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Suicide Isn't Funny. Or Is It?

NBC's "The Office" must have not gotten the memo: Suicide isn't funny, according to several of the nation's suicide prevention groups, who claim that the sitcom used suicide as a poor punchline.

During the Halloween episode which aired last week, Steve Carell's character Michael Scott tried to scare a group of children during a haunted house tour in the warehouse by dangling from a hangman's noose.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Mental Health America, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Suicide Awareness Voices in Education are asking that the networks be more sensitive when it comes to issues of suicide.

"We try not to be zealots about this," said Robert Gebbia, the Suicide Prevention foundation's executive director. "But this one ... kind of crossed the line."

This entry was posted on November 6th, 2009 at 09:03:43 am and is filed under Comedy.