The Office may have concluded its nine-season run in 2013, but the series is still very much alive for rapper, singer, writer, and Office MEGA fan Kitty. (The series is also still very much alive for anyone with Netflix, a beating heart in their cold chest, and a love 2 laugh.) I recently chatted with her about falling in love with the series, her favorite character, and her jealousy-inducing text message-based friendship with B.J. Novak. Join us!

KELLY: When did your love of The Office begin?
KITTY: When I was in 11th grade…I think 2009?
KELLY: So it had been on for about four years or so at that point. Do you remember what or who turned you on to it?
KITTY: I think once I went to a youth group meeting at someone’s house, the whole youth group was really into it and that was the first time I watched it. And at that point I was in college, so I’d have whole days without classes when all my friends were in school, and I downloaded all of them and would just watch them through during the days while I did my homework and whatever.
KELLY: That was basically my college experience, too, except I was a few years older, had already seen the episodes I was watching, and watched them instead of going to classes and doing homework. Do you still find yourself watching it a lot?
KITTY: Yeah, I think I’ve watched the series twice through since it’s all been on Netflix.
KELLY: Oh wow!
KITTY: Since I found out about it I’ve been watching it regularly until it ended, but I’ve definitely watched through the entire series a few more times. I leave it on a lot when I’m working at home. I think the familiarity is comforting or something, haha.
KELLY: Yeah, I absolutely get that — I have a thing where I watch the movie Office Space whenever I move somewhere new, or am entering some kind of unfamiliar situation, to make me feel normal and at home.
KITTY: That’s a good one, too. They’re so dry and not realllllly like…stimulating, really, haha.
KELLY: Hahah, yes, very comforting. Do you have a favorite season to go back to, or a favorite episode?
KITTY: My favorite season is season 5 I think, I really liked the characters that season. I think my favorite episode is Jim and Pam’s wedding, though…that was later on.
KELLY: Yeah, the fifth season was Jim and Pam’s engagement season — did you have a favorite non-regular (or regular) character that season?
KITTY: Erin is my favorite character of all time.

KELLY: Oh god, she is great. I love the joke that her name is actually Kelly, but that she can’t be called Kelly because Kelly is already named Kelly.
KITTY: Hahahaha yessss.
KELLY: (That’s also due to a FAIRLY good amount to my own vanity.) Have you ever read any of Ellie Kemper’s humor writing?
KITTY: No I haven’t! I didn’t even know she did that.
KELLY: : Yeah! She has written a lot for McSweeney’s and is very, very funny.
KITTY: Dang, I gotta read that.
KELLY: You 100% should. Do you have any comedy writing or acting aspirations? I feel like people tell you that you should be on TV all the time, and I know you already write a lot.
KITTY: Yeah people tell me that a lot, but usually they mean on a reality show…I’d definitely embarrass myself. I would love to write for TV, though.
KELLY: Have you ever written anything like that?
KITTY: Not since high school. I used to write scripts in TV production, but I’ve never written anything real :/
KELLY: THERE’S STILL TIME, KITTY! Speaking of writers, I remember reading that BJ Novak is a fan of yours, and that you used to have a mostly text message-based friendship with him. Is that still going on?
KITTY: Haha, kinda! I text him every so often, he’s funny. He also sent me his book not that long ago…it’s really good. Actually last time I texted him was to ask him like a question about The Office that’s been gnawing at me and it was at like 2AM. I felt like a freak doing it.
KELLY: Hahaha, what was the question?!
KITTY: It was about Will Ferrell being in only like 3 episodes…he played this douchey guy that nobody liked, and I always wondered whether the writers thought viewers would like his character and then wrote him out of the show when they saw that the character was like…universally hated. A real nerd question

KELLY: Oh wow, yeah, I kind of forgot that Will Ferrell was ever even on The Office. Did he give you an answer? CAN YOU SAY WHAT IT WAS?!
KITTY: Yeah he did, I don’t know if it’s like CLASSIFIED INFO though.
KELLY: Ahh, I guess the rest of us will just have to leave that one as a Hollywood Mystery. How do you feel about the UK version of The Office? Have you watched it?
KITTY: I tried like 5 times…it’s never as funny to me. I have an unsophisticated American sense of humor.
KELLY: It’s very different. The first episode of the American series, from what I remember, was basically a straight remake of the first episode of the UK series and it didn’t translate very well.
KITTY: Yeah, the first couple episodes were really weird, I didn’t like them til I got really into the show.
KELLY: Before we leave each other, do you have any favorite Office quotes, or is there anything you regularly say that you picked up from the show?
KITTY: LOL my favorite quote ever, I try to work it into conversations but nobody EVER gets what i’m saying, is when Dwight says, “If onlys and buts were candies and nuts then every day would be erntedankfest,” hahahahaha.

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Kitty’s impatiens EP is out now. Stream it here.