“The Office” star Rainn Wilson recently told Fox News Digital that the beloved NBC sitcom could’ve never been made in today’s cultural climate.
“I do feel such as you couldn’t make ‘The Office’ today,” said Wilson. “I believe that will be too hard to be as politically incorrect because the show was. And I do sort of miss that.”
He added that there was a whole lot of “really inappropriate” humor in “The Office,” especially from his character, Dwight Schrute, and Steve Carell’s lead, Michael Scott. Wilson thought, though Michael and Dwight were portrayed as having no “self-awareness,” their antics wouldn’t fly in 2026.
“We milked that for a whole lot of great, really inappropriate stuff,” Wilson recalled. “But even with the undeniable fact that painting that character as just an idiot, I don’t think you could possibly get away with it today.”
Wilson starred as Schrute across all nine seasons of “The Office,” which aired on NBC for 201 episodes from 2005 to 2013
Despite Wilson’s comments, “The Office” recently received “The Paper,” a sequel series that premiered on Peacock in September 2025. Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young, Tim Key and Oscar Nuñez, “The Paper” follows the day-to-day of a struggling Midwestern newspaper. The second season is about to launch later this 12 months.
This isn’t the primary time Wilson opened up about how “The Office” pushed boundaries with its humor. He told “The Last Laugh” podcast back in September 2025 that “The Office” might be “jaw-droppingly” offensive, and that if it were released today, it will be a “very, very different” show.
“Listen you realize, the Benihana Christmas episode where Michael and Andy draw with a sharpie on one in all the Asian women that they’ve brought back to the Christmas party is jaw droppingly sort of horrific,” Wilson said. “And it’s a difficult conversation, you realize? They’re clueless and of their cluelessness they’re racist and insensitive, they usually’re at all times saying the flawed thing. And that’s Michael, Dwight and Andy — and Kevin for that matter. So it’s a show based around clueless, insensitive, racist, sexist those who sort of mirrors the US in a whole lot of ways.”