He’s still not over it.
“The Office” star Rainn Wilson admits that the NBC comedy took it too far sometimes — and would need to be a “very, very different” show if it returned in 2025.
“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 said during an appearance on “The Last Laugh” podcast released on Wednesday.
Wilson starred as the office weirdo, Dwight Schrute, on the comedy, which ran from 2005 to 2013.
“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,” he explained further. “So it’s a show based around clueless, insensitive, racist, sexist people that kind of mirrors the United States in a lot of ways.”
He added: “[It’s] a tricky conversation.”
Although Wilson noted that you want to “encourage it,” because, “it’s funny as hell and it also kind of skewers a particular American sensibility,” it still goes “pretty far if you dig deep.”
“Could it happen today?” he asked. “I think it would have to be very, very different if it were made in this environment.”
Earlier this month, “The Office” spinoff “The Paper” premiered on Peacock, following a new cast of characters in a new workplace.
Oscar Nunez was the only original “The Office” star to reprise his role, revealing to The Post that Wilson asked him about the new project.
“Of course, Rainn Wilson is always the one who finds out about things. He’s got his finger on the pulse of whatever is going on,” Nunez told The Post.
“I think he was the first one who was like, ‘Is there something going on?’”
Wilson was originally supposed to star in a spinoff about Dwight, called “The Farm,” which had a backdoor pilot during a final season episode of “The Office.”
NBC ultimately didn’t move forward with it.
“NBC at that time had a new regime that came in and they wanted to do big, bright, flashy, splashy shows that were multi-cams and going back to ‘Friends’ kind of thing,” Wilson explained on the podcast.
“And they were just not interested at all in ‘Office’ spinoffs at the time. Had they taken ‘The Farm,’ they’d probably have another billion dollars in the bank,” he went on. “Even now, all the people that have seen ‘The Office’ 20 times, they’re going to watch ‘The Farm’ at least once or twice.”
He did admit, however, that “The Farm” would not have been as good as “The Office.”
“No. No way. Not even close,” he proclaimed.
“Would it have been good? Would it have been solid? Would it have been a good solid comedy? Yeah, it would have, and we would’ve done some really cool stuff,” he added. “And I think they really missed out.”
