No God, Please No!

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About

"No God, Please No!" is a memorable quote uttered by Michael Scott, a regional manager of paper distribution company Dunder Mifflin Inc. in the U.S. adaptation of TV sitcom The Office, upon reacting to the unannounced return of the company's former human resources representative Toby Flenderson. On the web, a variety of remixed video clips and animated GIFs featuring Michael Scott's quote have been used as a reaction image or video to express one's extreme aversion towards something.

Origin

In Season 5, Episode 9 of NBC sitcom series The Office, originally aired on November 20th, 2008, Michael Scott (portrayed by Steve Carrel) is shown minding his own business as he walks around the office, shortly before running into Toby Flenderson (portrayed by Paul Lieberstein), the branch's human resources (HR) representative and Michael Scott's least favorite co-worker who had just returned from a lengthy vacation in Costa Rica. Upon seeing him, Michael Scott compulsively yells "NO" in utter shock and dismay. On December 27th, 2008, the earliest known clip of the scene was uploaded by YouTuber PeterPro, which has garnered more than 9.9 million views and 62,000 likes as of mid-November 2014. On August 13th, 2013, YouTuber lNicrolax v.2 uploaded a high-definition version of the same clip, gaining over 160,000 views in just over a year (shown below).

Jim Halpert: Oh no. You don't know.
Michael Scott: I don't know. What?
Jim Halpert: You should probably just meander back there. Take a look. See if he's… if he's back.
Michael Scott: [taking it as a joke] Dare I? [laughing] You know what, I'm going to. For old time's sake!
[Michael walks into the annex and no one's there]
Michael Scott: [to camera] Great practical joke, Jim. You got me to go to the annex.
[Michael turns around right into Toby]
Michael Scott: [screaming] NOO GOD! NO. GOD. PLEASE. NO. NO!!! NO!!! NOOOOOO!!!

Spread

After the original broadcast of the episode, the quote consistently gained online traction as an often-cited quote among the fans of the show. In 2010, MemeCenter user PhoenixFlames submitted a captioned GIF of Michael Scott yelling "No God, Please No" (shown below). As of November 2014, the search query "No God, Please No" yields more than related 10,000 posts on the site.

In 2012, a MemeGenerator entry for the quote was launched, which hosts nearly 150 captioned instances that are categorized under the tag "michael scott yelling NO." In addition, the quote has seen some significant usage on Tumblr as well, with more than 10,000 posts tagged after the quote in verbatim.