“Don’t vaccinate it.”

This just blew my mind.

I was watching The Office on television when a couple of the characters announced that they were expecting a baby. The assembled staff shouted out various things and I swore that I heard someone off camera say, “Don’t vaccinate it”. I was stunned and unsure my ears heard right so I went to hulu.com to watch it again and sure enough, just after the eighteen minute mark someone rings out “Don’t vaccinate it”.

I suspect that more than a couple of you are sensitive to the vaccination issue. Are you as surprised as I was that a major networks would let this get out? Was it a mistake? Do you think someone got fired for it? Do you think NBC got a call or two from big pharma?

Check it out here. UPDATE 10.23.09 – Video is no longer available.

5 Responses to ““Don’t vaccinate it.””

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1 Tim October 8, 2009 at 5:46 am

Nice catch! Didn’t hear / notice that the first time I watched that episode!

Although controversial, certainly not out of character / off theme for that show. Not obvious to me which character said it (I just started watching last season!) , but again, not too off-theme, as many of them say very off color / controversial / non-politically-correct things.

2 Tim October 8, 2009 at 6:21 am

…to follow-up / continue…

I think the funny part of the line is the ridiculous thought that somebody would actually say that as a first reaction to hearing that news.

I’m consistently amazed by how pregnancy opens the floodgates for unsolicited advice. It’s remarkable! When my (ex) wife was pregnant with each of our children, people she’d never met / encountered would approach her in public and start spewing their opinions about breast feeding, lamaze (sp), etc… I’ve never witnessed that phenomenon in any other arena.

3 Susan October 8, 2009 at 11:58 am

I doubt anyone lost a job over this. I agree, you get all sorts of horrible unsolicited advice when people learn that you’re pregnant — which I think was the point.

- 4 christin October 23, 2009 at 1:54 am
  
  It’s no longer available 😦
  And that would not fly if they heard it in editing, pharm companies would NOT be happy and they own all the commercials..
  
5 Cindy May 18, 2010 at 3:51 pm

I enjoyed this episode because of the risks the writers took. I was happy to here all the comments that people say when your having a baby. I was very happy to see breastfeeding on television. If you want to talk pharm companies…they have a big stake in the baby formula.