The Office’s funniest rivalry wasn’t Jim vs. Dwight – It was Pam vs. Ryan

According to fans' reviews, The Office's funniest rivalry wasn't Jim vs. Dwight, but Pam vs. Ryan, and this was foreshadowed much earlier in the show. Remember the episode in season 2 where Pam and Jim come up with a community activity to appreciate people's work as a heart-warming gesture? They distributed yogurt lids as medals at the end as a symbol of connection, and Pam found Ryan throwing his in the bin later.

This marks the beginning of their petty arguments in The Office, which has become a source of drama and comedy. Read on to know how Pam and Ryan's rivalry was the funniest one in The Office.

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Here is how Pam and Ryan's rivalry began in The Office

In Season 2, Episode 3 of The Office titled "Office Olympics", a subtle yet powerful moment marks the beginning of Pam’s quiet disdain for Ryan, long before he becomes her boss or fully embraces his corporate arrogance.

Pam and Jim organize several games to boost everyone's morale. They distribute some handmade tokens to people, which symbolize community fun and heartfelt appreciation—values that matter deeply to Pam. It marks the first time she has felt a connection with the employees beyond her role as a receptionist.

But Ryan—emotionally distant and already showing early signs of his aloof, self-important attitude—throws his medal in the trash. When Pam catches him doing it, she’s clearly stunned. We see Pam's hurt expression when Ryan meets her gaze and then shrugs indifferently, suggesting that he doesn't care about the gesture at all.

While Pam values sincerity and shared joy, Ryan rejects those values in favor of detachment and self-interest. That single moment plants the seed for their ongoing tension throughout the series. It’s not loud or dramatic, but it quietly foreshadows Ryan’s eventual fall from grace and why Pam, instinctively, never trusted him.

Pam and Ryan's rivalry is The Office's most underrated dynamic

Following this event, Pam starts to quietly resent Ryan. Meanwhile, Ryan becomes a symbol of everything shallow and transactional about the modern workplace. As the show progresses, this early crack in their dynamic turns into one of The Office's most underrated and hilarious relationships.

Pam mocks his pretentiousness in later seasons by calling out his ridiculous fashion or failed startups. On the other hand, Ryan openly dismisses her, which shows their rarely explosive interactions are always laced with quiet hostility and judgment, making for sharp and dry comedy.

A scene that comes to mind in this context is from Season 8, when Ryan asks Pam what she is doing, and she responds that she is buying some lottery tickets online. Ryan sarcastically taunts her,

"Everyone wants to be rich, but nobody wants to work for it."

Pam doesn't entertain and reminds him immediately,

"You came in at 10:30 today, right?"

This dynamic has worked best for the show. It lets it build slowly, starting with a yogurt lid and ending in some of the series’s most dryly savage throwaway lines. Therefore, this makes it The Office's most slow-burning burn, underrated dynamics, which gradually escalated into a cold war of sarcasm and mutual disdain.

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