“The Office” in Our Day and Age

By Angela Zhang ‘23

“The Office” is one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time, and I personally have been binge-watching it on Netflix for the past month. I finished Seasons 5 to 9 in a month. So yes, it’s been quite an adventure. 

But if a show like The Office aired today, it might not be received well by the general public. Few would tolerate the humor, which is, quite frankly, disturbing. I often find myself feeling uncomfortable, experiencing second-hand embarrassment whenever a blatantly offensive jab is made. In spite of that, I continue watching—the cast does a phenomenal job at portraying each character and capturing their quirks, and the comic timing is never less than excellent. But the jokes themselves aren’t that funny and, honestly, rather damaging. It makes me wonder what benefit watching a show like this would even bring. 

Michael Scott is essentially the most ignorant and worst boss possible, tokenizing all of his workers. He uses derogatory labels and objectifies nearly everyone in the office. Just to name a few, Oscar is known as the gay and Hispanic man, Stanley as the Black man and Kelly as the outspoken and dramatic woman of color. The identities he’s created in his head lead to him to treat the workers’ humanity as punchlines. The entire show thrives on ableist, ageist, fatphobic, sexist, racist and ignorant comments and “jokes,” actually.

It’s not entertaining when Michael sexually harasses his employees and makes lewd comments. In the workplace, he consistently makes remarks about women’s bodies and suggestive statements regarding Oscar’s homosexuality. Sexual harassment and inappropriately lascivious behavior in real life is not amusing in any way, especially in the age of the #MeToo movement. If anyone asks themselves honestly, The Office and its crass sense of humor would never be able to run in 2020.

But back to Michael. Scott is also known for creating a variety of characters in his head, one of them being Ping—an obvious caricature of an Asian delivery man. The writers of the show purposely slipped Ping into the storyline so viewers would laugh at Michael’s sheer stupidity, not with him, but I can’t help but to wince at the pure mockery Michael directed towards Asians. His ridiculous accent was a slap in the face to my culture and identity as well, because I am acutely aware that, although Michael is a fictional character, there are quite a few people like him in real life. 

And let’s not forget about the treacherous episode on “Diversity Day.” In a horrifyingly embarrassing attempt to encourage openness to diversity, each worker wears labels of different religions and races on their forehead and relies on acting out grossly insulting stereotypes to guess who each of them are. 

The workers in the office also constantly poke fun at workers near retirement age for being old; at obese workers for their eating habits and weight; and ridicule people with eccentric personalities. In nearly every episode, workers mortify Kevin for being dull witted and humiliate Dwight’s peculiar interests for their personal entertainment.

Clearly, this show’s humor is not meant to be taken seriously and is by no means representative of the writers’ beliefs. So back to my original question—what benefit did it bring for viewers to sit through 9 seasons of vulgar humor?

The show is a brutally honest and droll representation of how our daily actions can perpetuate and exacerbate harmful stereotypes. It purposely makes viewers uncomfortable, perhaps in order to show that none of the things happening at Dunder Mifflin should ever take place in real life. Of course, we probably didn’t need a show to realize how unacceptable the behavior was. But seeing it on screen forces us to acknowledge the reality and harm of such things happening in real life. Why was this behavior once acceptable? Where do we still see it today?

This show was really just about how terrible Toby the Human Resources Rep was at his job, condoning the very terrible antics and disrespectful treatment towards workers that essentially served as the premise of this satirical show. We see where this mockery and prejudice comes from—ingrained biases that we form at very young ages. The Office, in many ways, is a perfect example of just how far we have to go.

Luckily, current generations are somewhat more accountable and strive towards a more equitable and kind world. This is not to say we are much better than where we were fifteen years ago, when The Office first aired, but there’s been at least some movement towards explicit conversations around social justice. And we should encourage current and future generations to keep pushing the needle. While I certainly had my fair share of laughs at the wonderfully portrayed characters and irony in this comedy, I would never want The Office’s humor and treatment towards people to become normalized again in the world today. A fun binge, for sure, but one that should be relegated to the past.