Mindy Kaling: The Office would be Cancelled if It was Made Today

The Office US may be one of the most popular sitcoms today, but there are some things in the series that have admittedly aged over time. If anything, cast member and writer Mindy Kaling thinks The Office wouldn’t have been made by today’s standards of entertainment.

Talking to Good Morning America, (via Variety) Kaling admits:

“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… 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.”

Though a lot of people think the Jim and Pam romance was great when the series came out, a lot of people (like comedian Aziz Ansari) has pointed out that Jim’s pursuit of Pam was workplace harassment. Who knows how the audience would feel about Michael’s inappropriate acts with today’s 2022 audience lens. Would they even laugh at him forcing himself to kiss Oscar, or would they immediately rally on Twitter for #TheOfficeDoBetter?

Kaling adds, “Actually, most of the characters on that show would be canceled by now,” when asked if they rebooted the series for 2022’s audience.

For now, the debate on outrage culture is still ongoing, and a lot of writers have kind of taken sides when it comes to what is and what isn’t inappropriate. I guess it’s great that Kaling is aware of the sensitivity of the audience today, so if they should reboot the show, they would know what not to do.