Phyllis Lapin

Office character box
name = Phyllis Vance (née Lapin)


caption =
portrayer = Phyllis Smith
debut = "Pilot"
departure =
alias =
nicknames = Mother Goose
gender = Female
age = 44
born =
occupation = Sales representative
title =
spouse = Bob Vance (husband)
parent(s) = Elbert (father)
a Mother
sibling(s) = 4 Sisters
distant relative(s) = Al (uncle)
based on =

Phyllis Vance (née LapinCite web|url=http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/about/|title=About The Office|accessdate=2007-11-25|publisher=NBC.com|year=2007|author=NBC Universal] ) is a fictional character from the US television series "The Office". She is played by Phyllis Smith.__TOC__

Overview

Phyllis Lapin is a sales representative at fictitious paper distributor Dunder Mifflin. She is a quiet but friendly type who loves "girl talk" and gossip. Though she has a sweet, motherly exterior, she is often seen to be very vindictive, especially to Angela Martin. The character does not have a British counter part for the role but instead, was created for Phyllis Smith who was a casting associate for the series and impressed producers with her reading for other characters' lines.

Biography

Phyllis is often insulted and embarrassed by branch manager Michael Scott. Michael frequently describes her as non-feminine and older than she looks, despite having been classmates with her in high school. She is married to Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration. Phyllis serves on the Party Planning Committee where she often butts heads with hypercritical Angela Martin, whom Phyllis told to her face that she does not like. She suffered from scoliosis as a child and went on to play high school basketball. She is friends with Pam Beesly and occasionally shares office gossip with her. It seems Phyllis is the strongest supporter of the Jim/Pam relationship. She is Lutheran (Fun Run).

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Phyllis volunteered to be on the basketball team but Michael said no. When she suggested being a cheerleader instead, Michael placed her as an alternate player.

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She is the winner of the "Busiest Beaver" award at the 8th Annual Dundie Awards, although due to an error, her statue reads "Bushiest Beaver". Phyllis admits that if she could sleep with one person in the office, it would be Jim Halpert. Phyllis also shocks the room during a "sexual harassment" seminar, by asking if one-night stands are included in a rule requiring reporting office romances to human resources. Phyllis won a gold medal in the invented "Flonkerton" event at the Office Olympics. Boyfriend Bob Vance comes to the Christmas party and sends her two large bouquets of flowers and a giant teddy bear on Valentines day. Bob also signed each gift as from "Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration", indicating an attempt to subtly advertise for his company through each gift he offered. At the Christmas party, he also introduces himself to new people he meets in exactly the same way, adding "Vance Refrigeration" to the end of his name.

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In "Gay Witch Hunt", Phyllis insults Michael by telling him that everyone thought he was gay in high school, and proves she can be witty at times. She also announces to everyone that she is getting married to Bob Vance. Karen accidentally offends her by saying the perfume Bob gave her smelt like a funeral home (something Stanley had thought for years). When the party planning committee splits up, she stays with Angela at the less popular party but they ultimately join the other one. Angela is also seen openly insulting Phyllis's orange blouse by stating that orange was a more "whorish" color than green.

Belying her subdued nature, Phyllis is a shrewd saleswoman. In "Traveling Salesmen", Phyllis strategically gives Karen and herself a beauty makeover to mimic the appearance of a client's wife. She also tells Karen that Jim was in love with Pam for a long time, but is glad that Karen is dating him. Phyllis marries long-time boyfriend Bob Vance, whom she often refers to as "Bobby." She reluctantly puts Michael in charge of rolling her wheelchair-bound father down the aisle, in hopes that giving him a job in the ceremony will allow her a six-week honeymoon vacation. She also takes most of Pam's ideas originally to be used for her own wedding (down to using the same invitation, featuring the same "P & R" heading—only standing for "Phyllis and Robert" rather than "Pam and Roy"), making Pam feel as if she has been invited to her own wedding. At the wedding, Michael reveals that Phyllis's nickname in high school was "Easy Rider". In a deleted scene from "Business School", it is revealed that Phyllis is currently on her honeymoon and will not be back for six weeks, which Stanley is ecstatic about. Phyllis returns from her honeymoon in "The Negotiation".

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In a deleted scene from "Fun Run," Phyllis is shown teaming up with husband Bob Vance (who is wearing a Vance Refrigeration T-shirt while the other racers wear Dunder Mifflin T-shirts) to pull ahead of Michael in the race. When they are unable to do it together, Phyllis encourages Bob to take care of it himself, screaming, "Go get him, Bobby! Sic him! Sic him!"

In "Dunder Mifflin Infinity", after hearing Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly are dating, she passive-aggressively reminds Pam she can not give Jim any special treatment on sales leads just because he's "who you're sleeping with that week."

In "Launch Party", Phyllis googles ways to handle difficult people, namely Angela. When Angela points out to Phyllis that she made a spelling mistake in the sign "Lunch Party" and bought the wrong plastic utensils, Phyllis attempts to calmly reason with her, which only infuriates Angela to insult Phyllis further. Later on, Phyllis confronts her with numerous Post-It notes stuck on to her fingertips containing Angela's demands, claiming she can only fulfill one, not all of them. When Angela insults her again, Phyllis crumples all the notes into one ball and throws it at Angela's face. Afterwards, Phyllis says proudly, "That seemed to shut her up."

In "Local Ad", Michael sends her to the Steamtown Mall to try and recruit famous author "Sue Grafton" for his planned Dunder Mifflin TV ad, but Phyllis comes back sobbing in dismay because her failed attempt to talk to Grafton led to security guards throwing her out of the mall.

In "Survivor Man", Phyllis gleefully notes that Michael was not invited to Ryan's corporate wilderness retreat while Toby was. Later on, when Jim is making stupid suggestions for the office birthday parties and finally demands a meeting on the subject, Phyllis mistakenly calls him "Michael" and Jim is horrified.

In "Goodbye, Toby" (the season finale), Phyllis takes over the Party Planning committee from Angela in order to organize Toby's farewell party to Michael's specifications. In the final scene of the episode, Phyllis comes back inside the office following the party and catches Angela and ex-boyfriend Dwight Schrute having sex on one of the desks, despite the fact that Angela's boyfriend and co-worker Andy Bernard proposed to her at the party and she accepted. This made Phyllis the fourth person made aware of the intimate relationship between Dwight and Angela, after Pam, Jim and Ryan found out along the way.

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In the fifth season premiere, "Weight Loss," it is revealed that Phyllis has parlayed her secret knowledge of Dwight and Angela's renewed affair into the head spot on party-planning committee, which allows a role reversal in the group's meetings; Phyllis is shown calling the shots about party details, to which Angela quietly, if reluctantly, acquiesces.

References