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NEW YORK – Some suicide prevention groups aren’t laughing over a scene in “The Office” where Steve Carell’s character tries to scare children by struggling in a hangman’s noose.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and other mental health organizations say NBC and other entertainers should stop using suicide as a punch line. They worry that depiction of a method of suicide might encourage mentally ill people to take their own lives.
“We try not to be zealots about this,” said Robert Gebbia, the foundation’s executive director. “But this one ... kind of crossed the line.”
A spokeswoman for NBC’s entertainment division did not have a comment.
There’s been a run of TV shows that have inflamed sensibilities lately. The Parents Television Council has urged affiliates of The CW not to air a Nov. 9 episode of “Gossip Girl” after on-air promos for a sexual threesome. Some religious groups were angered by an episode of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” where a drop of Larry David’s urine is splattered on a portrait of Jesus Christ.
“The Office” Halloween episode Oct. 29 opened with the paper company hosting a haunted house for children. Carell’s socially clueless office manager Michael Scott promises a scare and pops out with his depiction of a hanging.
Afterward, Scott speaks like an exaggerated public service announcement: “Kids, just remember, suicide is not the answer. It is the easy way out.”
Gebbia said it’s impossible to imagine a death because of breast cancer, for example, being used as a joke. He said he wants entertainers to be aware of the effect of their work.
“We’re not trying to be censors or fall into the trap of wanting everything to be PC, politically correct,” Gebbia said. “But on the other hand, it’s offensive to some people who have lost relatives to suicide by hanging.”
