We probably know the identity of the Scranton Strangler, but there’s another unsolved The Office mystery out there: who is the father of Jan’s baby?
In the season four episode, “Goodbye, Toby,” Jan reveals to Michael that she’s pregnant. Michael, of course, assumes he’s the dad (even though he wore two condoms when they had sex), but she informs him that he’s not the father. (Michael would make a Maury joke here.) “I went to a sperm bank,” Jan says. “It’s not just any sperm bank.” It’s next to the “little breakfast place” that Michael loves where you can draw on the tables (IHOP). In season five, Jan gives birth to Astrid, who Michael spells as “Astird,” but through the rest of the series, we never learn who the biological father is. Is it Hunter? Is it Kevin? It’s neither. In fact, as Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey revealed in the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast, it’s someone who never even appeared on The Office.
“Jenna in the script — and it didn’t make it to the deleted scenes — Jan reveals whose sperm she bought,” Kinsey told her co-star, who had no idea. “Jan says, ‘You have to pay top dollar, but it’s worth it. Now, here’s the best part. I got Andy Roddick’s sperm.'”
Yes, that Andy Roddick. She continued:
“And Jan looks to Michael like she’s expecting him to be very impressed. And Michael says, ‘The tennis player?’ And Jan says, ‘Well, it’s a little more than that. He’s the sixth ranked player in the world and he’s won four grand slams.’ And Michael says, ‘That’s a lot of grand slams, I guess.’ And Jan says, ‘And he’s a humanitarian — something with orphans.’ And Michael is quiet and Jan goes, ‘Michael?’ And Michael says, ‘Can I just sit here for a minute without more things coming into my head?’”
Why Andy Roddick? Fischer thinks it’s because he’s friends with Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight on The Office. “I have to imagine that the reason they wrote it as being Andy Roddick’s sperm was a little bit of a nod to Andy, who has an amazing sense of humor,” she said. Whatever, I still believe it’s Kevin.
You can listen to the Office Ladies episode below.
