If you look back at the American version of The Office, one of the best sitcoms of all time, you’ll find no shortage of great moments from Brian Baumgartner’s Kevin Malone. He may not be one of the Office characters who’s good at their job, but you can count on him providing plenty of laughs while you’re streaming the NBC series with a Peacock subscription or watching some other way. That includes him saying a simple, yet effective line Baumgartner uttered in the Season 5 episode “Broke” that the actor now uses “almost every time” when he’s doing speaking engagements.
Nothing ringing a bell yet? I’m talking about when Kevin gave a delayed “Hi” to Andy Buckley’s David Wallace, and Idris Elba, who played Charles Miner, appeared to nearly break character. Curious about if Baumgartner could shed any light on this underrated moment from The Office, I brought it up to the actor while interviewing him about his guest stint on Suits LA, which saw him performing opposite Patton Oswalt. Here’s what he told me:
It’s funny that you mentioned the ‘hi’ thing. When I go to colleges and so forth and speak, the ‘hi’ joke is one that I use almost every time. Because if there’s any sort of Q&A situation, someone will say, ‘Hi, I’m Michelle, I’m a sophomore or whatever.’ And I’ll wait about 7 seconds and then say hi back in a delayed fashion. To me, having a timing that’s unexpected brings comedy. So I don’t know. I guess that I can take credit for that one.
In case my description from earlier wasn’t enough to jog your memory, here’s the moment from The Office that’s given Brian Baumgartner a killer line for his Q&As:
Just one word, and that was enough to nearly get Idris Elba to crack up. It’s actually amusing that this take was kept in the final version of “Broke,” but thankfully the Luther actor was able to keep it together enough that it’s not immediately noticeable to the causal eye. Baumgartner also elaborated to me about how delayed timing is a great source of comedic material, saying:
What is interesting and potentially funny, or at least funny to me is things that happen off the beat, off timing. And so there were a couple of times when I rewatched the show… Like, I forgot there was an episode where they were evaluating employees by putting beans on their names. And I just started saying, ‘What does a bean mean?’ and then continued. And I think at the end, like the button of that scene, you just hear my voice again saying, ‘What does a bean mean?’ So I enjoy that.
The bean moment came from The Office Season 6 episode “The Promotion,” so if these don’t get you in the mood to revisit some of Kevin Malone’s other great moments, I don’t know what will. Funny enough, Brian Baumgartner’s appearance on Suits LA saw his fictional self “kill” Kevin, i.e. try to escape being typecast by attempting to become an Oscar-winning dramatic actor. In real life though, Baumgartner still embraces the time he spent Kevin, and clearly “Hi!” is still crushing with the people he speaks with at these events.
Again, The Office is available on Peacock, which is also where you’ll find new episodes of Suits LA after they air Sunday nights at 9 pm ET on the 2025 TV schedule. Don’t forget there’s also an Office follow-up series on the way called The Paper, which will see Oscar Nuñez reprising Oscar Martinez.