Billie Eilish is such a big fan of The Office that, based on an episode in the show’s fourth season, she was convinced U2 was actually from Scranton, Pennsylvania — not Ireland.
The singer appeared on the Office Ladies podcast, which is hosted by stars Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer. Billie said she watched the show repeatedly as a kid and, because of her age, a lot of jokes from Steve Carell flew over her head — the worst being the joke about U2.
Carell played Michael Scott, who regularly botched words, phrases and facts. In The Office‘s “Goodbye, Toby,” Michael asks if U2 is from Scranton, and his colleague Jim Halpert, played by John Krasinski, says yes.
Billie thought the show was stating a fact. So, when she performed in Ireland last June, she became really confused when she received flowers from the U2 frontman.
“I go, ‘Why would he send me something in Ireland? What does this have to do with him?’ And it was like … ‘Welcome to my hometown’ or something like that. But U2 is from Scranton! And I kept asking everyone like, ‘What is Bono doing sending me flowers all the way across the world? Why would he do that?'” she laughed.
“And my friends were like, ‘Billie, what are you talking about? They’re Irish.’ I was like, ‘No, they’re not,'” she added.
Billie admits Michael Scott was a bad influence on her growing up, especially when it came to her speech.
“I said many words wrong because I learned them from Michael Scott,” she confessed, adding she is now aware the show’s jokes were “written on purpose.”
Both Kinsey and Fischer told Billie to text them whenever she needs clarity between reality and a joke from The Office.
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
