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Pointy-Haired Boss: Difference between revisions
Comic Strips moved to Newspaper Comics, italics on work names, M*A*S*H pothole
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{{quote|'''Pointy-haired boss:''' I saw the code for your computer program yesterday. It looked easy. It's just a bunch of typing. And half of the words were spelled wrong. And don't get me started on your overuse of colons.
'''Dilbert:''' [[Stealth Insult|They remind me of you, sir]].
|''[[Dilbert]]''}}
The living embodiment of [[The Peter Principle]]. This is a person who has been promoted way beyond his level of competency. He or she may have had a clue at some point, but has since then misplaced it. Sometimes he is a [[Modern Major-General]].
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{{examples}}
* The [[Trope Namer]] comes from the original [https://web.archive.org/web/20070704114838/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 [[The Peter Principle|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 [//dilbert.com/strip/2003-10-16 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.▼
** [//dilbert.com/strip/2006-10-06 Of course, he manages to get some pretty good evil moments in too.]▼
** [//dilbert.com/strip/2004-08-29 And some useful moments as well.]▼
*** PHB occasionally ''does'' [[Dumbass Has a Point|make an excellent point]]. [//dilbert.com/strip/2011-02-20]▼
** 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 (syndicated strip)|Sally Forth]]''.▼
* Rose Trellis (at least most of the time) in ''[[On the Fastrack]]''.▼
== Films -- Animation ==
* Mr. Perkins, the evil head of the Bank of Evil ([[Take That|formerly Lehman Bros]].) in ''[[Despicable Me]]'' certainly [[Shout-Out|looks like]] the the original (or [[Weapon Brown|the unrated version of him]]) but he's actually scarily competent.
* [[Small Name, Big Ego|Oscar]]'s [[Fat Bastard]] boss, Sykes from ''[[Shark Tale]]''.
* King Malbert the [[Fat Idiot]] from ''[[Igor]]''.
== Literature ==
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* ''[[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 office—so he can take Leo's name off them, and replace them with his own so he can take the credit.
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|
** 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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* 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 Manager—a job he is absolutely unqualified for. His UK counterpart, David Brent, evidently never had ''any'' skills to begin with, making his promotion an enigma... or an illustration of the Dilbert Principle, wherein the incompetent are quickly [[Kicked Upstairs]] to a position where they will do less harm to the productive parts of the organization.
** Although it's not made as clear as in the American series, in the final episode of the British series it is suggested that Brent actually ''is'' a pretty good salesman, but is definitely not management material or as talented as he thinks he is. As for the enigma, [[Word of God]] responded to criticisms that Brent would never reach a management position with a retort that a brief look around any kind of corporate-style organisation ([[Biting the Hand Humor|including]] [[The BBC]]) would reveal that major positions were being filled by people who were even ''worse'' than Brent.
* 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 [[
* Major Neuheim of ''[[Private Schulz]]'' is pretty much what Colonel Klink would be like if he was a die-hard Nazi.
* In ''[[30
{{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).
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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]].
* In [[HBO]]'s miniseries ''[[Chernobyl (miniseries)|Chernobyl]]'', Chief Engineer Dyatlov is portrayed this way due to his insistence to run the fateful security test that caused the explosion despite other plant personal trying to warn him that the conditions for that test were the incorrect ones, and then his stubborn denial that anything wrong ever happened at the place (even after, or maybe ''because of' seeing the ruins of the exploded reactor) and trying to obstruct any action to control the disaster. In a scary turn, they only sightly exaggerated the antics of the real person, mostly by removing the mention of an incident that served as the [[Freudian Excuse]] for his radioactive stubbornness.
== Music ==
* The "bankers in charge" in [[Doctor Steel]]'s "Lament for a Toy Factory."
== Newspaper Comics ==
▲* The [[Trope Namer]] comes from the original [https://web.archive.org/web/20070704114838/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 [[The Peter Principle|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 [//dilbert.com/strip/2003-10-16 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.
▲** [//dilbert.com/strip/2006-10-06 Of course, he manages to get some pretty good evil moments in too.]
▲** [//dilbert.com/strip/2004-08-29 And some useful moments as well.]
▲*** PHB occasionally ''does'' [[Dumbass Has a Point|make an excellent point]]. [//dilbert.com/strip/2011-02-20]
▲** 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 (syndicated strip)|Sally Forth]]''.
▲* Rose Trellis (at least most of the time) in ''[[On the Fastrack]]''.
== Tabletop Games ==
* Many [[RPG]]s 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.
== Video Games ==
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* Jeanne Frasoric, the head of the Bruma Mages Guild in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]: [[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion|Oblivion]]''
* Cave Johnson from ''[[Portal 2]]'' combines this trope with [[Mad Scientist]] for a [[Crazy Awesome]] blend of gross fiscal mismanagement, [[Inhuman Resources]], and revolutionary super-science wasted because he can't figure out what it might be actually good for (e.g. using gel that bounces at 100% efficiency for a dietary supplement).
== Web Comics ==
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== Web Original ==
* ''[[Shiny Objects Videos]]'': The boss in "Magiconomy" is perfectly willing to banish his employees to the nether dimensions for making suggestions he doesn't like.
== Western Animation ==
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