Best Of 2021: Comedy Central Pussies Cancel 'Diversity Day' Episode Of "The Office"
I'm not nearly "The Office" savant that my boy Feits is but I'm definitely a fan of the iconic comedy. I'm also a certain kind of 'Office' fan: the kind who tapped out not long after Michael Scott did (though I did return for the finale). I tried to stick around but something left when Steve Carell did and I found myself no longer amused by the show the longer it went.
"The Office" post-Michael Scott is basically the last 2/3rds of "The Simpsons" for me (though he didn't voice a main character, Phil Hartman's death left a similar hole). And much like classic-era "The Simpsons", an amazing run of "The Office" episodes occasionally pops up on the DirecTV guide and I can't hit 'OK' quick enough. Like today for example.
I noticed that Comedy Central's western outlet just aired S1E1, our introduction to arguably the funniest idiot to ever grace our television sets---Michael Scott. "Shit...just missed it," I thought before realizing..."I can just watch one of the funniest eps ever right now".
I sent in the above query but didn't get the (likely) standard coporate boilerplate reply about potentially offending people. But it's really just treating folks like children, telling them that they're not equipped to handle…[checks notes twice]…Michael Scott imitating Chris Rock. As if people voluntarily tuning into a TV comedy was going to suddenly send them out into the streets. Christ, all they had to do is leave the episode up and quietly throw in one of those pussy-ass disclaimers that airs before even goddamn BEVERLY HILLS COP II nowadays (I watched the entiretly of BHC2 after seeing the trigger warning beforehand and still have no idea what warranted it). This isn't hard but I don't why they make it so hard on themselves.
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A simple, appeasing "Times have changed and we've reflected and blah blah blah and this art has not been calibrated to modern day sensibilities for your convenience but no other generation needed these because people already knew that shit coming in" would have sufficed. But instead of just slapping up a trigger warning for an episode of "The Office", Comedy Central quietly omitted it from the rotation thus sending OCD-riddled completists into delirium and prompting me blog about it, drawing even more attention to this, dare I say, canceling of a modern day icon. Fret not as this doesn't mean that you can only watch 'Diversity Day' on some shady site that gives your PC cybercrabs; you just need to pony up to enjoy it on Peacock or buy it for $3 from any number of streaming outlets. It also means that Comedy Central doesn't get the first part of its name.
It'll be just another chapter in 'Weird Corporate Ripple Effects After History-Altering Events' like when we coudn't hear a certain Buddy Holly and The Crickets song after 9/11 because stations were given a list of songs that were essentially banned. Or when Justin Timberlake showed the world Janet Jackson's titty yarmulke then suddenly we couldn't hear 'shit' in old classic rock songs on the radio anymore.
Enjoy this clip from S1E5 which, at last check, still airs on Comedy Central…
[By the way, I'm buying the fuck out of 'Steve Carell wins an Oscar someday' stock. FOXCATCHER is criminally underseen and thus way underrated. There's a reason he got a Best Actor nom because he's incredible in it. The performance also showed he could do dead-serious drama as effectively as comedy. And if the Academy recognized comedies to the level it should, Carell would've also gotten one for carrying THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN.]