Why ‘The Office’s Jan Sperm Donor Joke Originally Didn’t Air

Dozens of jokes from The Office stand out as some of the series’ very best, or at least most memorable. From Jim gaslighting Dwight about his identity using his actor friend, who is Asian (played by Randall Park), to Michael’s outrageous “Prison Mike” persona, there’s almost too many moments to choose from. But did you know one of the series’ funniest — and borderline shocking — jokes originally didn’t air?

One of the show’s most bizarre storylines comes when Jan Levinson, in the wake of her failed relationship with Michael Scott, reveals she is pregnant after undergoing artificial insemination via an anonymous sperm donor.

The reveal happens in the Season 4 finale, “Goodbye, Toby.” While the news surprises a heartbroken Michael, who realizes Jan was pregnant while they were still together but that the baby isn’t his, the tables later turn (“How the turntables…”) via a deleted season from Season 5, Episode 4, when buffoonish accountant Kevin Malone suggests he could be the father.

During Jan’s baby shower at the office, Dunder Mifflin’s former Vice President of Northeastern Sales-turned-candle maker is horrified when Kevin reveals he regularly donates sperm to the very same “highly exclusive” sperm bank — “next to the IHOP,” Kevin confirms — where Jan underwent her insemination procedure.

“Well, I paid for an ideal specimen,” Jan, visibly shaken by the very idea, announces defensively, drawing quick backlash from Kevin’s co-worker Oscar Matinez before Jan changes the subject.

Meanwhile, Kevin is elated by the possibility. “I might’ve done it with Jan,” he tells the camera, chuckling.

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According to actor Brian Baumgartner, who plays Kevin, the scene — which has since been added back into the cult comedy series — was originally cut from the episode.

“There were certainly some ideas that I had that they incorporated, and some that they did not,” Baumgartner recently told Entertainment Weekly, recalling he got “really mad” when editors cut the Kevin-Jan sperm donor joke for potentially being too convoluted for viewers when the episode initially aired in 2008.

“There was a joke — and now they have put it back in, so most people have seen it. I just thought it was pound-for-pound an amazing joke. It was a great joke, and they cut it. Kevin begins asking [Jan] about where she got the sperm donated for the baby. She says some version of like, ‘Oh, you know, it’s a very exclusive place,’ and Kevin knowingly says, ‘The place behind the IHOP?’” the actor explained.

Baumgartner added that the “look on [Jan’s] face” sold the comedy of the moment, but that the writers of the show told him that they didn’t “really have a storyline about this, or we don’t want to confuse people to think that it might set something up with Kevin’s baby.”

“I was like, ‘No, you’re overthinking this. This is just a great joke. Yeah, this is a great joke. That doesn’t have to go anywhere.’ I got really mad about that one, and I lost the argument, but now they have put it back in. It’s interesting, you can’t watch that episode now and not see that moment happen. So it’s a little bit of vindication for me,” Baumgartner shared.

Who Was the Father of Jan’s Baby on The Office?

During a 2021 episode of Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey’s Office Ladies podcast, it was revealed that the anonymous sperm donor behind Jan’s pregnancy was none other than real-life professional tennis professional Andy Roddick.

According to Kinsey, the reveal happened in a never-aired deleted scene in which Jan tells an underwhelmed Michael about who her daughter Astrid’s actual father is.

“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,’” Kinsey recalled.