Photo: DFree / Shutterstock & Peacock
Is this a confession?
By Micki Spollen — Written on May 25, 2022
While ‘The Office’ writers tied up most storylines with nice little bows during the show’s series finale in 2013, viewers were left with one lingering question: who was the Scranton Strangler?
Fans may remember that George Howard Skub was convicted for being the Scranton Strangler, a serial criminal convicted of strangling people all over the city. They’re even more likely to remember Toby Flenderson, who served on the jury during Skub’s trial, expressing doubt about the alleged Strangler’s true identity.
Though the writers did try to give closure by showing Skub strangling Toby, some fans remain dubious, claiming that it’s “a totally reasonable reaction to encountering one of the jurors that wrongfully convicted him.”
Who was the Scranton Strangler?
Fan theories have pointed fingers at many ‘Office’ characters over the years, with each theory as convincing as the next.
But now, Creed Bratton has weighed in on the mystery with an unexpected TikTok in which he seems to suggest that he himself was the Scranton Strangler, proving previous prime suspects Toby Flenderson and David Wallace innocent.
In the viral TikTok, Bratton, who has the same name as the fictionalized version of himself he played in the series, seemingly has a conversation with the Scranton Strangler, telling the serial killer that he is finally going to reveal his identity.
The camera then cuts to the opposite angle, revealing that Creed is speaking to himself in a mirror.
“WE ALL KNEW IT DEEP DOWN GUYS CMON,” wrote one TikToker in the comments.
“Creed just wants to go to jail for the free meals!” wrote another, with Creed replying: “If it’s free it’s me.”
The fan theory that Creed is the Scranton Strangler has been discussed in the past, with one Reddit thread ultimately coming to the conclusion that Creed was “too smart” to be the Strangler.
“If Creed wanted someone gone he'd do it quietly and you'd never notice they're gone,” said one Redditor.
Arguably the most popular fan theory points the finger at Toby as the Scranton Strangler.
“Nah it was Toby,” says one comment that has amassed almost 50,000 likes on Creed’s TikTok video.
In 2021, the actor who played Toby, Paul Lieberstein, further perpetuated the theory when he told PopCulture.com, "Oh yeah,” when they asked if he believed Toby was capable of being the Strangler.
"There's a lot we didn't get to do with this Scranton Strangler,” he says. “We had a lot of designs, and it was never quite mentioned that he wasn't a murderer. He would strangle you until he passed out."
Even the creators of ‘The Office’ got in on the joke, uploading a YouTube video titled ‘Making a Strangler’ in which they “delve into the theory of whether mild-mannered HR Rep Toby Flenderson could have been the infamous Scranton Strangler all along.”
However, John Krasinski, the actor who played Jim Halpert, seemingly debunked that theory in 2013 when he tweeted that he wished Toby was the Strangler.
Others have suspected Dunder Mifflin's former CEO, David Wallace, was the Scranton Strangler.
When "confronted" on Twitter by journalist Jules Suzdaltsev, Andy Buckley, the actor who plays Wallace, replied, "Very well could be Jules! He had it in him to just snap. Hot tub middle of the day, boozing, creating the Suck It. And what was he doing in Season 8 the 3rd or 4th to last Ep. Runs into Andy at a local Scranton Charity Dinner? Why was he in Scranton? Perhaps you're correct."
Fans may have to wait for an ‘Office’ reboot to find out who the true identity of the Scranton Strangler for sure.
Unfortunately, at this moment there are no plans to reboot the show, only this parody/conceptual version of what such a show might look like.
So it’s up to ‘The Office’ fans to keep up the detective work.
Micki Spollen is an editor, writer, and traveler. Follow her on Instagram and keep up with her travels on her website.