'The Office' Pulls an Early April Fool's Joke

Zap2It.com | March 31, 2006

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Fake 'More You Know' PSAs cover bears, office dating

LOS ANGELES -- For years, NBC's "The More You Know" public service announcements have been encouraging us to read to our kids and celebrate our diversity . But until Thursday night, they hadn't told us how to deal with a bear attack.

Fortunately, thanks to Dwight Schrute, we now know that "when attacked by a bear, simply lie still on the ground and cover your face and head with your hands. When the bears finish batting you around and mauling you, contact the U.S. Forest Service."

That helpful bit of information and several others were part of an early April Fool's joke the cast and crew of "The Office" played Thursday. Five of the fake spots, covering inter-office dating, whether 5-foot-9 is short and other topics, aired during NBC's comedy block. Those spots and about a dozen others are also online on "The Office's" page at NBC.com.

Executive producer Greg Daniels says the idea for the joke grew out of "how some people sing, 'The more you know,' when they hear weird pieces of information. Kind of the way Michael Scott [Steve Carell's 'Office' character] says, 'That's what she said,' whenever he can work it in."

Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, B.J. Novak and Mindy Kaling shot the PSAs a couple of weeks ago, just before the show wrapped production for the season.

"We decided to produce these as if NBC went directly to the characters and asked for their advice, and then we're putting them online as a little fun extra for the fans," Daniels says. Hopefully, by further popularizing the phrase 'The More You Know,' we will help make addressing the camera in front of a concrete wall the only acceptable way of transmitting information in the future."