The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention issued a press release this week criticizing The Office for its “graphic depiction of the suicide method” on last Read the full post.
Nov 6
2009
07:14 PM ET
Was 'The Office"s suicide joke over the line?
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My dad shot himself, his choice! Too bad so sad, I still think a joke is a joke made to make you laugh. If your so sensitive about things in life do not watch TV or Movies. Delete any forwarded emails, it may contain a JOKE! Whiney Butts.
I honestly dont know why you put this, only a very small percentage of people thought it was offensive, most people just thought it was funny
This sentence in the article said it all: “But The Office didn’t depict a suicide or a suicide attempt: It showed a questionable haunted house gag from a generally offensive, unreasonable person.”
Have they ever watched the show? At some point in time, Michael offends everyone. It was classic Michael and I laughed myself sick.
People will get offended over ANYTHING these days. The character of Michael Scott isn’t politically correct if you haven’t noticed, and that’s one of the things that makes him so funny. How would you like to watch a show about some politically correct lame-o who goes around complaining that everything is offensive? Real life has become the joke.
I used to work at a suicide hotline. I thought the moment was exactly as awkwardly awful as it was intended to be. I cannot imagine this acting as a “trigger” for suicidal people. It was ridiculous, as it was meant to be.
An Irish paper recently printed a photograph of a man who had hanged himself and, unfortunately due to police procedure, was left hanging for over three hours. The headline said “Halloween Horror.” Now that’s something to be offended over, if you’re going to get offended. This is a sitcom.
For anyone concerned about the risk of suicide or other risks, a variety of screening quizzes are available. For example, in the case of depression: see the Beck Depression Inventory, in David Burns’ book, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy
Stress over time can trigger depression. Resilience is one term used to describe the ability to cope with stress and eventually get back to one’s usual ability to function.
Parents, spouses, school staff, students or others interested in resilience might look at the free chapter on resilience at
http://stressedfamily.blogspot.com/2009/08/stressed-family-strong-family-chapter-1.html
or one on vicious cycles in families, such as nagging/procrastinating at
http://stressedfamily.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-to-stop-nagging-blaming-and-other.html
It’s not the first suicide gag that The Office has done, and probably not the last. It’s also not the most shocking or emotionally provoking image of suicide I’ve seen on television this year. And he turns it around to say “Don’t kill yourself… it’s bad.”
I think what you meant to say was:
According to the organization, “‘there comes a point when jokes can go to [sic] far and are potentially dangerous and offensive…’”
Or was the too/to woopsie yours, ML? Sorry, but I love EW and don’t want to see it go the way of my hometown newspaper, which is to say a study in how not to write.
it’s too far not to far.
My brother recently tried to hang his self. I didn’t like the joke, but hey that’s the office. If you can’t handle inappropriate then don’t watch. I will continue watching, and laughing.
Funniest Office moment, ever.
The Office was my husband’s favorite show and we loved watching it together. He committed suicide six months ago so when I saw this episode, it made me very uncomfortable at first and I wished I had not seen it. But this is the brilliance of this show. All “Office” lovers know that the people who do this show are great at making those of us watching from our living rooms feel just as uncomfortable with Michael’s antics and offensive behavior as his “co-workers” are on the program. The suicide episode took a hanging and paired it with Michael Scott creating a negative association…sounds like good suicide prevention to me! No one wants to be like Michael Scott.
Life must be pretty hard for people who want to edit out every little offensive thing on tv. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it and don’t let your children watch it.
I love the office and generally am very hard to offend, but i found this scene very distressing, as this year i discovered a very close friend who had hanged himself. What has stuck with me is the imagery of my friend, and the profound sense of violence i felt as i took him down and tried to resuscitate him. This scene with Michael shocked me as it was unexpected and i found it a horrible reminder. Does the office need to stoop this low for a laugh? I cant think of anything else they have done which has been as potentially harmful and painful as this scene.