The Office may be seen as a classic, a comedy about an American work office environment with several conflicts that wouldn’t be gratefully accepted in our culture, but people enjoyed it a lot back in the days. As the production aired a long time ago, the audience was not as easily offended which explains the popularity, but also some controversy surrounding, the second episode of the first season – “Diversity Day”. Recently, a newer network in the US, Comedy Central, made the decision to ban the episode from their channel as they feel it is no longer suitable.
Diversity Day is a parody episode and in it Michael Scott (Steve Carrell), one of the-foremost characters in the series, attempts to push for equality in an extreme way. Trying to be more politically correct than actually being, Michael decides to make all employees don individual cards with names written on them, including ‘Asian’, ‘Jewish’, ‘Jamaican’, and ‘Martin Luther King Jr.’ In this episode, the target of mockery is the approach of corporations towards diversity, however, such methods would be considered insulting now.
Writer Larry Wilmore stated the following: “There’s no way a show like ‘Diversity Day’ could be made today, and that’s probably a good thing. I have outtakes from that scene with Steve Carell where even I am nauseated by the content of my own body. It was hilarious then, but it isn’t the case now.”
Wilmore added: “Cultures are incredibly fluid. It’s less about what we shouldn’t make jokes about, but rather what is the appropriateness of humor in which contexts. The more we look for ways to make fun of heavy problems, the easier it is going to be for us as a society to achieve our goals.”
In case you would prefer to look back at some of the classic episodes of The Office and other similar shows, go to Yesmovies, https://yesmoviesfree.online/.