Having trouble sleeping? Hit Snooze is Mashable's deep dive into how we cope with our collective insomnia and the many ways we can achieve a more peaceful slumber.
In the finale of The Office, there’s a perfect moment.
Well, there were many perfect moments in the finale. The Office in its entirety was full of perfect moments — that might be what it did best — but I digress...
Anyway, I want to talk about one perfect moment from the finale. The gang is participating in a public panel after the documentary finally aired — if you did not watch the American version of The Office, I simply do not have the time to explain this to you — and Dunder Mifflin CEO David Wallace is describing what it was like to see their lives play-out onscreen.
“It’s like seeing a documentary about how your food is made,” Wallace tells the crowd. “It’s kind of disgusting.”
Seated next to Wallace is Stanley Hudson (played by Leslie David Baker) — the person we’re here to discuss. And my guy is passed out, adoring fans be damned, in a resplendent Hawaiian shirt and sun-hat combo. Totally zonked.
Nothing, not even brief fame, can keep Stanley Hudson from a good nap.
Image: THE OFFICE / NBC / NETFLIX
Which brings us to our larger point: Stanley Hudson is a Nap Icon. He is perhaps the Nap Icon.
Mashable’s Hit Snooze is a celebration of sleeping and naps are a big part of getting shuteye. We should all be so lucky to have the talent, gusto, and dedication for napping that Stanley Hudson possessed in the landmark sitcom. I mean, at the pinnacle of his fame — a rapt audience of diehard fans looking on — he dozed off.
Some of Stanley’s other Michael-Jordan-esque sleep feats:
In the Season 5 episode “Employee Transfer” — a Halloween episode — the notable grump donned a Creature of the Black Lagoon mask to nod-off without raising the boss’s suspicion. This despite hating dressing up.
Dwight K. Schrute once had to nearly suffocate Stanley to wake him in Florida.
There’s a now-famous meme of Stanley, passed out at his desk (a not uncommon site) as the closed-captioning reads: “dance music.” Nothing will keep the Icon from his nap.
He was once so zoned-out at work (a waking nap, if you will) that nothing could stir him — a nearly naked coworker included — beyond the clock being a tad off, which almost made him miss his exacting 5 p.m. exit.
All those examples clearly build Stanley's case as a nap legend. He takes no prisoners when it comes to a snooze. In the Season 9 episode “Suit Warehouse,” the office, Stanley included, decides to taste-test every single flavor from a new espresso machine.
“Ah, so this is what 2 p.m. looks like around here,” he says, wide-eyed and dangerously caffeinated. “I usually take a siesta about now.”
Think about that: It is official Office canon that Stanley naps nearly every day. It took manic-levels of caffeine to stop this man. If you watched The Office — if you made it this far in the article of course you did — you know Stanley’s general belief system: Pointless work is just that; fools shouldn’t be suffered; doing nothing is something. His sleeping habits are tied to that way of living. We should all be so bold in our efforts to care for ourselves, to get the sleep we so righteously deserve but do not get.
He's asleep under there.
Image: THE OFFICE / NBC / NETFLIX
I mean for goodness’ sake Stanley once plunged a tranquilizer dart into his leg — a dosage meant for a “small bull” — to fall into a deep sleep… just to avoid taking the stairs.
Is that technically a nap? YES. I will accept no other answers.
The Office went off the air in 2013. Yet, Stanley’s exploits in sleeping have lived on — the GIFs and screenshots still thrive.
Many pop culture figures are notable sleepers: Garfield, Sleeping Beauty, Mr. Beans’ character in the 2001 film Rat Race. But Stanley stands out: He’s an everyman, a nine-to-fiver who rests because we, as humans, deserve rest. He aggressively rests. The Michael Jordan of naps.
We should cherish Stanley Hudson and hold a piece of his ethos in our hearts. As the world increasingly falls apart, as existence itself feels like a slog, maybe just close your eyes for a small siesta.
