The Office is one of the most revered, beloved, and biggest (that's what she said) sitcoms of all time. The antics of the Scranton branch of the Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company made us cringe, made us laugh, and sometimes even made us shed a tear during its 9 season run. We would await with anticipation the latest prank that Jim (John Krasinski) would play on Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), or what wild tangent Michael Scott (Steve Carell) would go on. Yet the world has changed since Season 9's "Finale" marked the end of The Office's run in May 2013. It's been almost 10 years now, and we as a global community have matured greatly by since that time. We've become more tolerant of others. Well, unless they disagree with our point of view. We braved a global pandemic, overcoming it by strictly adhering to the advice of professionals. Or celebrities that sounded like they knew what they were talking about. Our technology has advance to such a great degree that NASA has plans to land people on the moon in 1969 2024. The point is, we no longer suffer the shenanigans that littered The Office, and by God, if it was airing today it's literally guaranteed that these Scranton scoundrels would be canceled. Just look at these cancel-worthy sins.
'The Office': Sexual (Un)Favors
One of the things that would be problematic for the show today is its treatment of sexuality in the workplace. The frequency with which Meredith (Kate Flannery) goes topless, and even one time, during the episode "Casual Friday", the extremely short dress she was wearing showed off her undercarriage. Not only inappropriate but demeaning to the character. Angela's (Angela Kinsey) homophobia would not be tolerated at all, nor would the hypocrisy of her conservative Christianity given her cheating on Andy (Ed Helms). And Dwight. And the Senator (Jack Coleman). For that matter, the way she and Kelly (Mindy Kaling) openly and almost creepily fawn over the new vice president, Charles Miner (Idris Elba)? Call them Cancel and Gretel... Jan (Melora Hardin) dating Michael from a position of power, and initiating intimacy with Michael in "The Client", is a big no-no. While Michael outing Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez) to the office as gay crosses a line, and then forcibly kissing him to show "he's okay with it" is pretty much putting that line in the rearview mirror. The #MeToo movement put a spotlight - rightly - on sexual harassment, so even played for laughs the behavior is being viewed much differently now. As such, cancelled.
The Office: (Dis)Respectfully Yours
There are respectful relationships in The Office, but they are few and far between. In fact, in the real world, most of the characters would be fired, while their fictional counterparts would most certainly face cancellation. Take Stanley (Leslie David Baker), for example. He hates, hates, hates Michael, but the intense disrespect he shows in the episode "Did I Stutter?", demanding Michael leave him alone and saying "did I stutter?", is unacceptable — although Michael does exact a degree of payback in Season 5's "Stress Relief" by roasting Stanley with "you crush your wife during sex and your heart sucks." The same can be said of Michael's hateful treatment of Toby (Paul Lieberstein), with seemingly no excuse as to why. Not okay. Nor is trying to frame Toby for drug possession, for the record.
The relationship that exists between Jim and Dwight is a complicated one, but there's no denying that, largely, it is bereft of respect. That in itself isn't bad — respect should be earned, after all — but it is the level to which they undermine one another. Dwight has actively sabotaged Jim's promotions, as in "Diabolical Plan", while Jim makes Dwight look foolish with elaborate pranks. Actually, scratch that last one - a stapler in Jell-O, a gift-wrapped desk with no desk underneath, and more are pranks to be admired for the ingenuity behind them. Disrespect is something the public sees everywhere, and has only grown division in recent years, so it's unlikely that extreme levels of it are palatable now. Le cancelled.
The Office: No Good (Mis)Deeds Go Unpunished
Then there's a veritable cornucopia of other misdeeds that would prompt cancelation. Let's begin with Dwight, whose solution to treating Angela's sickly cat is a one-way trip to Freezerville. And beets? Who grows beets? Cancelled, by animal lovers and veggie-hating children. Michael, voted most likely to be cancelled on The Office. Promised a group of third-graders that he would pay for their college tuition if they graduate from high school, only he couldn't deliver on the promise at all, in "Scott's Tots" (he did, however, offer them free laptop batteries). He fake fires people, held a pizza delivery driver hostage, dates Pam's (Jenna Fischer) mom, and when he discovers that an employee has been to prison, Michael creates the persona of Prison Mike, a wildly inappropriate caricature of prison life, to show how bad prison is (with the worst part being the Dementors, obviously).
Michael's social awkwardness and clueless nature drives much of the humor of the show, but it would be foolish to assume that there wouldn't be some repercussion in today's society. The entire office itself has done things worthy of being cancelled, but the most cancel-worthy has to be in "Prince Family Paper", where the entire office gets caught up in a debate over whether actress Hilary Swank is hot, or not. Not what she does off-screen to better society, or her award-winning acting skills. Just attractive, or not attractive. In a world that increasingly places the value of people on who they are, not what they look like, this sort of judgment - especially on a widely-distributed TV show - would be canceled quicker than you can say Million Dollar Baby.
The Office: The Final Word
The Office may very well be the definitive example of lightning in a bottle, a perfect storm of cast, writers, and story, released at a time when society was more tolerant, or a time when naysayers and cancellers didn't have the same forums we have today. For it to succeed in today's world, well, it simply wouldn't. For the show's characters to avoid the pitfalls of cancel culture, full storylines that stir controversy wouldn't make it to air. Most character traits would be downplayed, if they were still present at all. Cancelling aside, even the idea of an office itself has changed drastically, thanks to the pandemic opening the doors to working from home, so there's a disconnect with relating to the environment of the show. So take The Office as a product of its time — which sounds really odd for a show that really only ended 10 years ago — enjoy its forbidden fruit, and watch a show that would easily bypass cancel culture: All in the Family.