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This week’s episode of “The Office” delves into the sensitive issue of racial politics. Sort of.

The episode begins with Michael Scott bursting into Dunder Mifflin Scranton demanding ideas for what to write in the wet cement outside. Jim suggests that if he were “a real star” he would stick his face in it. Naturally, Michael loves the idea. The ensuing cement ceremony involves tin foil, an excessive amount of Vaseline, and a small drinking straw for Michael to breathe through. Definitely toxic.

Post face-in-cement ceremony, Michael calls a meeting to get ideas on how to energize the staff. Andy suggests a new and exciting outgoing answering machine message. Michael loves it and wants to go with an “urban theme.” As expected, he looks to Stanley Hudson for suggestions. Stanley, however, has been sick of the black stereotype for about 3 seasons now, so he declines, and when Michael won’t back down he yells out, “did I stutter?!”

Toby, in his typical SuperHuman Resources Man manner, wants this confrontation dealt with, but Michael insists that this is how friends joke with each other (i.e. “Hey you’re poor.” “Hey you’re momma’s dead.”). That’s just how it works. Dwight suggests putting the emergency plan (illustrated by an amazing chart emblazoned with the name “Dwight Schrute” in gigantic letters at the top) into motion, which gives him authority over absolutely everyone in the office, but Michael refuses, instead opting to ask stock worker Darryl Philbin (the only other black person he knows) for advice.

Michael asks Darryl if he’s ever been in a gang and Darryl claims he’s been in all of them, including the Latin Kings and The Newsies. When asked how gangs deal with confrontation, Darryl explains a method called “fluffy fingers”, wherein if someone gets in your face, you just start tickling them. Michael is fascinated, but in the end decides to go with his own strategy: “fake firing” Stanley (”it’s like a mock execution“).

Meanwhile, Andy is putting his X-Terra up for sale, which he claims can help anyone get girls because so many females also drive X-Terras. Dwight manipulates Andy into selling him the car for super cheap, and then proceeds to vigorously wash the car in a provocative manner and put it up on Ebay in an effort to sell it for a lot more money. Needless to say, Andy’s pissed.

Former employee and present superior, Ryan Howard, also makes an obligatory appearance in Scranton to give Jim a formal warning about his performance. This warning turns out to have been orchestrated by Toby due to his creepy stalker-level crush on Pam which caused him to scale a fence in last week’s episode. Guess that Costa Rica relocation didn’t work out for him.

The fake firing doesn’t go so well, even though Michael uses the genius line, “you are fired like a heart attack”, which you know he’s been waiting for months to whip out. Stanley unleashes a tirade calling Michael, among other things, a “professional idiot”. This results in Michael sending everyone outside where Kevin expresses his excitement by exclaiming that “you have Michael in one corner and he’s mad, you have Stanley in the other corner and he’s mad…and that’s about it.”

In the end, Stanley agrees to at least fake respect towards Michael. In Michael’s closing interview he claims that he “is a good person and sometimes good people get no respect-Rodney Dangerfield.” This is followed by poor impressions of Rodney Dangerfield, Jeff Foxworthy (”if you don’t get no respect, you know you’re a redneck”), and an indistinguishable Asian person. Yeah he should definitely stick to selling paper.

This week, The Office cameras follow the recently bachelor-ed Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute on a mission to find women in New York City, while their co-workers spend an evening trapped in their all too familiar place of employment.

The episode opens in an unfortunate manner for Michael Scott as usual as he reveals that he got gum in his hair attempting to look at “something shiny”. Dwight uses peanut butter in an effort to remove it which turns into a totally creepy peanut butter head massage. (Side note: who knew you could use peanut butter to get gum out of your hair? The Office: hilarious AND educational.)

Moving on. Everyone’s favourite corporate lackey, Ryan Howard, makes a trip out to his “favourite” Dunder Mifflin branch and calls a meeting to explain why the team has to work on a Saturday (to compensate for problems caused by his brainchild website: Dunder Mifflin Infinity). We learn that the site’s social networking section was infiltrated by sexual predators (Creed’s a fan of the website for the record), and Kelly goes off on her usual rant towards Ryan (”First of all, how dare you?!”).

Before Ryan departs, Michael asks him to set him up with some New York City girls (because as he poetically claims earlier, “it’s not the horniness, it’s the loneliness.”) Ryan declines but tells Michael he wouldn’t believe the girls he gets in the clubs in the big city (I’m thinking rohypnol plays a role). Later, Michael recruits Dwight to go clubbing with him in NYC (because when I think wingman, I definitely think THIS GUY.

Our heroes make it to the Big Apple and meet up with Ryan at a club called Prerogative. Michael observes that the club is full of “hot babies”, which Dwight sees as “a fire hazard.” Ryan welcomes them with a drunken hug and introduces the guys to his friend Troy who Dwight accurately notes bears a strong resemblance to a hobbit.

Meanwhile, back at the office, Jim has the bright idea that if the Scranton gang works a few extra hours tonight they can avoid coming in on Saturday. This idea blows up in his face however, when he forgets to tell the security guard (Hank) that they will be working late and they’re locked in. Unfortunately, Dwight has both of the spare keys and Pam reveals that when she asked him what happens if he dies, he responded, “if I’m dead, you guys have been dead for weeks.” Amazing.

Toby eventually finds Hank’s home number, but because the Dunder Mifflin employees have failed to give their security guard a single tip ever, he takes his time coming to their rescue.

Back in the big city, Ryan’s hands are shaking and he’s clearly high on more than life and beer. After Michael labels the club a “sexy preschool”, Ryan agrees to take the boys to a place where they can meet older women. With the help of a women’s college basketball team (Dwight:”amazons!”), the guys are let into the club. Dwight promptly starts making out with the leader of the amazons, Michael calls his mom (”Yes I am asking girls to dance!”), and Ryan gets beat up by a bunch of women. Definitely sounds like the makings of a successful night out. Ryan eventually gets kicked out and hobbit-man Troy flees the scene with a warning of “don’t take him to a hospital!” Super sketchy.

A few hours to the East, the Dunder Mifflin employees are still locked in. Toby makes an awkward sexual advancement towards Pam and then promptly claims he’s moving to Costa Rica, hops the fence, and peaces out of there. Eventually the cleaning crew shows up and lets the employees out, much to the chagrin of security guard Hank who arrives, takes a look at the cleaning crew, and proclaims “son of a bitch!”

In New York, the swinging bachelors return to Ryan’s apartment where he announces to them that he thinks his friend Troy has a drug problem (Dwight: “Well, I think his species has a higher tolerance than ours”). He asks for advice and Michael is only too happy to share what he has learned on The Wire even though he admits to understanding none of it. You and me both, Michael Scott, you and me both. Dwight and Ryan pass out on Ryan’s bed and Michael decides that he can’t be lonely as long as he has his boys, musing that “a famous person once said ‘boys on the side’, but I disagree, I say ‘let’s hear it for the boys.’”

“Office” star Jenna Fischer got a little raunchy in her recent MySpace blog about her new film “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.”

Wrote Fischer: “[Walk Hard] is very raunchy and sexy and the humor is hard core. Think 40-Year Old Virgin but with full-frontal male nudity too. That’s right ladies, we have penis. There is a ton of nudity in this movie actually… I don’t get naked in the film… But I do showcase the ladies quite a bit. I had to be sewn into most of my costumes to make sure they were as tight as possible. My wardrobe assistant’s main job was making sure my boobs didn’t fall out. It was hilarious. I would see her across the room starring at my chest all day.

“I should also say that [my co-star] John Reilly is a great kisser. He sure knows his way around a lady. His wife is a VERY VERY lucky woman. Wow! And, he has a really nice ass. That is his real ass in the movie. Not a double. You’ll see what I mean.

“So please go see my boobs, John C. Reilly’s ass and a man’s penis starting tomorrow night…Walk Hard!”

Fischer said that she fit right in on a set full of potty-mouthed actors. “[In real life] I may not run around in raunchy outfits… but I do have a dirty/dark sense of humor. I loved that I didn’t have to censor myself in any way on the set. We were pretty crazy. We basically just made COX jokes all day. I was in heaven.”

On a serious note, Fisher also wrote about how much she admires Reilly, who learned over 30 original songs for the film and has been nominated for a Golden Globe for the role. “I’m so proud of him and sort of in awe. I’ve never worked with anyone like him before. He is classically trained and he approached this like any other movie. I look up to him a lot.”