David Brent

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

Related Topics:
Boss - BBC - The Office - Ricky Gervais

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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 his carefully built veil of ignorance is pierced (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.

Related Topics:
Mentor - Renaissance man - Drawing - Poetry - Rock star - Managing - Dancing - Dating - Marriage

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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").

Related Topics:
Neil Godwin - Flashdance - M. C. Hammer

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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.

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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.

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