History Main / PointyHairedBoss

** Fry became a literal one of these when... [[NoNameGiven That 80s Guy]] bought out Planet Express and promoted Fry to the position of Vice Chairman simply on the fact that they were both from the 80's.
* Earl of Lemongrab from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''. He's the heir to the Candy Kingdom Throne because he was created by Princess Bubblegum in her laboratory to take the throne if anything should happen to her. But, being "the first one of her experiments gone wrong," he's a horribly incompetent ruler- immature, misguided, persnickety beyond all reason, a total stresscase, a {{Jerkass}}, and a mentally dysfunctional idiot with an almost pathological ''obsession'' with sending people to the dungeon for [[AllCrimesAreEqual incredibly petty reasons]]. Princess Bubblegum strongly dislikes Lemongrab, everyone is annoyed by him, and he doesn't even want the job anyway- it was assigned to him when he was created.

Very often such a boss is portrayed as not only incompetent, but also a little [[BadBoss evil]]: The kind of guy who would steal credit from his employees and pin failure on them. In these cases he can be ''more'' contemptible than the CorruptCorporateExecutive whom he serves; while the CorruptCorporateExecutive sold his soul for money, power and fame, an evil Pointy-Haired Boss [[EvilIsPetty sold his soul for nothing]] but a job little better than that of his employees, and doesn't seem bothered by it.

* The "TabletopGame/{{BrikWars}}" rulebook 2005 and 2010 has a picture of a pointy haired minifig holding a piston to illustate half-minds. Curiously, The he was illustrating the [i]cleverer[/i] mind, the other minifig was holding the pistol to his face.

* The "TabletopGame/{{BrikWars}}" rulebook 2005 and 2010 has a picture of a pointy haired minifig holding a piston to illustate half-minds. Curiously, The he was illustrating the <i>cleverer</i> mind, the other minifig was holding the pistol to his face.

* Toothpick from SlyCooper: Thieves in Time. Although he's the resident ManChild, he is also [[BadBoss cruel to his own employees]]. He also [[{{Expy}} the game's version of]] [=CutMan=].EXE from MegaManNTWarrior.

** 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. Then there's the CEO of the company - the guy who the Pointy-Haired Boss reports to - who's just as incompetant as he is, if not more so.

* W.A. Thornthump was a ''literal'' Pointy-Haired Boss in ''BloomCounty'', and ''predated'' the boss from ''Dilbert'' by a decade.

* ''Series/{{Mash}}''

* Cave Johnson from ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' combines this trope with MadScientist for a CrazyAwesome blend of gross fiscal mismanagement, InhumanResources, 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).

[[IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do with actual]] [[ShonenHair pointy-haired]] [[ThatOneBoss bosses]].

* The AnimatedAdaptation of ''TakAndThePowerOfJuju'' had the Chief of Tak's village.

* George Fennec of ''KevinAndKell'' is owner of Hare-Link, but only got that position because his daughter, the former owner, wanted to avoid a potential conflict of interest situation when her mother wanted her to promote her new stepfather. He makes hardly any useful decisions for the business except for once filling in for Kevin as a representative for a deal with Carrot Computers, and tends to be quite distracting. When he passes out after it dawns on him that his pregnant rabbit wife will likely have a litter of babies rather than just one[[hottip:*: It really is just one, though]], Kevin notes that they can finally get some work done.

* Zapp Brannigan from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', a celebrated space captain who couldn't fly his way out of a meteor shower. He puts all the work on his assistant Kif and takes any credit he can. His strategies for any threat are usually AttackAttackAttack, sending hundreds of RedShirts to their demise while he sits back and does nothing. The only reason he hasn't gotten himself offed [[hottip:*:other than that one time, [[StatusQuoIsGod but you know]] because circumstances usually prevent it from happening and at best he walks away with a few bruises.

** Hawkeye himself, while regarded as the best surgeon, did not do well when put in charge of the unit. Anytime that situation presented itself, his friends would have reactions in the realm of "oh god NOOOOO"
*** To be fair, Hawkeye was perfectly aware that he had no talent for leadership and tried to refuse command.

*** "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly"
* The Television version of ''Stuff You Should Know'' features Steve, a rare female example. She keeps order in the office by fostering paranoia among the other staff, and switches show priorities based on her daily whims and complete misreading of social trends. She's somewhat of a more effective manager than others on the list, but that could be because the rest of the office is just as crazy as she is.
* Denholm Reynholm, and even more so his son Douglas, in ''Series/TheITCrowd''. The latter once checks to see whether a gun is loaded by sticking it in his mouth and pulling the trigger. In another scene, he picks the king of diamonds [[PickACard from a magician's deck]]; when the magician asks if it was the ''ace'' of diamonds, Douglas is impressed at how close he got.
* A ''Series/MrShow'' sketch about downsizing features a boss (played by Creator/TomKenny) who ends up firing many of his employees in order to boost profits . . . then notices he's the only one sitting at the table. Realizing he's the only one left, he [[GoMadFromTheIsolation goes mad from the isolation]] until his assistant brings him back to earth. He thanks her [[spoiler:then fires her]].

** 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.

->'''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.\\

* Toothpick from SlyCooper: Theives in Time. Although he's the resident ManChild, he is also [[BadBoss cruel to his own employees]]. He also [[{{Expy}} the game's version of]] [=CutMan=].EXE from MegaManNTWarrior.

* Toothpick from SlyCooper: Theives in Time. Although he's the resident ManChild, He is also [[BadBoss cruel to his own employees]]. He also [[{{Expy}} the game's version of]] [=CutMan=].EXE from MegaManNTWarrior.
* Nobels in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' tend to be like this. For instance, nobles will periodically ban and unban the export of their favorite types of materials (like iron). So, if the noble has recently unbanned the export of iron, you might take the chance to sell some iron items to a caravan... only to have the noble re-ban iron ''after the caravan has packed up and is heading off'', but before they disappear off the edge of your settlement. Once that caravan disappears off the edge of your settlement, whoever helped export the iron will be punished.

** 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.

* In the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series, the Citadel Council tend to be depicted this way. [[spoiler: If left to die at the end of the first game, their replacements aren't any better either.]]

* This is how Major Norton was portrayed in {{Disney}}'s ''DavyCrockett'' mini-series, though he may have just seemed this way against [[{{Badass}} Davy]].

* The vacuous, hero-worshiping, management speak spouting Gus in ''DropTheDeadDonkey''. He would appear to be a living, breathing example of the Adams principle.
* Dougie in ''{{Enlightened}}'' is a sort of example. While he is actually rather good at programming, his people-management skills are horrible, and he is pretty socially inept.
* The laughably incompetent Colonel Klink of ''HogansHeroes''. 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 WW1; he used to be a pilot. It is almost certain he got promoted to his current position in an attempt to get rid of him, both as a bumbling fool and as a non-member of the Nazi party.