Steve Carell Was Hit By A Car, But Unlike Meredith On 'The Office,' He's Just Fine

Car accidents are usually no laughing matter. But when no one is hurt and the accident involves Steve Carell basically reenacting a scene from The Office, it's a lot easier to find the humor in it. On Wednesday, Carell joked on The Ellen DeGeneres Show about a literal run-in with a fan when he was hit by a car recently.

Carell told DeGeneres that he's an avid bike rider who frequently wears the "very sexy" biker uniform of "all lycra." But, one of his routine bike rides took a dangerous turn a a couple weeks ago. Carell said:

I was riding and it was a pretty fast road. And I made a turn and I didn’t see the car behind me, and they hit me from behind. And so I went up over the handlebars and I — It’s a weird experience because everything just slows down. And I thought, 'Well, I’m gonna tuck and roll,' and I rolled. And I got up and I was fine.

The driver of the car immediately pulled over and was distraught. But once she saw that the biker was wearing a helmet and was safe – and that he was one of her favorite actors – her distress became glee. Carell said, "She was so excited that she hit me. It was really kind of a fun experience, like a fun fan encounter."

For Carell, the incident might have been a too-familiar case of life imitating art. In the Season 4 episode of The Office called "Fun Run," Carell's character Michael Scott accidentally hits his coworker Meredith Palmer (played by Kater Flannery) with his PT Cruiser. The incident on The Office was probably way more dramatic than what happened to Carell in real life, though... one can only hope.

Serious fans of The Office will remember that after Michael hits Meredith, she ends up in the hospital where she discovers that she has rabies. Michael, in turn, founds the "Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure," hence the "Fun Run" episode title.

There probably won't be any fun runs or other benefits started for Carell any time soon, since thankfully both he and the driver from his accident are safe. But, DeGeneres did want to make sure that Carell is a little safer about his bike-riding in the future. The talk show host gifted Carell a bunch of biking gear to make sure drivers always notice him in the future: A fluorescent vest and helmet dotted with flashing lights and a flag. It would definitely be hard to miss Carell in that get-up.

Carell promised he would make good use of his gift. "I'm actually going to wear this," he said. "And I'm going to ride right by your studio." Riding by DeGeneres' studio to just to make sure she sees him in his new biking outfit sounds exactly like the kind of move Michael Scott would pull. Seems like Carell is destined to have The Office references follow him forever.