In a The Office marathon that aired on Sunday, the network Comedy Central removes the episode “Diversity Day” in an effort to align with political correctness.
Since its inception, The Office has always dealt with many issues and themes that have seen the main anti-hero Michael Scott deal with issues in very caustic ways in its own brand of comedy.
Although the series has notable renown and many fans choose to rewatch the series instead of picking up something new, Comedy Central decided it was in their best interests to exclude Season One’s second episode from their marathon lineup due to heinous subject material.
The episode in question tackles diversity enforcement in the workplace as a form of satire, where Michael hi-jacks the well-meaning racial diversity seminar in an effort to make it about himself, as many of the other episodes do. Michael breaks into different routines including a character that delivers one of Chris Rock‘s famous standup routines, and a character that is heavily racist towards Indian culture, which sees an office employee slap him in an offended response.
The seminar was meant to bring diversity awareness to The Office, and ironically, it was due to Michael in the first place that the seminar had to be held. The episode utilizes a cringe form of comedy delivery that becomes hard to watch, but that is their brand. There are many episodes in the immense listing of The Office that shares this hard to watch comedy, including Episode two of Season two titled “Sexual Harassment,” which features the introduction of a misogynistic Todd Packer that only uses ‘locker room speak’ and is notably more aggravating than Michael with his antics.
In a network that hosts controversial king South Park and airs every episode of the feature, Comedy Central may face backlash from removing the episode, due to the impending domino effect the removal of one episode could cause.
