Featured Image Credit: NBC
Topics: Netflix, Streaming, The Office, Film and TV
Ellie Kemp
Fans rewatching The Office have been stressing out over a particular detail they believe could be some sort of 'censorship'.
There's something undeniably magical about rewatching your favorite TV show.
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, a tiny background moment or a throwaway line jumps out - and suddenly, you're falling in love with the show all over again.
But some Netflix subscribers are complaining about an iconic Michael Scott scene apparently being cut from an episode in the US edition of the show.
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From 'No God, please no!' to 'I declare... bankruptcy!' Steve Carell's Michael Scott has delivered some absolute zingers over the years.
Yet his goofy antics appear to be missing from a memorable scene in season six, which aired on NBC all the way back in 2010.
The episode in question is number 17's 'The Delivery, Part Two'.
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We see an excited Michael, armed with a huge bunch of balloons, on the way to meet Pam Halpert's (Jenna Fischer) new baby, a daughter named Cecelia.
Visiting the hospital's mother-baby room, Pam's husband Jim (John Krasinski) is holding little Cece - which Scott is desperate to do.
In preparation - and true Michael Scott style - he douses his hands in sanitizer, only to, seconds later, wipe them on his - presumably dirty - pants.
Pam tells him to put more santizer on but not wipe it on his pants this time. Michael reluctantly obliges.
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Then, Jim carefully passes Cece over to Michael in a super sweet moment.
Yet, in the Netflix version of the show, the whole santizer drama appears to be cut out, and Michael simply holds Cece right away instead.
Eagle-eyed fans were quick to pick up on this.
One person went as far as to post the clip on Reddit to check they weren't just imagining things.
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"Sorry for the bad quality recording but did Netflix cut something out?" they asked, attaching a self-recorded clip of the scene from their TV.
"I feel like I remember more lines being said but why would Netflix cut a couple seconds out? Sorry for being out of the loop if this was discussed before."
One social media user responded: "Michael sanitises his hands and then rubs them against his suit. I think that part is cut."
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"Weird thing to edit," a second responded, as a third commented: "I vividly remember the hand sanitizer scene being there, but it's gone from my Netflix now."
Another theorized it could've been a form of censorship to do with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Turns out, though, it's not actually that deep.
Another Reddit user, who says they work in TV, explained: "Probably not - it's almost never for censorship reasons.
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"On very rare occasion you see that from companies with certain social branding, like Disney/Hulu making the blackface episodes of Always Sunny unavailable...
"The real explanation is that networks are big institutions with several different versions of their shows edited to be different lengths - usually to fit the different lengths and frequencies of commercial breaks."
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They continued: "This edit is probably just the version NBC sent to Netflix for some reason, back in 2010/whenever they first acquired streaming rights."
Yet some people claimed the hand sanitizer was in the original Netflix version. They added, in that case: "It's all pointing to Netflix editing content to fit more ads into each episode. Which sucks. Especially if you pay for ad-free Netflix and still have to see a shortened version of the show."
Back in 2021, another Reddit user complained over the same scene cut, only they were streaming on Peacock instead of Netflix.
The poster claimed they re-watched the episode on Netflix and the santizer scene still remained.
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So, maybe NBC sent out a cut version to Netflix which replaced the original episode, or both Netflix and Peacock cut the scene for commercial time.
Netflix didn't respond to UNILAD's request for comment.