"The Office," "Sexual Harassment," NBC 2005

 “There is no such thing as an appropriate joke, that’s why it’s a joke!” manager Michael Scott frustratedly exclaims during a sexual harassment lecture.

This episode of the scripted comedy series “The Office,” which chronicles the daily shortcomings of office workers at the Dunder Mifflin paper company, documents a day at work when Michael is forced to take a seminar on office harassment policies because of the dirty jokes he continually forwards to the employees’ emails.

Ironically, the show may have a lesson to learn in this subject as well.

Most other editions of this NBC series have more tasteful humor mixed throughout the show, give or take a few dirty jokes for shock value. In attempt to make the comedy in this episode about Michael’s inappropriate tribulations as manager, the script continually made jokes that crossed the line: one “that’s what she said!” punch line after another.

The endless dirty humor took away the show’s usual charm. Each character has a quirky and poignant personality, and as the show is set up to be mockumentary-like, they are each hilariously believable. But focusing strictly on Michael’s unbecoming sense of humor, this episode makes us audience members feel just as uncomfortable as office stuck-up snob Angela. For example, when Michael applauds employee Stanley for keeping a picture of a “centerfold schoolgirl” taped to his desk to keep himself “turned on,” and that seeing the photo himself is also the best part of his morning, Stanley gets offended and clarifies that it’s actually a photo of his daughter who goes to Catholic girl’s school.

What also lacks is the comedy’s natural pace. Each episode is effortless in moving along with the storyline of both each episode and the long-term storyline of the series as a whole. But when these 20 minutes come to a close, Michael talks to the camera about how he has learned his lesson while consequently making a crude comment about “hot” receptionist Pam. As comical as fans of the show may find this, the ending still proves that we have moved nowhere. Michael will always be immature, and coworkers will always be there to roll their eyes.

The offensive humor, however, may have you question whether you want to be there too.