‘The Office’: John Krasinski Laughed the Entire Time During This Scene and the Show Was Forced to Fix His Mistake

The Office cast often cracked up so much during their hilarious scenes that it took many takes to get it right. John Krasinski was one of the worst offenders and, in one scene with Steve Carell, they couldn’t get him to stop laughing so they had to edit together two shots to make it work.

A scene in ‘The Office’ ‘The Secret’ episode proved challenging for John Krasinski

During a March 2020 episode of the Office Ladies podcast, hosts Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey discussed The Office season 2 episode titled “The Secret.” Michael (Carell) is the only one who knows that Jim (Krasinski) has a crush on Pam (Fischer) and he has a hard time keeping it under wraps.

Krasinski had a difficult time getting through a break room scene with Carell. “In that scene, John could not stop laughing. He could not stop laughing,” Fischer explained. “This whole episode John had to do a lot of scenes with Steve and he really loses it. This is one of those scenes.”

Kinsey added, “John, when he loses it, his whole body collapses. He just becomes a noodle.”

Since Krasinski couldn’t keep it together, there was some editing magic needed so the scene worked. In the episode’s DVD commentary, Krasinski said the scene required two shots spliced together because he kept laughing.         

John Krasinski shared ‘The Office’ scene that made his laugh ‘the hardest’

There were many other times that Krasinski had a hard time getting through scenes and one in particular forced him to leave the scene entirely because he couldn’t stop laughing.

In The Office’s season 6 episode “Secret Santa,” most of the cast struggled with keeping a straight face when Michael, dressed as Santa, invited Kevin to sit on his lap.

During the August 4 An Oral History of The Office podcast, Krasinski told host Brian Baumgartner the scene was one of his “favorite moments of shooting ever.”

“People always ask me what’s the hardest you ever laughed on set. Without a doubt, it’s when you sat on his lap,” he said to Baumgartner, who played Kevin.

John Krasinski laughed so much during a scene he had to physically leave

That Michael Scott moment was so challenging for Krasinski to get through that he wasn’t even physically there to give his signature Jim reaction shot to the camera.

Carell and Krasinski talked about the scene during a 2020 episode of Krasinski’s YouTube series Some Good News.

“I remember when you did the episode where you played Santa and were very upset that Phyllis was already Santa,” Krasinski said. “So you were asking people to come sit on your lap and Brian [Baumgartner], thank God, was chosen to sit on your lap.”

“I was supposed to be the button of the scene where they cut to me and I did a Jim face,” he continued. “I was never there, I was physically never there because by the time they got to the swish pan to me, I was out.”

“I was either on the floor or I had left the room,” Krasinski added.