Why Michael Scott is One of the Most Original Characters of All Time

The U.S. Office was an ensemble show that worked because of its rich cast of zany characters. But let’s face it: Michael Scott was the belle of the ball. Steve Carell stayed on NBC for seven of the series’ nine years, and the show launched the actor to comedic acclaim. His career trajectory has only broadened over time; including a transformative turn last year in “Foxcatcher,” for which he earned an Oscar nod and in which he played a psychotic millionaire and wrestling enthusiast. Audiences seemed surprised by Carell’s competence in interpreting a troubled figure, especially after watching him in so much farce over the years. But there’s plenty of darkness and sadness in comedy.

Steve Carell’s greatest role — that of Michael Scott — was filled with such complexity. On the surface, the regional manager of Scranton’s Dunder Mifflin paper company was a two-dimensional imbecile; racist, chauvinistic, and culturally tactless. Michael hits an employee with his car (but doesn’t worry too much because “it’s only Meredith”), burns his foot on a George Foreman grill (then tries to get Pam to put butter on it), and thinks Wikipedia is a reliable source of information (okay, we’re all guilty of that).

The U.S. Office was an ensemble show that worked because of its rich cast of zany characters. But let’s face it: Michael Scott was the belle of the ball. Steve Carell stayed on NBC for seven of the series’ nine years, and the show launched the actor to comedic acclaim. His career trajectory has only broadened over time; including a transformative turn last year in “Foxcatcher,” for which he earned an Oscar nod and in which he played a psychotic millionaire and wrestling enthusiast. Audiences seemed surprised by Carell’s competence in interpreting a troubled figure, especially after watching him in so much farce over the years. But there’s plenty of darkness and sadness in comedy.

Steve Carell’s greatest role — that of Michael Scott — was filled with such complexity. On the surface, the regional manager of Scranton’s Dunder Mifflin paper company was a two-dimensional imbecile; racist, chauvinistic, and culturally tactless. Michael hits an employee with his car (but doesn’t worry too much because “it’s only Meredith”), burns his foot on a George Foreman grill (then tries to get Pam to put butter on it), and thinks Wikipedia is a reliable source of information (okay, we’re all guilty of that).

US actor Steven Yeun accepts the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for “Beef” onstage during the 75th Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre at L.A. Live in Los Angeles on January 15, 2024. (Photo by Valerie Macon / AFP) (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
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But despite his weak points, the character is more than the sum of his foolish parts. Michael is multi-faceted, a man who develops over the years into a fully-realized adult, forming close bonds with his co-workers who initially despised him. He starts off a childish, stunted individual: slow with romance (having been with only a handful of women in over 40 years), collecting knowledge about the world around him (he didn’t go to college and has never left Scranton), and slow in learning how his words and actions affect other people. But he figures all that out, little by little. Michael is relatable and sympathetic because he is so deeply flawed, reminding us, in the end, that there’s a little Michael Scott in all of us.

Michael thinks a Chris Rock routine makes for a suitable monologue to perform at the office — and in a crude imitation of Rock’s voice, no less. He’s always reminding Stanley he’s black, Oscar that he’s Mexican, and Kelly that she’s Indian. He doesn’t mock his employees for their race, necessarily — his cultural ignorance is rarely malicious. Rather, he simply makes them aware, in variably cruel and non-subtle ways, of their implied “otherness.”

Michael is also sexist. He doesn’t know much about women, but he certainly thinks their looks to be deserving of intense scrutiny. When Pam wears glasses, he’s quick to let her know how ugly she looks. When Michael breaks up with his girlfriend Jan (whom he describes as “flat-chested,”) she gets breast implants, and he decides to take her back. Michael makes fun of the office’s women on the daily, zeroing in with derogatory asides, especially via hurtful statements aimed toward Phyllis and Meredith.

Lots of what he says to Pam borders dangerously on sexual harassment, though this gets better with time. In fact, his relationship with Pam transitions slowly into one of paternal affection, and he develops a similar relationship with Erin later on. When he meets Holly, a woman who actually likes and respects him, he learns to respect her back. From there, Michael continues to grow and learn about what’s important and what isn’t, eventually leading him to a more P.C. path (thank God).

He’s one lonely S.O.B.

“Would I rather be feared or loved? That’s easy. Both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me,” Michael says, exposing a fundamental need he has: to be liked. Although he never stops making jokes, beneath it all Michael is supremely tormented by loneliness. He tries to connect with people in the best way he knows how, but usually fails. When he buys a new phone plan and is allowed unlimited calls to his top five friends, he doesn’t even have five friends to add.

In a particularly affecting Season 2 moment, Michael recalls the many Halloween costumes he’s worn to work over the years, talking about how much he loves dressing up at the office. But afterwards, the camera follows Michael home to an empty house, where we see him handing out Halloween candy to trick-or-treaters by himself. The juxtaposition between the brave face Michael puts on at work and his solitary home life often serves as an emotional gut-punch. We know why he doesn’t have anyone — he’s hardly an appealing prospect — but he’s still a human being, and it is a little heartbreaking to watch someone who craves human contact be continually denied it.

Michael is so terrified of being alone he eventually enters into an abusive relationship with Jan, his manipulative supervisor. In the fourth season’s “Dinner Party” episode (one of the show’s cringe-inducing triumphs), we see what a tight leash Michael is kept on, as he reveals the number of times Jan has forced him to have a vasectomy and then get it reversed because she can’t make up her mind about having children. Yikes.