The creators of 'The Office' love that Billie Eilish sampled the show in her song

'Wow, bonus: This is a banger'
 By 
Nicole Gallucci
 on 
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Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The Dunder Mifflin crew has made it to the Billboard charts, thanks to 17-year-old singer, Billie Eilish.

For those who have yet to hear Eilish's recently released debut LP, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, a track titled "my strange addiction" samples audio straight from the NBC comedy.

Specifically, the song references Michael Scott's action movie, Threat Level Midnight, which fans will recall tells the story of Michael Scarn, a secret agent portrayed by Scott himself.

One scene in the amateur film focuses on a dance craze called "The Scarn," and Eilish used related dialogue from Scott (Steve Carell), Jim Halpert (John Krasinski), Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling), and Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak) in her new jam.

Since the song was released, both Eilish and Office fans alike seem to have fallen in love with it, and the show's creators are feeling the jam, too.

In a March interview with MTV News, Eilish explained, "When we made the beat for 'my strange addiction,' it reminded me of the song they play when they do the Scarn dance. I thought that was really funny, so we literally just ripped the audio from Netflix and put it in the song, not at all thinking that they would say yes to it and we’d be able to put it out. Also, it’s about strange addictions, and The Office is mine, so…"

Since the album was released on March 29, 2019, the song's popularity has skyrocketed, and the album's climbing the Billboard charts. The cast and creators of the comedy reportedly had no idea "Threat Level Midnight" would have such a revival, but they seem to be loving the jam.

B.J. Novak told Rolling Stone he already had Eilish's hit song "bury a friend" on a playlist before receiving the request to sample his vocals from The Office.

"They had to get approval of all the cast that was on it," Novak told Rolling Stone on a call. "I was fine with it regardless," he said, "but I was like ‘Wow, bonus: This is a banger.'"

Like Eilish, Threat Level Midnight is also close to Novak's heart, so much so that he volunteered to write the Season 7 episode that depicted the film.

"I eagerly volunteered for the task, because I’d always loved that episode. It was very much my sense of humor, and I got the assignment to write it," Novak told Rolling Stone.

"Can’t say enough about that girl," Novak said. "She is, to me, one of the finest young artists of today. She takes risks. She's herself. She marches to her own drummer. I love what she did with that. I thought it was brilliant. I could hear that she got slightly inspired by the beat. I respect and admire her so much. I’m honored that I have anything to do with inspiring Billie Eilish."

The publication also spoke with Daniel Chun, co-executive producer of Season 7, and Eve Nelson, The Office‘s song producer, both of whom are huge fans of Eilish and the new song.

Though Eilish isn't the first to reference The Office on an album — AJR sings about the show on the song "Netflix Trip," and Post Malone name drops Michael Scott on his track "Candy Paint" — hearing actual audio from the show spliced throughout lyrics and a sick beat definitely delivers a special vibe.

Hopefully this isn't the last collaboration between Eilish and the employees at Dunder Mifflin.

Topics Music The Office

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Nicole Gallucci

Nicole is a Senior Editor at Mashable. She primarily covers entertainment and digital culture trends, and in her free time she can be found watching TV, sending voice notes, or going viral on Twitter for admiring knitwear. You can follow her on Twitter @nicolemichele5.

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