In The Office Ricky Gervais was taking the pee out of himself. So was John Cleese in Fawlty Towers. They would deny, rightly, that were creating exact stereotypes of anyone. They were not propagating damaging messages in either case, but the skill of their writing lay in the fact that they focussed accurately on some traits in their main characters which a lot of us have which we can laugh at.   As for Death Us Do Part, I don't agree that it backfired. It was courageous for its time and questioned, in the ridiculous character of Alf Garnett, many predigested attitudes of the time that usually went unquestioned, at least far more so in those days than now. Alf hardly came out of any of it with dignity. I should like to know in what sense it backfired, other than you may not have found it funny. As for denigrating people born outside marriage by the use of the derogatory "bastard," it's now so far removed from its original meaning in its everyday usage that it's perfectly ridiculous to suggest that every time it's used it's an offence to such persons, even more so because these days it's perfectly legitimate to be illegitimate anyway! And in Oz it isn't even always derogatory. "G'day, how are you, you old bastard!" :-)