The US Office wasn’t exactly known as a controversial comedy back in the day.
The critically acclaimed series could be toe-curlingly awkward (as anyone who’s seen Scott’s Tots would agree), but it was never deliberately cruel or dark.
Yet that doesn’t mean it didn’t occasionally dip its toes into the murky waters of gallows humour, as people on X are learning today.
In fact, the show once opened with a joke so dark it prompted a backlash and forced NBC to cut it from reruns, streams, and DVDs.
The gag in question was the cold opening for the 2009 episode, Koi Pond, and saw hapless boss Michael (Steve Carell) open a haunted house in the Dunder Mifflin warehouse for Halloween.
The haunted house, as you can probably guess, was tremendously underwhelming right until the end, when we got to the punchline where Michael faked a hanging in front of a group of toddlers.
Yes, really… oh, and Michael was dressed as the SNL ‘Dick in a Box’ character the whole time.
As Michael jerks and spasms in front of the kids, he tells them: ‘Just remember suicide is never the answer, alright?’
According to AV Club, an anonymous producer explained that the scene caused public outcry, but that wasn’t the only reason it was cut from all future broadcasts.
Caryn Zucker, who was married at the time to then-president and CEO of NBCUniversal Jeff Zucker, worked in suicide prevention and urged her husband to have the scene cut.
They say ‘the episode was re-cut and re-delivered, with the original HD-SR delivery masters collected back from NBC and thrown into deep storage.’
Interestingly, multiple outlets claim the clip wasn’t taken off the official Office YouTube account until 2019, which means it lives on online.
Which brings us to today, where the ‘infamous’ clip was shared by an Office fan account and has been viewed more than six million times.
And fans of the show have been loving it.
‘This is one of the top five funniest moments on the show, so of course it’s banned,’ wrote @wrighthouseprod.
‘This is quite literally the first time an Office clip has made me laugh,’ added @TylerFromOnline.
Need support?
For emotional support, you can call the Samaritans 24-hour helpline on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, visit a Samaritans branch in person or go to the Samaritans website.
PAPYRUS offers specialised suicide prevention support for young people. Their HOPELINE247 is open every day of the year, 24 hours a day. You can call 0800 068 4141, text 88247 or email: pat@papyrus-uk.org.
‘I remember watching this when it aired, and laughed so hard,’ said @MidWestMet. ‘Didn’t realise it was cut out later.’
A few fans, however, admitted they can see why this was banned from future broadcasts.
@BazBombadil joked: ‘I was like “this isn’t that bad, why would this be ba—oh….”’
While @@yellowsclub wrote: ‘I was very confused by why it was banned, and then I wasn’t. lol’.
The Office is available to stream on Netflix, Disney Plus, and NOW.