David Brent

David Brent is the boss and primary character from BBC television comedy The Office played by co-writer Ricky Gervais.

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. 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 people pierce his carefully built veil of ignorance (often by outright insulting whoever is nearby). 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. Brent promotes himself as politically-correct modern man, but he usually demonstrates a patronising attitude towards ethnic minorities, disabled people and women.

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, recognizing 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 M. C. Hammer shit").

In startlingly ironic contrast, however, the audience is actually made to feel sympathetic towards Brent in the final episode of the second series, and in parts of the Christmas special. These are the few times when we see David Brent actually face the bleak reality of his situation, and try desperately to hold on.

Still, these rare moments are readily overlooked by the many real-life office workers who draw comparisons between their own boss and Brent. Due to the popularity of the show, Brent's persona has entered British office-life culture as the epitome of the bad boss.

Memorable quotes

• When people say to me: would you rather be thought of as a funny man or a great boss? My answer's always the same: to me, they're not mutually exclusive.

• Some of you seem to have got off on the wrong foot with me. You didn't like some of the jokes I told earlier. You've got to chill out, yeah? Trust me, this is what I do, all right? You will never work in a place like this again. This is brilliant. Fact. And you will never have another boss like me. Someone who's basically a chilled out entertainer.

• You're mixed race aren't you? Best kind. – One of his many attempts to not appear bigoted.

• I've tried to create an atmosphere where I'm a friend first, boss second. Probably entertainer third.

• People see me, and they see the suit, and they go: "You're not fooling anyone." They know I'm rock and roll through and through. But you know that old thing, "live fast, die young"? Not my way. Live fast, sure – live too bloody fast sometimes! But die young? Die old. That's the way - not orthodox. I don't live by "the rules" you know.

• You're all looking at me, and you're going "Well, yeah, you're a success; you've achieved your goals, yeah? You're reaping the rewards, sure. But, 'Oi, Brent! Is all you care about chasing the Yankee dollar?'" Let me show you something I always keep with me. Just a little book, Collective Meditations, and it's a collection of philosophers, writers, thinkers, Native American wisdom, which I... and it's really showing you that, er, the spiritual side needs as much care and attention as the physical side.

• Life is just a series of peaks and troughs, and you don't know whether you're in a trough until you're climbing out, or on a peak until you're coming down. And that's it, you never know what's round the corner. But it's all good. "If you want the rainbow, you've got to put up with the rain." Do you know which philosopher said that? Dolly Parton. And people say she's just a big pair of tits.

External links

• David Brent: Ricky Gervais (http://homepage.mac.com/elliottday/theoffice/brent.html)
• david brent: renaissance man clips (http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/clips/brent/) (requires RealPlayer)