Steve Carell noose scene criticised

Steve Carell's scene in The Office in which his character tries to scare young children by struggling in a hangman's noose has been criticised by an anti-suicide group.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and other mental health organisations said US channel NBC and other entertainers should stop using suicide as a punchline, because depiction of a method of suicide might encourage mentally ill people to take their own lives.

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

A spokeswoman for NBC's entertainment division did not have an immediate comment.

The Office Halloween episode, shown in the US last Thursday, opened with the paper company hosting a haunted house for young children. Carell's socially clueless office manager Michael Scott promises a scare, and pops out with his depiction of a hanging.

Afterward, Scott speaks like an exaggerated public service announcement: "Kids, just remember, suicide is not the answer. It is the easy way out."

Gebbia said it's impossible to imagine a death due to breast cancer, for example, being used as a joke. He said he wants entertainers to be aware of the impact of their work.

It comes after the Parents Television Council urged affiliates of the CW network not to air a November 9 episode of Gossip Girl following on-air promos for a sexual threesome.

Some religious groups were also angered by an episode of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm where a drop of Larry David's urine is splattered on a portrait of Jesus Christ.