Parasocial ‘Office’ Fans Aren’t Happy With B.J. Novak’s New TikTok Girlfriend

Superfans of The Office (U.S.) are taking B.J. Novak’s hard-launch of his new girlfriend, the popular comedy content creator Delaney Rowe, a little too personally, but isn’t it just like Ryan to go after a much younger woman instead of Kelly?

Ever since Novak and Mindy Kaling’s Office characters began the most toxic on-again, off-again relationship in the history of situational comedy back in Season Two, the Office stars and writers’ private lives and IRL chemistry have been the fodder for hysterical speculation by the fandom that just wants to see Ryan and Kelly together again on their screen like it’s 2006. And while Novak and Kaling have only ever fessed up to dating “on and off for a couple of years” during the making of the show, their continued closeness in the decade following the end of The Office (as well as Novak’s presence in the lives of Kaling’s three children) has given some obsessive followers the impression that the pair of comedy giants have been secret lovers and life partners ever since Jim Halpert first begrudgingly set them up.

So, when the gossip outlets dug up a photo of Novak and Rowe together at a swanky New York gala and reported that the pair of partiers are an item, these Office fans responded with all level-headedness of Michael when he realized that Toby had returned:

Rowe, who first rose to internet superstardom with her series of TikToks showing off her superhuman ability to imitate all of the most insufferable qualities that every independent romance movie lead possesses, is now public enemy #1 to the shockingly large and passionate online community of B.J./Mindy shippers. Even though Kaling herself has never once indicated that Novak and her are still romantically linked, and despite the fact that, just this past February, Novak presented his old friend and creative partner with her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, some of Kaling’s fans have taken it upon themselves to feel personally slighted by Novak’s dating habits.

For some Office fans, even if Kaling came out and cast Rowe in her next comedy series about upper-middle-class, college educated, liberal women getting laid (which, as many Twitter users have pointed out, would be a perfect fit), Novak having a romantic connection with anyone besides his on-screen flame is cheating of the worst kind — even if Kaling never specifically asked him not to do it.