David Brent

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David Brent

First appearance	Pilot
Last appearance	Christmas Special Pt. 2
Information
Gender	Male
Age	40s
Occupation	General Manager
Portrayed by	Ricky Gervais
Created by	Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant

David Brent is a fictional white-collar office middle-manager and one of the principal characters from BBC television comedy The Office, played by co-writer and director Ricky Gervais. He is the general manager of the Slough branch of the Wernham-Hogg paper merchants, and the boss to most of the other characters present in the series. Much of the comedy and pathos of the series centres around Brent's many idiosyncrasies, hypocrisies, self-delusions and shameless self-promoting (including, but not limited to, playing up to the 'documentary' cameras present in his workplace).

[edit] Character

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

David Brent is the type of boss who wants to be everyone's friend and mentor. He imagines that everyone finds him very funny and loves being around him, yet still respects him and looks up to him as a boss and even a father figure. He is, of course, spectacularly wrong — his employees tolerate him at best and often find him irritating.

One of the key aspects of Brent's personality is his complete obliviousness to how other people actually see him, and he lashes out strongly whenever his carefully built veil of ignorance is pierced. For example, Brent often asks people how old they think he is, only to react offended and dismayed when the age they guess is older than he'd like it to be. He also has a need to be seen as a renaissance man who is exceptionally good at everything, including playing music, drawing, writing poetry and songs, being a rock star, managing a team, dancing, and even dating and marriage. He especially believes himself to be a remarkably talented stand-up comedian, and rarely misses an opportunity to play up to the cameras; his 'material', however, is largely tedious and hackneyed, and mostly consists of impressions and second-hand comedy routines taken from British comedy shows such as Fawlty Towers and The Two Ronnies. He also revealed that he was in a rock band called Foregone Conclusion, and has claimed that they were once supported by Texas.

Brent has a tendency to promote himself as a politically-correct modern man, but often demonstrates an unwittingly offensive attitude towards ethnic minorities, disabled people and women. However, his various attitudes and faux-pas, cringeworthy and insulting though they may be, are largely not maliciously intended; they are more frequently the unfortunate result of remarkable ignorance and self-delusion combined with an unfortunate tendency to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, and then to make matters worse for himself when trying to backpedal.

In series two, Brent is given a counterpart, his own boss, Neil Godwin. Neil is everything that Brent isn't: funny, respected, capable, and secure in himself. Brent, recognising this in Neil, quickly grows to despise him, and spends most of series two trying to one-up his nemesis at every point, most memorably with his jaw-droppingly bad dance routine in episode five (which he describes with typical false modesty as "...a fusion of Flashdance and MC Hammer shit").

However, Brent is not 'the boss from Hell'. For all his many unlikeable and contemptible characteristics, he is not without redeeming merit, and is largely depicted as a tragic figure: a lonely and sad man who places more value in his unrewarding job than he probably should. At several points, the audience is actually prompted to feel sympathetic towards Brent. This is especially true in the final episode of the second series, as he faces redundancy, and in parts of the Christmas special where he is struggling with life after losing his job and his fifteen minutes of fame. These are the few times when we see David Brent actually face the bleak reality of his situation and try desperately to hold on. But things start to look up for David at the end of the Christmas special when he meets a woman who enjoys his company. In the final scene, Brent also succeeds in achieving what he has tried and failed for the whole series to do; he makes the staff laugh.

Due to the popularity of the show, Brent's persona has entered British office-life culture as the epitome of the bad boss. He is frequently ranked alongside many of the classic characters of British comedy, including Basil Fawlty, Captain George Mainwaring and Alan Partridge.

[edit] Appearances outside of The Office

Microsoft UK and Ricky Gervais put together two videos entitled 'the office values' where David Brent is brought in as a motivational speaker. These were leaked online during August 2006. Reportedly, those at Microsoft were unhappy about the leak, and Gervais hadn't wanted them publicly released because it would suggest he was bringing back the character on a longer-term basis.

In Capcom's video game Resident Evil 4, a character listed in the game's credits as "Manic Brent" appears in two scenes driving a truck. Ricky Gervais's laugh was recorded to be used in these scenes.

On Wednesday, May 28, 2006, David Cameron described British Prime Minister Tony Blair as "the David Brent of Downing Street".

Unconfirmed Internet rumors have mentioned a possible cameo for David Brent on the American version of The Office where he will meet his counterpart, Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell.

In Ricky Gervais' cameo appearance in the sitcom Spaced, it is speculated that the character he plays is in fact David Brent in his younger, office junior days before he has become employed by Wernham Hogg and made manager. Obvious signs include him working in an office, his name "Dave" being spoken by his colleague and the way he bites his bottom lip. His cocky swagger also indicates foreshadowing of the future David Brent. It should be noted, however, that most of Gervais's parts are variations on the Brent persona. Ricky Gervais and Spaced creators Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Jessica Stevenson have never commented on the cameo.