The Office may have premiered 15 years ago, but it is still a huge part of pop culture today. However, because it’s older than you might think, there are many things about the series that feels outdated.
There are many things from the show that wouldn’t fly if it was made today instead. As one of the most eccentric characters, Dwight definitely did many things that wouldn’t be received well today.
Trying to buy “gaydar”
While The Office might not have been a homophobic show, some of the characters certainly were. Michael Scott said some pretty awful things to Oscar when he found out he was gay, and Dwight was nearly as bad.
When Jim told him to buy gaydar, something he also shouldn’t have done, Dwight believed him. If the series was made today, this kind of a joke wouldn’t land very well.
Had had a lot of sexist attitudes
When looking back on The Office, there is a lot more sexism in the series than many fans realized at first. Many of the characters can be rather sexist, and there aren’t that many great female characters with diverse storylines either.
Dwight was one of the most sexist Dunder Mifflin employees of all. Multiple times throughout the series, he said things about how men were better than women, and he even said one time that women should cover up to avoid being harassed.
When it was revealed he dated his former babysitter
One rather creepy thing that happened to Dwight might not be his fault, but it still wouldn’t fly today. During the famous “Dinner Party” episode, Dwight brings his former babysitter as his date.
While he didn’t exactly date her, this was a really strange dynamic and rather uncomfortable. While it was made for laughs on the show, it made this woman seem rather predatory, and this storyline would have gotten the side-eye today.
When he killed Angela’s cat
There are actually many awful things that Dwight did to animals, but the most memorable was when he killed Angela’s cat. While the cat was old and sick, it wasn’t his place to kill her and then lie about it.
However, this isn’t even the worst thing he ever did to an animal. His invention that allowed him to take horse meat from a living horse was particularly horrific. His cruelty toward animals would definitely be seen as awful by fans today and not funny at all.
Shooting a gun at the office
When Dwight first becomes the manager of the Scranton branch, he messes it up rather quickly by bringing a loaded gun into the office and accidentally firing it. While even at the time this was a rather uncomfortable moment, today this would come off even worse.
With tensions in the country high about issues of gun control, this wouldn’t have seemed funny at all and would have been way too serious and political.
Getting married to Angela without her consent
When Angela is planning on marrying Andy, she weirdly insists on getting married on Dwight’s farm. During the tour of the farm, Dwight actually ends up doing a mock wedding ceremony with Angela that turns out to be real.
While this doesn’t exactly count since she didn’t know what was happening, the fact that he tried to trick her into marrying him was really uncomfortable.
His affair with Angela
While there are multiple characters on The Office who have affairs at one time or another, the most well-known is when Dwight and Angela are having an affair while Angela is dating Dwight.
But, they also end up having another affair when she’s married to the Senator. This looks bad on both of their parts, and while fans weren’t exactly condoning the behavior, it would likely be criticized more thoroughly today.
That he would try to “protect” Michael from Darryl
The Office also has more moments of casual racism upon re-watch than many people realize. While it’s not like this behavior is seen as acceptable by the more rational characters, people who are fan favorites, such as Michael, have some pretty racist moments.
For Dwight’s part, he goes along with Michael’s request to protect him when Darryl is around, and this wouldn’t go over very well today.
That he hired immigrants as day workers and drove them to the middle of nowhere
Possibly one of the most uncomfortable and unnecessary things that ever happened on The Office was when it was revealed that Dwight exploited immigrants as day laborers on his farm.
He would then pretend to be part of immigration and take them a few cities away from Scranton, where he then wouldn’t pay them for their work. This is extremely gross, and it wasn’t okay to include at the time either. But, it would have been extremely criticized if the show had aired today.
When he put Nate in blackface
Another of the most outdated things that Dwight ever does is when he dresses up during Christmas as Belsnickel.
He has Nate dress up in blackface as Bellsnickle’s sidekick, Zwarte Piet and plans on bringing him to the office. He only stops Nate from coming in when he realizes that his co-workers wouldn’t be okay with this. It’s clear that this scene was outdated even at the time and would definitely not fly today.