'The Office' star blasts political 'hypocrisy,' explains why sitcom couldn't be made today
Rainn Wilson, best known for playing Dwight Schrute on hit sitcom "The Office," says partisan hypocrisy on both sides of the political aisle is fueling America's divisions, while arguing that cancel culture has stifled modern-day comedy.
Wilson told Fox News Digital that cancel culture, a result of growing political divisions, has damaged the ability for a comedy in a show like "The Office" to thrive and be acceptable in today’s society.
"I do feel like you couldn't make The Office today," Wilson said. "I think that would be too hard to be as politically incorrect as the show was. And I do, I do kind of miss that."
He explained how, despite that both his character and actor Steve Carell’s role as Michael Scott, were purposely portrayed as lacking "self-awareness" and "a boob," the humor still would not fly or be viewed as socially acceptable in today’s society.
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"We milked that for a lot of great, really inappropriate stuff," Wilson said. "But even with the fact that painting that character as just an idiot, I don't think you could get away with it today."
Aside from comedy, Wilson said one of the biggest drivers of America's political dysfunction is what he described as partisan hypocrisy, with both Republicans and Democrats quick to condemn misconduct of the opposing party while overlooking similar behavior on their own side.
Wilson used the response to Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner’s list of growing scandals throughout his campaign as an example, specifically citing the reaction to his Nazi tattoo as racist or religious discrimination.
"The political right is all up in arms about that ‘Oh, he's a racist, see,’" Wilson explained. "But they won't look at their own side when people show racist tendencies or say racist things. And it's the same on the left. They're willing to overlook the Platner Nazi tattoo, but if it was someone from the other side that had a tattoo that was questionable, they would be all over MSNBC about it."
"It's the hypocrisy that gets me the most. It's the hypocrisy of like, both sides need to have, kind of, equal standards of behavior."
Despite his concerns about political division, Wilson argued that faith and spirituality remain one of the country's most overlooked sources of common ground.
"There's not any topic that has more commonality and mutuality than spiritual ideas," Wilson said.
"The ideas around spirituality have kind of been weaponized in terms of the national discussion, but actually the two sides have more in common than you would think."
Wilson made the remarks while appearing on Capitol Hill alongside Reps. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., and religious leaders for the public release of A Common Endeavor: Realizing the Promise of America, a five-part letter backed by leaders of the Baha'i faith that works to bridge political polarization and focus on shared American values.
"The partisan divide and toxic partisanship, and corruption in partisanship, is something that the American people are very passionate about," Wilson said.
"The people want this fixed. There is an outcry from people. They want it fixed."