Mindy Kaling Says Most Characters on The Office “Would Be Canceled” If Show Was on Today

Though The Office has found a new generation of fans in recent years thanks to streaming services, Mindy Kaling thinks the mockumentary sitcom is “so inappropriate now” and most of the characters “would be canceled” if the show was still airing.

Kaling did double duty on The Office by serving as a writer and playing the bubbly Kelly Kapoor. She made the comments during a recent appearance on Good Morning America after being asked what her character would be doing today.

“I think she probably would’ve quit Dunder Mifflin to become an influencer, and then probably be canceled, almost immediately,” Kaling said. “Actually, most of the characters on that show would be canceled by now.”

She added, “The writers who I’m still in touch with now, we talk about how so much of that show we probably couldn’t make now. 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.”

For those reasons, Kaling doesn’t plan on allowing her children to watch The Office. “I kind of think maybe never,” she said after being asked when she would introduce her son and daughter to it. “That show is so inappropriate now.” Kaling added that they’ll probably want to watch the series when they’re teenagers because “it seems like a 15-year-old boy is the biggest fan of The Office right now.”

Watch Mindy Kaling’s full Good Morning America interview below.

To Kaling’s point about the show not fitting within today’s society, characters like Steve Carrell’s Michael Scott went over the line in episodes like Season 3’s “Gay Witch Hunt,” in which he tries to make up for inadvertently outing Oscar Martinez (played by Oscar Nunez) by hosting a tone deaf seminar on homosexuality. Later on, Carrell’s character even forces a kiss on him.

The Office also voluntarily removed a Season 9 scene containing blackface during the racial reckoning of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.

To Kaling’s other point, none other than Billie Eilish famously expressed her love for The Office while she was still a teenager. The pop superstar went as far as sampling a scene from Season 7’s “Threat Level Midnight” on her debut album. In 2020, she appeared on the final episode of a podcast called An Oral History of The Office hosted by Brian Baumgartner, who played Kevin Malone on the show.

As for Kaling, she has remained busy of late with her HBO Max series The Sex Lives of College Girls and forthcoming Scooby-Doo adult animated series Velma, in which she’ll voice the eponymous character. Velma is slated to debut on HBO Max in 2023.

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