Boston Museum of Fine Arts Forgives 'Office' Prankster BJ Novak

As a former teenage boy, I can fully appreciate this story.

Imaginative minds can be used for both good and for misbehaving. In the case of BJ Novak, cast member and writer for The Office, his imagination got him into some trouble in 1997 while on a Newton South High School field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Novak and his friends thought it would be funny to replace 10 of the normal Museum of Fine Arts audio tour cassette tapes with a tape voiced by a friend with a heavy Russian accent. A 1997 Boston Herald article outlined how the recording started off fairly normal, but devolved into encouraging guests to "move to the left, right and around the galleries to do the hokey pokey."

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To be fair, I also toured the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as a teen. While I would certainly enjoy spending a rainy afternoon inside the museum now, my 13-year-old self would have enjoyed Novak's version instead.

"Now it is time for the next gallery," the prank audio guide informed listeners. "And if you feel like a break, well that's too bad because you may not turn off your headset, at least not on my tour you subhuman piece of filth! You are American swine! You may not turn off your headset."

Novak came clean and admitted to the prank 10 years ago on The Late Show with David Letterman, but he never formally apologized to the museum.

Until this weekend.

Novak hosted a sold-out celebrity lecture on March 1, 2024, at the Museum of Fine Arts where he came clean, breaking down how he and his friends pulled off the elaborate prank.

The museum decided to let bygones be bygones and officially pardoned the comedian for the prank that occurred 27 years ago.

Ties to Massachusetts are strong among The Office cast members. John Krasinski, Steve Carell and Mindy Kaling are among the show's other stars who hail from the state.

Here is the full recording of Novak's prank cassette. It has been saved to YouTube for posterity. This gem will now live on forever.

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