Why Diversity Day is the best episode of The Office

This Season 1 episode, on Netflix until January, is the best of The Office

I assume that all my friends at this point have seen at least some of The Office, but my true Office “friend litmus test” is really one question: do you like “Diversity Day”?

The second episode of the first season (and the first episode of the show that didn’t take most of its plot beats from the British Office), it serves as a true masterclass in cringe comedy, establishes the Office dynamic of desperate mundanity paired with eccentric events, and allows the show to exhibit heart by providing the audience a worthy surrogate with whom they relate – Jim Halpert. Having risen in the ranks of episodes of The Office that “haven’t aged well” and are “tough to watch” holds little weight against the quality of humor and definition of environment in “Diversity Day,” which hook the viewer into binging on.

Directed by Ken Kwapis and written by B.J. Novak and Mindy Kaling, “Diversity Day” finds Michael and the rest of the Dunder Mifflin family sitting in on a diversity awareness seminar headed up by Diversity Today, which Michael attempts to take charge of, then outright ruins. After understanding that the seminar was only in response to something he did, Michael decides to make his own office seminar, Diversity Tomorrow, primarily filled with stereotype-based activities. It’s also the day of Jim’s biggest recurring sale, but his customer keeps getting away from him for various reasons to Jim’s dismay.

Nothing is more consistently funny in The Office than the ways in which the show illustrates Michael’s unfettered desire for power (or the appearance of power) while laying bare his complete idiocy. It’s the reason why Prison Mike, the grill incident, and Bill Buttlicker all work so well, but no situation can compare to the one-two of Michael repeating the Chris Rock routine, then running the “Inglourious Basterds game” with the rest of the office.

This works the best in “Diversity Day” because the episode makes Michael more human, as opposed to a straight clown. If Michael thought he didn’t have to care about diversity, he would do these activities and say those jokes all the time. But he knows he does – in the same way your white well-meaning aunt knows she does – and he also thinks he knows a lot about it: It’s very important to do the work.

“I wish every day was Diversity Day.”

“This office is very advanced in racial awareness.”

It’s classic Michael, but it’s also incisive and insightful about the attitudes and actions of a certain type of person we all recognize.

Which makes the more outrageous jokes all the more hilarious. A few of my favs:

• Michael responds to when Mr. Brown (“It’s my name, it’s not a test”) says “we need to celebrate our diversity” by relaying the lyrics to Kool & The Gang “Celebrate good times…” before turning it around and trying to engage the office with “…Come on! Let’s celebrate diversity!”
• Michael says “this is an environment of welcoming, and you should just get the hell out of here” to Toby with his whole chest (even funnier now, given…the past 4+ years).
• Michael exclaims that he’s 2/15ths Native American and goads the employees participating in the card-on-the-head game by constantly saying “push it,” making him sound like an acting teacher or something.

It’s a wonder that more of the workers don’t try to get out of Michael’s clutches to do work. But that’s where the tone of the environment comes into play: Michael’s activities must be better than work. Working for a paper company must suck so much that doing something, anything, with other people would be a more valuable use of time. It’s the click track in the background of the show, something that got more buried under character dynamics as the show went along, making “Diversity Day” retrospectively quite clean and admirably refreshing.

There’s a lot of stuff for the audience to relate to in “Diversity Day” – the inept boss, the mandatory seminars, the annoying, out-of-touch co-workers – but the episode’s B-plot gives the viewer someone to relate with. Jim represents the beating idiosyncratic heart and hope of The Office as expressed in “Diversity Day”. Be it the mini-bottle of champagne he gets for himself to celebrate his recurring sale (which he graciously cedes to his rival Dwight after he scoops it up himself), his pining after Pam (alluded to in the pilot but explicitly stated here for the first time!), and his final assertion that despite not getting his sale, two miserable mandatory seminars, doing boring work, and his crush being engaged to someone else, a little nap on his shoulder can make him simply feel like he had “not a bad day.”

“Diversity Day” explores the potential of The Office as an ensemble and individual characters, commits to the “horrible boss” bit by going off the deep end and involving racial humor that’s cringy and still so funny, and effectively proffers the origins of one of the long-term reasons to get into the show. It’s the best episode of The Office, and it’s well worth the rewatch. Which you can only do this month before it leaves Netflix!

Do you like “Diversity Day”? Leave your thoughts on the episode in the comments.

The last day to watch The Office on Netflix is Dec. 31, 2020.