Sensitivity Training - TV Tropes

"I don't need sensitivity training... you strident, power-mad tart!"

• Torchwood (Big Finish): In "The Empty Hand", Helen White holds several diversity seminars for the South Wales police force, with known racist cops such as DI Burton forced to attend. In reality, she is using the opportunity to implant them with quantum splices, which boost their aggression and make them kill innocents against their will - including, ironically enough, minorities.

• General Halftrack of Beetle Bailey had to go through this, though that was more a result of changing times and sexually harassing the secretary isn't really as funny these days. (But old guys hammering nails into boards to work out their pent-up sexual frustration is.)
• In Dilbert, Dogbert is hired to do sensitivity training for the men in Dilbert's department.

  Dogbert: For this exercise, close your eyes and imagine what it's like to be a woman.

  Wally: People acknowledge my existence. They smile at me and open doors for no reason. I'm... I'm popular.

  Ted: I can't find my keys.

  Wally: I'm never going back. I can't. I won't.

  Ted: My blouse falls to the floor...

  Dogbert: (freaked out) Break! Break!

• G.I. Jane. Before the title character starts SEAL training, all of the instructors have to receive sensitivity training so they know not to sexually harass her.

• In Havemercy, the Dragon Corps gets sensitivity training from Thom after they cause an incident with the Arlemagne diplomat's wife.
• Hellion's Henchmen from Super Minion has a sensitivity training program. And, due to the career of everyone going through it, it includes useful information such as gang signs. Tofu is actually excited at the chance to go through it since it helps him understand why things he says keep offending people.

• On 3rd Rock from the Sun, Dick once had to take sensitivity training. The real hilarity came when Dick left the training a changed man who hugged his students and gave them "happy faces" instead of grades.
• An episode of Andy Richter Controls the Universe had the title character made to attend such a class. As it's starting, a man stands up in front of the room and starts stating offensive stereotypes, like, "Jews are greedy. Mexicans are lazy." etc., and Andy muses that the teacher's method of confronting the class bluntly with such views is effective...until the real teacher comes in, and it turns out the other guy is just another participant in the class, who apparently really needs it.
• Season one of Angel had the LAPD doing this. However, it was a ploy by Wolfram & Hart to disrupt the LAPD so a crime boss would be released, the sensitivity teacher magically enchanting them to be ludicrously open and emotional to everything. One of them ended up releasing all the prisoners, then trying to hug them.
• Altered Carbon. An employee at the Wei Clinic says he's going to ask out "that piece of ass in Payroll", only to reprimanded by a colleague who says they were told in Sensitivity Training not to talk about women that way. This conversation takes place next to the corpse of a woman they've just dissected for her organs.
• The Boys (2019). Racist superhero Blue Hawk permanently paralyzes A-Train's brother Nathan and gets scheduled for 12 weeks of sensitivity training as part of the usual Vought International coverup.
• In the Corner Gas episode "Super Sensitive," Davis and Oscar laugh it up telling Dumb Blonde jokes, which offends Karen (who is blonde). She forces Davis to go to sensitivity training, which perhaps works on him a little too well. When he comes back, he's a walking example of Political Overcorrectness. For example, when Karen orders black coffee, he corrects her by saying "African-American". Karen finds him even more insufferable this way, so she teams up with Oscar and they tell him blonde jokes until he goes back to normal. Then Karen tells a joke about a pygmy, a monk, and a cannibal. We don't get to hear it, but it's apparently bad enough that she gets sent to sensitivity training herself.
• The Criminal Minds episode "The Black Queen" has a sexual harassment seminar based around Morgan and Garcia's sexy phone banter.

  Trainer: 'Where's my big black twelve-pack?' 'More cushion for the pushin''—Not appropriate

• After a Slap-Slap-Kiss goes wrong in Frasier, the station manager makes everyone attend a sexual harassment class. When the moderator starts handing out workbooks Bulldog reveals he already has one from the last time he was forced to take the class. The session ends when Julia, who was part of the Slap-Slap-Kiss incident, promises that she has no intention of suing the station and is willing to put it in writing if it means she can leave. Cue everyone else walking out as the moderator tries to insist they still have work to do.
• Not strictly Sensitivity Training or even compulsory, but the characters from The IT Crowd were persuaded to come to a stress-management seminar with the promise of free food. They managed to push the instructor into a violent rage and ended the day stressed beyond all reason.
• JAG toyed with this concept, particularly in the early seasons.
  • In "Heroes", Harm and Mac have the following exchange:

    Mac: If you have some evidence I should know about...

    Harm: You'll eventually get it, and then you can plea-bargain.

    Mac: In your dreams, commander.

    Harm: Oh, you don't wanna be in my dreams, major.

    Mac: Red light, commander.

    Harm: Red light? (Pause) There was nothing sexual in what I said. And if you think there was, then maybe I should be giving you the red light, major.

• Married... with Children. Jefferson is forced to go to a men's sensitivity training session. When he returns:

  Al: Jefferson! Good, you're right on time. The Three Stooges marathon is about to start.
  Jefferson: (monotone) The Three Stooges are not funny. You know who I think is funny? That Elaine Boosler is funny.
  Al: Oh my God! Those women have brainwashed him. We'll have to deprogram him!
  (holds up two fingers) Quick, how many fingers am I holding up? (pokes Jefferson in the eyes)
  Jefferson: Whoa, thanks, Al. They almost had me that time.

• Murphy Brown.

  Kay: Oh, good morning, my little worker ants! That's just a figure of speech; I would NEVER compare you to insects. At least not after that sensitivity training seminar those maggots at the network forced me to attend!

• NCIS toys with the concept every so often, usually in the context of Team Gibbs managing to avoid attending because of a case.
  • The season four episode "Driven" shows them actually attending a sexual harassment awareness lecture, and more specifically why it's probably for the best that they usually miss them. Jokes about "Red Light" and "Yellow Light" behavior continue throughout the entire episode.

    (Palmer raises his hand and the teacher calls on him)

    Palmer: Uh, what if your job includes touching naked people and—

    Teacher: That's inappropriate at any time.

    Palmer: Even if they're dead?

    (cue shocked look from teacher)

    Teacher: Why are you touching dead naked people?!

    Palmer: See, I work in autopsy...

  • Later in the episode:

    Tony: I believe this is a classic yellow light situation! (snaps a picture)

• In an early episode of The Office, everyone had to go to sensitivity training because Michael made a series of racial jokes... Hilarity Ensues.
• Needless to say, the bastions of the 1st Amendment, Penn & Teller, mocked and argued against the idea in their show Penn & Teller: Bullshit! Here is their (rather Penn's) summary of the show.
• The memorable seminar on Rescue Me results in the team listing off every ethnic slur they can think of.
• In Rizzoli & Isles, Jane Rizzoli discovers she is an "equal opportunity offender" because she offends everyone when she is finally forced to go to sensitivity training in the second season episode "Gone Daddy Gone." None of the cops take the sensitivity training seriously. Jane spends most of the episode trying to hide from the sensitivity training instructor; Vince Korsak wants her to go only because he stands to get something out of it if she does go and a cop who had previously gone to sensitivity training is overheard insulting a suspect.
• Saturday Night Live: One of Will Forte's character's was a MacGyver (1985) expy called "MacGruber." During a mission, MacGruber makes a statement that gets him sent to Sensitivity Training. On his next mission, he calls for his assistant to give him a marker to fix the "Reactor control room." On the table is a black marker, a yellow marker and a red marker. Unfortunately for all, when the assistant asks him which one, he freezes up trying to use the Politically Correct description of a marker.
• Because the staff of Sacred Heart hospital is crawling with politically incorrect meathead male doctors, and, well, Dr. Cox, there has been a couple Scrubs episodes involving sensitivity training.
• What I Like About You: When Holly was working with Val's PR firm, she had to go to a sexual harassment seminar. The only takeaway she got was that she had to tell her attractive male boss that he's "looking sharp" instead of calling him "a smoking hunk of love."

  Holly: Lookin' sharp, Vic!
  Vic: Aw! I miss being a smoking hunk of love. Stupid seminars.

• A possible social program in all the Tropico games (except the one about pirates). Makes your soldiers and policemen be less of a drag on your liberty rating, and includes helpful suggestions such as "Never hit a civilian where the bruise will show.".

• In Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, J has to go to a mandatory "support group" for people with anger management issues after she snaps over a stapler. The people in there also get angry over stupid things, though are more blatantly crazy than her. One person gets angry when people don't let the microwave time out, and another gets angry when people send e-mails in Comic Sans. J ends up going on dates with the leader of the group. In another episode, Amir, J's racist coworker, comes back from being Put on a Bus and says that he was in Racial Sensitivity Training.

• Family Guy: In "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar", Peter Griffin gets in trouble for telling a sexist joke to a female co-worker. His boss tries to reassure the woman's lawyer (Gloria Ironbachs) that the company takes measures to curb that sort of behavior, and mentions a mandatory sensitivity training video... which turns out to be horribly outdated and even more sexist than Peter's joke. Peter is then sent to a sensitivity training class held by Ironbachs, but being who he is, Peter completely fails to learn anything. As a more drastic measure, he is then sent to a women's retreat, which works a little too well — he is more sensitive, but then starts acting like he thinks he's a woman.
• Inside Job (2021): In "Blue Bloods", after J.R. accidentally insults the Secret Reptilian Overlords, the entire team is forced to go to sensitivity training before attending the annual reptoid banquet.
• Phineas and Ferb: In one episode, the Flynn-Fletchers were sailing and Baljeet and Buford were watching over Perry the Platypus for them, which kept him from responding to Major Monogram's call. Monogram commented he couldn't send another animal agent because all of them were doing sensitivity training.
  • In another episode, Major Monogram was doing sensitivity training and his response to Carl saying animal agents were exempt from it suggested what Monogram needed the training for.
• South Park:
  • In "Sexual Harassment Panda", the school brings in... the Sexual Harassment Panda, a singing and dancing mascot (who actually believes he's a panda) to teach the kids about sexual harassment. Cue Cartman suing Stan for "sexual harassment" after Stan calls him an "ass-licker" and winning with the help of Kyle's dad. This inspires more frivolous lawsuits until the entire town sues the entire town.
  • In "The Death Camp of Tolerance", after learning that a teacher who was fired for being gay gained millions in lawsuit, Mr. Garrison shows explicit sexual acts to his class so he would be fired and allowed to sue the elementary school with his new assistant, Mr. Slave. Unfortunately for him, his plan backfired in many ways: the boys who complained were sent to a Museum of Tolerance, then to the titular camp which is a concentration camp in everything but the name, and while being awarded a "Courageous Teacher Award", Mr. Garrison became exasperated with the Political Overcorrectness of the town, and he and Mr. Slave were sent to the Camp of Tolerance at the end of the episode.