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"Secret Santa" was the topic for Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey's latest episode of their Office Ladies podcast. The duo, who played Pam and Angela, respectively, on The Office, asked Billie Joe Armstrong to give the episode summary before they took their deep dive in the 2009 holiday episode.
“It’s Christmas time at Dunder Mifflin. Jim and Dwight are in charge of this year’s Christmas party, and they’re doing a pretty good job,” the Green Day frontman began. “Jim tells Phyllis she can play Santa, something she’s wanted to do for years. This naturally causes Michael to spiral…”
In the episode, Andy (Ed Helms) and Dwight (Rainn Wilson) sing Green Day’s 2004 single "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" during karaoke at the office party. When Fischer asked Armstrong if he was asked permission for the song's use, he admitted he was "taken by surprise" when he saw the scene.
“I was binge-watching The Office for the first time, and I was watching that episode and then all of a sudden the song came on and I was… completely taken by surprise,” Armstrong explained. “And like I think my face started to get red, and Andy started singing harmonies, which was almost like the… because we do have a musical for American Idiot, and he sang the same exact harmony that’s in the musical. So it was, it was good.”
Listen to the full Office Ladies episode below.