Michael Scott
Michael Scott is an offensive, naive, over-the-line type of person and boss. He is prone to crude sexual jokes, homosexual harassment, and racial slurs — all said out of ignorance.
But Scott, the boss in the popular comedy ‘The Office’, went too far for some suicide prevention groups in the recent Halloween episode of The Office. In the episode Scott, played by actor Steve Carell, attempts to scare a group of young children with a joke where he struggles hanging from a noose.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has issued a press release criticizing the show for a “graphic depiction of the suicide method.” In the release, the organization says, “there comes a point when jokes can go to far and are potentially dangerous and offensive.” They continue by asking all of the entertainment industry to refrain from using suicide and mental illness for comedic entertainment.
The fear is that mentally ill people will take their own lives after seeing a graphic depiction of a suicide method. The organization’s executive director Robert Gebbia had a few comments about the depiction:
“We’re not trying to be censors or fall into the trap of wanting everything to be PC, politically correct,” Gebbia said. “But on the other hand, it’s offensive to some people who have lost relatives to suicide by hanging.”
Other organizations were also in on the call for sensitivity, including Mental Health America, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Suicide Awareness Voices in Education. They claim that research shows that vulnerable people may copy an explicit depiction of the suicide act.
The problem though, is that the act was not necessarily a suicide or a suicide attempt. In fact, it was just a gag to scare children from an offensive character. Scott, trying to teach the children a lesson, actually says, “Remember kids, suicide is not the answer. It is the easy way out.”
This was not the first time that the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has protested depiction of suicide in the media. Two years ago, they protested a General Motors commercial that depicted a robot jumping off a bridge. They also protested a Volkswagen ad with a man threatening to jump off of a ledge.
Tim Du
Counselor Network Writer
