‘The Office’: One of Jim Halpert’s Best Dwight Schrute Pranks Was Cut From the Show

The Office was beloved for many reasons — including the elaborate pranks Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) would play on Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson). Naturally, many of these pranks had to be cut from the show because showrunners were short on time. Ironically, one of Jim’s most hilarious Dwight pranks was cut from season 5, but it lives on in the deleted scenes.

Fans loved Jim Halpert’s pranks on Dwight Schrute 

Director Paul Feig described Jim and Dwight’s relationship on Brian Baumgartner’s podcast An Oral History of The Office: “It’s a classic set up of the person who just wants to drive the other person crazy.” 

“Whatever happens when you put two polar opposite characters together is sort of magical because it’s the Odd Couple,” Krasinski added. “What the writers did so well was make those pranks kind of loving and brotherly, like there was a brother aspect to it that I think made them so great. I wasn’t being mean, I was doing something that I knew he kind of got a kick out of too.” 

And fans lived for it.

A lot of Jim Halpert’s pranks on Dwight Schrute were cut from the show — including this ‘Matrix’ prank 

During the “It’s a Wrap” episode of Baumgartner’s podcast, he discussed one of the pranks Jim pulled on Dwight that was cut for time. 

The series finale was chock-full of guest stars, including the one and only Steve Carell. Showrunners had so much they wanted to work into the final episode, they had to cut one of the most elaborate Jim pranks.

The prank was based on The Matrix, according to editor Dave Rogers. “We can talk about the prank that hasn’t made it to the big screen yet that I think we’re saving for the 10 year reunion,” Rogers said, continuing:

That’s in the finale script, they prank Dwight to make him think he’s in the Matrix. Remember Hank [the security guard] is down as Dorpheus, he’s Morpheus’ brother. And they have a cat, there’s a cat that walks by, and the cat walks by again as Dwight is in Michael’s office. And then we have the security guard walk by… he was the big guy, but he had a twin brother and we used him also as a glitch. And then he’s going to take the red pill or the blue pill?

Unfortunately, the elaborate cold open was cut for time. But perhaps fans will get to see it in a future reunion, as Rogers initially teased.

One of Jim Halpert’s best pranks became a deleted scene on ‘The Office’ 

In a hilarious deleted scene from season 5, episode 10 “The Surplus,” Jim attempts to scare the un-scare-able Dwight. 

The scene shows Jim forwarding an email to Dwight, who audibly replies: “Idiot, I know what this is.” Believing he has caught on to Jim’s antics, Dwight explains: “It’s supposed to lull me into a sense of calm and then a ghoul pops up and scares me.” 

“Dwight, of all people, I know that you’re un-scare-able,” Jim concedes. Dwight opens the email regardless, waiting for the ghoul to pop up — which it does. When he looks back to scold Jim, he’s gone. In the time Dwight was watching the video, Jim quickly donned a ghoul costume to scare his un-scare-able co-worker.

The Office certainly has plenty of Jim pranks, but deleted scenes like these give fans even more to enjoy.