WATCH: Rainn Wilson says ‘The Office’ couldn’t be done today
The ‘Office’ star says cultural cancellations and political divisions have made it difficult for modern comedy to thrive, sharing his frustration with the party’s double standards and growing political divide. (Credit: Nicholas Ballasy of Fox News Digital)
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Rainn Wilson, best known for playing Dwight Schrute on the hit sitcom “The Office,” says hypocrisy on both sides of politics is fueling America’s divisiveness, while he says canceling culture is preventing modern comedy.
Wilson told Fox News Digital that canceling the tradition, which is a result of growing political divisiveness, has hurt the ability of comedy on shows like “The Office” to thrive and be accepted in today’s society.
“I feel like you can’t do The Office today,” Wilson said. “I think that would be very difficult to be politically incorrect as it was. And I do, I miss that.”
He explained that, despite the fact that both his character and actor Steve Carell as Michael Scott, were deliberately portrayed as lacking “self-awareness” and “boob,” the jokes still wouldn’t fly or be considered acceptable in today’s society.
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John Krasinski as Jim Halpert, Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute, Jenna Fischer as Pam Beesly, and Steve Carell as Michael Scott appear in a scene from the pilot episode of “The Office.” (Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank)
“We milked that for a lot of good, really inappropriate things,” Wilson said. “But even with the fact that you just painted that character as an idiot, I don’t think you can get away with it today.”
Joking aside, Wilson said one of the biggest causes of political dysfunction in America is what he described as partisan hypocrisy, where Republicans and Democrats are quick to criticize the misbehavior of the opposing party while ignoring similar behavior on their own.
Wilson used the response to Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner’s list of mounting scandals throughout his campaign as an example, specifically citing reactions to his Nazi tattoo as racial or religious discrimination.
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Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Maine, points to a covered tattoo previously recognized as a Nazi symbol during an interview in Portland, Maine, on Oct. 22, 2025. (WGME via AP)
“The political right is very much about ‘Oh, you’re a racist, you see,'” Wilson explained. “But they won’t look their way when people show racist tendencies or say racist things. And it’s the same on the left. They’re willing to ignore a Platner Nazi tattoo, but if it was someone from the other side with a questionable tattoo, they’d be all over MSNBC about it.”
“It’s the hypocrisy that gets to me the most. The hypocrisy of equality, that both sides need to have, sort of, equal standards of conduct.”
Despite his concern about political divisions, Wilson argued that faith and spirituality are still largely neglected secular resources.
“There is no subject that has more uniformity and consensus than spiritual ideas,” Wilson said.
“Ideas about spirituality have been associated with the national conversation, but in reality the two sides are more similar than you might think.”
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Rainn Wilson speaks at a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, as part of an effort to promote dialogue across political and ideological conflicts. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Wilson said this when he appeared on Capitol Hill with Reps. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., and religious leaders for public liberation. A Common Endeavour: Fulfilling America’s Promise, a five-part book sponsored by Baha’i religious leaders that works to bridge political divides and focuses on shared American values.
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“Partisanism and toxic partisanship, and the corruption of partisanship, is something that the American people love,” Wilson said.
“People want this thing to be fixed. People are crying. They want it to be fixed.”
