What is an Amish Return stick?
If you found this page, changes are you just finished up an episode of “The Office” where Dwight compares Jim to an “an Amish Return Stick”.
But what exactly is an Amish return stick?
Amish Return Stick, Origin
Quote from the popular series “The Office”
Season 8, Episode 18 “Last Day in Florida” (original air date March 8, 2012)
See the Original Clip below.
In this scene Dwight tells Jim, “I keep throwing you away and you keep flying back. Your like an Amish return stick”.
What?
If you are a fan of the show. You already know that Dwight lives on a Beat Farm and will frequently make odd statements about his childhood, hard times and in some cases just make up words.
Another example of this was the quote.
“The Schrutes have a word for when everything in a man’s life comes together perfectly. Perfectenschlag. Right now, I am in it. I finally get a chance to prove myself to corporate. I am assembling a competent team. I am likely a father. I am so deep inside of perfectenschlag right now. And, just to be clear, there is a second definition, ‘perfect pork anus’, which I don’t mean.” – Dwight Schrute (Rain Wilson), The Office, Season 8: Special Project
See what I mean?
Now, getting back to the stick.
Amish Return Stick, Meaning
When I first heard the reference I had no idea what to make of it so I decided to do what anyone would do and…yup. Google it.
However, to my surprise there wasn’t anything to be found.
Could I be the only one curious enough to look for a meaning about an apparently fictional stick from a fictional TV show?
Apparently so.
Under that conclusion, it appeared that this was just a made-up expression without any true meaning. Open for interpretation.
My Interpretation
Given the context and the gesture made after the quote (a twirling motion). It would appear that Dwight was referencing what is more commonly referred to as…
A Boomerang
“A curved flat piece of wood that can be thrown so that it will return to the thrower, traditionally used by Australian Aborigines as a hunting weapon.” definition according to Lexico
Basically saying that no matter how many times he tries to get rid of Jim, he just keeps coming back/returning.
Conclusion, Theory
So why not just call it a Boomerang from the very beginning?
My theory is that is just part of Dwights character (isolated beat farmer) as there are other times in the show where characters will have to correct him on different sayings and expressions.
The other possibility is that the Amish Return Stick pre-dates the more popular Boomerang term. This would then make Dwight appear smarter than everyone else as he can then correct people on the “true” origin of a stick that is thrown, but returns.
Again, this is just a fictional TV show but since there was no definition I could find, these are my interpretations.
If you have a theory please share it in the comments below, we would love to hear it.
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“Your like an Amish return stick” – Dwight Schrute
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