Exposing the Issues of the Generic Corporate Office through Comedic Satire

The Office is a popular comedy series on NBC that successfully ran for nine seasons.  The show is centered around the employees of the Scranton, Pa branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.  The office is eminent for its satire which illuminates the issues that occur in real corporate offices.  Several of the characters in the show experience racism, sexism, and discrimination due to sexual orientation.

Racism is one of the most heavily highlighted issues in the series.  In an episode titled, "Diversity Day" Michael (Steve Carell) decides to create a seminar where he will "educate" his coworkers about various cultures.  May I remind you this is a white man in the position of power in this establishment.  How it worked, he wrote on various cards with different races and had his coworkers placed them on their foreheads and then were asked to treat each other based on the race on their foreheads.  Obviously, the activity does not go very well.  It exposed many popular offensive stereotypes and disastrous parts of other cultures such as the Holocaust and slavery.  One of the most effective lines was when Michael stated that he did not want to make a card that said "Arab" on it so then, "the meeting wouldn't be explosive."  I'm just going to leave that there.  Throughout the series many characters struggle with daily remarks about their race, sex and sexual orientation.

The way the television show approaches these issues is in the style of satire.  Other television shows such as Parks and Rec and 30 Rock follow the same style.  And even after the shows end many of the actors continue to base their careers on satirical humor.  For example, Aziz Ansari, a familiar face on Parks and Rec, continues his comedic career with a heavy influence of political satire.  Just recently he hosted SNL and his opening monologue was talking about the people who are now "coming out of hiding" and believe it's okay to stop pretending to not be racist.  Yes, these people exist.  Satire is a huge influence on today's culture and I believe to be a very important one.  Not only does is address the issues of the world but does it in a way of comedic relief and simplifies the messages for the more ignorant people who need to hear it.