The Office was created by Ricky Gervais, Greg Daniels, and Stephen Merchant and it is a situation comedy. The narrative mode of this show is an episodic series; its target audience is people of both genders ranging from ages thirteen to thirty. Besides, The Office is a comedy for many walks of life; it has a variety of viewers. This show relates to many people because it has a broad sense of humor. The Office is about a group of adults who work in a paper company. The main character of the show is Michael Scott, who is the manager of Dunder Mifflin, which is the name of the company. The business is based in Scranton, Pennsylvania. There are always comical events that happen in the office and involve amusing characters. The Office has a character by the name of Oscar. The article, Hey, TV Producers: Let LGBTQ Characters Live and Love Equally portray discussions by television producers about the lack of homosexuality in TV broadcast. Oscar’s sex life in the show is relatable to the article. In fact, there are times where the show does make remarks in such a way that it mocks the LGBTQ community. This essay aims to critically analyze The Office and relate some of the actions with the discussions in the article by Allen. It further seeks to highlight how the LGBTQ community is depicted in the comedy.
The Office is a perfect representation of what the article discusses. For example, in season three episode one, Michael tries to make Oscar feel comfortable with his homosexuality; Michael strives to appear equal to homosexuals in his opinion. There is a scene that shows him forcing to kiss Oscar; he believes that it will make Oscar feel more comfortable in the workplace. In society, such action would make anyone in Oscar’s position beyond uncomfortable. Thus, Michael’s mindset will appear weirder than he thinks. Treatment of homosexuals in the LGBTQ community and from the article’s statement “they are mocked in the sitcom” clearly shows how the community views them. However, it still cruelly ridicules homosexuality. The name of the episode “Gay Witch Hunt,” where this scene occurs adds embarrassment to the situation. A lot can be inferred just by a glance at the episode’s title.
In the show, Oscar gets cut off for thirteen episodes after Michael’s kissing him incident. What happened to Oscar is that he gets a three-month paid vacation to Europe from the company so that he does not sue the Dunder Mifflin for sexual harassment. The comedy makes it seem like that was the right thing to do. Still, it was wrong of the company to bribe him. The blackmail of paid vacation is another way that The Office makes fun of homosexual individuals. It depicts that the homosexuals can be sexually harassed and blackmailed by offering luxurious vacations to cover up the incidences. Also, Oscar was temporarily removed from the show and left not one homosexual character in the show for the period he was gone.
In “Gay Witch Hunt” even though the episode was supposed to be about Oscar, the primary focus was on Michael. The event mainly showed how Michael was trying to make Oscar feel good. This scenario is another perfect example of how Oscar is not treated fairly in The Office. Oscar is usually a side character and not the main focus even in episodes that are supposed to be mainly about him. That could be the plot of the show and the role Oscar was to play. Nonetheless, his appearances in many episodes are limited; in most episodes, he is usually relaxed and does not say much. Therefore, it can be inferred from the show that there was prejudice of the LGBTQ community. He occasionally makes jokes but one of the least involved characters. Also, he is the only homosexual character in the comedy.
There is a lot of comical drama in The Office. There are many people who have secrets in the show. For example, one of the more humorous characters is named Dwight, and he is having an affair with one of the meaner characters named Angela. There are multiple episodes in The Office that reveal Angela and Dwight were making out intensely or showing them going into a private room to have intercourse. Oscar’s scenes with other men were never shown in the same manner; most of them were hidden. The little media appearances of the homosexuals have been illustrated in the article. There is a section of the piece that says “Indeed, GLAAD’s report speaks to the crucial distinction between quantity and quality when it comes to LGBT media representation, most notably when it comes to the lack of romance and sex LGBTQ characters have on TV, compared to their straight counterparts. Equality for LGBTQ characters on TV isn't measured in just numbers, but in terms of what they are shown doing and saying.” (Allen). Oscar has relationships in the show, but his love life is not shown nearly as much as the heterosexual characters, specifically like Dwight and Angela. For example, there are individual episodes where it shows Oscar with his boyfriend, but it never reveals anything else. The comedy does not show Oscar in any sexual or romantic scenes of any kind.
In conclusion, the LGBTQ community is not shown as equally as the straight community. This paper describes how homosexual characters are maltreated and sidelined during the major scene in the show. Also, it highlights instances where homosexual characters are not shown the same way as straight characters; their individual scenes are hidden. The analysis this article provides is critical because the issue of LGBT media representation needs to be addressed to eliminate possibilities of discrimination by the society. So many people watch television and shows like The Office are very popular, so if these matters get resolved in such programs, it will translate to the real world. Everybody that watches the shows will be aware that equal treatment is necessary for everyone irrespective of gender and sexual perspective.
Works Cited
Allen, Samantha, “Hey, TV Producers: Let LGBTQ Characters Live and Love Equally.” The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast, 9 November 2017. Web. 13 March 2018. www.thedailybeast.com/hey-tv-producers-let-lgbtq-characters-live-and-love-equally?ref=scroll
