Rainn Wilson Recalls 'Insensitive, Racist' Episode of "The Office": 'It's a Tricky Conversation' Angela AndaloroSeptember 13, 2025 at 5:16 AM 0 Justin Lubin/NBCNBCU Photo Bank Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute Rainn Wilson played Dwight Schrute on all nine seasons of NBC's The Office, from 2005 to 2013...
- - Rainn Wilson Recalls 'Insensitive, Racist' Episode of "The Office": 'It's a Tricky Conversation'
Angela AndaloroSeptember 13, 2025 at 5:16 AM
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Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute -
Rainn Wilson played Dwight Schrute on all nine seasons of NBC's The Office, from 2005 to 2013
During a recent podcast appearance, Wilson opened up about how some of the show's humor doesn't hold up in 2025
Wilson recalled one episode as particularly egregious in being offensive by today's standards
Not every episode of The Office hit its mark.
Rainn Wilson recently appeared on The Daily Beast's The Last Laugh" podcast, where he discussed whether the beloved workplace sitcom could exist in today's societal climate. Wilson pointed to an episode called "A Benihana Christmas" and how the humor in it wouldn't be welcome today.
"Listen, you know, the Benihana Christmas episode where Michael and Andy draw with a Sharpie on one of the Asian women that they've brought back to the Christmas party is jaw-droppingly, kind of horrific," he shared
The episode features Michael (Steve Carell) putting a mark on an Asian woman with a marker when he can't tell her and her coworker apart in his embibed state.
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Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson)
"And it's a tricky conversation. It's like they're clueless, and in their cluelessness, they're racist and insensitive, and they're always saying the wrong thing. And that's Michael, Dwight and Andy — and Kevin, for that matter. So it's a show based around clueless, insensitive, racist, sexist people that kind of mirrors the United States in a lot of ways."
From a comedic standpoint, Wilson explains, "You want to encourage it, because it's funny as hell, and it also kind of skewers a particular American sensibility. But it definitely goes pretty far if you dig deep."
"Could it happen today? I think it would have to be very, very different if it were made in this environment."
Justin Lubin/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty
Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson)
Back in 2023, Wilson shared on a podcast that he "spent several years really mostly unhappy" on The Office. "I wasn't enjoying it. I was thinking about, 'Why am I not a movie star? Why am I not the next Jack Black or the next Will Ferrell? How come I can't have a movie career? Why don't I have this development deal?' " he remembered.
"When I was on The Office … I was making hundreds of thousands," he said. "I wanted millions. I was a TV star, but I wanted to be a movie star. It was never enough. Humans have lived for hundreds of thousands of years, and 'never enough' has helped us as a species."
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