The Office star Rainn Wilson has said one particularly offensive episode from the show’s third season “would have to be very, very different” if made today.
The U.S. version of The Office ran from 2005 to 2013 and remains one of the post popular sitcoms in the world on streaming.
However, Wilson, who played authoritarian salesman Dwight Schrute on the much-loved series, says some of the comedy has dated badly.
Speaking on The Daily Beast’s Last Laugh podcast, Wilson singled out the “A Benihana Christmas” double episode from season three as egregious by today’s standards.
“Listen you know, the Benihana Christmas episode where Michael and Andy draw with a sharpie on one of the Asian women that they’ve brought back to the Christmas party is jaw droppingly kind of horrific,” said Wilson. “And it’s a tricky conversation, you know?”
He continued: “They’re clueless and in their cluelessness they’re racist and insensitive, and they’re always saying the wrong thing. And that’s Michael, Dwight and Andy—and Kevin for that matter. So it’s a show based around clueless, insensitive, racist, sexist people that kind of mirrors the United States in a lot of ways.
“So you want to encourage it, because it’s funny as hell, and it also kind of skewers a particular American sensibility, but it definitely goes pretty far if you dig deep. So, you know, could it happen today? I think it would have to be very, very different if it were made in this environment.”
The Office was adapted from the U.K. series of the same name, which ran from 2001 to 2003 and was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.
Earlier this year, Gervais and Merchant spoke to The Independent about the 20th anniversary of the U.S. adaptation and praised Wilson’s performance.
“I was worried about Dwight,” said Gervais. “I thought he was too over the top, but then that just settled in and worked with the show – because the show was bigger as well.”
Merchant agreed, adding that “at first there’s a theatricality to the performance, but as you watch it, he’s just able to make it rich.”
The U.S. version of The Office has recently spawned a new spin-off series, The Paper, which earned a three-star review from The Independent critic Nick Hilton.
“The Paper will inevitably be compared to The Office, and in largely unfavorable terms,” wrote Hilton. “But the question of whether it is good enough to survive on its own is moot. It doesn’t have to. Fans of The Office will give it a go, and over the course of a slow-burn first season, come to feel some affection for the denizens of the Truth Teller Tower.”
Zosia Mamet says she quit major TV series after showrunner ‘screamed’ at her in front of entire crew
Today show cast shakeup as longtime contributor announces departure
17 actors refused to say on screen: ‘I can’t go back to north London if I said that’
Why The Paper might be better than The Office
The Paper actor Domhnall Gleeson tells viewers: ‘We’re not bringing The Office back’
