Golden Ticket (The Office)

Michael Scott, inspired by the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, decides to put five "golden tickets" randomly into five different boxes of paper that will provide Dunder Mifflin clients with a ten percent discount for one year. Michael is excited about the promotional gimmick, which prompts him to dress and act like Wonka. However, because Michael distributed all the tickets on the same day in the same small area of the warehouse, all five golden tickets go to their biggest client, the Blue Cross of Pennsylvania; because Michael did not specify "limit one per customer", the company is owed a fifty percent discount. As a result, the Scranton branch is expected to lose a significant amount of revenue which could shut down the branch. When Chief Financial Officer David Wallace demands to know who is responsible, Michael claims Dwight Schrute thought of the idea. Michael convinces Dwight to take the fall, insisting that Michael needs the job more than Dwight.

David Wallace comes to the Scranton branch and says the client was so pleased with the discount that they made the company their exclusive provider of office supplies. Grateful, David congratulates Dwight for the idea, and Dwight accepts the credit. Michael is shocked and upset. The rest of the office, still angry at Michael for his near-disastrous idea, play along with Wallace's misunderstanding and congratulate Dwight. David sets up a conference call with the marketing department so Dwight can explain his golden ticket promotion. Michael interrupts and goads Dwight into revealing the idea actually came from Michael. As Michael and Dwight bicker, a frustrated David leaves the office, appearing indifferent about the outcome.

Kevin Malone seeks advice on how to start a relationship with Lynn, the woman he socialized with at the Valentine's Day singles mixer (from the episode "Blood Drive"). Andy Bernard, still upset from his broken engagement with Angela Martin, suggests that Kevin be mean to Lynn, providing only backhanded compliments and ignoring her calls. Jim Halpert suggests he ask her out, but not immediately. Pam Beesly suggests he ask her out immediately and not be afraid to express himself to her. When Lynn visits the office, Kevin tells her his thoughts directly, saying that she has a nice smile and he would like to take her out to dinner and a movie. She accepts. Kevin then accidentally says "Nice...boobs", but Lynn seems flattered by the statement.

The official The Office website included three cut scenes from "Golden Ticket". One 72-second clip includes Michael eavesdropping from the men's bathroom on Angela, Oscar, Kelly and Meredith, who discuss how unfairly Michael is treating Dwight in making him take the fall over the failed golden ticket promotion. Kelly also makes the remark, "I hope Dwight gets fired and they get a hot new guy to replace him," to which Oscar replies, "Seriously."^[1] In another 52-second scene, Michael asks Dwight to go on a stroll, but Dwight suggests turning it into a "power stroll", which he prepares Michael for by applying sunscreen to his face.^[2] And in a follow-up to the scene where workers discuss that Michael should be fired, a visibly angry and upset Michael confronts the office. When he says "Can any of you imagine this office without me?" everyone gleefully raises their hands, but Michael then asks them if they've thought about what kind of terrible person they could get to replace him; he then pointedly says that they could get someone who knows they don't actually need three accountants (Oscar, Kevin and Angela look visibly ashamed that Michael knew this going back to season 2's "Halloween" episode but has never taken any action about it) or someone who doesn't approve of romantic relationships and would transfer one or both people to separate branches (Jim and Pam in turn get this message and look chastened), and tells the office that they should mind what they're saying about him "when I'm hiding in the bathroom pretending to be pooping."

The NBC site also featured more than two minutes' worth of clips involving the subplot between Kevin and Lynne, including Andy discussing his new method of being mean to women while courting dates, in response to his recent failed engagement with Angela. Among the deleted scenes are Kevin telling Lynn he will be too busy for three weeks to talk to her and giving a backhanded compliment to her shirt, both at Andy's suggestion.^[3]

The golden ticket promotional gimmick, from which the episode receives its title, is a reference to the golden tickets from the 1964 Roald Dahl novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as well as the 1971 and 2005 film adaptations of the book. Throughout the first half of the episode, Michael wears a purple suit and top hat similar to Willy Wonka, the character responsible for the promotion from which this episode takes its name. Blue Cross of Pennsylvania, the Dunder Mifflin client who receives the golden tickets, is a real-life division of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an American health insurance company. After throwing away the Willy Wonka outfit, Michael wears a gray T-shirt advertising the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers, a minor-league arena football team. One of the excuses Michael uses to avoid David's phone calls is that he is attending an "Obama fashion show", a reference to U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.^[4]

Dwight Schrute makes knock-knock jokes involving the KGB, the secret police and intelligence agency for the Soviet Union. Michael also makes a knock-knock joke involving Buddha, with the punch-line that Pam "buttah" (butter, pronounced like Buddha) a slice of bread. Gautama Buddha was a spiritual teacher in the South Asian country Nepal who founded the religion Buddhism.^[5][6] During an office meeting in which Michael asks his employees to come up with other golden ticket-like ideas, Andy suggests the breakfast cereal brand Golden Grahams and American sitcom The Golden Girls before confessing he does not understand the assignment.^[6]