Michael Scott of the beloved sitcom The Office is responsible for yet another blunder, this time involving musicians Billie Eilish and U2.
Billie Eilish has blamed The Office for a hilarious blunder involving rock band U2. During a recent appearance on the Office Ladies podcast, the pop star revealed that, up until last year, she believed that the band lived in Scranton, Pennsylvania, because of a joke made during The Office’s fourth season in 2007. Seemingly unaware of the band’s actual origins in Dublin, Eilish cited the references on the long-running sitcom as a source of much confusion.
“Starting to watch The Office at a really young age, I almost didn’t understand any reference whatsoever,” Eilish told podcast hosts Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, who starred across the series’ nine-season run as office workers Pam and Angela, respectively. While Eilish said she had “learned” a lot from the show, the most glaring mistake came courtesy of Michael Scott, The Office’s main character played by Steve Carell.
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During the first part of the season four finale, Scott questions one of his employees about the famous residents of Scranton, which is where the series is set. “What’s the group that was from Scranton that made it big? Was that U2?” Scott asks, to which a deadpan Jim Halpert sarcastically replies “Yes.” While most fans chalked the interaction up to typical Michael Scott stupidity, the joke was lost on Eilish, who only realised the band’s real origins last year.
“Honestly, in my head, I thought Jim thought, ‘Oh, that’s a stupid question’ because obviously, they’re the band that made it big from Scranton… I thought that was the vibe.” It wasn’t until her tour through Ireland in June of last year that Eilish caught on to the bit after U2 frontman Bono sent flowers to her hotel room. “I was like, ‘Why would [Bono] send me something in Ireland? What does this have to do with him?’ [because] U2 is from Scranton.”
Eilish continued: “I kept asking everyone, ‘What is Bono doing sending me flowers all the way across the world? Why would he do that?’ They were like, ‘Billie, what are you talking about? They’re Irish.’” Elsewhere on the podcast, Eilish revealed that she has watched the sitcom over 30 times, adding to her well-documented affinity for the NBC classic.
In 2019, Eilish passed a The Office superfan quiz, which she participated in alongside Dwight Schrute actor Rainn Wilson. That same year, she included dialogue from the series as a sample on the song My Strange Addiction, which featured on her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? Listen to Eilish’s full appearance on the Office Ladies podcast below.
