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Pointy-Haired Boss: Difference between revisions
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Often the result of being [[Kicked Upstairs]]. [[Incompetence, Inc.]] is a likely place to find PHBs. Occasionally he is surrounded by ''very'' competent workers when [[Conservation of Competence]] is in effect.
Very often such a boss is portrayed as not only incompetent, but also a little evil: the kind of guy who would steal credit from his employees and pin his failures on them. In these cases he can be ''more'' contemptible than the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] whom he serves; while the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] sold his soul for money, power and fame, an evil Pointy-Haired Boss [[Evil Is Petty|sold his soul for nothing]] but a job little better than that of his employees, and doesn't seem bothered by it.
Occasionally he'll also hold the title of [[Benevolent Boss]] as well if his incompetence is more towards the job than his people skills; if he was very respected before [[The Peter Principle]] put him there his employees will likely cover for them.
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* The [[Trope Namer]] comes from the original [http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/the_characters/ Pointy-Haired Boss] in the daily comic strip and former animated TV series ''[[Dilbert]]'', seen above playing chess against a [[Fundamentally Funny Fruit|pineapple]] -- and ''losing''. (Count the captured pieces!)
** According to Scott Adams's 1996 book ''The Dilbert Principle'', the truly Pointy-Haired Boss is a reflection of the ''abandonment'' of the aforementioned Peter Principle. In the past, competent people were promoted until they reached a position just barely overreaching their talents; now, however, the ''absolutely'' incompetent are ''immediately'' [[Kicked Upstairs]] -- where, kept out of contact with the customer base and daily work load, they will do the least harm.
** Adams draws just about ''every'' manager with pointy hair. A minimum of 99% of them are lesser reflections of the original. Interestingly the PHB was originally a unnamed balding manager who was more [[Characterization Marches On|cruel than stupid]]. Then one day Adams accidentally drew the hair on the sides of his head slightly pointy and thought the resemblance to devil horns to be eerily appropriate. Then he started making him gradually more stupid while his hair kept getting pointier. And the rest is history. There's been the odd strip that actually ''sympathizes'' with the PHB and have him getting angry or frustrated for good reason. Presumably such instances come from the occasions when Adams solicits ideas from his readers, and a boss or manager was the one who got his attention.
** Most strips actually are reasonably sympathetic to the PHB, inasmuch as it's not ''his'' fault he's woefully incompetent. Catbert is more explicitly antagonistic; the PHB is just trying to be a manager and failing horribly at it.
** [http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2006-10-06/ Of course, he manages to get some pretty good evil moments in too.]
** [http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2004-08-29/ And some useful moments as well.]
** Adams himself, when running a restaurant, realized that he was becoming a [[Pointy-Haired Boss]] himself, albeit a relatively benign one.
* In ''[[Retail]]'', just about anybody at the level of store manager or higher is portrayed as a PHB.
* Ralph, Sally's original boss in ''[[Sally Forth Howard]]''.
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* Several of the officers in ''[[Sharpe]]''.
* [[Historical Domain Character|Vice-Chancellor Nesselrode]] is portrayed as this in ''[[The Death of the Vazir Mukhtar]]''.
* Hamnpork, leader of the Clan in ''[[Discworld/The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents|The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents]]'', may have been competent as top rat before they became "educated". Once the rats become sentient, he's too old to make the adjustment to thinking and becomes a bit of a figurehead, nudged into doing whatever Peaches or Darktan want him to. Played with, as he later shows just why he became leader of the Clan during a [[Badass]] moment {{spoiler|in the Pit}}.
* George O. Smith's first "Venus Equilateral" story has a particularly memorable example... or at least a particularly memorable screwup by a PHB. The guy arrives, starts screwing things up and annoying people, tensions run higher and higher until there are pointless fights almost constantly... then an engineer swears, runs up to the center of the rotating station to get his bearings, then runs to the air plant - then runs to scream out the PHB. When the PHB arrived on the station, he'd done an inspection tour, and been confused by the air plant; he'd been expecting some manner of machine, but all he'd found was a big plot of sawgrass, '''''so he had some workmen clear it out...'''''
* ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'': Deconstructed with Opera managers Richard and Moncharmin in the original book: Everybody knows they get their jobs [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections|thanks to their connections]], [[Evil Is Petty|that they play petty politics with the singers instead of recognizing their true talent, and they solve any problem firing those employees involved…]] [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections|except those who can defend themselves]]. [[Stealth Insult|Nobody really respects them and they are accustomed to cruel pranks]], and that is the cause they never take seriously the Phantom’s menaces and think that Debienne and Poligny’s warnings are just a [[Practical Joke]]… until the [[Falling Chandelier of Doom]] incident.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|Mash]]''
** Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake exhibited signs of this, as he was a good doctor but an almost criminally incompetent administrator. Radar practically ran the unit, only requiring Blake to sign off on documents. One time he got Blake to sign ''blank'' pieces of paper even as Blake railed about not knowing what he's signing.
** Blake was also completely aware that he was totally inept when it came to running the unit. He was completely competent when it came to make serious medical decisions (i.e. in the OR, or anything to do with patient care), but realized he didn't know what he was doing when it came to other administrative matters. To that end, he was completely happy to let Radar run things.
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* In ''[[30 Rock|Thirty Rock]]'', Jack Donaghy is promoted to oversee the production of Liz's comedy show after having invented a microwave. He seems to be a competent businessman, but clearly has no understanding of comedy. Note that he acted more pointy-haired in earlier episodes. This had all but disappeared by the second season. All of his summer shows were great hits, chief among them ''MILF Island''.
{{quote|'''Jack:''' I've been reading up on humor, I found this hilarious strip called ''[[Dilbert]]'', and I want to know, can we do that?}}
* Captain Frank Hollister of ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' is revealed to have only reached his rank through blackmail (from the lowly position of Doughnut Boy no less), implying that he is possibly even less qualified than Rimmer or Lister (though clearly cleverer and/or more ambitious).
* The vacuous, hero-worshiping, management speak spouting Gus in ''[[Drop the Dead Donkey]]''. He would appear to be a living, breathing example of the Adams principle.
* Dougie in ''[[Enlightened]]'' is a sort of example. While he is actually rather good at programming, his people-management skills are horrible, and he is pretty socially inept.
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* ''[[The Wire]]'' has several outstanding examples, both in city government and the Baltimore Police Department, with almost all authority figures fitting in somewhere between [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] and [[Pointy-Haired Boss]]. Special note has to given to Maj. Valchek, however, who is rewarded for his incompetence by {{spoiler|being made police commissioner}}.
* This is how Major Norton was portrayed in [[Disney]]'s ''[[Davy Crockett]]'' mini-series, though he may have just seemed this way against [[Badass|Davy]].
== Music ==
* The "bankers in charge" in [[Doctor Steel]]'s "Lament for a Toy Factory."
== Tabletop Games ==
* Many [[RPG|RPGs]] with diversified point-buy systems have characters suffering from PHB syndrome, especially if rank is among the characteristics to be bought. You can create a character that uses 95 of their 100 points on their traits and 5 on (e.g. military, noble or clerical) rank ''or'' you can use 80 points on traits and 20 on rank. Guess which character will be more competent...
* ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'' has the CPU services. While every service has a few of these (read: everyone in it above the Troubleshooters' clearance, plus everyone at the Troubleshooters' clearance, plus the T-Shooters), only CPU will deliberately promote them.
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* Mr. Larrity from ''[[Code Monkeys]]'' outdoes perhaps even the [[Trope Namers]]; the man has no clue how to run a video game company (other than knowing that Games = $$$), generally treats his staff like crap, displays unapologetic [[Stay in the Kitchen|sexism]], has been known to do such outrageous things as bet Gameavision on a ''clearly'' bad Poker hand (that includes cards ''[[What an Idiot!|not even found in a standard deck of cards, like a blue Uno Reverse]]'')... one could go on forever and not even ''scratch'' the surface.
* The [[Maurice LaMarche]]-voiced characters [[My Gym Partner's a Monkey|Principal Pixiefrog]] and [[Tak and the Power of Juju|Cheif]] are 100% this trope name.
* ''[[
* Major Monogram from ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' drifts into this sometime. While most cases Doofenshmirtz is usually doing something to warrant sending Perry to stop him. There are a few instances where Doofenshmirtz is usually taking an off day such as going on a blind date, meeting an old teacher, going to a convention, ''actually being sick'', etc., but Monogram doesn't really bother to look into these case and send Perry to "stop him" anyway.<br />Then again, even in those occasions, Doofenshmirtz was doing something that should be stopped. In the blind date, Doof had developed a device to deprive people of their emotions if his date failed; to impress the "old teacher", he tried to blow up the moon; the convention was for evil scientists so, there was a reason to think someone (even if it wasn't Doofenshmirtz) would do something Perry should stop; when he got run over by an ice cream truck, he tried to hit the truck with a giant tire. Even when Major Monogram sent Perry to Doofenshmirtz because Doof was picking up empty bottles for recycling, it turned out it was for some plot ("It's green ''and'' evil! I call it 'greevil'!").
* Zapp Brannigan from ''[[Futurama]]'', a celebrated space captain who couldn't fly his way out of a meteor shower. He puts all the work on his assistant Kif and takes any credit he can. His strategies for any threat are usually [[Attack! Attack! Attack!]], sending hundreds of [[Red Shirts]] to their demise while he sits back and does nothing. The only reason he hasn't gotten himself offed <ref>other than that one time, [[Status Quo Is God|but you know]]</ref> because circumstances usually prevent it from happening and at best he walks away with a few bruises.
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