Is Ryan on ‘The Office’ a Thinly Veiled Ben Silverman?

Our ears perked up during last night’s season premiere of The Office, when onetime temp Ryan, now promoted to corporate in New York, described himself as a “wunderkind.� That he did so while clearly reinventing himself as a cool guy — black dress shirt, black tie, three days of stubble — made us laugh. We’re pretty sure the writers on The Office are having a little fun with their executive producer, NBC wunderkind Ben Silverman.

Could Ryan — who leapt from an internship to a position of power in record time — be a thinly-veiled portrait of Silverman, who in his first job famously rose from assistant to Director of Development in one day? Will we soon see Ryan ringing Dunder-Mifflin chimes, talking shit about other paper companies, and boldly announcing revivals of moronic Dunder-Mifflin products from twenty years ago? There’s really no evidence whatsoever that our theory is true, but we are sticking by it nonetheless.

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