Mindy Kaling’s take on ‘The Office’ existing in 2022 has fans shaking their heads

The Office is one of the most celebrated sitcoms in the 21st century so far, but in a rapidly-changing cultural landscape being built on the pillars of diversity and inclusion, it may not have aged so well. This is even the case for one of the hit NBC sitcom’s stars and writers, Mindy Kaling – who portrayed Dunder Mifflin’s resident customer service rep and all-around airhead Kelly Kapoor on the show. 

Granted, particularly in earlier seasons, this may well be the case. Going back and rewatching the season three premiere “The Gay Witch Hunt,” witnessing Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) need to be re-educated around his use of homophobic slurs is still entertaining to a degree, ultimately serving an educational purpose. Though in hindsight, perhaps the episode could’ve gone without the direct use of said slurs.

That’s not to say the show wasn’t entirely unproblematic. We don’t talk about “A Benihana Christmas,” – that was just wrong. However, responses to Kaling’s comments are quite bemused, claiming that the hard-to-watch and often cringeworthy humor was the point of the hit sitcom all along: 

While a multitude of other reactions claimed that Kaling was way off the mark, The Office was ultimately a show that played within the boundaries of what society deems acceptable. 

Kaling shared her thoughts on the show’s persistent popularity with Variety, claiming that the “taboo” humor from a time gone by remains a primary selling point: 

“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.”

The writer and actor also shared her thoughts on her character Kelly’s fate, should the show have been written in 2022, musing that she would’ve likely quit Dunder Mifflin and attempted to be an ultimately canceled influencer, before tangentially adding that most of the show’s characters would have been canceled by now. 

We have a more contrarian view – at the very least Dwight would have gone down the path of his real-world actor Rainn Wilson (who changed his name to Rainfall Heatwave Rising Sea Levels Wilson) and gone all-in on Recyclops to combat global warming in an ultimately selfish bid to preserve the future of his beet farm.