Michael Gary Scott (born March 15, 1964) is a fictional character played by Steve Carell in the television series The Office.
Overview
He is the regional manager of the Scranton branch of a paper distribution company Dunder Mifflin. He has no sense of social awareness, has few friends, and is quite lonely. He thinks of himself as an office comedian, but his attempts at humor prove to be unfunny at best and are often inappropriate, and sometimes offensive or unwittingly mean. Much of the humor of his character is driven by his loneliness, his efforts to make friends with people, but is also a result of his lack of self-awareness, which is highlighted by the awkward situations he creates for himself and his inability to extricate himself from them. His shortfalls are compounded by his seemingly huge ego. His subordinates, with the notable exception of Dwight Schrute, think of him as an inept boss. Before he was promoted to regional manager he was a great salesman, which sharply contrasts with his social awkwardness. He is sexist and racially insensitive at times, objectifying women and applying multiple black stereotypes to Stanley and the workers in the warehouse, particularly Darryl. Michael is socially inept, which has obviously been disabling in both his private and professional lives. But however awkward or inappropriate he is to his subordinates, he really does try. He puts on seminars at work that, even though failing in the end and offend most of the people at work, is really masking the fact that he is trying to socialize with the workers that end up rejecting him with the exception of Dwight, Jim and perhaps Pam.
Biography
Michael insists everyone in the office think of him as a friend first and a boss second (he also claims he is "probably an entertainer/comedian third" - line taken directly from his UK counterpart, David Brent). Despite a general air of braggadocio, Michael can be exceedingly insecure. This results in a general spinelessness in dealing with the staff. At times he displays insensitivity and inappropriate behavior that would get most managers fired.
Michael's constant desire to be the center of attention often manifests itself in selfish behavior. For example, when he injures his foot in "The Injury", he expects Pam and Ryan to tend to his needs. When invited to be an usher in "Phyllis' Wedding", he assumes that his participation will be the high point of the ceremony and pouts when he is upstaged.
While ignorant, often unaware of what really goes on around the office and failing to research ideas thoroughly, Michael is not intentionally hostile; he often finds himself backpedaling after making a racist, sexist or ageist comment. This, combined with his penchant for lowbrow humor, gives Michael the ironic character flaw of being too juvenile to realize that he is generally incompetent as a manager and widely disliked as a person.
In spite of everything he does wrong, Michael often comes off as a sympathetic character, due to his general lack of malice and a genuine desire to make everyone around him happy. Also, in rare instances, Michael has shown surprising insight and ability for decisive action to the benefit of those around him. He also genuinely cares about his employees. When he believed his branch was closing, he went to great lengths to save the branch saying all along that he was doing it to save all of his employees' jobs (in contrast to the actions of the David Brent character).
On the other hand, Michael has been known to purposely point out other people's character flaws and personal problems when it serves his agenda. For example, Michael is quick to bring up Toby's troubled marital history whenever he feels jealous or threatened by Toby. Moreover, Michael can be exceptionally superficial. In Christmas Party, Michael buys Ryan a $400 iPod for Secret Santa and becomes particularly affronted when he receives an oven mitt that Phyllis knitted especially for him (complaining that Phyllis deemed him to be worth no more than a "homemade oven mitt"); his resultant replacement of Secret Santa with Yankee Swap fully discounted the sentimental and personal value of the gifts the employees had bought each other in favor of their monetary value.
Michael is also a poor judge of character, given his tendency to judge people based on their looks rather than their talents, and his impetuous nature often leads to bad decision-making. A big asset is his ability to interact with children (he has often been compared to a child himself), and his fondest desire is to have a child of his own. He believes that he makes a lot of money, but he has only received one raise, it was recent, and he has worked there for over a decade. He states that a boss should never share his paycheck/salary with his subordinates, because "it would depress them." Nevertheless, Darryl discovers that he actually earns very little.
The people who surround Michael are well-aware of his weaknesses, allowing him to be easily manipulated. For example, Jim goads Michael into challenging Dwight to a fight in "The Fight", and Jan easily wins back Michael's affections in "The Job" with the help of breast augmentation surgery. Moreover, Darryl regularly teaches him a laughable handshake and "black man phrases" such as "goin' mach five," "bippity boppity, give me the zoppity," "fleece it out," or convincing him that he has been part of numerous gangs.
Michael also writes song parodies. In Diwali, he writes a version of Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Song. In Goodbye Toby, it is said that he said written songs such as "Beers in Heaven" (which he tells Holly is 'very sexual'") and "Total Eclipse of the Fart". He also changes the words to Goodbye Stranger for Toby's going away party.
There are many examples throughout the series detailing how alone Michael is. In the episodes "The Secret" and "The Convention", Michael refers to Jim as his best friend after Jim simply told him a secret and shared a drink with him. Online deleted scenes also reveal that he has never been to a museum when he confuses The Metropolitan Museum of Art with Ryan's apartment.
Michael's most common catch phrases are "That's what she said" (which seems to be said by impulse and not choice) and a whispered "Shut it" (most often said to Dwight, when he says something Michael deems inappropriate). When he does an impression or otherwise makes a reference to a person or character, he feels compelled to identify the source (although he often identifies it incorrectly).
Between the first and second season the character of Michael changed dramatically with his nastiness and sarcasm being toned down and his sincerity and goofiness becoming more apparent. Also in the first season Michael dressed and groomed himself sloppily, was balding and appeared overweight which changed before the second season opener.
Years of faith and loyalty to Dunder-Mifflin describe Michael. A new strict boss that Michael hates, Charles Miner, arrives in The New Boss. He cancels Michael's anniversary party with devastating consequences. Michael Scott has worked for the office for 15 years and quits because of Charles.
Michael takes his two weeks notice in Two Weeks and goofs off at work. Then he decides to start his own company but he is caught and thrown out by Charles Miner. Michael sneaks back in and tries to steal employees but no one follows. In the end, Pam joins Michael as a salesman. Thus starts The Michael Scott Paper Company.
Education
Michael's plans for a college degree were thwarted when he lost his college savings (earned while employed at an Arby's Restaurant) in a pyramid scheme (a trap that would ensnare him again as an adult). He is moderately insecure about his lack of a degree, especially when he feels threatened by people with more education; Ryan Howard's business school attendance is especially destructive to his ego. His insecurities are magnified by Ryan's promotion to the corporate position that he also applied for. In the episode "Dunder Mifflin Infinity", Michael reveals that he had to take the second grade twice.
At times, Michael struggles with his vocabulary and tends to mispronounce words such as "prodigal" ("The Convention"), or completely confuse words, such as when he calls himself a "philanderer" when he obviously meant "philanthropist" ("Casino Night"). He is also quite obviously intellectually-challenged - a discussion about politics, commerce or any other topic of conversation that the educated or enlightened would talk about, would doubtless leave him in a state of confusion, as would cultural aspects of society (literature, art etc.). This is not necessarily through lack of intelligence, but mainly through the ignorance and obliviousness of the world around him typical of any dyed-in-the-wool company man. In addition, Scott appears to have deliberately studied grammar or used a computer thesaurus to feign higher intelligence by using the following words correctly in the show: egregious, indubitably, and acrimonious. Conversely, he either misused, invented, or misinterpreted: misogynistic, "un-understandable," "protruberance" (added the second r), "approachabler," "whom's," and inferring (instead of implying). Additionally, he knew what humanism meant in reference to Oscar's religious profession of agnosticism. He frequently is unable to form complete sentences or insults on the spot.
He is known to take things literally: when he was told that all his money problems would go away by declaring bankruptcy, he then shouted," I declare bankruptcy!", assuming no further action was necessary. Michael also seems to have difficulty with math; he once thought a 5K race was five thousand miles long ("Fun Run"). Occasionally, in order to fit in, he implies that he attended college, though his specious "recollections" of his college days come across as bizarre (e.g. inviting professors to a college party, although this might have been said just to have himself invited to Jim's party in the episode "Email Surveillance"). Other times, Michael boasts of his executive status despite his lack of a degree. He was on the fast track to upper-level management, enjoying a brief career as a sales rep before being promoted to his current position. In a deleted scene (from "The Coup"), Dwight Schrute tells Angela that Michael is the most successful salesperson in Dunder-Mifflin history and "I will never come close to putting up the numbers that he did", an impressive statement considering Dwight's own company-leading sales figures over the past few years (while Dwight's admiration of Michael may have brought some hyperbole into this statement, Michael's multiple "Salesman of the Year" awards for Dunder Mifflin indicate he was being accurate in this case).
Work demeanor and management style
Still a talented salesman, Michael has a way of relating to potential clients through regular conversation that has helped land his branch some big accounts. However Michael's almost savant-like sales skills do not translate into good management skills. His laid-back approach more often results in workplace productivity not reaching 100% on a daily basis, particularly when Michael places his personal interests as a priority over work (such as his birthday, someone else's birthday, or a funeral for a deceased bird). To avoid being disciplined for his foolish actions, Michael often resorts to scapegoating employees to cover himself. This often backfires on him when he opens his mouth and ends up contradicting the facts. Nevertheless, Michael believes that Scranton is "the cool fun branch", and is genuinely upset when the top salesman from the Utica office trashes Scranton in a phone call by saying it's "worse than Camden".
Although his position as Regional Manager gives him broad decision-making authority on branch operations, he often places those responsibilities secondary to his desire to be friends with his employees. For example, he shirks the unpopular task of cutting medical benefits by assigning it to Dwight ("Health Care"), and he later lateraled the assignment to Toby. On the other hand, he also oversteps his authority by hosting events that Corporate disapproves of such as "The Dundies", and a "Booze Cruise".
Michael fancies himself an entertainer, particularly a comedian with a variety of middlebrow influences, including Dane Cook, Eddie Murphy's "Raw", and Chris Rock. He keeps several joke books in his desk for reference and has a turban so he can imitate Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent. Michael stages an annual full comedy show during "The Dundies" office party and awards show.
Michael enjoys telling jokes and tortures the office staff with them on a daily basis. Many of the jokes are offensive or insensitive to his diverse audience, which often results in his backing up and trying to deliver the joke in a less offensive manner to remain "popular" among his staff. Michael, on multiple occasions, has expressed interest in basketball (in "The Fire" and "Basketball") and idolizes players such as LeBron James, Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson, and Kobe Bryant.
One of the more frequent things Michael does is host seminars that range from diversity, sexual harassment, the handicapped, public speaking, drugs, homosexuality, grief counseling, prison, religion (particularly in Diwali when he gave out copies of the Kama Sutra to the staff), and women's appreciation in an attempt to educate his staff, who all seem more aware of and more mature about the subject matter than Michael. Michael's ignorance results in these seminars being an embarrassing disaster every time, alternately amusing and shocking the staff. Michael does his best to thwart the efforts of other seminar leaders. He does seem to realize that he can pretty much force everyone to listen to him during seminar time.
Michael occasionally uses dated phrases such as "T.M.I." (meaning Too Much Information) and goofy slang, calling pizza "'za" and Starbucks "the 'Bucks". One of his favorite gags is adding the phrase "that's what she said!" to some perfectly normal statements, implying a sexual connotation. He has, however, retired "don't go there" from his phrasebook because it is "lame."
Michael also greatly enjoys franchise restaurants such as Sbarro, choosing to eat there on his visit to New York City instead of one of the local specialty restaurants. He has held business meetings and company award nights at Chili's and scheduled others at Hooters. He also enjoyed a day out at the Japanese steakhouse Benihana.
Michael also mentioned that he used to work at Men's Wearhouse as a greeter in the Safety Training episode.
Co-worker Relations
Michael's relationship with the company warehouse employees, particularly supervisor Darryl, is tense as Darryl can barely tolerate Michael but seems to understand the branch manager's sensitive personality. Michael has a tendency to disrupt their daily work flow, even ending their record of more than two years without any on-the job accidents. In a talking head interview, Darryl reveals that they have never been able to make a full year since, because of Michael's antics. Lonnie, another warehouse employee, cannot stand Michael and shares Darryl's respect for workplace safety. Lonnie makes no attempt to hold back by insulting Michael in front of the staff after Michael makes another immature remark.
Salesman Dwight Schrute, Michael's assistant in name only, hero-worships Michael; Michael tends to put down Dwight but apparently likes the attention. Michael sometimes panders to Dwight by giving him more responsibility than he deserves, such as appointing Dwight to choose a health care plan for the office, ordering Dwight to urinate in a cup for him so he could pass a drug test, and changing Dwight's job title from "Assistant to the Regional Manager" to "Assistant Regional Manager" (which Michael later admits is meaningless).
Many of these duties stem from Michael's need to compensate for being liked, or to save himself from getting in trouble. While Michael often tries to distance himself from Dwight, they do spend some time outside of the office together: It is revealed in "The Fight" that they spent one New Year's Eve together watching Armageddon. Michael's respect for Dwight seems to be threatened by the presence of Andy Bernard, an obnoxious employee from the Scranton-Stamford branch merger with designs on moving up the corporate ladder.
Michael is particularly cruel toward Toby Flenderson, the human resources representative, partially because Michael considers his position "corporate," and therefore not a member of the Scranton branch "family." Ironically, Michael, being in "upper management" once claimed, "I am corporate." Completely resenting Toby, Michael freely insults him by either bringing up his divorce or making hurtful remarks.
Michael has asked employees on many occasions if Toby is the reason they are unhappy or want to leave Dunder Mifflin (it never is). More often than not, Toby has to correct Michael on Dunder Mifflin policy. However, on a personal note, Toby offers helpful one-on-one conversation with his enemy after a dejected Michael is forced to face the reality that he has not settled down with a family, and Michael bonds with Toby's young daughter.
Michael also has a tendency to reveal personal information about staff members to the entire office. Notable examples include Michael reading aloud confidential complaints given to Toby by staff, revealing Jim's feelings for Pam, and outing Oscar Martinez. He additionally caused Kevin's anal fissures to be made public when he put Dwight in charge of choosing a health care plan.
After "The Merger", his attempts to "educate" the newly constructed staff resulted in three resignations from former Stamford employees. Michael thinks they are just quitters but has no clue it is actually his incompetence as a manager that is prompting them to quit.
Michael fixates on Ryan Howard, an employee (temp in Seasons 1-2, full-time in Seasons 3 and 4) at the office.
Michael views Jim as a friend due to the fact that Michael was the first person Jim admitted to that he has a crush on Pam (an admission Jim comes to regret). Shortly thereafter, Michael began mimicking Jim's appearance (rolling his sleeves up, loosening his tie and collar, combing his hair down). This phase of the relationship ended after Michael was unable to keep Jim's "secret," but Jim has since claimed to be Michael's "friend" ("The Convention"). Also in this episode, when a hurt Michael thinks that Jim left Scranton for better job opportunities in Stamford, Jim corrects him, saying he left Scranton due to tensions in his relationship with Pam, and tells Michael he was "a great boss." Jim seems to be one of the few employees at the branch who recognizes and appreciates the good points of Michael's personality. In season 3, when Jim transfers to a new branch, and his current boss uses his promotion as a way to get a better job offer from Staples, Jim says "Say what you will about Michael Scott, but he would never do that."
It may be inferred that Michael has a thing for Pam, since he once claims that he "likes her boobs" and suggests that his position as her boss precludes him from taking a bath with her ("Sexual Harassment"). Michael has been caught staring at her (or Ryan; this could be a habit, as Jim did it as well) from his office. In one instance, Michael attempted to kiss Pam ("Diwali"), who promptly rejected him. More often than not, Pam has had to deal with Michael not so much as a boss, but as a child behaving badly either by comments he makes or job duties he does not perform as required.
Romantic and personal life
In a childhood appearance on the fictitious children's show Fundlebundle, Michael stated his intentions as a grown-up: "I want to be married and have a hundred kids so I could have a hundred friends and no one could say 'no' to being my friend."
Even though he enjoys showing off how much he gets to have sex with women, he often shows traits resembling a fear of women. According to a talking head in "Weight Loss," Michael was 28 the first time he had sex, and then didn't have sex again for seven years. In the pilot, he refers to his nickname of Jan as Hillary Rodham Clinton, but he quickly and awkwardly explains that it is not because he is afraid of her. At the cocktail party in the episode "Cocktails," Jan attempts to have sex with Michael in David Wallace's bathroom, but Michael awkwardly refuses to go along with it, upsetting Jan. This was observed and first voiced by Ryan in "Initiation" when Dwight asked him what Michael Scott's biggest fear was, to which Ryan replied: "Loneliness...maybe women."
Michael also began dating Carol (played by Carell's wife, Nancy Walls), a real estate agent with whom Michael worked to buy his condominium; according to Michael, he and Carol have had sex. He frequently claims he is dating two women at the same time: Carol and Jan. Michael proposed to Carol during a "Diwali" celebration, but since they had only gone on nine dates up until that point, she rejected him and left the party angrily. Carol breaks up with Michael soon after due to a Christmas card of Carol's family that he sent out, with his head photoshopped in place of her ex-husband's head, leaving him heartbroken. But later in the same episode, Michael invites Jan Levinson to go on a trip to Jamaica with him that he originally intended for Carol.
In "Cocktails," Michael is thrilled at the prospect that he and Jan are making their first public appearance as a couple, though this leads to some friction between them at the cocktail party of CFO David Wallace (where their relationship is to first become public).
In "Safety Training", Michael admits his relationship with Jan is "complicated" and he is not happy. Two weeks later, in "Women's Appreciation", he breaks up with her after realizing Jan's increasingly bizarre and unpleasant behavior is making him miserable in the relationship. However, in the season finale "The Job", Michael gets back together with Jan, mostly because of her new breast implants. Michael is obviously not happy when she moves into his condo. Jan later spends a lot of Michael's money, which along with his terrible individual money management starts causing him severe financial problems.
Michael allows himself to be dominated throughout his dysfunctional relationship with Jan. He first mentioned that Jan would record videos of their lovemaking and immediately play them back to critique his form in the episode "Women's Appreciation", and a video camera is present in their bedroom in "Dinner Party". During that episode, it is also revealed that Jan makes him sleep on a small bench at the foot of her bed, and made him have a vasectomy, have it reversed, and then have another vasectomy while she debated whether or not to have children.
Michael also appears to have a history of playing ice hockey. In "Michael's Birthday", he takes the entire staff ice skating, and shows up in full hockey regalia, including pads, stick, and helmet. He is also an accomplished skater. Michael says he thought about playing in the NHL, but wanted to settle down with a family instead.
Michael attends classes in improvisational comedy and believes his skills are among the best in the world. In improvisational skits, he tends to play his tough-guy alter-ego (FBI agent "Michael Scarn", (see "characters" below) the main character in a motion picture screenplay he authored) or his prisoner counterpart, Prison Mike, and guns down all the other players to steal every scene. He constantly compliments his own performances, from joke-telling to impressions to videotape skits he creates for presentation in the office.
Michael also loves wearing jeans, in particular a white pair he refers to as his "Fun Jeans." ("The Convention"). He is so fond of his jeans that he gets them dry cleaned; Pam surmises that he instituted Casual Friday just to show off his jeans ("The Client").
Michael treasures his "World's Best Boss" mug, even though he bought it for himself at Spencer Gifts and presumably has multiple replacements. The audience knows that he has purchased at least two, because Dwight precariously places one of them on Michael's desk, and Michael accidentally knocks it off with a golf putter that he was using to practice with in his office.
Michael somehow fell in love with the new HR representative, Holly, despite having a prejudice against Human Resources workers. In season 5, Michael begins to date Holly until David Wallace finds out about their relasionship and transfers Holly back to Nashua. Michael is very upset over the loss of Holly claim that he and Holly are soul mates.
The framed certificate behind Michael's desk reads "Michael Scott is the proud owner of a quality Seyko [sic] timepiece."
Family and childhood
Michael was born on March 15, at 11:23am. He notes the fact he and Eva Longoria share a birthday would make good conversation if he were to meet Teri Hatcher. Michael considers himself "a virtual United Nations" being of English, Irish, German, Scottish, and (according to him) "Native American Indian" descent.
Michael grew up in Scranton a lonely child. However, In the Pilot he mentions that he has a brother and at one point had a foreign exchange student that stole all of his blue jeans. He mentions that he didn't speak before the age of five, but it seems more likely that he actually began speaking at a normal age and is simply ignorant about the age when children start to talk. Michael repeated the second grade once, bragging that he "aced" it the second time, and that he was the biggest in the class. By the end of fourth grade, the person he hung out at lunch with was the lunch lady. His high school classmates (among them Phyllis Lapin) believed he might have been gay since he wore matching socks and ties to school often. Although by the time he was in high school it is implied that many found him funny and was somewhat popular.
In eighth grade, Michael idolized a teacher named Mr. Handell that always had a friendly relationship with his students and often hung out and talked with them, but one time Mr. Handell made out with one of the students. Ten to twelve people fessed up and that "totally ruined the eighth grade". Mr. Handell was later revealed as a sexual predator, but that didn't stop Michael from wanting the same kind of friendly relationship with all his employees.
In "Michael's Birthday," Michael recalled a number of childhood memories that revealed the unfortunate trend of something embarrassing or traumatic happening on his birthday. Michael has at least one sibling, who is an older brother, and came from a broken home, once comparing an office situation to the time his mother "moved in with Jeff," and he "had to fix it." At one time, he shows the camera the video of his performance as a ring-bearer at his mother's second wedding: he wet his pants and threw the ring at his step-father, screaming "I hate you!" before running off. These actions were pathetically mirrored in how he behaved as an adult at Phyllis' wedding to Bob Vance.
In a childhood television appearance, Michael said his goal was to grow up and have a lot of children because they would have to be his friends. When reminded that he has failed to find love as an adult, he gets very moody and depressed. He tends to attach himself too quickly to women, reading more into his evening spent with his boss Jan Levinson, and proposing marriage to Carol Stills after only nine dates. He also invited a young waitress from Benihana to join him at Sandals, Jamaica despite not even knowing her name and confusing her with another young, Asian waitress from the same restaurant.
In "Take Your Daughter to Work Day", he mentions that his mother lives in nearby Dickson City.
Residence
In "Office Olympics", Michael purchases a condo, which has served as his residence. Jan Levinson moved in with him at the end of "The Job" and moved out after their break-up in "Dinner Party".
According to Volume 11 #2 of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Newsletter, Michael's address is 42 Kellum Ct. Although there is a real Kellum Ct in Scranton, there is no number 42. However, in season 5, episode 20, outside of Michael's condo, Pam holds up a letter from the Condo Association to the "Michael Scott Paper Company, Inc." with the address 126 Kellum Court.
The shooting location for Michael's condo appears to be 7303 Bonnie Pl, Reseda, CA. Compare: [1][2]
Characters of Michael Scott
Given his proclivity of constantly trying to keep his employees entertained (and coupled with his juvenile personality), Michael has created a variety of different characters which he uses for both entertainment, and, at times, educational purposes.
Ping ("The Dundies"), a racist Asian caricature based on Michael's Chinese food deliveryman.
Agent Michael Scarn ("The Client", "Email Surveillance", referenced in "Money", "Dinner Party") is the star of Michael's action hero screenplay Threat Level: Midnight.
- Michael adopts the persona in his improv comedy class, forgoing the opportunity to base his dialogue on the situation in favor of shooting everyone in the room, regardless of their participation in the scene. Sometimes his character's name is Michael Scoon, but the character is otherwise the same.
- Michael adopts the fake name Michael Scarn when posing as a local businessman while investigating the Prince Paper company ("Prince Family Paper").
Prison Mike ("The Convict") wears a purple bandanna over his head, speaking in a caricature of New York English. In his Prison Mike persona, Michael paints an awful, and somewhat fanciful, picture of prison life.
Michael the Magic ("Cocktails") attempts to escape from a straitjacket but fails due to a lost key (actually hidden by Jim).
Michael Klump ("Weight Loss"), a hefty version of Michael who is a celebration of fat people.
Mispronunciations and malapropisms
| # | Episode | Michael says | He means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.01 | Pilot | incalculcable | incalculable |
| 1.04 | The Alliance | convalescences | coalesces |
| 2.09 | Email Surveillance | approachabler | more approachable |
| 2.11 | Booze Cruise | nebulose | nebulous |
| 2.12 | The Injury | protruberance | protuberance |
| 2.20 | Drug Testing | omniscient | omnipresent |
| 2.22 | Casino Night | philanderer | philanthropist |
| 3.01 | Gay Witch Hunt | Queer as F... | Queer as Folk |
| 3.02 | The Convention | prod...progidal | prodigal |
| 3.02 | The Convention | effortla-lessly | effortlessly |
| 3.07 | Branch Closing | documenter-an | documentarian |
| 3.08 | The Merger | introspectivetion | introspection |
| 3.12 | Traveling Salesmen* | Personaleezed | Personified |
| 3.14 | Ben Franklin | epiphery | epiphany |
| 3.18 | The Negotiation | bisexual | unisex |
| 3.19 | Safety Training | sedimentary | sedentary |
| 3.21 | Women's Appreciation | R-E-S-P-S-V-T | R-E-S-P-E-C-T |
| 3.21 | Women's Appreciation* | perogovative | prerogative |
| 3.23 | The Job | DEFCON 10 | DEFCON 5 to DEFCON 1 |
| 4.04 | Money | unsexual | unsexy |
| 4.05 | Local Ad | coupe | coup |
| 4.09 | Dinner Party | afterbirth | aftertaste |
| 4.11 | Night Out | TDB | TBD |
| 4.13 | Job Fair | youthanize | add young people to |
| 4.13 | Job Fair | migraine worker | migrant worker |
| 4.14 | Goodbye, Toby | N3P | MP3 |
| 5.09 | The Surplus | x-axicks | x-axis |
| 5.09 | The Surplus | urkelnomically | ergonomically |
| 5.16 | Blood Drive | Cupid's Sparrow | Cupid's Arrow |
* deleted scene
Nicknames for Michael
| # | Episode | Nickname | Given by | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.02 | Sexual Harassment | Michael Snot | Todd Packer | Pun |
| 2.07 | The Client | Agent Michael Scarn | Himself | Movie script he wrote |
| 2.10 | Christmas Party | Asswipe | Todd Packer | General insult |
| 2.15 | Boys and Girls | Mike | Darryl | Traditional |
| 3.03 | The Coup | Mike | Dwight | After being "promoted" to Regional Manager |
Quote then cite
| # | Episode | Michael says | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.01 | Pilot | I should run to answer it. Six Million Dollar Man! | (correct) |
| 1.04 | The Alliance | No signs of life down here. Star Trek. | (correct) |
| 1.05 | Basketball | Harlem Globetrotters | (correct: Sweet Georgia Brown is the basketball team's theme song) |
| 2.02 | Sexual Harassment | Forward it like it's hot! Old School. | Snoop Dogg |
| 2.03 | Office Olympics | Mr.Bill, Ooh no! SNL | (correct) |
| 2.04 | The Fire | In business, image is everything. Andre Agassi. | (correct) |
| 2.06 | The Fight | You talkin' to me? "Raging Bull." Pacino. | "Taxi Driver", Robert DeNiro |
| 2.13 | The Secret | My lips are sealed. Bangles. | The Go-Go's. |
| 2.14 | The Carpet | I am Pam. Spicoli Guy. | Sean Penn in "I Am Sam" played Jeff Spicoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". |
| 2.16 | Valentine's Day | I am serious. And don't call me Shirley. Airplane. | (correct) |
| 2.18 | Take Your Daughter to Work Day | Pam. Ms. Beasley if you're nasty! Janet Jackson. | (correct) |
| 2.22 | Casino Night | Let's get it started! Black-Eyed Crows. | Black Eyed Peas |
| 3.18 | Cocktails | Like buttah! Mike Myers, SNL. | (correct) |
| 3.19 | The Negotiation | Don't ever touch a black man's radio! Chris Tucker, Rush Hour. | (correct) |
| 3.24 | The Job | I'll be back. Kevin Nealon | The Terminator; mistaken for Nealon's Arnold Schwarzenegger SNL spoof, Hans and Franz |
| 4.01 | Fun Run | Excellent! Simpsons. | (correct) |
| 4.12 | Did I Stutter? | Respect eez nice! Borat. | The impression is Borat, but the line is not. |
Other misattributions
- In "The Merger", Michael attributes the plea, "Can't we all just get along?" to Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. instead of Rodney King.
- In "Cocktails", Michael attributes the De Lorean automobile to Lee Iacocca instead of John De Lorean.
- In "Baby Shower", When talking about Jan, Michael says she is in the "terminal stages of her pregnancy"
Other characters who quote then cite
- In Goodbye, Toby, Holly says, "Acting!" and quietly adds, "Lovitz."
A friend first, a boss second
Michael often subordinates his duties as a boss to his desire to be friends with his employees.
- In the episode "Health Care", he assigns the unpopular task of choosing a health care plan first to Jim, then to Dwight.
- In the episode "Basketball", he assigns the unpopular task of deciding who has to work on the weekend to Dwight.
- In the episode "Halloween", Michael struggles to find a way to fire an employee while still remaining friends, first with Creed, then again with Devon.
- In the episode "The Injury", Michael reminds Pam, "Your job is being my friend."
- In the episode "Boys and Girls", Michael cannot bring himself to quashing the talk of forming a union because that would endanger his (perceived) friendship with the warehouse workers.
- In the episode "Branch Wars", Michael tries to entice a Utica employee to Scranton by offering to be his friend.
After becoming Michael's boss, Ryan learns to take advantage of Michael's craving for friends.
- In the episode "The Deposition", Ryan says, "Take the call, friend," in an attempt to get Michael to answer a client's call.
- In the episode "The Deposition", Ryan asks Michael, "Could we talk off the record? As friends?"
Unintentional racism
Michael stresses knowledge about other cultures, yet he is very ignorant about other cultures to the point of borderline racism.
- In "Basketball", Michael chooses to have Stanley on his team because he's black, refusing to believe that Kevin is a better player. Oscar also says he is good at basketball, though Michael expects him to be good at baseball or boxing.
- He believes that Stanley and Darryl are from the ghetto and were in street gangs ("Performance Review" and "Did I Stutter?" respectively).
- In "The Dundies", Michael has a racist Chinese character named Ping. In a deleted scene, he is dressed as a Native American chief.
- In "Email Surveillance", Michael sees Sadiq and assumes he is a terrorist. In a deleted scene, he asks him if he watched Carson "in his land" and Sadiq states he grew up in Pittsburgh.
- In "Christmas Party", Michael refuses to let Darryl wear the Santa hat because he is black.
- In "Boys and Girls", Michael points out to the documentary camera, "You know, Darryl is the foreman here and not Roy," assuming that the white warehouse worker (Roy) would be the one in charge.
- In "Take Your Daughter to Work Day"*, Michael panics when Darryl touches Meredith's son although he has no trouble with Roy playing with Jake.
- In "Casino Night", Michael requests that Dwight be present during his meeting with Darryl, "for protection."
- In "Diwali", Michael lashes out at his employees when he learns that they do not know what Diwali is, even though he makes fun of Ryan's kurta, cuts off Dwight when he goes into a detailed description of Diwali, and assumes that samosas are actually s'mores. Later, he ignorantly asks Kelly's mother if she must throw herself on her husband's funeral pyre when he dies.
- In "Money", Vikram begins a casual conversation of his life in India and Michael proclaims he would have been "Chief of Surgery" (or a cowboy).
- In "Crime Aid" Michael suggests they should auction people "like in the olden days" to raise money, drawing a scathing look from Stanley.
- In "Employee Transfer" Michael asks Holly why she is crying, after suggesting allergies or just sadness, whispers "Did Darryl touch you?".
Catch phrases
- For a list of uses of the phrase "That's what she said" see List of the times somebody says "That's what she said".
- For a list of uses of the phrase "Shut it" see List of the times somebody says "Shut it".
- "Those are just words":
- In the episode "Performance Review", Michael rejects Jan's statement that "That will be our only topic of conversation."
- In the episode "The Convention", Michael dismisses Jim's explanations for leaving Scranton.
- "Yesh":
- In the episode "Health Care", Michael tries to convince Jim to choose the health care plan.
- In the episode "Halloween", Michael confirms to Pam that his fake head is made of papier-mâché.
- In the episode "The Convention", Michael confirms to Ryan that he packed three packs of condoms.
- In the episode "The Negotiation", Michael confirms to Jan that he won't say "Yeppers."
- In the episode "Safety Training", Michael confirms to Darryl that he understands that he is not qualified to drive the forklift.
- In the episode "The Deposition", Michael responds "Yesh" when sworn in.
- "Absofruitly":
- In the episode "Dwight's Speech", Michael confirms to Dwight that he will attend his speech.
- In the episode "Women's Appreciation", Michael confirms to Jan that they are "good".
- In the episode "The Deposition", Michael confirms to Ryan that he "won't do anything to hurt" Dunder Mifflin with his testimony.
Recurring Jokes
- When Michael gives a talking head interview in his office, there is often someone (usually Dwight) standing next to him.
- Michael sits and stands in uncomfortable positions. According to the DVD commentary ("Safety Training"), he does this even though it is uncomfortable because it looks impressive.
- In the episode "Diversity Day", Michael puts his foot on a chair during the Diversity Tomorrow video. He also sits on a chair backwards. (Neither is particularly uncomfortable but still illustrate how Michael wishes to look cool.)
- In the episode "The Secret", Michael puts his foot on Jim's desk.
- In the episode "Casino Night", Michael sits on the reception desk.
- In the episode "Product Recall", Michael puts his foot on the conference room table.
- In the episode "Safety Training", Michael sits on the reception desk.
- In the episode "Women's Appreciation", Michael squats on a conference room chair.
- Michael says "lame" and other out-of-date slang.
- Michael is a terrible judge of character and is unable to take a hint.
- In a deleted scene from "Gay Witch Hunt", Oscar says that he said he was gay during his job interview and Michael assumed he was the "funniest person he ever met".
- In a deleted scene from "The Job", Michael says he's already found an apartment in New York. After failing to find one like the Huxtable's house, he settles for a one-room apartment above an Indian apartment that is located near the last stop of the subway.
- In "Goodbye, Toby", Michael misses Holly's hint to go get food somewhere.
- In "Weight Loss", Holly drops a hint that they go to a concert together. Michael misinterprets this and tears up her tickets.
- In "Frame Toby", Michael is completely oblivious to the fact that Toby is back, even though Jim makes it pretty obvious.
- Michael is unable to play a musical instrument and is later overshadowed by another employee.
- In a deleted scene from "Booze Cruise", Michael tries to play Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water". Failing to play, he blames the guitar and gives it to Creed, who begins playing it professionally.
- In "Take Your Daughter to Work Day", Michael is shown to own a guitar, thinking his ukulele skills would transfer (as Pam says). Dwight plays the guitar while Michael plays the tambourine.
- In "Back From Vacation", Michael only plays the three notes from "Hot Hot Hot" on his steel drum. Later, Andy plays the entire song.
- Michael is very much a child at heart and still does things that children (and younger people) do.
- In "The Injury", Michael says "I'm so sick of Chuck E. Cheese", implying that he still goes there.
- In a deleted scene from "Michael's Birthday", Michael states that "his best friend" at age 20 was only 16.
- In "Cocktails", Michael says that he attended Magic Camp and believes it to be a "self-fulfilling prophecy" that mostly children were there.
- In a deleted scene from "Fun Run", it is revealed that Michael still has a pediatrician.
- Michael is extremely camera friendly.
- In "Valentine's Day, Michael jumps into a picture being taken by a couple of tourists while walking through Time's Square.
- In "A Benihana Christmas", Michael photoshops himself into a picture of Carol and her kids.
- In a deleted scene from "Back From Vacation", Ryan shows a picture Michael made of the two of them in Egypt.
- In "Phyllis' Wedding", Michael tries to insert himself into every single picture being taken.
- Michael conceals the fact that the cameras are present when on the phone with Jan.
- In The Client, Michael says, "Just talking about you. The camera? No."
- In Michael's Birthday, Jan asks if she's on camera. Michael responds, "Nope. Totally private."
- In Cocktails, Jan asks, "Are camera's there?" Michael replies, "Maybe."
- Michael is oblivious to the fact that his workers dislike him.
- In "Email Surveillance", Michael reads an e-mail written by Stanley, calling him an ass. Michael then takes back what he said about Stanley being a nice guy. Later, he is oblivious that Jim's party has gone quiet because he arrived.
- In "Conflict Resolution", Michael states that none of the complaints are directed at him. Toby reveals that he has locked away a separate file containing all the complaints towards him.
- In a deleted scene from "Phyllis' Wedding", Michael asks one of the bridesmaid for "dirt on Phyllis" and is somewhat confused when she says clearly "She hates her boss" (not knowing who Michael is).
Relationship Status
- Single (Pilot - Casino Night) 28 Episodes
- Dating Carol (Casino Night - A Benihana Christmas) 11 Episodes
- Dating Jan (A Benihana Christmas - Women's Appreciation) 11 Episodes
- Single (Women's Appreciation - The Job) 3 Episodes
- Dating Jan (The Job - Dinner Party) 9 Episodes
- Single (Dinner Party - Business Ethics ) 8 Episodes
- Dating Holly (Baby Shower - Employee Transfer) 3 Episodes
- Desperately trying to get back with Holly (Employee Transfer - Company Picnic) 22 episodes
- Single (Employee Transfer - Niagara) 29 episodes
- Dating Helene (Niagara - Double Date) 6 episodes
- Single (Double Date- Present)
Behind the scenes
- The wardrobe staff buy Michael's suits from Sears, because it is one of the few stores that still carry two-button suits. [3]
Appearances
Michael Scott appears in all episodes.
Trivia
- Michael's cellphone ring tone is the song: "My Humps"
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