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The Unfortunate Problem With The Office's Ryan Howard
Mar 31, 2025
The Office's Ryan Howard, played by BJ Novak, is something of an enigma. Starting as the audience POV into the life of Dunder Mifflin Scranton, Ryan Howard had a drastic evolution followed by a devastating downfall. Even though he's billed as a lead member of The Office cast, he never seems to rise to the level of fan favorites, Jim, Dwight or Pam. But what exactly happened to Ryan Howard during his tenure at Dunder Mifflin?
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That's the way it is around here, just kind of going around and around
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You should have put him in custody. Oh, hey, yes, new guy
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This is how we were introduced to Ryan Howard, and this is how Ryan ended up
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I let him suck on a strawberry. He's allergic, but he'll get over it fast. I had to talk to you
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You gave your baby an allergic reaction just to talk to me? The Office's Ryan Howard has perhaps one of the most tragic character arcs in the history of sitcoms
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He was a man who began his career at the quaint Dunder Mifflin Paper Company
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as an overqualified temp, ultimately ending the series as a funhouse mirror reflection of his
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former self. The aimlessness of Ryan is indicative of the uncertainty of what to do with the character
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morphing Ryan from an audience POV everyman to a bizarre series of changes that encapsulate all
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the ways the series went off the rails in its final years. You got this kosher certified? No
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I meant like, it's cool, it's kosher, it's all good. The issues with Ryan Howard as a character
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begins with the character's very existence in the first place. The NBC sitcom The Office is a remake
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of the BBC sitcom of the same name. In the show's initial season, the US and UK versions of The
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Office align very closely, right down to the pilot episode of the US version being ostensibly an
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Americanized remake of the UK show's first episode. Both shows have a primary cast of four key
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archetypal characters. The boss, Michael Scott, in the US version, and David Brent in the UK
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The office sycophant, Dwight in the US and Gareth in the UK
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And finally, the will-they-won't-they romantic pairing, Jim and Pam in the US and Tim and Dawn in the UK
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This core quartet theory provided the UK office with all the characters it needed
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to carry the primary plot of two seasons of television and a Christmas special
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with the occasional pop-in from scene-stealing side characters. Bring your boyfriend down tonight if you want
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I don't have a boyfriend. Whatever. Oh, sorry. Sorry. That is a man's game
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After seeing this successful formula for the UK series, it's suddenly disorienting to throw on
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the US version of The Office and find a fifth character thrown into the central cast. B.J
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Novak as Ryan Howard Now this is no slight to B Novak who is a fine performer and comedian but seeing his name among the other four leads in the show opening credits suggests he be a crucial part to the story In the world of The Office
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Ryan exists in this weird middle ground between the primary four characters and the background
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office workers. He has a lot of screen time, but that attention is due to his relationship with
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funnier, more compelling characters. This can be seen in the one-sided friendship with Michael
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where the comedy comes from Michael's embarrassingly desperate bids to win Ryan's admiration
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which are met with comedic non-reactions. Additionally, there's his toxic relationship
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with Kelly, where the comedy comes from her obsession with him, and once again
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he is overshadowed by the sheer comedic force of Kelly's unhealthy obsessions
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Now I have a boyfriend. I hooked up with her on February 13th
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He is simply reactive to the antics around him. He has no real defined personality or
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even a comedic gimmick like many of the supporting characters of the show. All evidence suggests Ryan should be a vital character
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but he doesn't have any major growth as a character until season four
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What was that? Nobody. You and I are done. What? The punchline of Ryan being the one to take the coveted corporate job in the season three finale
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works so well because Ryan has flown so far under the radar over the course of the show
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Not only does it finally give the character a goal and objective, it launches him into the heart of darkness of corporate life that will warp the character forever
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There are essentially three major acts in the desolation of Ryan Howard
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The first being the corporate sellout phase. With his newfound status as the self-described wonderkin of Dunder Mifflin
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Ryan begins to throw his weight around at his former stomping grounds. He dresses flashy, or at least a version of what he imagines is flashy, and tries to
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modernize Dunder Mifflin in multiple ways, with his flagship idea being a new website
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Dunder Mifflin Infinity. Ryan basically morphs into a Bret Easton Ellis character that's dropped into a sitcom
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And if they knew how much I was paying for my haircut now they wouldn be giving me a nuggie It was Now it important to note that this sudden change while comedic is built on a shaky ground of being a cardboard cutout of a character for
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three whole seasons. While there are certainly suggestions of Ryan's ambition to climb the
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corporate ladder with references to his business school background, this extreme of a change feels
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out of nowhere. And while it's a humorous bit of satire to watch this bland, regular middle
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management guy suddenly become a Jordan Belfort-esque avatar of greed because of a corporate job at a
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paper company of all places, the jokes aren't exactly breaking any new ground about white-collar
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jobs that we haven't already heard a million times before. Problems like that will not happen
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when we launch Dunder Mifflin Infinity 2.0. When will that be? TBD. Ryan's erratic behavior and the
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failure of Dunder Mifflin Infinity leads to his massive fall from grace, going as far as to defraud
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the company before getting arrested. This leads into what we can call the Chaos Goblin Ryan era
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I'm keeping a list of everyone who wrongs me, so when I'm back on top, they'll be sorry
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Kevin just made the list. Here we have another major personality shift in Ryan, one where his
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inhibitions have been completely removed and he functions almost entirely as a creature of pure
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id. For most of season five, he is rude and obnoxious to everyone around him. Michael takes
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pity on Ryan and allows him to return to Dunder Mifflin, making him determined to climb the ladder
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again until he breaks up with Kelly and supposedly runs away to Thailand. This constant back and forth
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of growth and setback is another example of how the writers seem to have no concrete ideas for
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the character. Ryan returns again and becomes one of the chosen few employees to join the Michael
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Scott Paper Company because Michael is the only one still willing to give him a chance after all he has done
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Although the character now finally has the personality he was lacking all this time
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this comedic persona is indicative of a larger problem facing The Office as a series in these later seasons
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The show has drifted away from the dry, deadpan humor that gave the mockumentary aspect of The Office a sense of verisimilitude Five years in the show sense of humor has become so broad that Ryan transformation feels cartoonish rather than a representation of how a human being would
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behave. They shake the baby and you gotta, um, you can't do that. Don't shake our baby? Yeah. Okay
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I'd never heard that before. This brings us to the final form of Ryan Howard in season six
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through nine, hipster doofus creep. Now that Ryan has returned to the world of office worker after
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the merger of Dunder Mifflin and the Michael Scott Paper Company, he has become somewhat
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more professional again. But now, he dresses as a stereotypical hipster. And while he is still
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trying to scheme his way back to the top of the corporate ladder, he seems to have completely lost
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most of his business acumen and just seems like a fool. The Office is a series that thrived on
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uncomfortable, awkward moments of humor. But the audience always felt like they were part of the
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joke. Ryan, however, is truly irredeemable at this point. Well, I think he can be corrupted
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by Gollum. Smeagol was corrupted and became Gollum. And in the finale, as every other character reaches
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their own satisfying ending, he ultimately backslides once again and hooks up with Kelly
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His presence when the show ends in the final seasons is a final condemnation of how The Office
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has lost its way in the final seasons with humor that relies way too much on outlandish situations
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rather than truth and character. These many seasons of aimless wandering for the character
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are an illustration of the strange ways long-form television can grow and evolve
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In comedy shows especially, it can take many episodes for the writers
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to find the voice or the comedic game of a character. With Ryan, his journey can be read one of two ways
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The writers weren't really clear on what direction to ever take the character
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or Ryan is a metaphor for the way the corporate world can break a person's spirit
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which can certainly be darkly funny in its own way, but it feels strange when contrasted
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with the humorous day-to-day activities of the office's found family. By trying to shoehorn in these supposedly comedic, outlandish scenarios for Ryan to be in
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the show lost sight of its greatest comedic weapon, the strength of its characters
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Without it, we see a character arc that holistically feels more like tragedy than comedy
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