The Office will always be the best show ever

I believe in my heart that the award winning TV show The Office is nothing but pure genius and one of the best shows in television history. With that aside, I'd like to talk about my favorite episode of The Office titled "Basketball". Its the 5th episode in the series, which premiered in 2005. If you're a fan of the show, you'll know exactly who Michael Scott is. Expertly played by Steve Carrell, Micheal is the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin paper company, Scranton branch. Micheal is an ignorant, arrogant and clueless man who is rude and inappropriate at the worst possible times. But the best part about him is that, at the end of the day, you can't help but love him. The reason I'm writing my cultural analysis on this particular episode is because of the blatant, and deliberate use of racial stereotypes used superbly for comedic effect. Throughout the series Micheal drops countless unforgettably stereotypical remarks that make you laugh, not only because of how offensive they are but also because you can't ever believe someone would actually say something that irrational. For example, in the episode "Basketball", the office employees play a pickup game of basketball with the warehouse workers. The episode starts out with Micheal telling a story about his pick up basketball game adventures and how everyone their watched him make every shot he took. He then says that, "Their jaws just dropped. African Americans!", implying that all black people are good at basketball and that they were impressed by his ability as a white man, to shoot hoops. But Micheal isn't done yet. Later in the episode he announces the starting lineup and says "Stanley, of course". Stanley is a black man and questions Micheal on why he said "of course". Michael pretends like he doesn't remember saying it. Michael also denies Oscar a spot on the roster and says to him "I will use your talents come baseball season, or if we box". He also denies Kevin a spot on the roster because he is a large white man. Micheal is using textbook examples of common stereotypes in the sports world. The idea that all Hispanics are good at boxing or that all white guys can't play basketball is absurd and the way Micheal truly believes in them really makes you laugh. Later in the show we discover (to Micheal's disappointment) that Stanley has very little basketball talent and that Kevin and Oscar can really shoot the basketball, which completely reverses the racial stereotypes Micheal thought to be true. I have watched this episode countless times and I never fail to laugh out loud. The more I watch it the more these racial stereotypes seem to become unimportant, because the real funny part about it is that Micheal actually believes in them, when in reality they are'nt in the slightest bit true. Even someone like Kevin can play basketball.