Comedy, especially satirical comedy, plays an interesting and unique role in our popular culture, as it not only pokes fun at ridiculous and, often, hypocritical aspects within our society, but also helps open up conversations on matters that are often too sensitive and/or controversial to talk about in “normal,” non-comedic settings. In my opinion, there is no better example of this satirical comedic approach within our popular culture than the highly successful mockumentary sitcom, “The Office.” Within this show, the rather satirical approach to sensitive topics, such as race, gender, and sexuality (just to name a few), are consistently and creatively explored, especially within the episode, “Body Language.” However, while many may argue that the jokes made in comedic shows shouldn’t be taken seriously, as they are done so for comedic purposes, I argue that we must still critically analyze the jokes made, especially when referring to sensitive social identities, since these jokes still have immense cultural power capable of not only reinforcing certain stereotypes, but also normalizing them, which can prove to be detrimental to the social progress that we have made as a country thus far. Just to provide some context on the sitcom as well as the episode under analysis, “The Office” is a mockumentary sitcom that delves into the everyday lives of employees within a paper company in Scranton, PA. As was briefly explained in the previous section, this show uses a satirical
of primogeniture, One obvi but
the comedy Mrs. Bennet
4At many
of the entailed and Mr. Collins
so richly inheritance inPride and Prejudice
the folly of engages that the reader may
in this paper will parallel that of Alistair Duckworth in points my argument (Balti impressive study