Nearly 13 years after Dunder Mifflin shut down for good, Dwight Schrute is back in the news. Rainn Wilson, the guy who played the beet-farming salesman on ‘The Office‘, has started a big argument about modern comedy. He says the show was way too “politically incorrect” to get made today.
In a recent interview, Wilson said that even though the show is still huge on streaming, the creative world in 2026 wouldn’t allow for the “really inappropriate” humor that ran for nine seasons from 2005 to 2013. “I do feel like you couldn’t make The Office today,” Wilson told Fox News Digital. “I think that would be too hard to be as politically incorrect as the show was. And I do kind of miss that.“
The Benihana Christmas Episode and Racist Jokes
Wilson pointed to his own character and Steve Carell’s Michael Scott. He said both were written as clueless guys with no self-awareness, but that kind of cringeworthy comedy would be risky now. “We milked that for a lot of great, really inappropriate stuff,” he said. “But even with the fact that painting that character as just an idiot, I don’t think you could get away with it today.”
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This isn’t the first time Wilson has taken a hard look at the show. In recent years, he has brought up specific episodes to show how much things have changed. During a September 2025 appearance on The Last Laugh podcast, he talked about the season three episode ‘A Benihana Christmas‘ as a big example. In that episode, a drunk Michael Scott and Andy Bernard draw on a waitress with a Sharpie because they can’t tell two Asian women apart. Wilson called the scene “jaw-droppingly, kind of horrific.”
“It’s a tricky conversation,” Wilson said at the time. “They’re clueless and in their cluelessness, they’re racist and insensitive, and they’re always saying the wrong thing. That’s Michael, Dwight, and Andy, and Kevin for that matter. It’s a show based around clueless, insensitive, racist, sexist people that kind of mirrors the United States in a lot of ways.“
‘The Paper’ Sequel vs The Original Show’s Edge
While Wilson misses that edgier time in TV, critics and fans were quick to point out a hole in his argument. There is a sequel series called ‘The Paper’. It premiered on Peacock in September 2025 and has already been renewed for a second season. So the world of ‘The Office‘ is very much alive.
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The new show follows a struggling newspaper in the same documentary style but with a more diverse cast and a safer feel. Critics have said that while ‘The Paper‘ exists, it stays away from the sharp humor of the original. One critic said the sequel feels “safe” and “bland” compared to the original.
Fans Fire Back and Defend Politically Incorrect Comedy
Wilson’s comments got a lot of pushback on social media. Many people said he was mixing up making fun of something with supporting it. Fans argued that ‘The Office‘ worked not because it was mean, but because it made fun of awkwardness and ignorance.
“Maybe The Office worked because it mocked awkward and inappropriate behavior rather than celebrated it,” one user wrote on X. Another said, “People said the same about South Park and It’s Always Sunny, yet they are still thriving.“
Even with all the arguing, Wilson is sticking to what he said. He believes the current “bias in the media towards liberal policies” has made it hard for satire to land without people thinking the show agrees with the bad behavior. He thinks that has cleaned up the kind of uncomfortable comedy that made Dunder Mifflin so well known.
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