[matthewh806]

Shock horror, society has moved on in the 40 years since Airplane was made...

How do you even know it wouldn't be allowed? People love to spout this kind of stuff, but... have you even tried?

Edit: A very nice example I've come across is Ricky Gervais stating that the British Office couldn't be made today. I think he's being very disingenuous saying that because while out of context it could appear to have a lot of controversial jokes touching on taboo subjects, within the show it was always clear who the real target of the jokes was (same with Borat). Masterfully done and I believe (from what I've seen in terms of comedy recently) that kind of stuff would still fly at the BBC. There's even a documentary from a couple of decades back about the success of the office and a BBC producer admits even back then they had to reign in a few of the areas Gervais wanted to go in terms of race & disability (it was also mentioned that he is quite obsessed with these topics), so its all bullshit that people like him are shouting about "THESE DAYS...!".

In fact maybe he's right and the Office couldn't be made today. But that's primarily because Gervais isn't funny these days

[Vinnl]

That's interesting; he also said:

> Please stop saying "You can't joke about anything anymore". You can. You can joke about whatever the fuck you like. And some people won't like it and they will tell you they don't like it. And then it's up to you whether you give a fuck or not. And so on. It's a good system.

https://twitter.com/rickygervais/status/1172874651019763712

[matthewh806]

He's such an idiot

https://screenrant.com/original-office-show-ricky-gervais-ca...

> "Now [The Office] would suffer because people would take things literally...This was a show about everything — it was about difference, it was about sex, race, all the things that people fear to even be discussed or talked about now, in case they say the wrong thing and they are cancelled...I think if this was put out now, some people have lost their sense of irony and context."

> “…They’re even more scared now because people don’t take an explanation for an answer, they just say, ‘Well, I don’t want to see it, so let’s ban it.’”

Obviously the Office isn't in the limelight anywhere near as much as it used to be, but I never hear people having a problem with its tone or style of comedy. A few other sitcoms have had scenes removed from streaming platforms / boxsets (Peep Show, Fawlty Towers etc). But the Office I've never really seen mentioned in a similar way. In fact it's still pretty much beloved by everyone and regularly polls amongst the best British sitcoms of all time.

[effingwewt]

I didn't downvote you, but the office was very much censored and there were articles about it[1]. The same article discusses Community having one of its best episodes ever yanked over black face that was explicitly explained in the episode. People have lost their collective minds.

[1] https://tvline.com/2020/06/26/the-office-community-blackface...

[trts]

People have lost their individual minds. The collective mind prevails.

[matthewh806]

Yeah, as another comment mentioned I was specifically referring to the UK Office. I've seen the first couple of seasons of the US Office and so not enough to really comment on this particular scene being removed.

However, they are vastly different shows tonally and so I imagine a scene featuring black face would be handled very differently by the US version

[ojbyrne]

That article references the American Office. The above comment references the British Office.

[zxzax]

People have lost their minds, because they don't want to see blackface, even in an ironic context? I wish you wouldn't say those things, because I feel the same way, I really don't want to see it, and I don't find it funny or worth seeing in any context. Please don't assume that everyone likes the same jokes that you do.

[teddyh]

> Ricky Gervais stating that the British Office couldn't be made today. I think he's being very disingenuous saying that because while out of context it could appear to have a lot of controversial jokes touching on taboo subjects, within the show it was always clear who the real target of the jokes was

But that’s exactly why it could not be made today. Today, you can’t say anything which can be taken out of context. Quote mining has become a national pastime.

[matthewh806]

So, how do you explain Ricky Gervais' ongoing presence in TV, standup & social media where he routinely says objectively worse stuff than ever appeared in the Office with no real damage done to his career?

His recent standup work has far more objectionable content in it than the Office ever did

[teddyh]

I would guess that a TV series must be approved by more people than an individual’s standup routine.

[dylan604]

A standup is the producer/director/writer/actor for the program. An sitcom/romcom has multiple producers/directors/writers/actors involved, so there is a much broader level of editorial. The producers deciding what directors/writers to hire is in and of itself editorial control. The writers agreeing what jokes to use is editorial control. Even the actors will get their say while on set with lines like "i just don't feel this is what my character would say", then you get rewrites onset.

TL;DR: of course a standup's routine is much less scrutanized than any other type of content by the nature of it.

[daleharvey]

Whats the matter, is Ricky Gervais too challenging for you?

(ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adh0KGmgmQw)