Mike Schur reflects on ‘SNL’s’ controversial Japanese parody of ‘The Office’

Mike Schur, the Emmy-winning writer for The Office and Saturday Night Live, admitted that SNL's parody of the hit sitcom made him feel uncomfortable.

Discussing the digital short The Japanese Office from Steve Carell’s May 17, 2008, episode, he confessed that it did not represent the show in the way he had hoped.

He revealed this on The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast, where Seth brought him and CNN’s Jake Tapper on to decide which Lonely Island digital shorts deserve to be called "Criterion Collection."

When the 50-year-old television host suggested the skit for the top tier, the Brooklyn Nine-Nine writer quickly refused, and Jake asked if Mike’s history with the popular sitcom The Office influenced his judgment.

Reflecting on his time on SNL, the award winning writer explained that he feels the show plays a big role in defining cultural importance and admitted that, "When Steve did 'The Japanese Office,' I remember being a little bit rankled." 

He recalled enjoying Rainn Wilson’s 2007 hosting gig, praising his parody of the fan favourite series in his monologue, saying, "I loved the first time when Rainn hosted and you did the parody of The Office with his monologue."

“I was like, 'They're nailing this,'" he added.

However, Mike felt differently about the digital parody and stated, “It didn't feel right to me in some way."

He further revealed that he didn’t understand the sketch’s idea, expressing, "It's like, 'They stole the show from me, but I stole it from the Japanese version,' but then all the actors in the Japanese version are white people.”