The Office's Oct. 29 Halloween-themed episode is no laughing matter for the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention.
The organization and other mental health groups are taking NBC to task after the network aired an episode in which Steve Carell's businessman Michael Scott attempted to scare a group of children by struggling with a hangman's noose.
Afterward, Carell's character offers an exaggerated public service announcement: "Kids, just remember, suicide is not the answer. It is the easy way out."
"We try not to be zealots about this," Robert Gebbia, the foundation's executive director, told the Associated Press. "But this one…kind of crossed the line."
An NBC representative did not immediately offer a response to Gebbia's organization.
The network is not the only one to face criticism over their programming this week.
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After promos for next Monday's episode of The CW's Gossip Girl hinted at a sexual threesome, the Parents Television Council requested that network affiliates yank the airing from their primetime lineup.
Airing the teen tryst, which is being teased in an ad as a "3SOME," is "reckless and irresponsible," the nonpartisan education group's president, Tim Winter, said in a statement Wednesday.
