I finished watching The Office all the way through for the fourth time recently, so like any fan of the series, I decided to start it all over again. This time as I go through each season, I am putting together a ranked list of each episode in that season in order from my least favorite to my favorite. Keep in mind that these are MY opinions, which means they are 100% correct. Just kidding. Sort of. I’ve already ranked Season 1 & 2 episodes, so let’s move on to another fantastic season, Season 3:

23. Grief Counseling: Episode 4

More of a downer than a funny episode, Michael discovers that his old boss Ed Truck died. Really struggling to cope with it, he holds a grief counseling session in the office to encourage people to share their experiences losing someone, to which they start making up things from movies. In Stamford, the episode revolves around Jim making it his personal mission to find a sold-out bag of chips that Karen wants, because it’s becoming known the two are developing a thing for each other. Season 3 is really good, but the first several episodes start out a little slow and this may be the slowest one.

22. Ben Franklin: Episode 14

I’ve never really found this episode that funny. In preparation for Phyllis’s wedding, Michael hires two strippers to come to the office for the office bachelor parties…except the male “stripper” wasn’t a stripper at all and was a guy dressed as Ben Franklin prepared to narrate his life. The interactions between him and the women were dull and not entertaining. The woman stripper wasn’t received to well by the guys, as nobody was interested. Jim and Karen are going through sort of a rough patch and Karen questions Pam about possible feelings for Jim. Nothing is very funny in this one except at the end when Dwight is trying to question Ben Franklin to prove to himself he isn’t the real Ben Franklin.

21. Cocktails: Episode 17

This is another episode that took place outside the office, but in two separate places. The first, at David Wallace’s house for a cocktail party where Michael and Jan went public with their relationship. Things were awkward between the two, but not really in a funny way. The funniest scenes here, and the whole episode, revolved around Dwight. Giving the house a strong examination to make sure the structural foundations were good and his interaction with another person at the party, “Do you watch Battlestar Galactica? No? Well then, you are an idiot.” That was hilarious. The other place was at Poor Richard’s Pub, where the rest of the office met for happy hour. They were all having a good time until Pam tells Roy about her casino night secret, leading Roy to flip out and the two breaking up again.

20. Gay Witch Hunt: Episode 1

The first episode of Season 3 is more informative than comical, so while it’s not the funniest, it is important. We learn that the answer to the end of Season 2 was “no,” that Pam and Roy split up, that Jim is adjusting to life in Stamford, that he and Pam already miss each other’s company, Ryan got promoted to a salesman, and that Phyllis is engaged to Bob Vance. We are introduced to Andy (who is a great character of the show) and Karen, even though we don’t find out too much about them except that Andy went to Cornell and he has anger issues. Most of the episode revolved around the office finding out that Oscar was gay, which made for a lot of awkward moments. Not the greatest episode, but informative and set the stage for the third season.

19. The Negotiation: Episode 18

After the episode begins with Roy storming into the office to hurt Jim, we learn that Roy was fired from the company and we wonder what’s next for Pam. Most of the episode centers around the desire for a pay raise. It started with Darryl, but after he found out that Michael barely made more money than him, he urged him to go to Jan for his raise. The funniest part was Michael unknowingly wearing a women’s suit in the office and everyone giving him a hard time about it. Overall, it’s not the best episode, but it’s not the worst. In certain ways, it creates intrigue for what’s next around the office.

18. Phyllis’s Wedding: Episode 15

Michael’s obnoxiousness takes over the show in this episode, and it’s one of the few times where it actually takes away from the quality. It’s Phyllis’s big day, but Michael wants to be the center of attention at all times and it gets a little annoying. But there were some funny parts such as Creed taking off someone else’s name tag from a wedding gift and putting his name on the gift instead, Dwight looking for potential wedding crashers, Kevin and Scrantonicity playing, and Ryan jumping in front of Kelly to swat away the wedding bouquet when it comes her way. Overall though, it was a below-average episode for a very good third season.

17. The Coup: Episode 3

I’m not a big fan of Dwight going behind Michael’s back to Jan, telling her that he’d be a better branch manager than Michael. I’m also not a real big fan of the way Michael tried trap Dwight into admitting he did it, once he found out from Jan. It wasn’t funny and was a little weird. But this episode did have several funny parts. The two funniest being when Josh and Andy have their Call of Duty team meeting and they get mad at Jim for using a sniper rifle, who is absolutely clueless; the other when Jan walks in on the office watching Varsity Blues on “Movie Monday” and Michael obliviously says, “Hey Jan, hope you brought milk duds.”

16. Business School: Episode 16

Michael is thrilled when Ryan invites him to speak at one of his business school classes for extra credit, but unbeknownst to Michael, Ryan talks negatively about Dunder-Mifflin to the class before Michael enters the room. Like you would imagine, Michael gives “wise words” to the class that are pretty funny before he storms out and tells the class to “suck it” after discovering that Ryan talked down about the company. That was hilarious. The bat in the office scene had some decent parts, the best when Dwight traps it in a trash bag along with Meredith’s head. Nobody attending, or appreciating, Pam’s art show is kind of a downer though.

15. Traveling Salesmen: Episode 12

This episode had some funny parts, such as Dwight preparing for a sales call by playing air guitar in the backseat to “Kickstart My Heart” cranked up, Stanley making fun of Ryan’s attempted lead on their sales call, and Michael throwing Phyllis’s keys under her car to delay them on the “amazing race” of sales calls. But Andy was beyond annoying the whole episode in his attempt to get Michael to turn against Dwight. It finally worked at the end with Dwight quitting, a scene I’ve never particularly cared for.

14. Back From Vacation: Episode 11

As the title suggests, Michael is back from his Jamaican vacation and we find out he took Jan, since Carol had broken up with him. But as Michael usually does, he let’s out that secret by accidentally sending a topless photo of Jan and himself to the warehouse department, who then forwards the email to pretty much everyone else. Scared that Jan was on the receiving end of one of those emails, Michael was terrified even further when he found out Jan was stopping by the office to talk to him, which was pretty funny. The warehouse crew applauded and put up a huge banner of the photo in the warehouse, and Kevin even took it home with him at the end of the day which was hilarious.

13. Women’s Appreciation: Episode 21

After Phyllis gets flashed in the parking lot before work, Michael sets up a “women’s appreciation” day in the office. As you can imagine, this creates a lot of funny Michael scenes as he tries, but fails, to make things better. Creed also gives us a classic line of, “If that’s flashing, then lock me up.” Dwight is hilarious in this episode as he heads up his own investigation to catch the flasher. And when Pam draws a photograph of the guy “from Phyllis’s description,” she draws Dwight’s face with a mustache and without glasses. Dwight’s reaction to the drawing? “We’re gonna nail this pervert!”

12. The Merger: Episode 8

When the Scranton branch takes on some of the employees from the dissolved Stamford branch, Michael tries his best to make them feel at home on their first day, but you know that won’t go well. His antics even cause Tony to quit on his first day in the new office. The best part of Michael’s welcoming, and the entire episode, is the “Lazy Scranton” welcome video he and Dwight put together, rapping about the city of Scranton. “Scranton, WHAT? The electric city!” The instant rivalry that develops between Andy and Dwight is entertaining as well, and you can tell it will keep getting better and better going forward. I didn’t really like the disconnection between Jim and Pam, after Jim made his come-back to Scranton, but at the same time you can’t blame Jim for being a little disconnected. Not a bad episode at all, but it’s more of a set-up episode for future episodes.

11. The Convention: Episode 2

This episode takes place mostly out of the office at a Philadelphia office-supply convention. Michael and Dwight go to represent Scranton and Jim and Josh go to represent Stamford. The first time Jim has seen the two Scranton employees since he left, it creates some funny moments as Michael is jealous and tries to create competition to show Jim he is better than Josh. The paper airplane challenge and the meeting with Jerome Bettis were both funny. “Why do they call him The Bus?” “Because he’s afraid to fly.” And of course the most memorable line from this episode was Michael’s, “I love inside jokes…I’d love to be a part of one someday.”

10. The Return: Episode 13

This is a pretty solid episode overall. Oscar returned from his company settlement vacation, got thrown a Mexican party, Dwight returned to the office after quitting and working at Staples, and Jim and Pam played a prank on Andy by hiding his phone in the ceiling. Speaking of Andy, he continues his annoying streak, irritating everyone around the office, especially Michael. It’s hilarious to watch him overreact and punch a hole in the wall after the phone prank. The scenes with Dwight working at Staples is pretty funny as well. I’ve also always loved seeing Michael’s car get dumped with snow throughout the day after his convertible top wouldn’t go up at the beginning of the episode. On a more serious note, Karen found out from Jim he still had feelings for Pam near the end of the episode, which you can tell will set up a little future drama.

9. The Job: Episode 23

This doesn’t have the amount of funny scenes as a lot of episodes, but it’s a good one, nonetheless. There’s a lot going on with Michael, Jim, and Karen all going to New York to interview for the corporate job. Michael and Jan get back together, Michael finds out the job he’s interviewing for is Jan’s, Dwight takes over as regional manager for the day since Michael chose him and he thought he would be moving to New York, Michael comes back to Scranton, Jim leaves his interview and comes back to Scranton to ask Pam out on a date, and Ryan accepts the corporate position in New York. The scene at the end with Jim and Pam is one of the ultimate feel-good scenes and also sets the narrative for their relationship for the remainder of the series. Because of that scene alone, this episode will stand out to fans of The Office after watching the entire series, which says everything I need to say. Also don’t forget to visit www.creedthoughts.gov.www/creedthoughts

8. Branch Closing: Episode 7

An extremely up and down day for the employees at Dunder-Mifflin, the Scranton branch goes from being told their branch is closing to finding out it will actually be the Stamford branch that is closing. Jim and Pam are both trying to figure out if they will be reunited throughout the episode, while Jim tells Karen she should come to Scranton if she gets offered a position there. I love everyone’s different reactions in the Scranton office when they think their branch is closing: Stanley loves the news, Kelly is torn apart about possibly being separated from Ryan, Ryan is relieved to have an excuse to separate from Kelly, Pam is optimistic, Roy is down about no longer being able to work with Pam, Toby is looking forward to moving to Costa Rica, and Creed is selling all of his company-owned computer hardware to make some fast cash. Michael and Dwight team up to drive to David Wallace’s house to convince him to keep the Scranton branch, just to wait around for him all day/night. It’s a good episode in a bit of a different way than usual, in that it’s more of a feel-good episode than comical. You really get to see how much the employees care about one another and working with each other, even though you wouldn’t think it watching other episodes.

7. Product Recall: Episode 20

This is a really good episode with a lot of funny scenes. The opening where Jim comes in dressed and acting like Dwight is a classic one. “Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica!” The company is in hot water after paper gets distributed to a lot of clients with an obscene image on it. When everyone at the office scrambles to fix things it gets hilarious. Creed was gold with his scape-goating abilities when he failed at doing his job. Andy finds out the girl he’s dating is a high schooler when he and Jim are at the school to apologize for the obscene image. Michael’s makes an apology video and also has his public apology to one of Dunder-Mifflin’s clients go awry. It’s all very funny and classic season 3.

6. Beach Games: Episode 22

This one’s a really fun episode where the office staff goes to nearby Lake Scranton for “beach day.” Unknown to the employees at first, the games that Michael has them competing in are to help determine who will be the best candidate to replace him as regional manager when Michael takes a corporate job. The games provide a lot of laughter, such as the hot dog eating contest, sumo wrestling, hot coal walk, and the egg-in-the-spoon race. Combined with the funny moments are a few serious ones such as Michael telling everyone he’ll be leaving his position, Jim telling Michael he’ll also be interviewing for the corporate position, and Pam’s moment of honesty at the end. I’ve always loved when Pam walked over the hot coals by herself and then ran over to the group to get some feelings off her chest. This is a very good episode.

5. Initiation: Episode 5

Really good episode here. Ryan is excited about finally getting to go on his first sales call, under Dwight’s wing, but Dwight secretly takes him to his farm for a series of initiation-type tasks, which makes for several funny scenes. Back at the office it’s Pretzel Day and Stanley LOVES PRETZEL DAY! “I wake up every morning in a bed that’s too small, drive my daughter to a school that’s too expensive, and then I go to work to a job for which I get paid too little. But on pretzel day? Well, I like pretzel day.” It’s one of his most memorable quotes throughout the entire series. In Stamford, Jim, Karen, and Andy deal with a squeaky chair, trying not to be the one who ends up with it, which is pretty humorous.

4. Safety Training: Episode 19

I’ve always enjoyed this episode a lot. It’s one where Michael acts childish throughout it, but it causes it to be hilarious. Forced to hold a safety training in the workplace because of a stunt Michael pulled on Darryl that left him on crutches, there’s nothing but funny scenes…the warehouse guys all getting annoyed with Michael, Creed not noticing his apple was switched with a potato, Dwight’s shunning of Andy, the watermelon drop on Stanley’s car, and all the other scenes with Michael preparing for his safety training visual “jump” off the office building. There’s also plenty of memorable lines including “I Braveheart,” “When someone gives you 10,000-1 odds, you always take it,” and “Dwight you ignorant slut!”

3. The Convict: Episode 9

When Michael and the office discover that one of their new employees from the Stamford branch had a criminal past, nothing but funny scenes followed. Especially when Michael found out it was the one black person out of all the new people and then unnecessarily made the situation that much more awkward for everyone. Once Martin started describing prison life to everyone and people started claiming prison sounded better than Dunder-Mifflin, a very dismayed Michael had to fix that belief and gave us my favorite Michael character throughout the entire series, Prison Mike. Hearing Prison Mike describe life in the “clink” was one of the classic Office scenes in my opinion. Overall great episode that provided plenty of laughs.

2. Diwali: Episode 6

This episode takes place out of the office at a Hindu festival (Diwali) that Kelly invites everyone to. Michael makes the night memorable by taking center stage and asking Carol to marry him in front of everybody. Everyone is stunned and speechless because they’ve only been dating for several weeks, and things get really awkward. Kelly’s parents disapprove of her dating Ryan because he’s not successful, so it’s funny when her parents ask Ryan about what he’s saving up his money for and he replies, “Uh, traveling. And an Xbox.” I enjoy the scenes at Stamford too, where Jim, Andy, and Karen have to stay late to consolidate order forms, so they take shots while working and Jim and Andy start singing “Closer to Fine” by the Indigo Girls.

1. A Benihana Christmas: Episode 10

This 42-minute Christmas special is a classic Office episode and is possibly the best episode in the entire series. There are so many funny scenes in this one it’s impossible to count them. Michael gets his heart broken at the beginning of the episode by Carol, but attempts to bounce back with an Asian Benihana waitress that he cannot even tell apart from the other waitress they also brought back from the restaurant to the party. The Office Christmas party was a lot of fun to watch with karaoke from several of the employees and Kevin belting out Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.” The Office always did Christmas episodes right, and this one is nearly flawless.

Garett

The Office: Season Three Episodes (Ranked)