The Office finale featured a lot of returning characters and guest stars, so why did comedy stars Bill Hader and Seth Meyers cameo as themselves in the show’s last episode? Fans of The Office were sad to see the comedy come to an end in 2013, but at least they were treated to an epic finale. The two-part episode is set one year after the Dunder Mifflin documentary aired on TV and sees the office employees gather to celebrate Dwight and Angela’s wedding while the doc crew returns to shoot bonus footage for its DVD release.
The finale saw the return of many former characters – Michael Scott, Kelly Kapoor and Ryan Howard included – alongside guest stars like Joan Cusack and Ed Begley Jr, who played Erin Hannon’s biological parents and future Fifty Shades actress Dakota Johnson as a new Dunder Mifflin employee. A whole host of Office crew members had cameos in the finale too (like writers Allison Silverman, Brent Forrester and Steve Hely), as did real-life super-fan Jennie Tan who played a fictional version of herself.
One scene in The Office finale sees the Dunder Mifflin documentary crew catch up with Andy Bernard who decided to audition for an American Idol-like reality contest called America’s Next A Cappella Sensation in the penultimate episode “A.A.R.M.” When the auditions were cut short before Andy got to sing his piece, he charged onto the stage and broke down crying when the judges' panel (made up of Clay Aiken, Santigold and Aaron Rodgers) said he wasn’t talented enough to compete on America’s Next A Cappella Sensation.
The Office finale revealed that a clip of Andy Bernard’s, sad tear-filled hissy fit during the America’s Next A Cappella Sensation auditions had gone viral and earned him the nickname “Baby Wawa.” Not only had someone created an auto-tune remix of Andy’s tantrum, but it was also parodied by Bill Hader and Seth Meyers on an in-universe version of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update segment – hence Hader and Meyers’ cameos in the finale.
The Office and Saturday Night Live are both NBC shows, but their connection runs deeper than that. Greg Daniels, who adapted The Office for U.S. television, is a veteran SNL writer so it makes sense he was able to wangle an in-universe cameo from stars Bill Hader and Seth Meyers. The Office series finale wasn’t the first time the show crossed over with Saturday Night Live either. Back in 2007, when The Office was in its third season, Dwight Schrute actor Rainn Wilson hosted an episode of SNL that featured a skit parodying the popular show with Kristen Wiig as Pam, Jason Sudeikis as Jim and Kenan Thomas as Stanley.