The Office, Community and Hipster Racism
If your entire attempt at satire or irony with regard to racism, sexism, whatever -ism simply consists of being jokingly -ist without ever making an attempt to knock down the stereotypes in the first place, then you suck at satire and also at life.
This is why The Office and Community don’t fail when they make -ist jokes- the butt of the joke is always the person making it, and more than that, they actually have strong, interesting POC, gay and female characters (I think The Office has the best portrayal of women of any sitcom) and yes, sometimes they do portray Michael and Pierce as lovable or sympathetic and it gets kinda fuzzy and there are some moronic fans who take Michael and Pierce at face value and think that their offensiveness is awesome and hilarious and those bro-types generally ruin it for everyone, and if any of the targeted groups do get offended at the humor that’s their right, but I’d argue that these shows are the only ones who can do ironic -ism without making me want to punch them in the face because they are actually fighting the fight. There’s one flawless episode of the Office where Michael goes to the warehouse in an attempt to be “collarblind” and starts a conversation about “the chicks” and over the course of the conversation they realize how Michael has screwed them over as a boss and there’s this glorius moment of the mostly-MOC working class rising up against their white male boss, as Michael just says “but… it’s just the chicks… we gotta… gotta blame it all on them” or something, but the warehouse guys are way too smart for that. I once say a man and woman marching with a sign saying “sexism: the force dividing the working class” and that scene was what made that message hit home for me. It was this flawless moment of intersectionality, and that, folks, is how you do racial/gender/class-based humor without being an ass.
Also, the women, POC and gay people in those shows are relatable, lovable characters rather than tokens. Oscar isn’t a flamboyant stereotype, Pam doesn’t nag Jim to be more romantic rather than go out golfing, Troy and Abed are easily the best part of Community for most viewers and never reduced to racial stereotypes. Meanwhile, Dwight is a great example of how the straight, white maleness of geek culture can be hurtful (which doesn’t really excuse Jim and Pam’s bullying, and when Jim realizes in one episode that he’s actually just being an asshole at this point, it’s just this flawless moment of complexity and ugh I love these shows).
And yes, there are loads of people who take it the wrong way and think that Michael is meant to be laughed with rather than laughed at (this occurs with Barney Stinson from HIMYM a lot too) and use the fact that the show is a comedy to excuse being assholes in real life with a “just kidding” sticker on it, and those people annoy me so much and have a way of ruining a good thing for everyone, so please, don’t be one of those people.