I don't usually leave comments, but as I was looking for Brent's poem online I noticed your page and in reading it I couldn't help but notice that you've completely misinterpreted David Brent.

You say that "you are never, ever allowed to lose sight of the fact that David Brent (the boss in the UK original) is a horrible evil man." and in a post script to that point you say "Something that I think has been lost with a lot of US satire, including Family Guy and American Dad. They blur that line, so we're not always sure if we're laughing at Peter or laughing with him. You can't make that mistake with David Brent. You know he's not only a douchebag, but aspires to be a bigger douchebag. (See: Finchy)"

There are some parts of this I agree with, particularly the point that in US satire the line is blurred so sometimes you laugh with the person and sometimes at them.

However, while I agree with the fact that Brent is a douchebag (and this coupled with your comments on US satire would have be believe you're American) you miss the point when you say Brent is a horrible, evil man. Perhaps this misunderstanding is a cultural thing, but there's little chance that Brent would be considered a horrible, evil man by a Brit. Brent's biggest sin is that he wants to be popular and loved by his peers. For the most part, he's utterly harmless because the only person he's capable of doing harm to is himself. Probably the only nasty part of Brent's character is that Malcolm (Kojak) disappears between series 1 and series 2 and we're led to believe he was made redundant because David didn't like him/saw him as a threat. Everything else bad that David does is either gossip against those he sees as a threat (Neil) or try to make everyone love him by being a "cool" boss.

Beyond the Malcolm incident, Brent does little to embarrass or humiliate his subordinates. That would serve against his purposes. If you contrast that with Chris Finch on the other hand, who is absolutely a horrible evil man, he's friends with David purely for the purpose of humiliating him. The best example of this probably comes in the pub quiz episode but there's little that Finchy says to David in public that isn't designed to belittle him. We're led to assume that in private it would probably be a lot different and they'd share a joke or two, but Finchy knows Brent is a joke and he's willing to use that joke to suck up to those above him.

The genius of David Brent is that he exists in every workplace across the UK. I recall teachers who wanted to be popular and let you get away with anything. Sure, we liked them because we didn't have to work, but we never respected them. That is what David Brent is, he's somebody that wants to be liked without having to work hard for the respect that should come with being liked. He's lazy, needy and insecure and certainly not the type of chap you'd want as a friend, but he's not a horrible evil man.

I'm not even sure you'll ever read this post seeing as you made it three years ago, but it saddened me to think that you'd missed some of the true genius of The Office by thinking we're supposed to loathe Brent as a horrible evil man. We're not, we're supposed to pity him as a representation of an insecurity that exists everywhere. You may disagree, but even so I'd encourage you to rewatch with that interpretation in mind and it may reshape how you view the show.