There were plenty of memorable gags on The Office over the course of nine seasons, but one particularly funny moment happened in season 3 episode 16, titled “Business School.”

It’s all business as usual at Dunder Mifflin until Dwight (Rainn Wilson) discovers animal droppings on the floor. Initially, Dwight believes a bird is trapped in the office. After some investigating it’s discovered, to everyone’s horror, that a bat has been living in the ceiling. Naturally, chaos ensues.

Longtime fans of the series will know that actresses Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer, who co-starred on the mockumentary comedy series as Angela Martin and Pam Beesly respectively, began a podcast called Office Ladies in 2019 to celebrate The Office and its fans.

For each episode of the podcast, Kinsey and Fischer rewatch an episode of the series and reminisce about their time on the show while explaining behind the scenes details about that episode.

As reported by People, Kinsey and Fischer invited their former co-star Kate Flannery onto the podcast to discuss the bat scene. In the episode, Dwight eventually catches the bat by trapping it in the break room with Meredith. He proceeds to trap the animal, along with Meredith’s head, in a garbage bag.

Flannery revealed on the podcast that a real bat was used to shoot part of the sequence! Here is what the actress had to say about the experience:

"Yes, we had a real bat with five handlers. But we were not allowed to make any noise around the bat. I couldn’t scream. So even though I was screaming, I was acting like I was screaming when we were shooting because — don’t upset the bat. Something with the sonar."

However, a motorized contraption was used to mimic a bat during the scene when it’s trapped in the garbage bag with Meredith’s head. Flannery continued:

"I did all of it. The motorized thing on the head, it was like, sort of like this fluttery thing, almost like a headband with a motor."

That must have been a weird day on set! I have to say, my favorite scenes of The Office are the ones when Jim is trying to mess with Dwight. The interactions between the two after Jim pretends to have been bitten by the bat are just so funny, and Jim acting like garlic bread burned him is the cherry on top of an already hilarious bit.

If you want to rewatch the entire bat situation unfold, you can check out the video below.