The Truth About Mose From The Office

When viewers first meet Mose on The Office's third season, Dwight is utilizing him in a bizarre initiation service for fledgling salesman Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak).  Ryan draws the line at wrestling the physical embodiment of "fear" (Mose is clad in a homemade shirt that says "FEAR" across the chest), and thus Dwight's weird ritual abruptly ends. However, the scene gives audiences an immediate insight into the farm-bound Mose: he's incredibly stunted, and doesn't really know how to interact with others. Later scenes see Mose trying to throw manure at guests on the farm, using an outhouse with the door open, and just acting generally odd, and throughout the show, Dwight reveals that Mose, just one of his 70 cousins, doesn't even know how to use a phone.

Dwight's entire family situation raises a lot of questions. (For example, he dropped pretty obvious clues that his grandfather was a Nazi, including that he "spent time in an Allied prison camp.") But Mose, as the most prominent non-Dwight member of the Schrute clan, is a bit of a disturbing and a definitively mysterious figure. Almost nothing is known about Mose's upbringing or his life previous to the show's narrative. One of the biggest insights the audience gets into Mose's life is when Dwight tells Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer), who are staying at Schrute Farms' bed and breakfast, that Mose has had "nightmares" ever since "the storm." Naturally, Dwight doesn't go into any further detail.

In any case, Dwight's Pennsylvania German family is definitely played for laughs throughout The Office, and Mose is no exception, remaining a running joke throughout the show's background for its entire run (Mose makes his final appearance on the show's series finale during his cousin's wedding).