Posted in: NBC, TV | Tagged: Mike Schur, snl, steve carell, the office

The Office Writer Schur: SNL's Japanese Parody "Didn't Feel Right"

Looking back, The Office and SNL writer Mike Schur explains why "The Japanese Office" sketch "didn't feel right" on a number of levels.

Mike Schur is one of the biggest success stories following his run on Saturday Night Live as a writer, given the ongoing success for NBC with his contributions to writing and creating series with his time on The Office, Parks and Recreation, The Good Place, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The Emmy winner for SNL and The Office did harbor regret in a crossover sketch that would blend the two called The Japanese Office, which features Steve Carell reprising his role as Michael Scott from the Greg Daniels, Stephen Merchant, and Ricky Gervais series when the actor hosted a May 2008 episode of SNL. Schur appeared on The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast alongside CNN anchor Jake Trapper to speak about his sketches that stood the test of time.

Mike Schur on Why 'The Japanese Office' Short on SNL "Rankled" Him

Schur came to the podcast to join his fellow SNL alum The Lonely Island and current Late Night host Meyers for a little career retrospective with Tapper to help evaluate which Lonely Island digital shorts stood the test of time as part of the "Criterion Collection." Schur left SNL in 2004 to write for The Office, contributing 10 episodes across the first four seasons before developing Parks and Rec. While The Office has hardly sacred territory as the series was often parodied on SNL during its run from 2005-2013, Carell's appearance, which was posted on YouTube 11 years ago, generated 17 million views.

"I worked at SNL, but you still feel like SNL at some point, at some level, is an arbiter of what matters in the culture. And when [Carell] did 'The Japanese Office,' I remember being a little bit rankled," Schur admitted, noting that "it was a very big deal" for the sitcom when its stars hosted. "I loved the first time when Rainn [Wilson] hosted [in 2007], and you did the parody of The Office with his monologue. I was like, 'They're nailing this. Everyone's nailing it," His tone changed when it came to Carell. "This, I was a little bit like, oh, okay. Like, it didn't feel right to me in some way."

The opening featured Gervais, who starred in the original UK version, doing the intro and premise of the sketch as a faux original pitch before the NBC series counterpart "Never before seen" featuring Carell reprising his role with SNL cast members Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, and Kristen Wiig played the Japanese counterparts of Dwight, Jim, and Pam, originally played by Wilson, John Krasinski, and Jenna Fischer on the NBC series. All the actors recited their lines in Japanese. The sketch ends with Gervais spelling out what we just saw, and it was "Funny because it's racist." Also, the sketch was directed by Lonely Island member Akiva Shaffer and co-written by Marika Sawyer, who's Japanese American.

"I would just keep looking to her and go, okay, I'm here to bring your dreams to life…. I think everyone was looking to Marika being like, 'This is your baby. Let's go. We're gonna support it.' But it was her thing," Schaffer recalled at the time. At the very least, Sawyer ensured the Japanese dialogue was coherent and not gibberish. For more, you can check out the video.

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