‘The Office’ Once Fought To Air Genitalia Drawings, But NBC Said No

For nine seasons, The Office consistently pushed the boundaries of primetime comedy. The show successfully brought more than a few crude, controversial jokes to TV screens over the years, but one episode in particular led NBC’s legal team to step in and suggest censoring.
On the July 20 episode of Office Ladies, Stitcher’s The Office rewatch podcast hosted by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, the BFFs and former costars discussed the Season 6 episode, “Body Language.” The episode largely focuses on the Scranton office trying interpret a client’s body language to determine if she’s interested in dating Michael. But the cold open shows Michael trying to learn Spanish ahead of his upcoming trip to Cancun. He turns to Oscar for guidance, and in a talking head, Oscar explains that Michael is having trouble grasping the gendered part of the language.
“I told him to mark everything with the international symbol for gender, and, um…I should have been more specific,” Oscar explains, holding up two Post-it Notes, one of which features a drawing of a penis, while the other is a drawing of breasts. Classic Michael. The show then cuts to the two men in Michael’s office, which is covered in genitalia Post-it Notes. They’re on his keyboard, his lamp, his phone, and even his World’s Best Boss mug. Here’s a refresher:

After speaking with The Office‘s line producer Randy Cordray, Fischer explained that the show’s graphic designer, Henry Saine, was responsible for drawing a bunch of genitalia in “varying degrees of explicitness” for the episode. But you’ll notice the drawings, while amateur and comical, are all censored. That was NBC’s call.

“Randy also shared that the process for getting the scene cleared with Standards and Practices was insane,” Fischer explained. “After the table read, Randy sent the script over to NBC and they responded by saying, ‘You can do the Post-it notes, but they have to be blurred’… So after we filmed it and they did a cut of the cold open, Greg [Daniels] and Paul [Lieberstein] sent over a version to standards and practices, but nothing was blurred. Well, that didn’t go over well.”

“Randy got a note back that said, ‘Please blur all of the Post-its around Michael’s office that have visible breasts and penises drawn on them, including the one on Angela’s forehead,'” Fischer said. “That was literally a quote in the memo. Greg and Paul were not having it. They pushed back. They argued that it was much funnier to see Michael’s crude artwork. They said that they were going for a joke about Michael’s childlike innocence, using what he thinks are the symbols of man and woman. And they believed that the audience would understand the context and not be offended by these drawings.”

Fischer said the two even went so far as to bring the Sistine Chapel into the debate, arguing it contained more detailed nudity than Michael’s Post-it notes. Cordray even sent a photo of the Sistine Chapel to NBC for reference. Yes, really! They didn’t come to play.

“This was [NBC’s] response: ‘We agree that the drawings are silly. Having said that, we have had this exact issue to address on other shows and legal is not willing to take the risk and allow this. Please blur the images,'” Fischer said. But Daniels and Lieberstein weren’t ready to give up the fight.

“They took it themselves to the NBC legal department. And the NBC legal department said, ‘Blur it,'” Fischer explained. “That still wasn’t the end. They sent a sample of the cold open, finally with the images blurred, and [NBC] wrote back: ‘More blurry.’ Finally, their second attempt at blurring the Post-its was approved. And that is what you see in the episode.”

“That is hilarious to me that Greg and Paul, like, became so determined,” Kinsey said. Same.
So for fans wondering why The Office played it safe by censoring Michael’s Post-it Notes, just know, if the show-runners had their way, the genital drawings would have been on full display.