the much younger actress, Nicole Kidman, and the last-minute replacement prompted a minor overhaul in the film's script. The songs "You Make My Dreams Come True" by Hall and Oates, "All Out of Love" by the soft rock duo Air Supply, "Have a Little Faith in Me" by singer-songwriter John Hiatt, and "Lady" by Little River Band play during scenes in Mrs. Albert Hannaday.

Michael describes the roast as an event in the style of televised comedy specials that air on the cable network, Comedy Central. In describing the upcoming roast, Michael says he plans to call YouTube, an online video sharing website, to record the event. During the roast, Pam says Michael's penis is so small, "If it were an iPod, it would be a Shuffle", a reference to the smallest of the Apple Inc. portable media player brands. Kelly said she would rather kiss Lord Voldemort, the hideous antagonist of the Harry Potter novels and films, than Michael. Andy sings a song about Michael, "What I Hate About You", to the tune of the rock song by The Romantics, "What I Like About You". Angela makes a joke, "If you put sunblock on a window, you might be Michael Scott", which is modeled after the "you might be a redneck" one-liner jokes by comedian Jeff Foxworthy. While roasting his co-workers at the end of the episode, Michael says to Andy, "Cornell called and they think you suck", a reference to Cornell University, the Ithaca, New York college the Andy character attended.