So says the "World's Best Boss" borrowing a quote from Abraham Lincoln. An adaptation of the BBC series of the same name created in 2001 by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, The Office was adapted for American audiences by Greg Daniels, veteran writer for SNL, King of the Hill and The Simpsons. Both sitcom and mockumentary, first airing on NBC on March 24, 2005 from May 16, 2013, the series depicts the everyday life of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. To simulate the look of an actual documentary, the show is filmed in a single-camera setup without a studio or a laugh track; our main characters sporadically posing as talking heads are either explaining or venting their emotions depending on however they happen to be feeling at that certain time to an unseen camera operator during a particular moment in the episode, often evoking hilarity. But when mixing in race? "Diversity Day"! The second episode of the first season, the second episode overall, was written by Ken Kwapis (who also directed) and B. J. Novak who, for his work on this episode, was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay – Episodic Comedy.
When the egotistical but shallow central character Michael Scott (Steve Carell, loosely based on David Brent from the original British version) makes a controversial imitation of a Chris Rock routine, he forces the staff to undergo a racial seminar. A sensitivity trainer arrives (guest starring Office consulting producer and writer Larry Wilmore as Mr. Brown) to give the staff in the office a practical presentation about tolerance and diversity. Michael, however insists on imparting his own knowledge, aggravating both the consultant and the entire office staff in creating his own diversity seminar instead. Michael is seen later on signing the release for Mr. Brown passed around, with the name "Daffy Duck". Mr. Brown does not realize that the signature is bogus. Michael quickly fashions his more ambitious and improvisational program under the name "Diversity Tomorrow" (because today is almost over"). First asking the employees to detail their particular nationalities, he helpfully offers that he is a "virtual United Nations" of English, Scottish, Irish, German and "2/15 Native American" origins, thus assigning each office member an index card with a different race written on it. They are to guess what race they are based on by the actions and phrases recited to them by their co-workers but are not allowed to read it, wearing and displaying it on their foreheads for only others to see. Compelling the employees to interact and "mix up the melting pot" causes tempers to slowly simmer. Many uncomfortable but hilarious exchanges of various stereotypes occur between them, as Michael reasons that they will learn how it is to "be a minority" while ironically bringing up offensive stereotypes himself (Scott has no card for "Arab" or "Muslim", because, he explains, it would be "too explosive"). This continues on until the staff finally snap under toleration for such petty inaneness. Meanwhile, Dunder Mifflin representative and love interest of the shy Pam Beesley (Jenna Fischer) Jim "Big Tuna" or just "Tuna" Harper (John Krasinski) struggles to keep hold of a lucrative contract extension that makes up about twenty-five percent of his annual commission. Amidst the entropy of the day, Dwight Kurt Schrute III (Rainn Wilson, based on Gareth Keenan from the original UK version), the successful paper salesman lacking in social skills, common sense and of whom is pretty much a fascist nerd, closes the sale for himself. Despite his initial personal dislike of Jim, the two are a very effective sales team nonetheless. Jim gets one of life's little victories when Pam falls asleep on his shoulder at the end of a meeting, as he concludes that is was "not a bad day".
Premiering on NBC on April 5, 2005, it lost half of its viewing audience due to the previous episode, being the pilot, which had garnered over eleven million viewers to this episode's six. On the flipside, "Diversity Day", along with the other first season episodes of The Office helped NBC score its highest-rated Tuesday night slot since February 1, 2005. Entertainment Weekly gave the episode positive reviews, stating that: "Think of the toss-off racism of the original, plopped into a PC-gone-wrong showcase that might be entitled The Accidental Bigot. As when the African-American diversity trainer introduces himself as Mr. Brown, and Scott assures him, 'I will not call you that.'" Ricky Gervais stated: "It is as good. I love the fact that, apart from the first one, the scripts are all original. You've gone back to the blueprint of what the characters are and you've started from there, as opposed to copying anything." Rolling Stone magazine named the scene wherein Michael shows the office his diversity video the third greatest moment from The Office. However, Erik Adams of The A.V. Club awarded the episode a "B+", noting that the episode "would go on to be one of the series' defining episodes, an installment that put a more hopeful spin on the original Office's views on accepting the disparity between our dreams and our realities." Two scenes that were cut involved Michael Scott responding to Mr. Brown's "HERO" acronym by creating one that sounded good until everyone noticed the words created the acronym of "INCEST", while another had Jim replacing Dwight's "Asian" headband with "Dwight" and then having the other co-workers complain to his clueless character about how annoying his behavior was. The pilot after the pilot, "Diversity Day" defined NBC'S The Office for cast and crew alike. Kwapis reflects: "Well, it certainly took a while to find its audience. But creatively the show hit a home run in episode two. I mean, that episode really is a standout. Two hundred episodes later, that's really a standout."
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