Mindy Kaling Says 'The Office' Is "So Inappropriate Now" And Most Of The Characters "Would Be Canceled" If They Existed Today
"The Office" remains one of the most beloved shows to ever air on TV, but actor and writer Mindy Kaling explains why she thinks it wouldn't be able to air today and would be considered extremely offensive.
Spanning across 9 seasons, "The Office" is one of the most popular TV shows in the last couple decades. It has created a devoted fan base that still rewatches episodes on a regular basis, but despite begs and pleas for a sequel, the creators and cast of the show have made it clear for a long time that there will be no reboot (thankfully). Mindy Kaling starred as Kelly Kapoor, the shopping-obsessed, pop-culture fanatic who had a toxic relationship with temp-turned-executive Ryan Howard throughout the entirety of the show. She also wrote and produced many episodes of "The Office," and she says the show wouldn't have been made today because it's far too offensive.
Mindy Kaling Says 'The Office' Is "So Inappropriate Now" and Most of The Characters "Would Be Canceled" if They Existed Today
There's an episode called Diversity Day in season one where Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell, asks all his employees to put an index card on their forehead without reading it. Each one has a different race or ethnicity on it (well, it's supposed to anyway) and everyone is supposed to talk to one another and guess what card is on their forehead. You can just imagine how it goes.
After the experiment fails, Michael approaches Kelly as she walks into the room. He puts on a terrible Indian accent, welcomes her to his convenient store, and tries to convince her to try his "googi googi." She slaps him across the face and walks out.
The show is wildly hilarious and unforgettable precisely because it was politically incorrect. That was just season one, and as the seasons go on, Michael arguably becomes more and more politically incorrect. When Rashida Jones' character Karen comes to the office for the first time, he says, "You are very exotic. Was your dad a GI, or..."
Mindy did an interview with Good Morning America and said that "The Office" just wouldn't be made today because "that show is so inappropriate now." She makes a good point. Progressive intersectionality has completely killed comedy because of the obsession with political correctness.
“The writers who I’m still in touch with now, we always talk about how so much of that show we probably couldn’t make now,” Mindy said. “Tastes have changed, and honestly what offends people has changed so much now. I think that actually is one of the reasons the show is popular, because people feel like there’s something kind of fearless about it or taboo that it talks about on the show.”
She's right in saying that one of the big reasons why people adore "The Office" is because it was a comedy from simpler times when writers were allowed to crack inappropriate jokes without fear of being canceled. If Michael Scott were on TV today, he wouldn't even last two episodes without the network receiving so much backlash that they were forced to kill him off or something.
When asked where she thinks Kelly Kapoor would be today, Mindy responded, “I think she would have quit Dunder Mifflin to become an influencer, and then probably be canceled, almost immediately. Actually, most of the characters on that show would be canceled by now.”