A little bit of Michael Scott in…

Let me introduce the character of Michael Scott, from NBC’s comedic show, The Office. It is sometimes difficult to put your finger on him and predict exactly how he will react to certain situations. For people he likes, he turns a blind eye to their faults and to the people he really really likes, he comes across as painfully needy and emotionally dependent. For the people he does not like, he is the cardboard cutout of a jerk and an insensitive clod.

Michael Scott is all I.D., he simply does what he feels like doing. Sometimes he feels like a heterosexual and behaves accordingly. But I believe there are times when he feels like swinging to the other end and he just does, his feelings for men can be just as intense as they are for women.

His ego is so blatant, it’s practically and (literally) in one episode, a second head on his shoulder. He wants to be liked, he wants to be popular, he wants to be known as funny and he gets extremely upset when he feels like he is going to hurt someone else, that is, only when he actually realizes that he might upset someone else.

Perhaps the best way to describe him is that he is a vulnerable, obnoxious but still needy 10 year old stuck in the body of a 40 yr. old. Somehow over the years, his mental age has failed to keep step with his physical age.

On to a more self-reflective note: there is a little bit of Michael Scott in everyone. I see a little of Michael Scott in GW Bush, because I’m willing to bet two dollars that GW Bush thinks he’s a pretty well-loved president, despite strong evidence to the contrary. I see Michael Scott in the quirks and nooks of the people around me, and certainly there is even one in me. There are definitely times when I feel like being a jerk to somebody simply because I felt like it and there was no better reason for it. There were times when to some people, I want to display a clingy, desperate “like me like me” side (okay, that doesn’t happen very often) but usually on the rare occasion that it does, I usually dredge up sheer pride and the last vestiges of dignity to refrain from such behavior. When I was five or six for instance, I remember going to a family friend’s house in Canada. There were these two older girls there and I was so eager to impress them, I was talking a mile a minute, gabbing happily about red firetrucks or something to that nature. It was the first time in my life I remember wanting to impress. The two older girls seem mildly amused by me and decided to pay attention to me and that made me feel triumphant. I remember brushing off my mom when she tried to come talk to me, because I wanted to bask in the attention of these other girls. That was my most distinct memory of being a complete sycophant and since that day, as I said, my pride overcame my I.D.

Michael Scott is not without pride either. He floats around in a universe of his own making, where he’s the best-looking, most friendly, funniest and most importantly, well beloved manager at DunderMifflin. It’s a good thing he suffers from a poor memory because he always manages to forget the times when his employees openly laugh at him or defy him or exclude him from their activities. He has an uncanny ability to see things the way he wants to see him. He is married to his self-delusisions.

This brings me to my final point. Michael Scott represents some of the worst qualities of adolescence – selfishness, inconsideration, desire for attention and adoration. A character like Michael Scott is the perfect foil to exasperated, alert Jim, who watches all these shenanigans and then turns to the camera to produce a wry face. If I may say so in my defense, there is at least a little bit of Jim in me too. =)