NBC’s long-term show office It is the latest comedy series to be added to the list of cultural victims.
That’s because viewers familiar with one of the most popular simulations in the United States recently watched a Sunday marathon at Comedy Central and noticed that the show’s “Diversity Day” episode was omitted from the rotation.
Ironically, the politically incorrect episode satirized the “diversity and inclusion” policy of contemporary enterprises. It is characterized by the impetuous and long-term clown Michael Scott (Steve Carell) forcing his paper company employees to attend racial diversity seminars, and in fact, it is his behavior that makes training necessary. During the seminar, he spoke in an exaggerated Indian accent and recounted Chris Rock’s notorious standing routine about different types of blacks.
This clip is the second clip in the first season of the series originally aired on March 29, 2005. It is just the latest example of content censorship in an increasingly sober era. Companies and large technology companies now decide the audience What can and cannot be seen.
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It follows comedy content previously taken out of the viewing lineup, including episodes from Comedy Central South Park with National Broadcasting Corporationof Seinfeld.
That was in June 2020 HBO Maximum gain South Park, In addition to the five most controversial episodes depicting religious figures, including the Prophet Muhammad. These unavailable episodes include “Super Friends” from Season 5, Parts 1 and 2 of “Cartoon Wars” from Season 10, “200” from Season 14, and “201” from Season 14.Previously, they could not be used such as Netflix, gourd, Amazon Before Prime, Comedy Central, iTunes and South Park Studios.
Similarly, NBC pulls Song Fei Although it is the second highest-rated episode in the history of the show, with 38.8 million viewers, it still comes from the joint organization “Puerto Rico Day.”Found in this episode Song Fei During the annual Puerto Rico Day parade in New York City, the gang was caught in traffic jams. The scene where Cosmo Kramer’s character was accidentally scalded and then stepped on the flag of Puerto Rico caused controversy. In August 2002, the unedited episode of the national flag burning scene was re-added to the syndicate.
In addition to comedy content, Disney+ removed several classic works with stereotypes from its children’s profile in October 2020.This means that children under 7 can no longer watch things like Dumbo, Peter Pan, Swiss family Robinson with Nobles. The reason for Disney’s deletion is that these young viewers may not have reached the reading age and cannot understand the suggestions of “negative description and/or abuse of people or culture” added to certain content.In the case of 1941 Dumbo, Objected to the singing crow in the movie, which pays homage to the racist bard, and at the same time Peter Pan with Swiss family Robinson Including negative portrayals of Native Americans and foreigners.
Due to changes in public attitudes, classic Looney Tunes characters such as Pepe Le Pew and Speedy Gonzales have been cancelled or even recreated, so the content was deleted.
although Weekly newspaper Contacted multiple speakers from Comedy Central and ViacomCBS to understand that they had recently missed office Interlude, no one answered our question about why it was deleted. Weekly newspaper The comedian Larry Wilmore was also contacted, who was the central guest star of the segment, but he declined to comment.
at the same time, Twitter Last week, disappointed fans commented on the deletion of “Diversity Day” and were shocked.
“It’s just a matter of time. Wait until they see Michael wearing an African wig to laugh at the episode of Darryl. There is no doubt that riots will happen,” Twitter said. Daily call Contributor Bradley Stein, who added the #BuyTheBoxSet tag.
At that time, Twitter user Austin Keller tweeted: “When they started canceling the office episode, you know the world is about to end. This is really the only thing that unites me at the moment.” Both are in Responding to tweets about episodes deleted by the sports and pop culture blog Barstool Sports.
It was then that the British actor John Cleese announced last week that he would discuss the topic of “abolition of culture” in the upcoming TV documentary series. Cancel me. Among them, the star Python with Faltita There will be meetings with various people who have been “cancelled” due to their actions or speeches, as well as activists who lead opposition to certain public figures.Chris himself also watched an episode of his own Faltita Cancelled due to the use of racist language in anecdotes about the West Indies cricket team.
Needless to say, Ricky Gervais created office And starred in the original British series, Carell once publicly stated that if the show is broadcast for the first time through today’s super sensitive lens, it will be banned.
Carell said in an interview in 2018: “I mean, a lot of the whole idea of the role of Michael Scott is based on misconduct.”
There is no doubt that characters like Michael Scott think the situation too far, Song Fei Kramer usually doesn’t intend to be inappropriate, and always seems to put himself in this situation.
However, it is also worth noting that the adaptation of the British version of Greg Daniels office, It has been said that he deliberately produced the episode of “Diversity Day” in his own way, creating an intimate environment for the best stories in the series on which the entire show is based. Since each character was forced to stick cards of different races on their foreheads and talk about it in a small meeting room, the actors established a chemical reaction between them. It also introduced the roles of Kelly and Toby, thereby establishing the impending feud between Toby and Michael and starting Kelly’s journey.
Another point is that the purpose of comedy is to make us laugh. It cannot always exist in a context that others think is appropriate or inappropriate.
As writer Bobby Braque for sports media sites Break through In a recent article, he wrote, “The wonderful thing about comedy is that it not only makes us laugh, but it is powerful. Diversity Day does not promote racism. On the contrary, it mocks the mistakes of racism. Thought.”
Emily Jashinsky, cultural editor Federalists, He said: “A network dedicated to comedy lacks the courage or willingness for sharp irony like Diversity Day, which is very sad.”
But for now, whether it is a TV audience who recently discovered the show’s weird humor through rebroadcasts during the pandemic, or a hardcore fan of a single-line actor who likes the show’s wit, it’s unlikely that TV audiences will watch “Diversity” in the future. Day” episode.
