Pointy-Haired Boss: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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{{examples}}
== Comic Strips ==
* 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]]
** 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]]
** 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
* 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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* 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.
* ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|Falling Free]]:'' Bruce Van Atta: a former engineer, transferred to management where he would hopefully cause less damage. When Leo Graff sets off his plan to reconfigure the Quaddie's space station so that they can steal it, he tells Van Atta that he will be surprised by how much of the station, that Van Atta thinks is being decommissioned, can be "recycled." Van Atta insists that all of Leo's plans go through his
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** The few times [[Jerkass|Frank]] [[The Neidermeyer|Burns]] was put in charge, he was literally a criminally incompetent leader (as well as a doctor, but that's another trope there), bordering on [[Bad Boss]] turf.
** Hawkeye himself, while regarded as the best surgeon, did not do well when put in charge of the unit. Anytime that situation presented itself, his friends would have reactions in the realm of "oh god NOOOOO"
* Lieutenant Brass comes off very much as an incompetent and biased boss in the first episode of ''[[CSI]]'', but it may just be that his promotion put him in over his
* ''[[Homicide: Life On the Street]]''
** Detective Gharty is incompetent both as a beat cop ''and'' as the head of IAD, but turns out to be proficient when he finally lands as a homicide detective. When he is finally re-promoted to head the homicide division in the finale movie, he loses some of his competence again, becoming a shill for the department brass. It is noted that he's not entirely incompetent in the role, but in Giardello has some pretty big shoes to
** Averted cynically with Roger Gaffney. He is shown as an incompetent detective, especially when compared to the main characters and is rerouted to a dead end department, but sleazes his way to a high end position and gets the Captain's spot Gee had earned. Given the show's cynical view of the bosses, Gaffney fits in perfectly among men with even less moral standing than himself and who happily abuse power for their own ends.
* The bosses of ''[[The Office]]'' are exemplars of two different kinds of PHB. Michael Scott of the American version is a classic illustration of [[The Peter Principle]]: he was (and is) a genuinely superb salesman, but was promoted to the post of Regional
* The laughably incompetent Colonel Klink of ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]''. It's been mentioned that he's from noble stock, so he most likely got the position through nepotism more than any real leadership ability. He confirms in one episode that his family pressured him into the military to get rid of him. However, he is also a career officer with decorations for bravery in [[WW 1]]; he used to be a pilot. It is almost certain he got promoted to his current position in an attempt to get rid of him, both as a bumbling fool and as a non-member of the Nazi party.
* Major Neuheim of ''[[Private Schulz]]'' is pretty much what Colonel Klink would be like if he was a die-hard Nazi.
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* Arthur "Big Guy" Carlson, of ''[[WKRP in Cincinnati]]''.
* In ''[[Are You Being Served?|Are You Being Served]]'', much of the senior staff at Grace Brothers could fit this category. Mr. Rumbold is the most blatant example, but a recurring theme is that ''everyone'' in a position of authority at the store is incompetent; Captain Peacock is a blowhard, Mrs. Slocombe is far too self-absorbed to be much help to anything [[Double Entendre|except for her pussy]], Mr. Grainger is worn-out and well past the point when he should have retired, and Young Mr. Grace is virtually senile. Only [[The Barnum|Mr Humphries]] can handle additional responsibilities while escaping mostly unscathed.
* ''[[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
* 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]].
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== Tabletop Games ==
* Many [[RPG
* ''[[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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== Web Comics ==
* The Magic School's Headmaster in ''[[Furmentation]]''.
* Lord Stanley the Tool from ''[[Erfworld]]''. He is not only is a
* The head developer of ''Clichequest'', the satirically stereotypical MMORPG that ''[[The Noob]]'' is set in and around, is an idiot, [[Jerkass]] and a [[Small Name, Big Ego]] type to boot.
* Mike in ''[[Between Failures]]'' is self-aware and trying not to be one of these, but his management training was inadequate to prepare him for the job, and those in charge of him have fobbed him off on one of the least important branch stores rather than trying to help him.
* George Fennec of ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'' is owner of Hare-Link, but only got that position because his daughter, the former owner, wanted to avoid a potential conflict of interest situation when her mother wanted her to promote her new stepfather. He makes hardly any useful decisions for the business except for once filling in for Kevin as a representative for a deal with Carrot Computers, and tends to be quite distracting. When he passes out after it dawns on him that his pregnant rabbit wife will likely have a litter of babies rather than just one,<ref>
* Horns, the ''[[Weapon Brown]]'' version of Dilbert's PHB is decidedly not like the original. For starters we're introduced to him as he's {{spoiler|''[[Klingon Promotion|murdering Mr. Dithers]]'' to take charge of The Syndicate}}. Then again {{spoiler|he forces the [[Mad Scientist]] version of Dilbert to rush CAL-v1.N and HOBS' awakening and ignores "Dilbert's" warnings that the two are unstable and uncontrollable}}.
* Mullet Boss from [[Basic Instructions]] fits this trope to a T
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